It has been nearly 50 years since Walt Disney passed away, but his legacy has lived on as people have never lost interest in the man who started the world’s leading family entertainment company. A new PBS documentary aims to celebrate his life and achievements with American Experience: Walt Disney — a two-part event by filmmaker Sarah Colt — airing on September 14th and 15th. What can Disney fans expect from this new film?
Note:
LaughingPlace.com will be live blogging both the East Coast and West Coast feeds of American Experience: Walt Disney starting at 9 p.m. Eastern and again at 9 p.m. Pacific.
American Experience: Walt Disney features rare archival footage from the Disney vaults and scenes from some of his greatest films as well as interviews with biographers and historians. Additionally, animators and artists who worked on Snow White among other early films will tell their stories as will various designers who helped create Disneyland. By all appearances, the film will be neither a whitewash nor a hatchet job, but will instead try to show multiple sides of Disney, as the press release previews:
From Steamboat Willie to Pinocchio to Mary Poppins, Disney’s movies grew out of his own life experiences. He told stories of outsiders struggling for acceptance and belonging, while questioning the conventions of class and authority. As Disney rose to prominence and gained financial security, his work became increasingly celebratory of the American way of life that made his unlikely success possible.
Yet despite the success he achieved, he was driven and restless, a demanding perfectionist on whom decades of relentless work and chain-smoking would take their toll. He wanted his films to make people feel deeply, yet often buried his own emotions. Aspiring to create great artistic films, he felt he wasn’t taken seriously by the movie industry, and was stung when critics panned his productions. Never satisfied with his previous efforts, he always pushed forward to a “new adventure,” but his attention to detail and quest for innovation frequently meant delays and cost overruns. When his employees organized and went on strike, Disney felt betrayed, not able to understand how people who worked for him could be unhappy; years later he called them “communists” before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
PBS has released a number of short videos promos that give some idea of what to expect. The complete collection can be viewed here (click the menu in the upper left to choose other videos):
Some, like “Musical Storytelling,” celebrate the innovations that Walt brought, while “Working for Walt” has Richard Sherman discussing the demanding but fulfilling Disney studio workplace. However, “Walt Disney’s America” takes a much more critical look at Walt’s place in history — in this case, the dichotomy between Walt’s version of America and what was going on in the country in the 50s and 60s.
In reading some early reviews of the film, they seem to have done a good job of maintaining that balance. In a Los Angeles Times piece, Neal Gabler, the author of the definitive book biography on Walt, said, “I don’t think people will watch with an open mind. If you worship Walt Disney, you’ll probably feel that the film is not worshipful enough. And if you demonize Walt Disney, you will probably feel that the film does not villainize him enough. But you can’t get at the man when you’re dealing with those polarities. There’s truth in both of them and I think that’s what makes this movie work; you see the man as a whole.”
Variety’s positive review previews this very interesting tidbit: “Disney is also slightly pigheaded — soliciting input from experts about Song of the South, only to be dismayed when the movie received criticism for depicting happy, singing blacks on the plantation.”
Most of the reviews I’ve seen have rated it between good and excellent though the New York Times does say, “It’s a workmanlike treatment of a titanic life. And with a total running time of four hours, it makes you feel the limitations of the familiar American Experience format: no-nonsense narration; archival footage and photographs; talking heads delivering sound-bite-length flourishes. Too often those talking heads merely state the obvious, and their truncated insights have the feel of Twitter banter. Couldn’t anyone be allowed to hold forth for more than three sentences at a time?”
Still for those interested in learning more about Walt the innovator, the boss and the man, it promises to be welcome viewing. The other major documentary about Disney, Walt: The Man Behind the Myth, didn’t deify Disney, but it did choose to skip some of his more controversial facets. Walt and El Grupo, a documentary filmed while Disney toured South America to get away from the stresses of the company’s 1941 animator’s strike, is very specific to that time period and is as much about El Grupo as Walt. Tom Hank’s portrayal of Walt in 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks is more of a caricature of the Walt we expect to see to play opposite the complex P.L. Travers. So, short of reading one of the many biographies of Disney, this should give us the most complete look to date.
American Experience: Walt Disney airs on PBS stations across the country Monday, September 14th and Tuesday, September 15th at 9p/8p Central. It will also be released on DVD on Tuesday. LaughingPlace.com will be live blogging both the East Coast and West Coast broadcasts starting at 9 p.m. Eastern and again at 9 p.m. Pacific.
