Walt the adapter

Mice Chat has this article posted by Kevin Yee, talking about how Walt was more skilled at adapting existing ideas than creating new ones. 

...he has been lionized so much, and put on so high a pedestal, that I think we’ve lost sight of the true accomplishment. Walt was less of an “innovator” than he was an “adapter”. This is true not only for the theme park concept, but also other heralded innovations he is given credit for.

 The article goes into some detail to show how Walt's innovations were really adaptations of existing ideas.  The tone of the article is somewhat iconoclastic and often dismissive of Walt's achievements. The author goes to great lengths to show how concepts such as Disneyland were not original.

Students of Disney company history can name another inspiration: Greenfield Village. This outdoor museum is more than just a collection of authentic and reproduction houses from American history: it’s also got some key city-park features that will look awfully familiar to Disney fans. Namely, it had a train encircling the property, an island with a river around it, and a paddleboat cirumnavigating the river. When did Walt see this? In 1948, while on a train trip with animator Ward Kimball. Disneyland looks a little less original seen in this light.

But some things in the article are clearly incorrect, for example...

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs really WAS Walt being inventive and thinking of something no one else could conceive of – in fact, he was ridiculed for the vision before it came out .

In fact, the idea for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs appeared in a 1916 Paramount movie, which was based on a 1912 Broadway play, which itself was based on an old Grimm fairy tale. In 2007 an interesting exhibit about Walt Disney's artistic inspirations appeared in Montreal, after having shown in Paris.  It seems that not very many people from the U.S. saw the exhibit. That exhibit showed side by side comparisons of old silent movies and the modern adaptations that Walt made.  For example, Chernabog as well as Snow White were inspired by old movies.  Walt's interest in Gothic themes helped inspire Disney Villains. The other side of the coin, also shown at this exhibit, was how others adapted Disney themes.

Walt's genius was the ability to take inspiration from many sources and take on the risk of creating new and hugely successful modern ventures.  Because of Walt's "adaptations", Snow White goes from an obscure black and white movie to a central character in the TV series Once Upon a Time a hundred years later.  Often the biggest impact is made by people who can see the value in an idea and turn it into something better..