Words From Walt
Page 6 of 20
December 11
You hate to repeat yourself. I don't like to make sequels to my pictures. I like to take a new thing and develop something, a new concept. |
It would have been very easy for Walt Disney to have continued the happily-ever-after story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs after it became the all-time highest grossing motion picture. Audiences clamored for more adventures of Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy and Happy. After having made $8.5 million, a sequel would have generated additional income to help Walt Disney finance other projects that he was working on.
But it was those other projects that Walt was more interested in tackling rather than simply treading ground that he already covered.
The public screamed for more pigs after The Three Little Pigs successful Depression-era run ended. And Walt obliged with three sequels. But none of them had the heart that the original did. None of them performed as well and it led to another Walt quote about sequels - "You can't top pigs with pigs."
Walt Disney believed that if you did something right the first time, you shouldn't need to do it all over again with a sequel. After mastering the animated short, Walt turned to the animated feature. Each animated feature contained some new technological advancement, some new method of storytelling. Animators would lament the loss of Walt Disney's attention to live-action features the first time Walt climbed atop a camera crane. Movies turned to television. Television led to Disneyland.
One of the things that Walt Disney liked about Disneyland was the fact that it would never be complete. There wasn't the need for a sequel because Disneyland was a living, breathing entity that would grow and change through the years. Walt developed new ride systems, new show technologies and new ways of entertaining the public who visited the park. After creating the ideal situation for people to visit with the theme park, he turned his attention to creating the ideal situation for people to live in with his idea of the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. With the Florida Project, Walt conceded the fact that another Disneyland-like theme park would have to be built but the reason behind Walt's excitement for the expansion on the East Coast was the turning of his attention to urban planning, not the creation of Disneyland II.
Certainly, Walt Disney made sequels during his career. It wasn't necessarily something that he enjoyed doing and certainly nothing that he really threw his full support behind. Walt Disney continued to be about the next new thing. He was always looking for ways to improve the company through what was coming on the horizon. He didn't rest on his laurels. He didn't take the easy way out. And he didn't milk his successes in order to make more money. Walt Disney was an original. And so were the majority of his creations.
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-- Matthew Walker
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