I also watched the CNBC special about the life of Walt Disney, and came away quite impressed. I've read countless books and seen other documentaries about Walt's life, so a lot of the information presented in the documentary wasn't new, but the interviews and footage sure were.
The documentary included a litany of never before seen interviews and footage from the Disney archives. That was great to see. I was thrilled, especially, to hear from the surviving members of Walt's 9 Old Men, his inner circle of animators.
Given that the documentary was sanctioned by Disney, I was expecting them to gloss over some of the less positive aspects of Walt's life, particularly the animators' strike. Surprisingly, that was not the case. The documentary dealt extensively with the nearly crippling strike, and while it didn't take sides, made it abundantly clear that Walt was just as much a ruthless businessman as anyone else. The documentary presents the case of the union workers, and doesn't paint them as just disgruntled employees. While watching this, one couldn't help but notice the parallels between this and the rather contentious contract talks occurring between Disney Parks and the unions of the Walt Disney World workers.
The only thing I would have liked to have seen more of would be more about Walt's clandestine acquisition of the land he ultimately built Walt Disney World on. It's one of the more interesting stories, and shows Walt's cleverness and ingenuity. For a great description of this, I reccommend reading the book Project Future, which goes into great depth of this issue.(See Nick's Review of PROJECT FUTURE - Here.)
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