I saw an advance screening of the movie Walt Before Mickey hosted by co-producers and co-screenwriters Armando Gutierrez and Arthur L. Bernstein.
They are pleasant and sincere individuals who are first-time filmmakers and deserve praise for having accomplished what they have on a minimal budget with the filming taking place mostly in Orlando and DeLand, Florida. They are very much like the movie cliché of kids who had a friend who owned a barn and they all decided enthusiastically to put on a show.
They really accomplished a lot in recreating an authentic time period with ingenuity and some well chosen props. The actors are all likeable, and I especially enjoyed Thomas Ian Nicholas as Walt although he was asked to do things Walt never would have done.
The audience who saw the film loved it and appropriately “oohed” and “aahed” throughout, especially during the moment when on the fabled train trip back from New York where Walt looked up into the night sky and saw the outline of Mickey’s ears as a shooting star darted past and he made a wish so his dreams would finally come true.
That never happened. Not even a wonderful storyteller as Walt ever came close to telling a fib that big.
In fact, most of the stuff in the film never happened. It is not just that things might be misleading (e.g. the Disney family did not take a car when they left their Marceline farm and Elias certainly never would have driven one at that time) or open to debate (e.g. for instance, Roy O. Disney always claimed it was his idea to rename the studio The Walt Disney Studio because he felt more comfortable being in the background) but are outright falsehoods.
Having Walt's wife Lillian doing ink and paint work on the Oswald cartoons, or Fred Harman being wooed to open his own animation studio by George Winkler in Hollywood, or Friz Freleng working on the Laugh-o-Grams in Kansas just never ever happened in real life. There are literally dozens of books (including an excellent one by Tim Susanin) that confirm those and debunk other major bloopers that pop up every single minute in this well-meaning and good-hearted film.
I am willing to suspend a certain amount of disbelief that Walt was inspired by a mouse in Kansas City, but I can’t extend that to Walt grabbing a half-eaten sandwich out of a trash can because he was so hungry.
Walt was not starving.
He often ate at Jerry Raggos and Louis Katsis’ Forest Inn Cafe on credit. It was on the first floor of the building where Laugh-O-gram was located. One time, when the restaurant owner briefly cut off Walt’s credit, he found Walt happily sitting in his office eating a can of uncooked beans.
“I like beans,” smiled Walt and the owner quickly reinstated meals on credit for Walt. In fact, Walt’s staff ate there on credit as well, occasionally.
Walt never had to break into the office to steal the film can with Alice’s Wonderland (not “Alice Comedies” as it was labeled in the film). It was part of the bankruptcy settlement that he could take the film to use as a sample reel for potential employment with the understanding that he didn’t own the film (which is why Winkler couldn’t run that particular cartoon in theaters).
He also didn’t steal a movie camera. Film Ad’s owner Vern Cauger happily loaned it to him and Fred Harman when they opened up Kaycee Studios before Laugh-o-Grams.
The poster for Walt Before Mickey highlights an outline of the mouse, and boasts some known Hollywood actors in the cast.
When I was a kid growing up, one of my favorite films to watch on television was Houdini (1953) starring Tony Curtis. The final dramatic scene where Houdini dies because of a failure to escape the Chinese Water Torture Cell imprinted strongly on my young mind. I have found it imprinted on many people just as strongly. Very powerful stuff. Except for the fact that it didn’t happen that way at all in real life. Houdini died of peritonitis over a period of several days.
There are other dramatic exaggerations in the film and it never occurred to me that Hollywood would lie about a real person’s life. Surely, there must be laws about that if not just outrage from people who know better. I believed all the Hollywood biographical films and I later learned they were all pretty much fanciful hokum, especially those relating to musicians.
Even Saving Mr. Banks (2013), which I very much enjoyed as a film, was not factually correct as I pointed out in two articles on MousePlanet: Fact and Fiction in Saving My Banks Part One and Part Two. Even then I didn’t point out every thing that was wrong. However, the film did capture reasonably accurately the spirit of what was actually happening at that time.
I am writing this column primarily because I am fearful that many young people and future generations will look at Walt Before Mickey as a documentary rather than a fantasy that gets many obvious important things about Walt, his life and the people in his life completely wrong, wrong, wrong.
I also want to firmly state up front that while the film is supposedly based on the outstanding book Walt Before Mickey: Disney’s Early Years 1919-1928 by Tim Susanin, it really has nothing in common except the title.
I bought a copy of Susanin’s book when it was first released in hardback and bought another copy when it was issued in paperback because I knew I would want to go back and refer to it. This is an outstanding book for anyone who loves Walt Disney and especially his early life and how it shaped him.
I give it my highest personal recommendation and you can trust the information in it. To say that this book was meticulously researched would be a gross understatement.
Susanin did extraordinary work and deservedly earned the wholehearted approval of Diane Disney Miller and every single credible Disney historian working today. The only criticism the book has ever received is that Susanin included too many details,so it seems at times a little drier and slower going than other Walt biographies.
None of this wonderful research is evident in the final film. I am afraid Susanin is just another in a long line of authors who had their book optioned and then found it eviscerated when translated to the screen, but his name still connected to its carcass. I am still scared that people will believe the film is the truth because Susanin name is connected to it.
I realize that certain people and incidents need to be eliminated when producing a film. I miss that they didn’t include cameraman Red Lyon and others who I think were important and often neglected players in Disney history. I miss that they didn’t include Walt’s first attempts at live-action filmmaking, as I do many other opportunities.
I can understand changing the personalities of characters for dramatic purposes. Uncle Robert’s wife, Charlotte (played by Full House alum Jodie Sweetin), has always been described as pretty stiff and strict and was five months pregnant when Walt arrived a little unexpectedly as a houseguest, so she was not in the best of humor. She was not the chipper, helpful woman portrayed by the actress, but I can understand why the filmmakers might have wanted a nicer person to balance off the pompous Uncle Robert and give Walt some hope.
I can even understand adjusting some of the small particulars that didn’t really change the spirit of what was happening. The Alice Comedies were not filmed with white boards behind the actress, but with a white tarpaulin draped over a billboard and then onto the ground on a vacant lot that the Disney brothers rented.& It would have been fun to see Walt acting in some of those scenes as he did in the actual films.
Edna, Roy’s future wife, wasn’t there when they opened their new studio. She came out when Roy (played in the film by Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder) got fed up living with Walt’s complaining and he decided to marry her. He wasn’t there to comment on the hiring of women at the studio or that she would never work there. She did, in fact, help with the ink and painting of the first three Mickey Mouse cartoons along with Lillian who was in real life much shyer and much less talkative (Walt liked that she was a “good listener”) than her screen counterpart who is so attractive you can understand why Walt was smitten.
The animators were still finishing up work on the last Oswald cartoons while Walt and Ub created Mickey Mouse, and Ub had to work in secrecy. They had not left the building. They stayed until their contracts ended.
However, it is really hard for me to stomach things that didn’t need to be changed and did not add to the story.
Were the Depictions of the Disney Animators Accurate? No
Fred Harman, the brother of Hugh Harman, did work with Walt at the Kaycee Studio, but left before Walt started the first Laugh-o-Gram cartoon Little Red Riding Hood. He did not come out to Hollywood to work at the Disney Studios. He did move to Colorado briefly. In fact, he did not come to California until 1933 where he created a cowboy comic strip that evolved into the famous Red Ryder.
Friz Freleng did not work at Laugh-o-Gram studio in Kansas City. He joined the Disney Studios in California late in 1927 when it was finishing up the last Alice Comedies and beginning the Oswald series. He never quit Disney because he wasn’t being paid. He was fired by Walt for phoning in sick when Walt felt he wasn’t. The whole story is here. Also, he never did funny voices. In the film, they are having him do it to try to foreshadow that he was responsible for later Warner Brothers’ characters by imitating Yosemite Sam and Speedy Gonzalez.
In the first of many gripes, he didn’t create those characters even though he is associated with them. Knowing Freleng personally, who was the inspiration for Yosemite Sam because he was short and had a fiery temper, he would have blown up at being so represented on screen.
Iwerks and Walt did not remain “friends” for the rest of their lives. They respected each other. Walt uniquely allowed Iwerks to return to work at the studio after he left to run his own studio, but everyone said the relationship between the two was never the same.
At best, they might have been considered “friendly” in the way acquaintances are. Walt was known to have fun at Iwerks’ expense, especially related to his shyness and to change the timing sheets of his animation which is a huge issue for any animator. By the way, Iwerks was constantly helping the other animators with their artwork and there is no reference to how incredibly fast he was and why that was so important.
The scenes with the animation staff were inaccurate, not only in terms of how they were drawing but their general personalities. However, a person unfamiliar with animation history will just accept these flaws.
Did Charles Mintz Want Virginia Davis Replaced as Alice in the Alice Comedies? No.
In fact, part of the stipulation in the original Winkler contract with Disney was to use the same girl that appeared in Alice’s Wonderland. So Walt did not hold auditions for a new actress in Hollywood and Fred Harman didn’t run the camera. Roy did. Virginia was replaced because, for the second year, instead of being under salary (and she was the sole support of her family), the Disney Brothers were only going to pay her for just the days she worked, to save money. Virginia’s mother refused but always blamed Mintz for forcing Walt to cut costs.
Also, Iwerks did not come out to Hollywood by train as depicted in the movie. He drove out in the Davis family Cadillac from Kansas City with his mother. It was a seven-day trip.
Was the meeting with Mintz in New York accurate? Sort of.
In the film, Mintz gleefully shouts he owns Oswald. He did not. Universal did, which is why after a year, they took the character and series away from him and put Walter Lantz in place.
Yes, while Walt was in New York, he did see MGM’s Fred Quimby who basically felt that cartoons were “on the wane” and so was not interested but he saw Walt several times not once, evening taking time to watch a couple of recent Oswald shorts before he made his final decision. Walt also saw a bigwig at Universal who was sympathetic to Walt but did indeed say they couldn’t work directly with Walt for another year because of the contract they had signed with Mintz.
However, all of this, including multiple meetings with Mintz, took place over a week and more not 24 hours. Famously, and not in the movie, Walt told Mintz that if his animators would betray him, they would do the same to Mintz (which they did when Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising tried to wrestle the series away from him a year later).
Is Plane Crazy Really in Public Domain So the Filmmakers Could Use it? No.
Frighteningly, producer and writer Arthur L. Bernstein claimed at the August screening that they could use scenes from Plane Crazy because it is in public domain. Obviously, they haven’t heard of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 lobbied by the Disney Company so that this film, along with Gallopin’ Gaucho and Steamboat Willie will not come into public domain until around 2023…unless Disney lobbies successfully for another extension. It is known derisively as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act because Disney did it specifically to keep Mickey and his early cartoons out of public domain.
In addition, Mickey Mouse himself is trademarked and that lasts indefinitely, as long as it is used commercially and aggressively defended. The filmmakers might try to argue “Fair Use,” but even that is shaky ground because of the amount of footage from the cartoon that is used.
My guess is that unless the film becomes hugely popular or profitable, then, like the poorly conceived Escape From Tomorrow (2013), which was filmed in the Disney theme parks, Disney will probably ignore it and hope it disappears. It is too much effort and expense to recover so little unless they are forced to do so.
However, if Bernstein keeps spouting Plane Crazy is in public domain, Disney might have to step in to defend its property or risk it falling into public domain. That’s why brands like Kleenex, Xerox, Jell-O and others battle against people calling generic tissues, photocopies and gelatin by the brand names.
Did Plane Crazy have Big Premiere With Uncle Robert and Lillian and Roy and All the Others in Attendance? No.
Plane Crazy was screened once at a theater on Sunset and Gardner in Hollywood on May 15, 1928. The name was not on the outside marquee. Walt had to pay for it to be shown. He coached the pianist on how to accompany the action and slipped him some extra money to punch up the music.
Ub Iwerks was there and later said it was a pretty full house and got some laughs. It was shown to get a good reaction from an average audience in order to help sell the film to distributors. It made no big impression. It was just another cartoon.
By the way, the Disney brothers financed that entire cartoon themselves and two others, Gallopin’ Gaucho and Steamboat Willie, and still had money to pay their bills so they were not dead broke as depicted in the film.
Even Steamboat Willie was not a huge premiere at the Colony Theater in New York and certainly didn’t have a Hollywood premiere.
I could write another two columns about the errors and maybe I will when I see it again but I am reminded of the fellow who said, “Other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?”
As I said, I like the people who made the film and I have seen that the film touches people’s great affection for Walt and how he struggled and won and so it entertains an audience but it is a very distorted image of a much more interesting story and man.
No, I did not bring up these concerns at the public screening because I thought it was mean and petty to do so because as I said, the filmmakers didn’t trash Walt and his heritage and obviously had the best intentions.
I have been told that another film covering the same territory, As Dreamers Do, suffers many of the same fatal flaws but I have not yet seen it. When I do, I will offer the same cold-water-fact checking.
The Disney Company has tried several times to do a live-action biographical film about Walt Disney. One of the better ones was planned under Ron Miller.
“I wanted to make Walt Disney’s life story and Jimirro [of the Disney Channel] decided it should be a mini-series,” Disney Family Album producer Mike Bonifer said. “I wrote a four-part mini-series with L.G. Weaver, who was my co-author on that book about Notre Dame football, Out of Bounds. It was 500 pages long and the Disney Archives has a copy. I put two years into that project. Traveled to places where Walt lived. Talked to people who had known Walt, like Clem Flickinger, Rush Johnson, Hazel George. I talked with Hazel on her deathbed and she told me everything from the first day she met Walt up to his death. There are certain things in the script that don’t exist anywhere else.”
When Michael Eisner came on board, he killed the project because he didn’t want attention on the past and Walt.
My advice is to enjoy Walt Before Mickey for what it is, but don’t believe it is true. I would also advise you to put a copy of Tim’s book on your wish list for Santa. The film goes into wide release in September.
