A documentary about Walt Disney imagineering by filmmaker Leslie Iwerks is due to come out sometime in 2016. I am very excited to hear about this because it was Walt Disney's show "The Disneyland Story" from 1954 that sparked my passion for animation at a young age.
For those of you unaware, The Disneyland Story was when Walt Disney began hosting his own television show for ABC in 1954 in an unusual contract. Disney provided ABC with a weekly hour-long television program in exchange for funding for the construction of Disneyland. As a result, the television show was also originally named Disneyland. The anthology series has since gone through a number of name changes over the years: Walt Disney Presents, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Wonderful World of Disney, Disney's Wonderful World, Walt Disney, The Disney Sunday Movie, and The Magical World of Disney. The series spanned an incredible 54 years—13 seasons of which were hosted by Walt Disney, himself.
The most influential episode for me as a kid was called "The Story of The Animated Drawing". This episode takes a look at the history of animation and animation techniques throughout the ages. However the best part was many animation pioneers, including J. Stuart Blackton, Windsor McCay, J.R. Bray, Max Fleischer and, of course, Walt Disney were featured! (Here is part 1 of that episode, below.)
I wonder if this new documentary will inspire a new generation of imagineers and creative thinkers...
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