Disney Ceative Legend & A Quote for the Road

Last night I attended the Oceanside Film Festival and got to see a lot of great films, some not so great, but I appreciated the effort and the art of filmmaking. The first film was a documentary on Rolly Crump, the creative genius that had a huge hand in designing the Haunted Mansion & It’s a Small World at Disneyland. This man worked right along side Walt Disney and described how clear of a vision Walt always had, even if all of his designers couldn’t see it at the time. It always amazes me to learn about greats like Walt & Steve Jobs, people that see brilliant creativity a mile away in a dark corner and find a way to incorporate it into the big picture. It gave me hope that I could possibly have a boss one day that advocates for the weird, the creative, the different, and make it into something much greater than I could ever imagine.

Back to Rolly, Walt saw that he had these strange illustrations which Rolly kind of shrugged off, but Walt stayed up all night thinking of how he could incorporate them into Disneyland. Now Rolly’s art is forever on display in one of the greatest destinations in the world. His art is haunting yet so, well I can’t think of a better word than the filmmaker, whimsical. Seeing his illustrations made me want to sit down and start creating art of my own.
There was a Q&A held after the film, the Whimsical Imagineer, where Rolly answered questions. My favorite quote from Rolly was, “Color outside the lines and always believe in your crazy ideas.” I added that to my library of creative notes I keep. Whenever I don’t see the point of creating, or building a creative community, I remember quotes like this and remember why I started in the first place.