Meryl Streep trashes Walt Disney

[DancingCrab]

This is pretty shocking IMO, with her headlining Disney's Into the Woods later this year.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mov ... 30js0.html

[Musical Master]

This is pretty shocking IMO, with her headlining Disney's Into the Woods later this year.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mov ... 30js0.html

Good grief Meryl, what else is new?

[thedisneyspirit]

Bah, people all the time is saying the same thing about Walt. Nothing new, only that Streep has fame and money to support her words. Is this gonna change anything really? Dude's been dead for years, the company's advanced without him.

What I don't get is how people claim he was sexist when in fact he hired many women back in the old days. Most of the films he did in his life later on were made to please his daughter's desires; that's how Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins came into existence.

[Musical Master]

Bah, people all the time is saying the same thing about Walt. Nothing new, only that Streep has fame and money to support her words. Is this gonna change anything really? Dude's been dead for years, the company's advanced without him.

What I don't get is how people claim he was sexist when in fact he hired many women back in the old days. Most of the films he did in his life later on were made to please his daughter's desires; that's how Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins came into existence.

That claim is also confusing when you know how Walt treated Mary Blair with such utmost respect for her work that sometimes we don't know what's true or false about Walt.

[Victurtle]

Disney's employment of men is no different to Pixar's. The only different is Walt also employed women at all stages of production - just look at the making of features of all his films.

It's not clear why Meryl would have any bearing on Walt - I don't think they ever worked together, how would she know?

[Musical Master]

Disney's employment of men is no different to Pixar's. The only different is Walt also employed women at all stages of production - just look at the making of features of all his films.

It's not clear why Meryl would have any bearing on Walt - I don't think they ever worked together, how would she know?

Exactly.

[DancingCrab]

and let's not forget about "the boys" who seemed to be treated better than anyone else at the studio. Pretty off the wall behavior for an anti-semitic.

[tlc38tlc38]

Never have liked Meryl anyways. I think she's way overrated.

[DancingCrab]

I LOVE Meryl Streep, but I think it was incredibly stupid of her to make these statements for several reasons.

1. The point of her being up there was to honor Emma Thompson's work in a DISNEY film. Not run her mouth off about a man who's been dead for 48 years.
2. She has no room to talk about whitewashing history, having just played a sympathetic version of Margaret Thatcher, one of the most tyrannical human beings EVER. Hypocrite.
3. She herself is playing what is considered the star role in a DISNEY movie later this year.
4. She's never worked with Walt, never knew him. What was the point of spitting on his grave?

I certainly don't believe Walt Disney was a saint. He was most certainly a product of his time and not all of it was for the better back then, but I just don't understand how holding up historical figures, who have been dead for almost half a century, to todays standards of what is or isn't politically correct, is in anyway constructive.

[moviefan12]

Bah, people all the time is saying the same thing about Walt. Nothing new, only that Streep has fame and money to support her words. Is this gonna change anything really? Dude's been dead for years, the company's advanced without him.

What I don't get is how people claim he was sexist when in fact he hired many women back in the old days. Most of the films he did in his life later on were made to please his daughter's desires; that's how Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins came into existence.

That claim is also confusing when you know how Walt treated Mary Blair with such utmost respect for her work that sometimes we don't know what's true or false about Walt.

Thank you and if we are just going by the film, it showed that Walt treated everyone with the utmost respect. He even showed respect to Travers, while she was being difficult to work with. I just wish that these rumors were die and go away but people persist in shoving them down people's throats.

[Mr arrow]

Since his death there has been an ongoing, radical attempt by both left and right factions to tear down Walt Disney and rebuild him as a sort of devilish piñata to suit the political or even (as in the 90s) fundamentalist agenda of the day.
In the seventies the feminists tried to tear him to pieces. Other groups tried to label him racist because of Song of the South (clearly no one ever saw the film) the nineties saw extreme right fundamentalists had him aligned with satan...(although to be fair many of the films they had grievances with were made 20 years after his death)
Meryl's comments are not just hateful, they are ignorant, devoid of any factual integrity and build upon the overblown, out of proportion exaggerations created by individuals with an axe to grind.
She makes no mention of Mary Blair who Walt considered his most creative artist...but that wouldn't suit her agenda would it.
But it really just builds upon the plethora of groups who have stuck every vile tag they can think of to tear down what what they perceive to be his avuncular all American image to be. Take a back seat Meryl, hec there is even an opera out there alluding to the fact that Walt was a child molester ...there is another guy saying he was a Nazi and even claiming he Was Hitler!! and there are other groups saying that he was racist for the way he depicted Germans and Japanese in the WW2 propaganda films...there is another group saying he was a Freemason and that films like Sleeping Beauty are evil illuminati films...
The truth was , he was human and I strongly doubt he had the time to be guilty of half the accusations labelled at him when one considers how many plates he had spinning in the air at one time...was he a saint? I don't think anyone claimed he ever was except for those who insist on tearing him down..

Some years ago I met Frank and Ollie and a colleague of mine asked them one question trying to get the 'dirt' on Walt...he asked "what was the real Walt Disney like"...without hesitation Frank looked at him quite sincerely and said. " he was a genius"

[PatrickvD]

No one ever accused other Hollywood big shots of those days of any wrong doing. Even though they were all product of the same time.

This debate is outdated, but I expected it to return due to Saving Mr Banks. What I didn't expect was that it would be brought up again by Streep. She should know better. Especially as the star of an upcoming Disney production.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you Meryl.

[jazzflower92]

It seems like everyone trashes Walt Disney but people never seem to trash the other cartoon companies like Warner Brothers as hard. I mean go onto youtube and look up some racist Warner Brother cartoons that is not shown on television at all.

[Walter]

It seems like everyone trashes Walt Disney but people never seem to trash the other cartoon companies like Warner Brothers as hard. I mean go onto youtube and look up some racist Warner Brother cartoons that is not shown on television at all.

Yeah, whenever asking those people "what about Warner Brothers? Universal?", it is either silence or just going back to trashing Disney. I had a few friends that were like that, and it is very annoying.

[Disney's Divinity]

Don't bite the hand that feeds you Meryl.

I don't think Meryl really needs the Disney hand.

Besides, it's not like she said anything that isn't already known about Walt Disney, the man.

[Disney Duster]

What do you mean already known? None of the stuff she said is true. He especially never formed and supported an anti-Semitic industry lobby.

[Mr arrow]

The best rebuttal by far...
http://talkbacker.com/movies/meryl-stre ... n/id=19674

[TsWade2]

Man, what a

[Thoix]

The best rebuttal by far...
http://talkbacker.com/movies/meryl-stre ... n/id=19674

Now that was a good article.

[DancingCrab]

As expected, this is all over facebook and social media sites now. Thankfully, I see a lot of people defending Walt's legacy and criticizing the idea of pointing fingers at one man for the way the world was back then.

Thanks for the link Mr. Arrow. That was indeed a great response to all this.

I'm really hoping that Meryl comes forth with a statement soon either apologizing for promoting such a false image of a man, long dead, or brings a more valid argument to the table.