Mouse in The Making
So I was walking down the street in the small town of DeLand, Florida. The sun was in its full radiance, and the shadows of things seemed shy—so from shop to shop I stopped, rested, and enjoyed the free air-conditioned indoor breeze. I eventually reached my favorite kind of shop—a bookshop. Before I entered, I noticed a box of old books just outside the window. Before I reached for them, I could smell them. It was that calming, therapeutic, old vintage scent. The books were free. I seem to often stumble upon these things. I was tempted to take all of them, but since I was traveling back to Ecuador the next day, I only took one—featuring the story of Walt Disney. The main article was titled, “Bringing forth the Mouse.”
I don’t want to get into what the Disney Enterprise has become. I only want to share some insight into how Disney started. Like all great stories, there are struggles, dips, and discouragements that are there to distract you and test you. Disney surely faced these. In my opinion, it wasn’t Disney’s artistic talent that got him through the barred doors of success; it was his imagination and storytelling talents. He was a strong visionary. He bobbed and weaved past the technological limitations of that time and discovered ways to make his visions move and have sound. The first of its time. Some would say he was a genius of the origins of modern animation. Whatever you consider him, he broke through many barriers to get to where he had to go. You can respectfully know him as an overcomer. Here are some of my insights, written in my own words, from the article.
Create with simplicity for the ease of productivity.
Create something that invites the imagination and emotion.
Create something that involves the viewer.
Focus more on craftsmanship, not immediate returns.
Differentiate your work from others, even of the same genre.
Visual art ought to be music to the eyes.
Start small and finish big. Small beginnings are often attached to great endings.
Improving and changing what you started with often comes at a cost.
Your work inherits your personality.
A great work requires a fundamental and transformative force behind it.
Consider this list of insights for your own pondering about how you express yourself and succeed as a creative person. However, there is one more thing that I noticed about what Disney struggled to achieve, and that was putting sound to motion. That seemed to be his first major obstacle. Adding timely, appropriate, and entertaining sound was the element that truly transformed the animation. The article mentioned that Disney was “the first movie maker to fuse sight and sound successfully.” One critic of this achievement explained this fusion as “co-expressible.”
Why am I sharing this? Well, here’s what I want to encourage you to ponder in your life and work. As you focus on a singular thing and get really good at it, consider this question: “What could be co-expressible with this to make it even better?” So many were impressed by Disney’s animation. However, when sound was added, things really took off. What are the things we can do to engage more of the senses with our work? I’m not necessarily encouraging changing art genres. I’m simply exploring the idea of accents. We all have accents based on where we grew up, and especially when speaking a second language. But I imagine you may want to travel from where you grew up to explore new places and experience new things. It is not common nor do I believe it’s possible to do this without getting out of your comfort zone and experience new accents to life. When you do this you become a courageous creator. You collect along the journey a greater understanding of not only yourself but others, and ultimately, of who God is.
Mickey’s character started out mischievous, humorless, cocky, and cruel—somewhat unbearable after five minutes. Over time, Disney added friends (Pluto, Donald, etc.), explored diverse accents, characteristics, and experiences which made Mickey develope into the lovable character he is today. But first he had to explore and experience many things, and take on many roles like: swimmer, cowboy, fireman, pioneer, taxi driver, castaway, fisherman, cyclist, inventor, storekeeper, camper, boxer, exterminator (how ironic), plumber, chemist, hunter, magician, detective, and even a convict just to name a few. But where Mickey finally found his most viable identity was being an entrepreneur. The article writer concluded about him: “he was Everyman and the Renaissance Man combined.”
