Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

MisterWhiplash The Walt Disney American Experience PBS documentary is a good profile of a box of contradictions: a wholesome 'family' man and a rabid anti-communist conservative who was one of the heads of the Alliance that made things horrible for people in Hollywood for years (and what a speech he gives to his workers that made them organize *more* to strike in 1941); someone who claimed he wanted things simple and wasn't "literary" while creating one of the great abstract experimental films (Fantasia) and changing an artistic medium through his "fairy tales" and silly symphonies and Disneyland and so on.This is a very fair document of a man who created many of the films that made children around the world cry and laugh and (occasionally, as in part of the forest sequence in Snow White) pee themselves, while also being "hard-driving" while being inspirational for his workers (or those who stuck around).It's chock-a-block of great clips and somewhat obvious but nevertheless enlightening analyses of the "Big Five" first films (Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and Fantasia), and on to things from television like Walt Disneyland TV and the park itself. Here's a man who could do anything and for the better part of his later life got obsessed with trains and led on to making THE amusement park of the world (or as one interviewee calls it "a living animation"). From a portrait like this it's somewhat easy to call him difficult (he likely was), but it's rare to get someone in America who was a genuine entertainer - whether it connected with everyone, as he aimed for whether it was a Donald Duck cartoon or the blades of grass in the park, he had to make it just so - while being so, uh, 'wholesome' (depending on who you talk to of course).He's a wonderful bunch of contradictions, which is something we can relate to even as we're not all "visionaries" and such.

mberliner1 This biographical study of Disney certainly captured the man as a brilliant innovator and dedicated producer of wonderful things. But it was not honest in its treatment of the strikes that almost brought down his studio. It suggested that the strikes were merely the honest reactions to a company that callously underpaid its employees and wanted power over them and that Disney, along with other studio owners blamed their troubles on Communists ("imaginary antagonists"). The viewer is left with the belief that Communists didn't have the slightest influence in Hollywood, when in fact there is significant evidence from Soviet archives (released after the fall of the USSR) that many union leaders (including Herbert Sorrell, who led the strike against Disney) were Party members and that the strikes were financed by the Kremlin. Even if the show's producers didn't accept these claims, it was unconscionable not to even to mention the possibility.

MartinHafer I am usually a huge fan of "The American Experience" and have watched dozens and dozens of their episodes. This is one of the first that I didn't particularly like--much of it because the film seemed less concerned with a chronological approach to Walt Disney's life. Instead, the film was looking for a darker side--a darker side that didn't always exist. Here are a couple examples:The strike at Disney in the early 40s WAS hard on the company and hard on Walt Disney. He was instrumental in trying to block unionization--that is true. But the film also seemed to say that he had an agenda to 'get back' at those responsible for the union--like Walt was a super-spiteful guy. Perhaps he was at times, but this didn't exactly jibe with biographies I read about the guy.The show concentrated A LOT on "Song of the South" and totally ignored a lot of other films that came out in the same time period. Between "Dumbo" and "Song of the South" were several Disney full- length films that didn't get mentioned and there were many films AFTER "Song of the South" that didn't get mentioned. "Song of the South" was mentioned because it offends many people's sensitivities today--and no other apparent reason. It wasn't one of the big classic hits made by the studio. Were they trying to say Walt was a bigot? Most evidence (such as his hiring practices at the company and treatment of non-white guests at Disneyland) would seem to indicate he wasn't. So why concentrate so hard on this one film?The bottom line is that instead of trying to tell Walt's life, the show was looking for a darker side and to promote a common theme to "American Experience" shows--race. To me, this isn't necessarily the most honest approach to a biography--more like a nod to political correctness as well as to create controversy.

Michael_Elliott American Experience: Walt Disney (2015)**** (out of 4)This two-part look at the life and career of Walt Disney certainly has some flaws. I will openly admit that but at the same time there's so much great knowledge and footage here that it's almost silly to complain too much about it.The first part of the documentary covers Walt's early days and how he got interested in going into show business. We learn about his earliest animated movies and how he ended up broke before finally getting money with the Alice shorts. From here we learn about various issues that happened with his family and how a little mouse would end up saving his career. From here we see the building of Disney Studios as well as him dreaming of doing feature films.The second portion of the film deals with some of the darker and more controversial moments including various strikes by his workers who felt they were being mistreated. The studio's disappointing box office returns to movies like BAMBI and DUMBO are also discussed but the main focus is Disney Land and how television would help bring Walt's vision to life. We also take a look at some of his latest pictures, which were attacked during a time when people didn't see peace and happiness instead they were seeing shocking images of violence.The biggest problem with this documentary is that its four hour running time simply isn't long enough to fully get into this man. I will admit that I didn't know too much about his personal story so I found this documentary to be full of wonderful knowledge and there's no question that all the footage from his movies as well as the personal movies were terrific. Even more entertaining was seeing Disney Land being built and just looking at the footage makes it a wonder that the vision ending up coming true. The film certainly is extremely long but it's never boring and it's definitely worth seeing.