Continuing our celebration of Walt Disney's birthday, we asked guest blogger, Jonas Rivera--an Academy Award-winning producer at PIXAR--to share his thoughts on what Walt meant to him and how Walt's legacy influenced him for the future.
It's hard to imagine that there's anything to say that hasn't already been said about Walt Disney. I've spent a good hunk of my life trying to learn about him, his work and his influence. It's impossible really, to summarize how much he means to the world. So instead, I'll try to summarize what he means to me.
My parents took me to Disneyland when I was three years old. I remember as if it were yesterday. My Dad's awesome Kodachrome slides may have helped me retain the details over the years. Two years later, I saw my first movie. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfsblew my mind. I was five years old, but at that moment I knew that my true love was animation.
Thinking back on it now, I guess I experienced it out of order, because I remember thinking that the movie reminded me of the park. Not realizing that Disneyland came almost 20 years after Snow White was made. After those two key moments, I spent pretty much the rest of my childhood growing up on Disneyland and the rest of the animated features. Ultimately learning about Walt Disney and realizing that there was a person behind all the magic tricks. I buried myself in the books, stories and photographs and became an armchair historian. It always sort of bugged me when people would write or speak as if they knew him personally. "Walt would do this." Or "Walt would do that." I can't blame them I guess. I mean, I've consumed so much information on him, that at times I feel like I know him. He and his team of brilliant artists created the work that defined my childhood. It's pretty clear that I'm not alone.
Walt Disney seemed to represent the perfect balance of art and commerce, always understanding where the pendulum should land between the two. His style was a blend of romantic nostalgia with promises from the future. It was as if he was always saying "you ain't seen nothin' yet." It's as old as show business, yet nothing he did feels old to me. I love putting the Donald Duck box sets (hosted by Leonard Maltin) on for my two daughters. They laugh at those films as if they were made yesterday. They have no idea that they are laughing at movies made 60 years ago.
I sometimes pinch myself when I realize that I'm helping to make films for the company that Walt Disney founded so many years ago. From time to time I find myself walking around the Disney lot and wonder what it must have been like back in the times of Cinderella, Mary Poppins and Disneyland. It must have been wonderful.
Jonas Rivera
Academy Award-winning producer of Pixar's UP