Friday, December 27, 2013

"I won't disappoint you"

      In "Saving Mr Banks", which I saw again on Xmas evening, Hanks also expresses Walt Disney's total capacity of commitment. "I won't disappoint you" Disney asserts to Travers. "I won't disappoint you" is, in fact, the essence of what Walt Disney stands for: a total capacity of commitment. Why? Because he too was in love with what he was committing; he was putting his whole being in it, and not just taking it out of the way 'to appease Travers'. When I wrote a text titled "Titanic and Humble", I talked of Walt's commitment to Mickey; his humbleness of referring everything to the Mouse. Walt Disney was committed to the good, to joy, to morals and, as Gabler says, to America itself, especially after the war, a commitment he wore heavily. Disney felt it was his duty to provide insignia of Mickey Mouse to the soldiers, because, as he said, "They grew up on Mickey Mouse".
Disney was committed to the highest of causes, through the humblest of ways; entertainment. And his entertainment was religiously treated by him. Religiously, in the sense of infused with ultimate respect. To commit is to respect to the point of surrendering one's integrity to it. It is to have integrity, to begin with, and that is no easy matter.... In committing, one's integrity becomes an expression of dignity...

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