Walt Disney

Filmmaker Sarah Colt's PBS-aired American Experience documentary serves up a compelling two-part biographical profile of Walt Disney. The first half largely concentrates on Disney's early life as the Missouri son of an imperious, withholding father, who was a failure at many businesses. Still, the five years that little Walt spent in a bucolic, magical farm town with animals and a charming train station left an indelible impression on his spirit, one that would recreate itself in Disney's classic animation features and the construction of Disneyland. Some of the most interesting material here concerns Disney's hardscrabble years as a young adult trying to gain traction for his animated shorts in the pre-sound era of the movies. Employing a handful of animators in a small office, the bones of a later empire were built on gag-filled reels of short films that joined live-action characters with cartoon settings. Disney later introduced what might have become his most enduring icon in Oswald the Rabbit, only to lose control of the character. The silver lining was that Oswald was replaced by Mickey Mouse, originally a brash, rebellious American hero who developed a fan base of millions. From there, Disney's creative adventurousness yielded the beautiful, abstract “Silly Symphonies” series of shorts, which paved the way for classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. Subsequent chapters of Disney's life and career cover the creation of Disney Studios as a modern workplace where employees enjoyed amenities on a campus that fueled a sense of creative freedom. The second half of the documentary looks at a watershed moment that changed the studio for the worse: Disney's harsh reaction to employee efforts to unionize, even bringing his grudge against union organizers to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Also covered are Disney's mid-life crises, building of Disneyland, and elusive quest for a Best Picture Oscar (the closest being a nomination in 1964 for Mary Poppins). An excellent profile of one of the most influential figures ever in the history of American entertainment, this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)