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JRoberts

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The man, Walt Disney, stated:

"Actually, if you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them and up my spine is growing this red, white and blue stripe."

"Somehow I can't believe there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. And one thing it takes to accomplish something is courage."

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

"Laughter is America's most important export."

"Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children's approach to life. They're people who don't give a hang what the Joneses do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures, and they have a degree of contentment with what life has brought - sometimes it isn't much, either."

"The era we are living in today is a dream of coming true."

"Or heritage and ideals, our code and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings."

"I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it."

"Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource - the minds of our children."

"I have no use for people who throw there weight around as celebrities, or for those who fawn over you just because you are famous."

"Adults are interested if you don't play down to the little 2 or 3 year olds or talk down. I don't believe in talking down to children. I don't believe in talking down to any certain segment. I like to kind of just talk in a general way to the audience. Children are always reaching."

"When we consider a project, we really study it--not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job."

"Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end."

"EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."

I add these not to discuss as much Walt Disney as hero or not. I actually want to discuss how the ideas in these quotes correlate with the spirit of Disney...and what made possible things such as The Lion King, Beauty and the Best, The Little Mermaid, etc. What are your guys thoughts on the true Disney-up to The Lion King?

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Disney had problems before The Lion KingBambi, for example, was a lousy movie.  A lousy movie with great animation, granted, but a lousy movie.  Although compared to Brother Bear...

Don't forget Pochohontas either. Disney's animation is amazing but the stories it will be employed by are at the mercy of the culture.

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Don't forget Pochohontas either. Disney's animation is amazing but the stories it will be employed by are at the mercy of the culture.

Considering Ayn Rand's love of Victor Hugo, I'm suprised nobody mentioned the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

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  • 1 year later...

In my recent trip to Disney World, I encountered this:

post-1634-1145235288_thumb.jpg

Walt Disney World's EPCOT has a world showcase featuring nations around the world, including one on America. Inside one of the building featuring a show on America, the walls have several quotes and I was shocked to see at the front of the room, above the Declaration of Independence, was a quote by Ayn Rand.

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Wouldn't you say that EPCOT Center is mostly a celebration of technological achievement?

To an extent, but it needs to be updated. So does the Magic Kingdom's "TomorrowLand". I was there a few years ago, and the Carousel of Progress was nothing less than hilarious. It's like some world-of-tomorrow film reel from the 60s. I know it's mostly there for the kids, but I'm sure even modern 10 year olds would get a good giggle out of it.

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Last I heard, they closed the Carousel of Progress last year. Though I can't confirm this.

With regards to Disney's films, the only good things they've put out recently have been from Pixar (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo). Pixar was all set to leave Disney and sign with another distributor after the whole Michael Eisner thing, but then Disney apparently decided to just buy them outright, which worries me a little. As an independent studio, Pixar made some quality stuff, but now that they're thoroughly under the domain of Disney, I wonder how the product will suffer - will we see a Brother Bear or a Home on the Range type film come out under the Pixar banner now? That would be depressing.

-Q

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'dunno whether it'd be considered recent or not, but I thought Lilo and Stitch was very good.

What are your guys thoughts on the true Disney-up to The Lion King?
The Disney quotes seem to correlate pretty well with the Disney movies IMO. I liked the Four C's quote. I wouldn't say that the most important aspect of Disney movies was Confidence, but it's interesting nonetheless.
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Last I heard, they closed the Carousel of Progress last year. Though I can't confirm this.

Nope, it was fully operational last week.

Part of EPCOT is a celebration of technology and innovation. Part of it is celebration of many different cultures. And some of it is sickening Earth-day nonsense.

As an independent studio, Pixar made some quality stuff, but now that they're thoroughly under the domain of Disney, I wonder how the product will suffer - will we see a Brother Bear or a Home on the Range type film come out under the Pixar banner now? That would be depressing.

With the deal to buy Pixar, the managers of Pixar actually gained significant control over Disney (Jobs is now the largest Disney shareholder) and they exert a lot of creative control, rather than the other way around. There have been numerous stories of Pixar folks killing Disney projects, not the other way around.

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