Day 1190: What Would Walt Think?

Aside from the well-known rumor that Walt Disney is frozen underneath Pirates of the Caribbean (spoiler alert - he's not), one of the most frequent questions I get is "what do you think Walt Disney would think of that?" 

It's really a harmless question, and often enough, actually a pretty good one. Obviously, the Epcot we see today is drastically different from the one Walt is said to have mapped out on the ceiling of his hospital room, and Disney movies like Frozen are a far cry from The Jungle Book, but at the same time, I really try to avoid answering this question for one very good reason: 

We live in a different world from Walt Disney. 

I'm sure, in fact I know, there are people alive that could probably give you an idea of what Walt would have thought of something modern. After all, there are still a handful of legends alive that knew him well, and they'd be your best bet for an accurate answer. But truth be told, we aren't those people, and we never knew Walt personally, so trying to figure out what he would have thought of Tangled is sort of trying to figure out what Abraham Lincoln would have thought of Hawaii. Likewise, attempting to reason what his opinion on Mission SPACE might be is like wondering what he would think of iPhones, and while I'm sure there are elements of the Disney parks and films that he would cock his head at, I'm not sure he'd know what to do with half of what we have now. Other than sit in astonishment, at least. 

I think you get the point though, about how our reality is a far cry from the one Walt was familiar with, although in the end if you really want to know what I believe he would think about a lot of this, it's as follows: he'd be proud. We may not be fans of everything at Epcot that's replaced classic attractions, or of the latest release from Walt Disney Pictures, but I do know that Walt would have loved to see the company continuing to move forward this long after Disney. And that's what we should always remember - that things will continue to keep moving forward, because that's what it was all originally about anyway. 

Have a magical day!