Ed-Shullivan 10/10If the world had been blessed with more great visionaries as Walt Disney we would be living in a much kinder and forgiving world, as his world is closest to Utopia. This two-part, four hour documentary focuses on the legacy that Walt Disney left behind for the world to remember the man and his vision. To this day almost 100 years ago since his first animated production in the year 1922, the six (6) minute animated short Little Red Riding Hood was released Walt Disney persevered through all the naysayers and endless string of penny pinching bankers to build his empire and the sheer vastness of his rich colored cinematography decade after decade and with an imagination of what the present (not the future) should include like no other person before him. Disneyland and Disneyworld are just two examples of his vision of Utopia.I especially liked that this documentary provides fair credit towards Walt's older brother Roy O. Disney for helping build the Walt Disney brand and empire to what we know exists today. No doubt Walt was the visionary and driving force behind the Disney's creative and extensive brand but it was Roy who was the reliable older brother who made Walt's dreams come true through shrewd financing and brokering mega million dollar deals with heavy financiers who were hungrier than a pack of wolves to take over the business if it floundered. This film also outlines how during the evolution of labor unions first being formed in the 1940's on the outskirts of the Disney lots, Walt literally escaped the turmoil of bargaining with organized labor as he travelled to far away countries and left the labor resolution issues to his big brother Roy who is credited with resolving the labor unrest which allowed the Disney studios to forge ahead with so many historic and successful feature animated films, and never before seen world class amusement parks.The documentary is well paced and extremely insightful on how Walt's endless drive and high energy began with his own superior artistic talents to draw characters and develop a short animated feature. Walt's fortitude to draw idyllic characters expanded over his early years to the unheard of venture of the very first full feature animated film, the 1937 release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937, it is as popular today if not more so than it was almost 80 years later when it was first released. Ironically, Walt Disney has won more Academy Awards than any other single person but the most prestigious Academy Award for the Best Picture category had always eluded Walt. The Academy members have always snubbed the art form of animation (as well as comedy themed films) in the elusive Best Picture category. Instead the Academy created specific categories for animated feature films to win their own category of Oscars and thus excluded them from the "Best Picture" category. What the Academy could not take away from Walt Disney and his production company though was his fan base and their loyalty. Walt's expansive fan base has rewarded Walt Disney with billions of satisfied customers around the entire world and with billions of dollars in revenues which have allowed Walt Disney productions to continue producing state of the art films and a host of related Disney themed products that have warmed the hearts of children and parents around the world.I loved the insight this documentary provides on Walt's personal life with his wife and two daughters (one who was adopted) and there is an endless supply of Walt's ear to ear grin which personifies how much he loved what he was building both with his family as well as with his Walt Disney Empire. Sadly the film touches briefly on the distance held between Walt and his father Elias until his father's death at the age of 82. Walt and Roy did purchase their parents a home in North Hollywood California upon their business success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After moving in to their beautiful new home Walt's mother Flora complained about their new gas furnace which the repairmen supposedly fixed. Unfortunately Flora died a month after moving in to their new home of asphyxiation caused by the gas furnace fumes at the age of 70. Walt never would discuss the circumstances of his mother's unexpected and unnatural death.Central to the Disney history is the vision and subsequent construction of Disneyland. A good chunk of this worthy documentary is spent with actual footage of the gradual construction of Disneyland with Walt being front row and center throughout the building -phase and the eventual grand opening on July 17, 1955, on a hot and sweltering day after many of the work crews said it would never be ready for the pre-announced day of Disneyland's grand opening. Walt's perseverance again paid off and with the many dignitaries present, television crews and tens of thousands of visitors the grand opening proceeded as originally planned. Near the end of the documentary there is an unknown person who is mentioned as having irritated Walt by stating that if Walt had chosen to run for the presidency of the United States, he would have won. To which Walt retorted, "Why would I want be President of the United States when I am already King of Disneyland?" Thank you Walt and Roy Disney for such an abundance of fine feature family films, documentaries, and not only the epitome of what an Amusement Park (Disneyland, Disneyworld, family resorts, cruise ships and Epcot Center) and family centric vacation should encompass, but what literally billions of happy paying customers have grown up with through the family generations. The Disney legacy can be summed up in two words…FAMILY VALUES.Scores a 10 out of 10

MartinHafer I am usually a huge fan of "The American Experience" and have watched dozens and dozens of their episodes. This is one of the first that I didn't particularly like--much of it because the film seemed less concerned with a chronological approach to Walt Disney's life. Instead, the film was looking for a darker side--a darker side that didn't always exist. Here are a couple examples:The strike at Disney in the early 40s WAS hard on the company and hard on Walt Disney. He was instrumental in trying to block unionization--that is true. But the film also seemed to say that he had an agenda to 'get back' at those responsible for the union--like Walt was a super-spiteful guy. Perhaps he was at times, but this didn't exactly jibe with biographies I read about the guy.The show concentrated A LOT on "Song of the South" and totally ignored a lot of other films that came out in the same time period. Between "Dumbo" and "Song of the South" were several Disney full- length films that didn't get mentioned and there were many films AFTER "Song of the South" that didn't get mentioned. "Song of the South" was mentioned because it offends many people's sensitivities today--and no other apparent reason. It wasn't one of the big classic hits made by the studio. Were they trying to say Walt was a bigot? Most evidence (such as his hiring practices at the company and treatment of non-white guests at Disneyland) would seem to indicate he wasn't. So why concentrate so hard on this one film?The bottom line is that instead of trying to tell Walt's life, the show was looking for a darker side and to promote a common theme to "American Experience" shows--race. To me, this isn't necessarily the most honest approach to a biography--more like a nod to political correctness as well as to create controversy.

Michael Johnston (ambrose) I was anxious to see a two-part program on the life of Walt Disney. This one shown on American Experience was a disappointment. Bits of his early life were tossed in as though you knew about them. Elias was presented as a one-dimensional authoritarian figure without much love for his sons. Both Walt and Roy have disabused us of this. There are so many hundreds of hours of interviews from people who knew Walt from the early days, and these were not chosen to be included. Instead, we got the "talking heads" approach from those who have read about Walt's life.Now, I was not expecting the Bob Thomas approach, but the first program wasted so much time with analyzing things that the facts of his life were jumbled and difficult to follow. Did Walt ever draw? When and why did he leave this and go to Laugh-O-grams? What was Elias 's attitude about this? Was Flora, his mother, supportive or critical? These things are knowable. Instead, we got more and more analysis. Then, Part One ended at a good dividing spot, but we were not prepared for the remainder of his life in the second program.It's true, as has written another writer, that one might tell the story of Walt's life in a five part Ken Burns style mini-series and get all the interesting and necessary facts included. Given a bit less than four hours, things must be omitted. We didn't see and hear any of the Nine Old Men, or Roy E or Roy O Disney, or Diane or Sharon, or Lillian. Lillian was responsible, pretty much by herself, for *Walt* Disney Concert Hall, and Roy was responsible for the name *Walt* Disney World and not Disney World. Why was Walt interested in creating EPCOT? Did he suddenly become preoccupied with future building? We heard that Hazel was with Walt at the end but we never heard from the person who spent more time with Walt than anyone else. Of course, many of the primary sources are long dead, but video of them exists, and some of it should have been included in order to tell Walt's life story, at the expense of the some of the commentary and analysis.

Michael_Elliott American Experience: Walt Disney (2015)**** (out of 4)This two-part look at the life and career of Walt Disney certainly has some flaws. I will openly admit that but at the same time there's so much great knowledge and footage here that it's almost silly to complain too much about it.The first part of the documentary covers Walt's early days and how he got interested in going into show business. We learn about his earliest animated movies and how he ended up broke before finally getting money with the Alice shorts. From here we learn about various issues that happened with his family and how a little mouse would end up saving his career. From here we see the building of Disney Studios as well as him dreaming of doing feature films.The second portion of the film deals with some of the darker and more controversial moments including various strikes by his workers who felt they were being mistreated. The studio's disappointing box office returns to movies like BAMBI and DUMBO are also discussed but the main focus is Disney Land and how television would help bring Walt's vision to life. We also take a look at some of his latest pictures, which were attacked during a time when people didn't see peace and happiness instead they were seeing shocking images of violence.The biggest problem with this documentary is that its four hour running time simply isn't long enough to fully get into this man. I will admit that I didn't know too much about his personal story so I found this documentary to be full of wonderful knowledge and there's no question that all the footage from his movies as well as the personal movies were terrific. Even more entertaining was seeing Disney Land being built and just looking at the footage makes it a wonder that the vision ending up coming true. The film certainly is extremely long but it's never boring and it's definitely worth seeing.