What If...

Let me begin with a Plausible Impossible – plausible because it could have happened, impossible because it’s a part of the past and cannot (fortunately) be changed.  Here it is:  What if Walt Disney had never been born?

It’s a monumental thing to consider, but humor me for a moment.

For starters, synchronized sound would certainly have come to animated cartoons…eventually.  However, would the push of the artistic evolution of animation been taken up by someone else with the same fervor exhibited by Walt?

When would the first American feature-length animated film been made?  More importantly, would it have had the cultural impact of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, paving the way for further forays in the form?

If there had been no Walt Disney, it’s hard to picture something as unprecedented as Fantasia coming life and no telling how the seedy, unkempt standards of amusement parks would have been raised to a more appetizing level.

The concept of theme parks may never have been established as we know it today and, by extension, all of the applications of theme park principles (in everything from Rainforest Café to Apple Stores) might be absent from our culture as well.

 

Urban planning could very likely have been set back in powerful ways and ultimately reduced the imagination incorporated in fashioning our communities.

 

Some would say that not having the potential to “Disnefy” Times Square, shopping malls and planned communities would leave us with a more “genuine” environment, but who’s to say that the void left by an absence of Disnefication would not be filled by a more onerous, and oppressive alternative.

 

The subject matter in The Plausible Impossible, then, will operate from the premise that Walt Disney and his organization’s impact on society has been largely positive and more a matter of taste and preference than fact when it comes to value.  Moreover, it’s the fascinating tapestry of all the little pieces (people, projects, principles and milestones) which are most worthy of our examination and celebration. 

 

Please keep your hands and arms inside The Plausible Impossible while freeing your imagination and wonder at the ride ahead.  And no flash photography, please.