For this documentary review I watched Walt: the Man Behind the Myth. I was browsing documentaries on Netflix, and I came across this one and as I had an interest in animation in middle school, it seemed like an interesting one to watch. The documentary is about Walt Disney, both his life story and his company. The film basically follows the events of his life chronologically, using interviews from many of his relatives, animators, and other artists and such, as well as various authors and historians. The film starts by covering Disney’s childhood and where he grew up, as well as his family life. As he gets older, the film covers how he gets into animation, how he began to produce bigger pictures, through Mary Poppins, and then deals with his death and how his family remembers him.

     I thought the shot selection for the interviews was interesting because they all seemed to have the same background but they were different sides and different shot widths. Some of the interviews had a wider shot and a very close shot, while some just had a medium shot, but one or two of them had a wider shot, and a just slightly smaller shot that they went to during dramatic stories. This was really effective at pulling the audience in. There was a very good mix of media. There were pictures of Disney’s family, clips from his cartoons and movies, footage he shot of his family, footage of old interviews with him, footage of modern day locations and houses that were relevant during his family’s time in them, modern interviews with animators, other artists, historians and authors, and family, footage of him in his studios, and more. The use of all of these different forms of media really helped to blend the historical story with modern significance. The lighting on the interviews could have been a little bit more even, it felt very dramatic, when for the most part the stories weren’t really very dramatic, and a more even, less harsh setup would have benefitted them. I liked the way they did the lower thirds; they had the person’s name and occupation/relationship to Walt at the bottom, but above that they had the person’s signature. Not only does that make it more personal, it also ties in the important script font of the Walt Disney logo.

     For me, this documentary was really good. It definitely taught the story of Disney, both the person and the company. It was really cool to see all of the advancement of animation and technology used for it throughout the years, as well as how the advancement was influenced by the different historical events, such as wars and strikes. Personally I thought it was really cool to be able to see how even in the very first cartoon characters Walt Disney drew, the resemblance to Mickey Mouse is unmistakable. The story of Disney was really inspiring because so many things happened that should have dissuaded him from persevering, yet he did, and because of that, Disney is the empire it is today. This is a must-watch.