Tim Disney, An Independent Filmmaker - Part 2
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Tim Disney, An Independent Filmmaker
by
Paul Perrello
What is it like going through life with one of the most famous family names in the world? That is just one of the many questions I posed to independent filmmaker Tim Disney during his recent visit to Philadelphia. "Ever since I was a kid, people would hear my name and say ‘oh gosh, Dumbo was my favorite movie.’" The director was in town to talk about his new movie A Question of Faith, which was a selection at the Tenth Annual Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and now is in general release distribution across the country. The grandson of Roy O. Disney and the great-nephew of Walt says his family name is one to be proud of and represents a legacy to live up to. Tim says the Disney name has afforded him the opportunity to meet many interesting people and travel to many different places.
Despite the hugely successful branded name Disney has become, Tim has not forgotten the pioneering spirit of the two brothers who built a small movie studio into a Magic Kingdom. Tim Disney says Walt and Roy "were really extraordinary people and I have great respect for what they did and I am proud of that." Tim says his great-uncle and grandfather were "very interesting people, as they were almost out of the covered wagon." Disney says "these people grew up in Kansas at the turn of the century" adding that they were just one step "removed from the pioneer."
The youngest of Roy E. and Patty Disney’s four children, Tim has vivid and fond memories of his grandfather Roy and great-uncle Walt. "I knew my grandfather very well," reflects Disney, "we spent a lot of time with my grandfather, he was a wonderful man." Tim was just ten-years-old when Roy Disney died just months after he supervised the completion and opening of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida on October 1>st, 1971. Tim says although he was much younger, he also remembers Uncle Walt. "I have some very early childhood memories of Walt. He was the figure off in the distance as a kid." Tim Disney says he especially remembers the huge box Walt Disney would send him, his brother and his two sisters at Christmas-time. "The Walt Box" as Tim Disney recollects was a box of gifts that, in retrospect, was all branded Disney merchandise instead of very personal gifts. "I knew that he was an important guy and I remember that it was a big deal to see him." Tim Disney was five-years-old when his Uncle Walt died in 1966.
Reflecting on Walt and Roy Disney, Tim says he has a great appreciation of how hard the two men worked to form the company that would carry their family name. Tim Disney says the "culture of quality" that Walt and Roy left behind as their legacy continues to run through every aspect of the company today. Disney says he witnessed the "culture of quality" firsthand when he went to work at the Disney Studios in the 1980’s. "I learned a lot from that and tried to take it to other things I’ve done." Disney elaborates that the company’s "culture of quality" centers on the simple idea that "good is not good enough and take a good idea and make it great." Disney says the basic business lesson is not easy to understand and obtain but rather requires discipline, hard work and patience.
Tim Disney was employed at the Disney Studios for three years and worked on the animated feature Oliver and Company which was released in 1988. While working at Disney, Tim wrote a treatment for The Lion King which as he describes "was promptly balled-up and thrown in the trash with many other versions of it." Disney says he was glad to be at the studios in the late 1980’s as the animation department experienced a rebirth.
Much of the resurgence in animation at Disney is credited to Tim’s father, Roy E. Disney, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company and head of the Disney Studios Animation Department. "My father is a wonderful man," says Tim adding "he is a very intelligent and sensitive person and he has managed to find a way to work within the corporate culture of what is now a massive company." Tim says with last year’s IMAX movie success with Fantasia 2000, Roy Disney is currently working on a series of IMAX films for the future.
While Tim Disney does not have a magic mirror to peer into the future, he says he often has questions about what the Disney Company is doing. "I’m a stockholder, and it is also my name, too. That doesn’t give me many rights except to have cranky opinions from time to time about what happens."
Tim Disney’s "Uncommon Productions" is currently involved in a series of wildlife productions for PBS and theatrical release. Tim says he would like to see the Disney Studios take on more wildlife projects. "I believe the Disney Company should be doing more of it and I am very happy they are starting back down that road." Disney says that during his short tenure at the studios he strongly advocated more wildlife documentaries adding that he "continues to agitate studio bosses about wildlife productions, whenever I have the opportunity."
Discuss It
Related Links
- Part One of the Tim Disney interview
- A
Question of Faith from IMDB.com
Filed under it's original name, Blessed Art Thou
-- Posted May 21, 2001
-- Story by Paul Perrello