Words From Walt
Page 14 of 20
December 21
A lot of young people think the future is closed to them, that everything has been done. This is not so. There are still plenty of avenues to be explored. |
Few people had a more optimistic view of the future than Walt Disney. Not only did Walt believe that a better world could be had, but he set about to make it happen. He completely redefined the animation industry through dozens of technological advances in the art. As a pioneer in arenas from TV to theme parks to planned urban environments, Walt kept looking for new avenues waiting to be explored and then figured out how best to conquer them.
Animation, the foundation of the Disney empire, is a perfect example of Walt's discovering new avenues to be explored. Walt Disney was not the first to market with the cartoon. When attempting to break into the business, he noted the success of Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell series where cartoon characters made their way about the real world. Disney's hook? Put a real-world character inside a cartoon world. The gimmick worked and the Alice Comedies helped to launch the start of the Walt Disney Company. After losing the Oswald series, Walt didn't break new ground in animation through improved character design or animation techniques. Mickey looks to be a direct descendant of Oswald and other cartoon characters of the day. But the hook was adding a soundtrack to Mickey's antics. Color, depth of field and Xerography would continue to push animation forward. If Walt allowed himself to think that everything had been done early in life, he would never have been in the position to successfully create his own future.
While to many, the thought of Tomorrowland lay in the reaches of outer space, Walt understood that there were plenty of regions on his own planet that still needed to be explored. His creation of the Submarine Voyage attempted to explore the depths of the oceans, which remain virtually unexplored even today. His creation of this attraction held the promise of the future of oceanography and the many disciplines that would someday be affected by the wealth of knowledge to be culled from "liquid space."
Walt was interested in developing young minds in the arts as well. His support of the Chouinard Institute and his bequeathing of much of his estate to this school helped for form the foundation of the California Institute of the Arts. CalArts may best be known as the school from where many of Disney's talented animators came but for countless other students in dance, music and fine arts, CalArts has afforded young people a first-class education opening the doors to many career paths that may have seemed closed to them.
Walt Disney was a pioneer and innovator in so many fields of entertainment. His wide-eyed optimism serves as an example of how doing business in the present with an eye towards the future ensures that a company maintains its competitive edge. Creativity is not stifled in such an atmosphere and invention is a valued commodity. Walt believed that Disneyland would never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world. Walt knew that it was this imagination that would serve as the key to unlock the doors regarded as barriers in future generations.
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-- Matthew Walker
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