Dreaming about Dreaming

Dear Walt.

I’m a fellow dreamer – I want to thank you for employing the mind of the Realist and Critic alongside the Dreamer. It has created structure throughout my creative career allowing me to help some of the most wonderful companies in the world. But, your incandescent imagination affected me well before I had an idea about a career.

The first time I watched Fantasia at the Disney Birthday Club in 70’s London made me question what film-making could be. After seeing Luxo Jnr at the age of 15 and deciding to write to Pixar, receiving a response encouraged me to follow liberal arts which inspired me to apply to my local art school. From there I was lucky to get a place at the Royal College of Art. So, your dreams and the ripples they created have provided continuous momentum in my life.

I was only able to visit to DisneyLand and Disney World Resort after I had kids – fulfilling the dreams of a working class kid from the suburbs of London. Both places were astounding of course, the flow of experiences so perfectly timed, the rides full of joy, both a seamless integration of all things Disney.

But, seeing your multiplane camera in person in DisneyLand, that was the highlight. The camera showed me that Disney had as much to do with technological innovation as it did with story-telling, film and TV. It occurred to me then that Disney married art and science so that it was not only possible to dream the future but also to make it. Disney was as much like Silicon Valley Company as it was part of Hollywood.

And this inspired me to dream… 

Dream about Epcot. 
Epcot, The Community of Tomorrow is currently a version of tomorrow which is taken from the past. I know an update is coming, but there are so many brilliant minds working on how to build a better tomorrow already. Brilliant minds who are creating products that the public don’t get to see, touch or try. Why isn’t Epcot their home? Their research lab?

Why isn’t Elon Musk launching his ‘Boring Project’ within the World of Motion? Why aren’t there vast Vertical Farms growing hydroponic food, delivering native produce to each Pavilion of World Showcase? Why aren’t autonomous vehicles learning to interact in new ways with people? Shouldn’t Disney invite all the brilliant minds to showcase their products within the parks?

Epcot would become a living, evolving community of makers, thinkers, educators and guests. The only place in the world where the public could interact with and affect their own future? Was that what you were dreaming of when you sketched the first Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow?

Dream about Transportation
Why didn’t Disney invent the autonomous car? A Disney Park is the size of a small city and has similar transportation challenges. This is why the monorail was so far ahead of its time.

How valuable would it be to have self driving vehicles taking guests from their hotel to the park in a precise amount of time? Wouldn’t that ease the pressure of crowds? Wouldn’t traveling in an autonomous vehicle feel just like a ride? Where would the park begin? The gates? The hotel? The flight? The tickets? Is that what you and The Imagineers wanted to create? An immersive experience that ensured guests left the real world behind.

Dream about Imagineering
If Disney parks are just like small cities, couldn’t imagineering help regular cities too? Couldn’t imagineers be solving some of the world’s toughest urban problems, like transportation, clean water, access to goods, city planning, last mile logistics, housing, sanitation and health care? 

If they did, Disney products would become embedded in everything we use in the city just like Siemens or GE, yet more creative, more inventive, but more entertaining.

Imagineering as a service? Remaining as busy and productive between park builds as during park builds? All the brilliant, very well looked after entrepreneurs and inventors, securing patents, starting businesses, reimagining the world together.

Dream about Disney+
Disney+, everything all together, all in one place. It’s astounding, But, is it just another digital TV service like Netflix or Hulu?

Isn’t Disney+ a unique way to look at the whole of Disney? So a virtual environment at a Disney Park would still be Disney+. A virtual game played at home still would still be Disney+? Managing the route around the park would still be Disney+.

If Nike+ is a way of measuring ‘Do’, shouldn’t Disney plus be a way of amplifying experience? A single way of interacting with Disney that anticipates Virtual and Augmented interaction. Designed to work with time, space and depth? One interface, one thing to learn, everywhere on every device. Hasn’t Disney managed time, space and depth before? The Multi-plane camera!

Why doesn’t Disney+ have a multi-plane interface? An interface which helps users navigate content through time and space making every experience better. Isn’t Disney+ just a way of expanding the interaction with Disney to everywhere?

Dream about the Brand
The scale and complexity of the Disney Brand is mind-boggling.

From a Branded House where every single part contributed to the same central idea, creating joy through storytelling. To a hybrid approach, acquiring brands like ABC and the Muppets strengthening that central idea, spreading the offering across other medias and properties. Then embracing Pixar, Marvel and Lucas who all excel at the same values. 

And now, with the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Endemol, Sky, Vice and Fox Sports who all have differing skills, values, customers and very different understanding of Joy. Are these just Creative Content? Channels? 

Will Disney become a House of Brands? Or does the same blood need to run through every piece of the company? The same spirit, values and understanding of Joy in everything that you do. 

What will help bring everyone together? Would the same tools, systems and interface for the whole company help everyone work in unison?

Dream about Stories
With so many great Brands under one Disney umbrella could they begin to work together? 

Maybe Pixar could do a short about the founding engineer at Industrial Automation who created R2D2? Like Geri the cleaner in Toy Story 2, what would it be called “The Droid Maker”?

It could tell the story of R2D2. Why doesn’t he have a voice? Why does he get so frustrated? Did R2D2 have legs like the R2 from the Mandalorian? What was his first memory? Did they make lot’s of R2D2’s or just one? Would the story draw from the actual reasons ILM had for designing R2D2, or the reasons Ralph McQuarrie had for his original concept art?

If the Brands did work together, which logo would go on the end credits Pixar? Star Wars? Or Disney+ Star Wars?

Dream about Business
Most creative minds are weary of business. They see it as limiting.
Most business minds are weary of creativity. They see it as all risk.
You and Roy found a way for creativity and business to complement each other perfectly. 
Can you teach that skill to others?

Wouldn’t a Disney School of Creative Business outshine Kelogg? Teaching the new ways that business, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship fold together.

Dream about Dreaming
Walt, we need the power of dreaming more than ever before. The world needs the most imaginative minds to solve the increasingly difficult problems we face. 

You had a vision of Epcot, a prototype of the community of tomorrow. Created Disney Land as a safe place to share happiness. Maybe it’s time to let that thinking bubble over from the parks into the real world? Implement your ideas on a scale so that everyone can experience their value, everywhere.

I’m a fellow dreamer and dreaming has never been so important.