Day 115 - 217: YouTube, evolution, and biographies

June 9th, 2024

Dear Disney,

Darling and I have been discussing the evolution of this blog. We want what is best for our family and our audience. It has taken some time, as you can tell by the 102 days between posts, but it is now time to discuss our newest evolution of Dear Disney.

On our last trip to Disneyland, I came across Walt Disney’s Biography. I picked it up, read the preface, and decided I wanted to know more about Walt.

Darling and I took a film class in college on the Disney Company and the long term effects the company had on the entertainment industry. We watched some movies and talked about marketing and some of the business aspects of the company, but we did not address Walt’s life.

Disney+ has some documentaries about Walt, but they focus on a specific movie, or Disneyland, or the Wonderful World of Disney and the “Uncle Walt” persona. But who was Walt Disney really?

The biography, Walt Disney: An American Original, by Bob Thomas, is the only official, Disney-approved, biography. Darling and I decided that not everyone has the chance to read the biography (anecdotally, I looked in our local library system and the book was not in their collection.)

Coincidentally, Lady was starting to get interested in the source material of all the Disney classics. So, Darling and I have decided to start a YouTube channel, @DearDisney365, where I am reading Bob Thomas’s Walt Disney: An American Original. I will also read all of the original Disney source material, the ones that are in Public Domain or Creative Commons, and then at the end Darling and I will summarize our thoughts on the material and how Disney changed the material in order to meet the needs of the company.

Today we posted our first video, all of the Forwards and Prefaces. Walt touched the lives of many and, therefore, many want to be a part of his memory.

Remember, today’s moments are tomorrow’s memories.

Sincerely,

Jim Dear