Walt: The Movie We All Want (But Will Probably Never Get) To See.

We all saw it this weekend. No, not John Carter, obviously. I'm talking about that mysterious movie poster that was filtering all over Facebook. Those dream-like colors, that nostalgic old train car, a strangely familiar figure sitting alone on the bench, and then that fantastic cloud formation, inspiring one man's dream . . . and all of ours. I'm talking about the poster for Walt.



I am not an "I told you so" guy. As soon as I saw it, I wanted it to be real in the worst way. Even the name Ryan Gosling seemed to work in my head. But I knew right away it wasn't. Only because as much as I'm a Disney nerd, I'm a movie nerd too. I check a couple different movie news and gossip sites every day and I'm fairly confident I would have seen this story the day it was announced.

As I've posted over at Mousejunkies in the past, there actually is a movie being discussed about the arduous endeavor Walt undertook to secure the rights to Mary Poppins from P.L. Travers, and the name being bandied about to play Walt is Tom Hanks. So there's something to possibly get you salivating. But to date, there has been no serious talk announced about a Walt Disney biopic. And I'm willing to bet there won't be for a long time.

Unfortunately, a Walt movie is a Lose-Lose situation for Disney. They could never let another studio make it, nor would we want them to. But any movie they made would have the vulturous critics circling overhead from day one looking for anything to tear apart. And while Walt was a great man, he was still a man. We know he could be tough, overly-demanding, he was a wicked smoker (that right away would kill the PG or better rating.) And a good biopic has to show all the grit as well as the glamor. But could the Disney company make a truly honest movie? And even if they did, those critics of Walt would still rant and rave that it was sugar-coated.

For some reason there are those factions in the world that insist on accusing Walt of some nasty things, for which there has never been any evidence produced. It seems like flagrant jealousy. Long before the internet and digital cameras, the media in the country loved to build up heroes and then try to tear them down. Notice with all their slings and arrows, they never succeeded to topple Walt. Why? Most likely because their witch hunts never produced any witches.

Those same Walt-haters would read this and say "Oh sure, a fan. An apologist!" I am a fan. A huge fan. But I don't need to be an apologist. That's the same thing they'd say about any movie made about Walt. "Oh, it's a white-wash. His studio is making his movie! How convenient!"

You can't argue with idiots. So it's not worth the struggle. The only way a Walt biopic, a really good one, ever gets made is if there's an Exec at Disney, and I'm talking highly-situated . . . cough, Bob Iger, cough . . . with the cojones to say "screw the critics, we're making this movie as a tribute to our founder, as a record of our legacy, and as a gift to our fans."
I guess you could say only a Walt Disney would make such a movie. Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think . . . ?

I don't know that such an Exec exists right now. They'll just continue to throw good money after bad, making expensive bombs like John Carter. Imagine the great picture about Walt's life they could have made with half of Carter's budget. And imagine what Imagineering could have done at Epcot (which has been grossly neglected for a while) with the other half!

As always, I hope I'm wrong. But I'll be surprised, pleasantly mind you, to ever see a true film adaptation of Walt's life in my own lifetime. If I'm wrong, I'll play Oswald!

Win-Win!