Walt Before Mickey (2015) Reviews

• trying to find something good about this movie

  alouez2015-12-21

  Not to put too fine a point on it- this is one of the worst movies I've seen in a very long time. I wish I could get back the $ I spent to watch this on OnDemand. The acting is painful, the pacing is leaden, and the dialogue reminds one of that written for the sixth grade Christmas play. I dozed off several times and didn't even miss anything. About the only praise I can come up with is that the cast are pretty much all really good looking. And the guys who play the supporting team of animators in the early incarnation of the Disney studios work very hard and almost succeed in making their scenes compelling. But it's not enough to overcome either the uninspired earnestness of the guy playing Walt Disney, or the atrocious dialogue. Every scene drags. Every. Scene. It very much screamed 'inexperienced director'. There is a good story lurking underneath here. But it's not told in this particular film. It's especially egregious that they gloss over the fundamental dishonesty of a man who lies to and manipulates his employees to keep them churning out work, with the goal of achieving his own dream. It's not an admirable thing to steal work from an employee- particularly when it's being made clear that those employees are suffering as a result. A skilled filmmaker could have drawn drama out of this scenario; a lot could have been made of the irony of a man trampling all before him to bring the world... Mickey Mouse. Hopefully, this story will someday get the treatment it deserves. It does not get it here. Which is unfortunate, because apparently most of those involved in this project were also the ones bankrolling it, and they all seem like nice people.

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• A Disney-approved look at the early life of Walt Disney

  paul-allaer2015-09-10

  "Walt Before Mickey" (2015 release; 110 min.) is a look at Walt Disney's early years, in particular the decade between 1919 and 1929. As the movie opens, we see a 7 yr. old Walt in rural Missouri, with a stern father. As a 13 yr. old, Walt officially becomes interested in animation, and we swiftly move on to 1919, when Walt moves to Kansas City and starts his first company "Laugh-O-Gram". At this point we are 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: first, this is the movie adaptation of the book of the same name by Timothy Susanin (and a foreword by Diane Disney Miller). I have not read the book and so cannot comment how closely the movie sticks to the book (I'm guessing, very closely). I don't want to overstate this, but at the same time don't want to not mention it, namely that this movie comes with the official Disney stamp of approval. That could be a good thing, although the downside of this is that there isn't the slightest negative thing about Walt Disney in this movie. I mean, to accept this movie as 100% true, Walt Disney had to have been a living saint. It even goes so far that at the end of the movie, when we are informed what would become of many of the characters featured in this,, it states "Walt never held a grudge against Charles Mintz". (You need to see the movie to fully understand how badly Mintz treated Disney...) As to the acting performances, I felt many of them were quite 'wooden', you can tell they are literally 'acting'. Thomas Ian Nicholas (best known from the American Pie franchise) tries to make the most of it, but even he cannot save the movie. Bottom line, I was disappointed with the second rate quality and overall feel of the movie, like this was a TV Movie of the Week, directed by a first time feature-length director (in this case: Khoa Le). Is there a great story to be told? Absolutely! But it won't be found in this movie, unfortunately. The movie opened this past weekend and the matinée screening where I saw this at was attended very nicely, somewhat to my surprise, since this movie has not gotten much of an advertising push or anything. Seems that people really do want to find out more about the early life of the American icon that is Walt Disney. Surely Walt deserved a better movie than this. "Walt Before Mickey" is strictly for Disney fans, and even then, viewer beware!

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• Really, Really Bad

  fisheric262016-05-02

  We watched this after returning from a Disney World vacation, still not quite ready to put our recent trip in the rear view mirror, and turned it off about an hour into the film. It's a terrible movie. The acting is atrocious, so bad that I wondered several times how the director approved a scene for the final cut. The thing is that I didn't think the cast was that bad, there are a few decent names in here. Everyone was just awful though, clear that they were only in it for a paycheck. What's more is that the story was told in a way that's so boring and bland, nothing is interesting. This is a movie that should have been played on Lifetime, and even that may be giving it a little too much credit. Don't believe the 4.5/5 star rating it gets on Netflix like I did - this movie stinks.

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• high school stage production, filmed by a made-for-TV crew

  008_Bob-JamesBob2016-04-27

  A wretched waste of time. Life is short, do not spend time that you will never get back watching this... experiment. Character portraying Walt Disney is miscast. By all accounts, Mr. Disney was more serious-minded and more self effacing than the man we see in this film. Mr. Disney first drew a mouse while he was in the trenches, serving in World War I. This insipid movie had him befriending a mouse while down-and-out and dumpster diving. Worst of all, the man presented to viewers as Walt Disney in this movie is an unfocused goof-ball- nothing at all like the real man who was more like the Bill Gates of his time- very focused and hard working.

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• Hugely Disappointing

  gracekirkby2016-05-13

  I actually had to stop watching half way through because the film was so painful to watch. I think my biggest mistake was watching "Saving Mr Banks" the night before watching this film. Walt Before Micky certainly tried to recapture the magic so easily conveyed in Saving Me Banks yet failed miserably. Not only were the portrayals of these real people wildly inaccurate, the acting was completely wooden. Everything about the script, direction and acting screamed inexperience and was reminiscent of a school production. I am very disappointed as this could have been a charming film in much the same way Saving Mr Banks made the history of Disney come alive, alas this time around it failed miserably; hopefully one day a remake will do this story justice!

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