In the introduction to Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, film historian Neal Gabler states a larger intention than just biography.
By examining Disney’s career, and the huge impact it’s had on American culture, Gabler hopes to provide something of a biography of twentieth century America – its values, aesthetics, ambitions and morals, amongst other things.
He also wants to pull Disney away from some of the more rancid intellectual criticism which argued that much of Disney's output became synonymous with the trashy and infantile.
Gabler Sets the Record Straight on Disney
Gabler also aims to set the record straight on some of the more sensationalist claims made about Walt Disney (his stinginess, supposed anti-semitism, work as an FBI informant and tough union-busting activities), most notably in the shock biography by Marc Eliot, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince (1993).
While Gabler’s book may set the record straight, and steer away from the sensational, it remains clear that Disney did have some pretty unsavoury political connections, was involved in a group renowned for its rabid anti-Semitism and did indeed, by any modern standards, drink too much.
Walt Disney's Artistic Triumphs
But really, who cares about such stuff? The important thing is Disney’s career as an artist. The long and the short of it is he kicked animation as an art form light-years into the future. The apogee of that technical and aesthetic revolution came with the release in 1937 of Snow White. Disney was then in his mid 30s. After that, his artistic career was really all down hill, until he could barely care less what his production studio was making.
It's best to really look at the height of Disney's artistic career beginning in 1928 with Mickey Mouse and ending some 9 years later in 1937 with Snow White.
Another five years could arguably be added onto that, for in 1942 he released (after agonising years of production) the masterpiece Bambi.
Thereafter his artistic career stagnated, or ended really. Unless Disneyland itself can be considered a work of art, which depends on one's taste.
The Demands of Money on Disney's Art
What went wrong? Money, in short. Walt’s fantastic visual dreams cost a lot in labour and resources. Disney was always complaining that the bankers who kept his dreams afloat had no understanding of art.
To keep the big, expensive machinery of the Disney studio working, Walt essentially had to get involved in the business of making money, which is why today the Disney company is, ironically enough, a huge corporate conglomerate selling a naïve, folk art to the masses.
There is much depressing reading in Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination covering the corporate side of Walt Disney Productions. This was a studio that knowingly and cynically pumped out a lot of trash, marketed to kids, to make money.
Yet ironically it’s seen as a bastion of wholesome, traditional values. No wonder people find a lot of American culture so hypocritical and hard to swallow.
One wishes that Walt Disney had just simply stopped at Bambi and taken a break, or simply said it was financially impossible to continue on, and re-thought out some other way of making his art. Just think how different his legacy would be.
Neal Gabler doesn’t end his book on a very cheery note either. Writes the author near the book's end:
“In sum, Walt Disney had been not so much a master of fun or irreverence or innocence or wholesomeness. He had been a master of order.”
This book may leave the reader in two minds about Walt Disney. All artist biographies show a ‘dark side’ to their subject. With Walt there is no real dark side. His dealings with anti-Semitic groups and the FBI seem a product more of naivety than anything else.
While there may be a dark second-half to Walt Disney's career, the years 1928-1942 are worth celebrating for the young genius who created some of the 20th century's greatest art.
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, published by Vintage (2007). ISBN-10: 0679757473
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
Join the Conversation