Learn About Me Monday – Disney Freak
So, as some of you might have guessed, I’m a pretty big fan if Disney arts. What you might not know is that I wasn’t always a fan. In fact, back in college I down right detested everything that Disney did or had done. Why you might ask? Well it wasn’t just me. Most of my animation class had the same kind of stance. We hated the establishment because we thought we where better and because they sat at the top of the heap. I opinion of them didn’t change much. It did go from a hate to a “I couldn’t care less” kind of attitude. Once I had kids, my wife brought Disney back in to our lives with the Aristocats. I kept my opinions to myself, but the more I watched the more I started to soften up. It wasn’t until Tangled was released that I changed my view entirely. I remember coming out of the theater in total awe. I was so incredibly moved by the story, the colour pallets, the characters, the designs and of course, the animation. It was like my eyes opened to the creativity that went in to these features. I felt like such a fool. This whole time… I just hated a name. I took no issues with other animation studios, just Disney and the Disney name. Back when I was a kid I loved watching Disney stuff. Ducktails, Darkwing Duck, Tail Spin and the rest of the Disney line up. I loved Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast too. I threw it all away and decided to turn my nose on what I thought was a huge corporate machine the killed creativity.
I’m sure that others out there will tell me that is exactly what Disney is. I will say that, yes… Disney at the end of the day is business and business has to make money. But for them to make that money, they need creative people like you and me. Business people make the gears turn, but with out gears, there is nothing. That’s how I view it anyway. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions on the matter.
Since then, been reading all kinds of Disney books. I was shocked to learn that all the techniques and innovations that I was taught in college for Classical Animation, was first done by Disney and his team. That he looked to his animation staff to become the first imagineers for the parks and that Walt Disney himself was an animator with vision and goals. It’s truly amazing what he dreamed up for us all to enjoy.
Now that my opinion has totally flipped and I’ve been to Disney World more than a few times. I would love to see me get my art in the galleries in the parks and on merch too. That would be fantastic. Drawing such naughty art of said characters though I think would be a stain on my art career and the one thing that stops me from trying. Not that I would ever show or mention it of course. Maybe one day I’ll give it a shot. I think I would drop to my knees and cry if I ever got the chance to have fan art hung in the park galleries for people to see. Maybe one day.
Play Asia
June 15th, 2015 at 7:14 am
did you draw disney as you hated on, like to spite them or something? not judging just curious.
June 15th, 2015 at 10:14 pm
Yeah, I guess you might say that I did. I also saw their characters as attractive and cute too so I did want to draw them, but yeah… almost like a thumb in the eye. Now I draw them because it think it’s fun. I still think their characters are really cute too though. ^_^
July 11th, 2015 at 6:24 am
It’s interesting to hear how people approach things differently, and is somewhat surprising to learn that you used to ‘hate’ Disney. Particularly that your opinion didn’t fully change until fairly recently. I would have thought you were in full Disney-fan-mode well before Tangled. Guess that just goes to show that you can’t glean much of an artist’s likings from their works….
When I was younger, I very much enjoyed Disney stuff. I often watched the afternoon cartoons, Fantasia, and many of the other movies. However, as I grew older, I kinda drifted away from their stuff. Now the only contact I have with their material is indirect. Either through news/entertainment sites or pornographic depictions. Probably not surprisingly, it is more often the latter. Dunno… just haven’t been all that into their more recent products, and don’t feel all that compelled to return to their older stuff. Still respect them, just not all that interested in it.