HOW IMAGINATION FLOW CRAFTED DISNEY’S DREAMS

The most magical place on earth? As it turns out, it’s Disney’s mind.

The Beginning

Walt Disney, the creator of one of the biggest companies in the world and of Disneyland, was a dreamer. Who would have guessed it?

The difference between him and others though, was that he was able to take his dreams to reality, even when reality was trying to slap Walt in the face and begging him to stop.

Walt had an abusive father that forced him to work for free at all his startups, and he had no real money or opportunity to follow his dream of becoming a cartoonist. His teachers worried about him in school as he daydreamed and sketched.

So, how does one then go on to create one of the most notorious characters in animation? How does one then go on to make hit after hit and build an ultra-successful company? And how does one create the most magical theme park in the world? In this edition, we are talking about how one can do just that. One being you, ideally.

Creating Mickey Mouse

While living with his Uncle Robert, he was on Walt about being unemployed and not having any any buyers. Walt knew that the only way he could ever get into the movie business was by making his fairy tale cartoons.

So, Walt setup a little studio in his Uncle’s garage, and started to reach out to film distributors with ideas. One fairy tale story Walt was interested in creating was a series of Alice’s Wonderland comedies, and luckily Margaret Winkler agreed to work with him. Walt worked with his previous business partner, Ub, as well as his brother Roy, and created a new company.

Alice’s Wonderland was a success, and because of it, a new opportunity arose for Walt. Margaret's husband, Charles Mintz, had to find someone to create a series starring a rabbit. Margaret convinced Charles to give the job to Walt, and Walt accepted and got to work. He made Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, which was another hit when shown to the public.

Because it was doing so well, Walt asked for a pay increase for each episode. Charles suggested a pay decrease. When people say, “What’s the worst that can happen” when you ask for a raise, this is probably it. He threatened Walt that he would either agree to the price, or he would take Walt’s team away from him. Walt turned it down and vowed to own every character he created. This was the end of the deal with Universal Pictures. This was a temporary loss, but it wasn’t over.

Walt went back into the studio. But not to cook up a banger track, but to make one of the most notorious characters we now know and love (unless of course, you hate mice). He started sketching different animals and landed on a mouse. His partner, Ub, took over and started making the mouse into a caricature. Months later, Steamboat Willie was released at the theater. It was the first animated cartoon with sound and was a complete hit.

This was the start of something amazing…or maybe not.

Disney’s Folly

Walt’s imagination didn’t stop there. Joseph Schenk was the President of United Artists, which was co-founded by Walt’s hero in entertainment, Charlie Chaplin. Walt felt like this was the perfect time to experiment with adding color. Roy, Walt’s brother, said it would be insane to take on the expense of color, but Walt insisted the money would come back eventually. He chose to make the movie Snow White.

As Snow White was in the making, people were calling this “Disney’s folly.” In today’s terms, this means foolish. It bothered Walt at first, but after being reassured to keep going from a friend, he drowned out the noise and focused on making Snow White an amazing film. Three years later, the film was released, and it was the first animated feature film in the world. It ran for 83 minutes and brought in $8 million, which is the equivalent of $100 million today.

Walt continued on by making Pinocchio and Fantasia, yet he was heading towards bankruptcy for going over budget. But you know what happens next right? He doesn’t quit. He kept making feature films and, eventually had a new goal.

Hollywood Is Boring

Walt told one of his friends that it’s truly a shame people come to Hollywood expecting to see something and there’s nothing to see.

He would go to Griffith Park Merry Go Round with his daughters. Walt sat there on the bench, eating peanuts, and thinking. What if there was a place for kids and parents to have fun together? Why should Walt and the other parents have to sit and watch his daughters have fun when he could be a part of it? This is where he got the idea to make his own amusement park. After all, they were in the entertainment business, as Walt says, not just the TV business. Roy was not as big of a fan of this idea and reminded him how the company was in debt. Which means negative money. Even now with this state, Walt was considering these ideas. But he stopped because of the debt. Just kidding. Walt borrowed on his life insurance.

He started traveling all around looking for inspiration. At Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, he was pleasantly surprised. There were rides, nice restaurants, and fireworks. This is all he needed to get started and settled on the name Disneyland for his park. He eventually got the green light to start construction after much-needed convincing, and he got to work.

On opening day, Disneyland was called a failure. There was a gas leak, scammers made counterfeit tickets, rides broke down, and restaurants ran out of food. Walt fixed and iterated, and within the next year, 3 million people visited Disneyland.

“Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past. And here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America…with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

How Did Walt Do It?

Throughout this story, there were actually failures left out. There were setbacks, trials, and tribulations that Walt went through on top of the ones that were shared. Yet he was still able to prevail.

All of these ideas were able to come to life, only because they were alive in his imagination first.

He was able to see things that were never there. He saw characters that he sketched. He saw an opportunity to add color and sound, and when people called it crazy, he went and did ordinary things like taking his daughters to a merry-go-round and would think of a way to make his own park. His mind was always running, and he would let it go wherever it wanted.

This isn’t as easy nowadays. There’s always some kind of screen to interact with. Because of this, we end up suppressing our own ideas because we’re always focused on something else. Every time our mind begins to wander, we grab our phone and never let the good ideas marinate.

You know when people say they get good ideas in the shower? That’s because there’s no damn technology in there. If you are one of those people who got a waterproof bag to take your phone in the shower, you are unfortunately too far gone and you cannot be saved.

Walt never had this tech. So the lesson here is that you don’t lack something Walt has. You have an imagination. You actually have something that Walt lacked. A ton of distractions. So yes, I am saying you have the potential to be the next Walt Disney, but not if you scroll TikTok for hours a day. Take your time and channel it towards a productive project instead.

You might just change the world.

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