There is an oft-repeated quote of Walt Disney's, "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing--that it was all started with a mouse." Lovely little turn of phrase there. I would like to paraphrase it a bit and remind everyone that it all: the theme parks, the stores, the tween stars, the big, hulking corporate monolith that dominates childhood due to its voracious need to feed on the souls of babies; started with two brothers (and Ub Iwerks) in a scrappy little storefront. They had very little money and whatever revenue they acquired they quickly dumped back into the fledgling studio to produce ever more ambitious works of popular art. Shareholders were not the concern. Creating the impossible was.
Oh, how so much has changed.
Today would have been Walt Disney's 110th birthday. In honor of this non-milestone (he's dead, so it doesn't count) I am announcing a new weekly feature for the blog here. Next year Walt Disney Pictures plans to release Wreck-It Ralph, the studio's 52nd full-length theatrically-released animated feature. To commemorate, I will be watching each of these features in chronological order, one per week through 2012, and writing about them here. Mark your calendars! If that Mayan prophecy won't kill you, my purple prose sure will! Speaking of predictions, I have a sneaking suspicion that my winter and spring will be very enjoyable but next autumn is going to suck.
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