Talk:Walt Disney: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:33, 29 August 2005

Latest revision as of 12:17, 27 August 2025

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The tone of this page seems wrong. It's a bit like a Disney infomercial. Also, the first paragraph seems to assume that the reader already knows who Walt Disney is, and I think that's an incorrect assumption in an encyclopedia. --[[User:Pinkunicorn|Pinkunicorn]]

{{Spoken article requested|Wcamp9|Important in film and animation history}}

{{Article history

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Agreed. Not in any position to do anything about it though. :-(. --[[User:drj|drj]]

|action2date=16 February 2005

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besides being gracious to Disney, it also violates being unfinished to let others add. I'd like to add a few things, but its gonna be hella hard without rewriting.

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Factually however, very informative.

|action3date=15 June 2011

[[User:Alan D|Alan D]]

|action3link=Wikipedia:Peer review/Walt Disney/archive3

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I've taken out the worst and most sugary sentences, corrected a few myths and I think the addition to the first sentence livens it up. [[User:TwoOneTwo|TwoOneTwo]]

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I can't say that the new first sentence makes it any better. You still have the same problem as before of assuming I know stuff that I don't. Even if it is correct, I think the first paragraph should be something more informative than that. As long as the first sentence doesn't mention cartoons, it seems weird to me. --[[User:Pinkunicorn|Pinkunicorn]]

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I think your comment, "union-busting communist-hating untalented artist," whatever its degree of accuracy, was in extremely poor taste, not to mention contrary to the [[:neutral point of view|neutral point of view]]. All the facts you wish to convey can be fairly conveyed--without engaging in partisan propaganda. I'm fully willing to admit that the article in its original form was probably a bit non-neutral, looking at it again. But I think it's really important that we don't go so far in the opposite direction. --[[User:Larry Sanger|Larry Sanger]]

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Why poor taste? True is true, even it rather baldly put.

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Buena Vista was formed in 1953 (and put out its first film in November 1953), yet in the article there is a piece which suggests it came about in the late 1920s-early 1930s - what distribution company was this?

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|action8date=21 May 2016

I've tried to take out some of the sugar, but it still needs a considerable cleanup. Whomever keeps writing from a fan's perspective, please go read about the [[User:neutral point of view|neutral point of view]]. Disney did some great things, but his commercial, artistic (and possibly personal) track record had a number of blots in it, and they should be acknowledged.

|action8link=Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Walt Disney/archive2

--[[User:Robert Merkel|Robert Merkel]]

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Someone screwed up the format of this article with some careless editing and hence rendered the revision diff quite unreadable. In the chaos, the information I added about Fairyland in Oakland California was removed. I believe it is relevant information because if Fairyland was a storybook theme park which Disneyland based on, then Disneyland cannot be claimed as the '''first''' theme park!!! See the history at http://www.fairyland.org .

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: Anton Pieck's theme park De Efteling in the Netherlands was built in 1952 and according to [http://www.rnw.nl/kids/Nederland/Typisch_Nederlands/Efteling/Efteling.html] (Dutch), Walt Disney even visited it regularly to get inspiration for his theme park.

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|maindate2=October 16, 2023

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== Baseless Masonry conspiracy theory ==

:: Of course, I am not entirely sure what, say, the difference is between a [[theme park]] and an [[amusement park]]. Perhaps somebody could write the definitions for several such entries, so that we can make a more valid decision on which was first.--[[user:Branko]]

<s>

Can somebody create a section on the never proven conspiracy theory regarding Walt Disney's belonging to Masonry based only on his Order of DeMolay's membership and modified pictures on the Internet, please? Here are a pair of sources: http://www.midnightfreemasons.org/2011/10/walt-disney-freemason-or-not_26.html?m=1

https://scottishritenmj.org/blog/walt-disney-freemason

::: OK, that source about Disney visiting the Efteling has it wrong, according to [http://www.waitinginline.net/articles/walt.html] (also Dutch). This new source says that it is an [[urban legend]] that Disney visited the Efteling, which may have come into existance because an Efteling director said that Disney may have been in the Efteling once on his European travels, in which he checked out European amusement parks. Comment by AJS, a recent visitor to Efteling. It is obvious to me that "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Small World" were both strongly influenced by 2 attractions at Efteling.

https://ilblogdicorto.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/la-disney-non-era-massone-ma-era-membro-dellordine-giovanile-demolay-nel-quale-aveva-iniziato-topolino/ [[Special:Contributions/82.85.201.118|82.85.201.118]] ([[User talk:82.85.201.118|talk]]) 05:35, 4 January 2025 (UTC)</s><small>strike sock request -- [[User:Ponyo|<span style="color: Navy;">'''Ponyo'''</span>]]^{[[User talk:Ponyo|<span style="color: Navy;">''bons mots''</span>]]} 21:10, 25 March 2025 (UTC)</small>

:::: The same article says that Disney was impressed with [[Tivoli]] in [[Copenhagen]] and also named [[Madurodam]] in [[The Hague]]. The article even quotes former Disney CEO [[Michael Eisner]] on this.

:{{Not done for now}} As per [[WP:BLOG]], we need something that is not a blog or [[WP:UGC|user-generated content]]. [[User:Peaceray|Peaceray]] ([[User talk:Peaceray|talk]]) 06:25, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

::::The article even states that Disney's park was by no means the first of its kind in the world, but does not give any further evidence for this: the author clearly assumes this fact to be a given.--[[user:Branko]]

== Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 10 April 2025 ==

::::: There is no evidence that Walt Disney ever went to de Efteling. I believe that the two attractions which are similar to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "it's a small world" -- "Fata Morgana" and "Carnival Festival" respectively -- were influenced by the Disneyland rides, not the other way around. [[User:ridetheory|ridetheory]]

{{edit extended-protected|Walt Disney|answered=yes}}

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After Disney moved to Kansas City, he joined a youth organisation that shaped his life. That organisation is called the Order of DeMolay which is a Masonic youth organisation for young men up until the age of 21. He is quoted as saying “I feel a great sense of obligation and gratitude toward the Order of DeMolay for the important part it played in my life. Its precepts have been invaluable in making decisions, facing dilemmas and crises. DeMolay stands for all that is good for the family and for our country. I feel privileged to have enjoyed membership in DeMolay.” Disney shared membership in this organisation with many famous Americans including John Wayne, Bill Clinton and John Steinbeck to name a few. [[User:DocMumma|DocMumma]] ([[User talk:DocMumma|talk]]) 19:47, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Did disney animate any of his own cartoons after he formed his own company? steamboat willy was done by Iwerks. I don't know, butI don't think he animated ANY of them...

:{{Not done}}: please provide [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources|reliable sources]] that support the change you want to be made.<!-- Template:EEp --> [[User:LizardJr8|LizardJr8]] ([[User talk:LizardJr8|talk]]) 21:09, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

--alan D

== Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 May 2025 ==

:He stoped acting as animator on 1924.But he did animate one more film."The Skeleton Dance"-1929, the first of the Silly Symphonies.

{{edit extended-protected|Walt Disney|answered=yes}}

::I don't think that's correct. Skeleton Dance was almost entirely the work of Ub Iwerks, suggested by an idea by composer Carl Stalling. Walt only directed one cartoon in later years, "The Midas Touch," (sorry, can't remember the year -- mid 1930s it must have been). It was so badly received by audiences that he never directed again. [[User:ridetheory|ridetheory]]

Disney's paternal side of the family were of Anglo-Irish stock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhck3vPjR2A [[User:Julianblack92|Julianblack92]] ([[User talk:Julianblack92|talk]]) 18:47, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

:[[File:Red question icon with gradient background.svg|20px|link=|alt=]] '''Not done''': it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a [[WP:EDITXY|"change X to Y" format]] and provide a [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources|reliable source]] if appropriate.<!-- Template:EEp --> [[User:Meamemg|meamemg]] ([[User talk:Meamemg|talk]]) 19:01, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

== Last words ==

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I moved the copyright issues to [[Walt Disney Company]]. Walt died 30 years ago, and it current copyright issues probably belong in an article about his company rather than on an article about him. Also a lot of this article needs to get refactored. Details on [[EPCOT]] and [[Walt Disney World]] probably should go there.

I believe Disney's last words were "Kurt Russell". Apart from the fact that Russell had worked for Disney a long time prior to this, no one knows why he said that. Least of all, Kurt Russell. Should this be included? [[User:BigMac31|BigMac31]] ([[User talk:BigMac31|talk]]) 17:46, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

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I propose breaking up the article into [[Walt Disney]], the man who founded the enterprise -- and [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]], the corporation which owns ABC, Touchstone, Mirimax, etc. I daresay the company has taken on a life of its own, with [[Michael Eisner]] at the helm, in the years the death of the company's founder. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]]

:Do you have a [[WP:RS|reliable source]] for that? [[User:Nikkimaria|Nikkimaria]] ([[User talk:Nikkimaria|talk]]) 04:04, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

== Nazi? ==

This is less to do with the article and more a point of information... I've heard some places that Disney was a Nazi sympathizer. I knew he was a rabid anti-Communist, but that was a bit new to me, so I came here to see if I could get clarification and found none... so anyone know? Nazi-sympathizer? Perhaps he was one of those "we shouldn't have stopped in Germany" types after WW2, or even one of the ones who thought we outta be fighting the Soviets instead of the Nazis. Anyone?

:If he was, he never showed it. The studio made a plethora of anti-Nazi propaganda during [[World War ii]], although much of it was, in fact, goverment and/or militarily mandated. --[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 04:31, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

::It seems unlikely. He seems as a person with many bad traits, but I don't believe he was a Nazi. Where are your sources?

I've done a ton of research of the man in my lifetime, and I can assure you he was not a Nazi sympathizer. Government mandated or not, Walt would NEVER allow anything to leave the studio he didn't personally believe in. In fact, he made a wartime feature "Victory Through Air Power" despite the fact it offended many of the military overseers at the time. (Because of its advocacy of the Air Force over the Navy to win WW2.) He still made it because he believed in it.

He hated communism for the same reason he hated Nazism, because they are both totalirism systems that stamp over human rights. Not only that, but many leftist communist sympathizers had it out for him and printed deliberate lies in their publications. He didn't "hate' unions, he just didn't care for them because of his personal experiences with them. He had nothing against his employees organizing, but when they did they pretty much acted like scum.

Also, despite what some have said, Walt WAS a talented animator. I've seen many of his early work, including the Laugh-O-Grams and his early fairy tale parodies and they are quite well drawn. He stopped animating because he realised his best talents lay elsewhere, and there were better animators within the studio. Therefore, his raw talent never developed.

And why the insistence to point out every ones "flaws?" I guess it's just more of the modern sickness for destroying heroes and hammering on supposed flaws (no matter how minor) in the name of "balance." Next, articles on Jesus will be challenged because they don't point up his "negative personal traits."

Neutrality is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Leave the sugar in!

== Snow White - the first? ==

This article states that "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937, was Disney's and the world's first feature-length animated film."

But the article on animation history says that "The first animated feature-length film was El Apóstol (1917)".

There is an error somewhere. My guess is that Snow White was the first American feature-length animated film. Are there anybody who can clarify this and make the appropriate changes? (OuroborosSlayer)

:It's not even the first American one. [[Max Fleischer]] made some educational features in the 1920s that were around 50% animated. "First American animated feature film in full color" is correct. I will change it. --[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 22:34, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

== Animator? ==

Shouldn't the statement that Disney was an "animator" be removed?

:He ''was'' an animator until [[1924]]. --[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 18:10, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

== Cleanup request and accuracy concerns ==

This article needs a SERIOUS rewrite. Besides being factually incorrect in a number of places, its prose is not encyclopediaic at all, and it also needs to be compacted.

What needs to be done is to create an article for the [[Walt Disney animation studio]] and reverse merge the bulk of that part of this article into that article (and also integrate what is now at [[Walt Disney Feature Animation]] and set up a redirect), and to make sure this article is primarily about Walt Disney the person, and not the studio, because trying to cover both in one article makes for, as exists now, something truly unwieldy.

I am presently starting on both articles now. We can work on them here until they are both completed, because it will take a while to complete both.:

* [[Walt Disney/temp]]

* [[Walt Disney animation studio/temp]]

--[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 18:38, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

== Mickey Rooney ==

I removed this:

''The name itself came from an occasion when a young [[Mickey Rooney]] walked into Disney's office whilst on a visit; Disney showed Rooney some pictures of Mortimer Mouse (as he was called at the time), and it occurred to him that the name Mickey would have a better ring to it.''

...because it's not true. When [[Mickey Mouse]] ws created in early [[1928]], [[Mickey Rooney]] wasn't even "Mickey Rooney": he was Joe Yule, Jr. playing "Mickey McGuire" in the ''Mickey McGuire'' series. Rooney's claim of Walt naming Mickey is only supported by ''his'' words: pratically every book written on Walt Disney and/or Mickey Mouse identifies Lillian as the one who came up with the name "Mickey".

A Google search finds [http://pages.prodigy.net/mshimkus/mickeymouse.htm this article], which makes the supposition obviously false, as Walt didn't work at [[Warner Bros.]].

--[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 00:41, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

== Question ==

can we say ''Walter Elias "Walt" Disney'' instead of ''Walter Elias Disney, commonly known as Walt Disney''? --[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 20:00, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

== List of shorts ==

I removed the list of shorts from this article. This information is still available in the history, and should be included in a [[list of Disney animated shorts]], which is a somewhat necessary article. --[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 02:12, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

== [[List of Disney animated features]] ==

There is no reason to place a link to the [[List of Disney animated features]] at the top of this page. Stop doing this. --[[User:B Touch|b. Touch]] 04:16, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

famious

== Ethnicity of Disney ==

Got a question for the Disney experts (as in the man, not the company) here. I've got another article here on Wikipedia that claims that Walt Disney was of Hispanic descent. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me so I can resolve this? As far as I know, he's roughly of Irish liniage. Thanks.--[[User:Mitsukai|Mitsukai]] 17:06, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

According to [[Bob Thomas]]'s ''Walt Disney: An American Original'', Disney's ancestors were French, who moved to England about 900 years ago. The name Disney comes from the French town, Isigny-sur-Mer, which became d'Isigny, and was then Anglicised to Disney. The family moved to Ireland, and in 1834 Arundel Elias Disney and his brother Robert sailed from Liverpool with their families to America. Elias's son Keppel had a son called Elias also, who became the father to Walter Elias Disney. Thats the best I can do.--[[User:Speedway|Speedway]] 18:17, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

More than enough. Near as I can tell, the Hispanic reference comes from his mother (Flora Call)'s side, but I can't confirm if she was of Hispanic lineage or not. I think there's enough doubt about it, however, that I can safely remove it. Thanks again.--[[User:Mitsukai|Mitsukai]] 18:50, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

That's based on old rumors that Walt and Roy Disney were either born in Spain and adopted by the Disneys, or that they were the children of Elias Disney and the family maid (!). Both are untrue, as far as we know. --[[User:FuriousFreddy|FuriousFreddy]] 00:45, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

== Urban legends ==

I think this part should be removed, for several reasons:

* They are only ''legends''.

* it is most probably a copyvio, copied from www.snopes.com

* A link to www.snopes.com would be enough, in the external links section.

Please comment here - if most agree, I'll remove the Lengend section in a week or so, unless someone else does it first.

--[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 20:03, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

:I agree&mdash;a debunking of the cryogenics myth and a link to Snopes should be sufficient. [[User:Tregoweth|''tregoweth'']] 19:39, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

::Hmm...a lot of people would expect ot see them here...although, at the same time, they are a bit superfluous. I say tackle three of the big ones (the cryogenics one in particular) and refer the reader to a Snopes link for the rest. --[[User:FuriousFreddy|FuriousFreddy]] 00:43, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

===How about this:===

We remove the subcategory completely, and put it in the "Trivia" section, like this:

* A number of [http://www.snopes.com/disney/waltdisn/walt.asp rumors] have been attributed to Walt Disney:

: "''Walt Disney was an illegitimate child.''"

: "''Walt Disney received a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War I.''"

: "''Disney had his body frozen and became a cryonics patient after his death.''"

: These are all untrue. Widely spread and retold, they have become [[urban legends]].

If there's no strong opposition, I'll do it. --[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 07:56, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

PS. Should the snopes link go to the entire Disney legends index, or just to Wal'ts personal index? --[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 08:31, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

OK, since no-one opposed, I'll cut down the legends stuff, and put it in trivia. --[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 06:36, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

== Urban legends tend to grow... again! ==

Let's keep down the Urban legends to just a few, please. (And only to those available/"confirmable" at the Snopes sites.) Otherwise this section may again grow uncontrollably. Thanks! --[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 06:44, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

== Cricket? ==

Anybody else heard Walt was a [[cricket]] fan? An anon. poster insists on re-inserting this in trivia. Trivia should be closely watched IMHO - too much fluff, as it is. It could grow uncontrollably. --[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 06:08:10, 2005-08-28 (UTC)

: This is a small tidbit about Walt that I came across. Quite a few Americans tend to forget that people in America for a good period of time played cricket more than they played baseball. It just so happens that Walt was one of those who enjoyed cricket. It isn't that exciting, that's why it's trivia... but important trivia to anyone who likes cricket and find it interesting that Walt was a follower (and Wikipedia has a big cricket portal). I've added a Internet reference, but I'm sure if you're not satisfied you can find others - if you delete it again I'll register :) -- Anonymous 18:48:00, 2005-08-28 (AEST)

: [http://www.334notout.com/bradman/donhisfacts.htm Walt Disney and cricket]

::The reference you provided appears to be a '''trivia list''' about a '''cricket player'''. I can't accept this as a reference about '''Walt Disney'''. Please furnish something better, thanks! And yes, it would be a good idea to register. Then we could discuss this on our talk pages. --[[User:Janke|Janke]] | [[User talk: Janke|Talk]] 15:25:52, 2005-08-28 (UTC)