It can not be ignored that Walt did not embrace the artistic vision of each and every artist who came to be employed at the studio. Conditions for some artists have been characterized as abusive - witness the sad account of Bianca Majolie -- or under-appreciated and buried - as was the case with David Hall’s visions for Alice and Peter Pan. But the number of insightful partnerships and brave risks that Walt took on artists like Blair (Eyvand Earle, for instance) far outweigh the limits to his vision. It could even be argued that, without Walt, some artists who stayed on in the late 60’s and the 70’s went unchallenged; producing wonderful but none-the-less repetitive work (something often said of Ken Anderson.) Walt had a keen eye for great talent. He drew it close to him and capitalized off of the prolific power of many people like Mary Blair. Consider Marc Davis and John Hench among others. Above all else, Walt respected talent and knew enough to employee it fully. He may have insisted on his name first (if not always), but at least he didn’t reduce artists like Blair to cheap at-will labor. Walt’s genuine admiration for the talent in his employ made the Disney studio unique, rather than commonplace and easily imitated.

Equally as inspiring genius is still employed at Disney. Even without the presence of artists like Michael Giaimo, Paul and Gaetan Brizzi or Susan and Eric Goldberg, there are gifted women and men with a wealth of ideas just waiting to be tapped. Some of them speak in pencil and paint, and some speak in pixels. Yet, none of their talent has managed to fuel the present leadership at Disney to do little more than commission paintings for their vacation homes. The passion for the promise of animation under the Disney banner has been usurped by a vulgar and condescending look at talent as being something that must be reigned in “at cost�? and subjected to the uninformed and limited approach to story telling in this medium that has become best understood by MBA’s. The once inspirational leadership and fresh ideas have been replaced by myopic executives with straw dog ideas who continue to deliver direct-to-video garbage on the same platter which at one time held a feast for the imagination. Smart producers like Don Hahn and Roy Disney don’t seem to be able to get Eisner or the President-of-the-week to take true risks with animation these days, or so it appears. The story department is decimated and in the past twenty years little to no investment has been made in developing visual artists so that they might take the lead rather than rely on writers and development executives (the vast majority of whom I guarantee you couldn’t tell you a thing about Bill Peet or Ken Anderson or any of the other giants on whose shoulders they stand.) Mickey’s PhilharMagic is not the same thing.

It might be that the battle is too hard won, and in the end it’s enough to just keep things in production so as not to shut down entirely. It’s a sad thing to have to settle when less than fifty years ago that word wouldn’t have even been whispered over on the Burbank lot. Thank God for historians and champions of greatness who keep the dream alive through books like this. Hopefully what we do not forget will have a chance to live again rather than be relegated to remembrances alone.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a beautiful book and well worth adding to any personal library. It’s just that I’m growing increasingly tired of seeing it on the page and no longer on the screen.

(All illustrations ©The Walt Disney Company)

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