{"id":1028,"date":"2009-07-22T03:48:14","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T10:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.disneyexperience.com\/news\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2019-10-20T11:57:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T18:57:23","slug":"wdfm-official-press-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.disneyexperience.com\/news\/wdfm-official-press-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"WDFM: Official Press Kit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it seems someone (someone at Disney?) has decided to place us onto a press list for the Walt Disney Family Museum<\/em>. We honestly haven’t heard of this new museum until now. Since Walt is both a personal and constant inspiration, we’d love to visit it some day. Until then, the photos that have been emailed to us will have to do.<\/p>\n

Every Thursday until opening day (October 1), the museum will release sneak peeks, which I will post here for fun and education. The official website<\/a> will debut on August 1, but until then, you can visit the museum’s Facebook<\/em> page<\/a> and Twitter<\/em> stream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the official press kit:<\/p>\n

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The fascinating and inspiring story of Walt Disney, whose artistry, creations, and vision helped define 20th-century American culture, will be brought to life at The Walt Disney Family Museum, which opens in San Francisco in October 2009. The Museum will illuminate Walt Disney\u2019s tremendous successes, disappointments, and unyielding optimism as he pursued innovation and excellence while entertaining and enchanting generations worldwide through his pioneering ventures.<\/p>\n

The creator of Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/em>, Disneyland, and the global yet distinctly American company that bears his name, Disney was an independent risk-taker who started his first business at the age of 19 and worked tirelessly to elevate animation to an art form. He invented timeless characters and stories that brought the fantastical to life and continue to inspire a sense of wonder. Through animated and live action films, television programs, and theme parks, Disney created global symbols, icons, and characters that, more than 40 years after his death, are an indelible part of popular culture in America and around the world.<\/p>\n

The Walt Disney Family Museum will illustrate how Disney\u2019s irrepressible creativity enriched the imagination of generations. The Museum will tell the story of the man behind the myth in Disney\u2019s own voice and in exhibits that reveal his expansive vision, from early drawings of some of his most popular characters to plans for Disneyland and EPCOT.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father’s name is probably one of the most well-known names around the world, but as the \u2018brand\u2019 or trademark has spread, for many, the man has become lost,\u201d said Diane Disney Miller, one of the Museum\u2019s founders. \u201cWe are committed to telling the story of Walt Disney\u2019s life, in his own words, and in the words of others who knew him well and worked with him. My father was very open and approachable, and in many conversations and interviews that were captured in audio, you will be able to hear in the galleries as you learn the story of his life. It is a wonderful story. Dad himself loved to tell it. Thanks to the amazing work of many dedicated people, we are fortunate to be able to tell it here using the tools he worked with\u2014art, music, film, and technology\u2014to present an honest yet affectionate portrait of this amazing artist and man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Steamboat Willie <\/em>to Pinocchio<\/em> to EPCOT, Walt Disney\u2019s unyielding ambition was to ignite a sense of wonder and to enrapture audiences through great storytelling,\u201d said Richard Benefield, founding director of The Walt Disney Family Museum. \u201cHe recognized the power of art to spark the imagination, and time and again, pushed himself and his companies to the breaking point as he pursued the highest level of excellence in feature animation. The Walt Disney Family Museum will present the compelling story of his life\u2014of his successes and failures\u2014as he entertained and enlightened the nation while it struggled with the Great Depression, joined the fight of World War II, and entered a golden age of prosperity and preeminence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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About Walt Disney<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Walt Disney Family Museum will shed light on Disney\u2019s remarkable life. One of five children, Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. He spent his early years in rural Missouri, where he developed a love of nature, of drawing, and of trains. After the family sold their failing farm and moved to Kansas City in 1911, Disney began working on his father\u2019s newspaper route and developed a love of the stage. When his family moved back to Chicago in 1917, Disney drew cartoons and took photographs for his high school newspaper and attended night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. During World War I, he was rejected by the army because of his age. He enlisted in the Red Cross Overseas and served as an ambulance driver in France. An ambulance similar to the one he drove in Europe will be exhibited at the Museum.<\/p>\n

The Museum will chronicle Disney\u2019s early, fitful starts at developing live and animated films, including the hardship with his first cartoon company in Kansas City, where he settled after he returned from Europe. After Laugh-O-gram Films went bankrupt in 1923, Disney took the train to California, with $40 in his pocket. By the end of the 1920s, despite his humble Hollywood beginnings, Disney rose to international fame and recognition with the invention of the world\u2019s most famous mouse. His studio also enjoyed great financial success\u2014and changed the animation industry\u2014with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/em> (1937), its first feature-length animated film and a movie that skeptics had warned Disney against making. On the other hand, Disney\u2019s animation studio nearly went bankrupt after the completion of Fantasia<\/em> (1940), a film that received mixed reviews in its day although it is now celebrated as a cinematic landmark. Throughout these decades, Disney pushed groundbreaking technological innovations that revolutionized animation and focused on the areas of story, character development, color, dimensionality, and original music to improve his storytelling. He consistently challenged himself and his employees to surpass what they had already achieved.<\/p>\n

The Museum will illuminate Disney\u2019s parallel interests in the fantastic and real. After completing the early-1940s animated masterpieces Fantasia<\/em>, Dumbo<\/em>, and Bambi<\/em>, and after a hiatus mandated by World War II, Disney began to expand the scope of the studio\u2019s work by making live-action documentaries about wildlife and the environment that reflected his childhood love of nature. He sent a team of naturalists to Alaska for a year to film anything they might find interesting. The result was Seal Island<\/em>, which won the 1949 Academy Award\u00ae for best two-reel documentary.<\/p>\n

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The Museum will also explore his marketing acumen. In the 1950s, lacking the funds to complete Disneyland, Disney embraced TV as a platform to test and promote his ideas while securing the financing needed to complete what would become the world\u2019s first theme park. Disney, who always looked toward a utopian future, was enchanted by the promise of technology. In addition to being an early champion of color television, stereo simulcasting, and widescreen technology, he brought his interest in transportation to bear by opening the first daily-operating Monorail system in the United States and creating the PeopleMover\u2014an innovative tram system with no on-board motors\u2014in Disneyland.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of his life, Disney developed innovative attractions for global events, notably the 1960 Olympics and the 1964-65 New York World\u2019s Fair. Beginning in 1960, Walt and his key creative executives approached several American corporations with the intent of collaborating on major shows and attractions for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. The result was four of the most popular attractions at the Fair: the General Electric Progressland featuring Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, the UNICEF Pavilion sponsored by Pepsi-Cola featuring, \u201cit’s a small world,\u201d the Ford Wonder Rotunda featuring Walt Disney’s Magic Skyway, and the State of Illinois Pavilion featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. These attractions were later exported to Disneyland in California.<\/p>\n

Disney\u2019s work with Robert Moses inspired him to develop a new paradigm, EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a project Walt described as \u201ca community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing, testing, and demonstrating new materials and new systems\u2026a showcase to the world of the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise.\u201d With a unique city infrastructure that separated pedestrians and traffic, EPCOT foreshadowed the New Urbanism movement by 30 years.<\/p>\n

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Inside the Museum: An American Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stories of Disney\u2019s life, creativity, family, and the processes and innovations he brought to his art will be told through a series of ten galleries. Highlights of the Museum will include:<\/p>\n