source: As Dreamers Do

OK.. like everyone else says, REALLY BAD ACTING. I mean saying that this is a B-rated movie is almost an insult to B-Rated Movies. The only thing make me think that it could be a Walt Disney-like film is the Narrator. He's a bit simplistic and over-the-top too (making it sound like a documentary). I could almost look past that and try to enjoy the story. But, bad editing is hard to look past without laughing. For those that are curious as to what I mean... Answer me this, (26:09) who is the guy in the black shirt watching Mr. Disney talking to his boys about the paper route? Director maybe? How did this movie even make it to the public. Wow.. Walt Disney is probably rolling in his grave. I would be surprised if it doesn't somehow lead to litigation. Overall, it's just too bad that they just didn't care to make it worthwhile and memorable to honor the life of a man that has bought so much joy.

I ordered this from our library and it took a really long time to get in due to an error. When it finally came I was really excited because I am a big fan of Olan Rogers. I put it in and was so disappointed. It sucked. The acting was terrible, the props and buildings were inaccurate to the time period, everything was just bad. When it started out I thought it was going to get better when Olan got on screen, but even his acting was off. It must have had a budget of 12 dollars, which they used to buy donuts. It was literally the worst movie I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating. It sucked! I do not recommend anyone to see this pitiful excuse for a movie. It was just terrible all around.

30 seconds into the film, you knew it was going to be bad. The introduction felt like a YouTube trailer for a high school film project. I decided I would watch the film on fast forward to save some time... Every 30 seconds I stopped to watch a few seconds, you could pick up the details of a Christian film. I think a worship team at a Church got together and decided to act? As I saw the acting, it reminded me of how bad I did acting. It's really not as easy as it looks. It felt sort of like Napoleon Dynamite doing a Christmas play about Walt Disney. Overall, I'm not sure how accurate the information is, but it seems to be a lot about Walt Disney as a child and teenager (which was pretty boring). An hour into the 90 min film, Walt shows his first cartoon to a theater producer. The producer buys his cartoon for $0.30 a foot (I was hoping this was an inappropriate innuendo, but it wasn't). From here Walt starts making cartoons. 5 mins later Walt is talking to a young girl and asks her "Do you want to see my pet mouse!" The girl smiles and Walt walks into the background with the scene fading. (I thought this was a family film!) At this point, I was so confused, but at 1:10 the narrator confirms that Walt becomes desperate for money and will do anything to make a buck... he begins taking baby pictures and pet pictures... A tad bit of odd humor regarding the animators keeping one another happy, but that pleasure didn't pay the bills. The film goes on with Walt running out of money, his family leaving and a mouse feeding off scraps from Walts art table... From her the movie ends abruptly.

The story of the beginning of a great artist... One of the most magnificent artist in modern history, and we get this? A lot of the acting was stiff and lacked passion as well as compassion. It was like watching an amateuremovie... The setting was alright, partly the cinematography too, though i would expect something more bright and vivid when telling the story of an artist... Anyway... The Disney family moves to Marceline - and young Disney learns important advices for future life. Already at that point in the movie, the poor acting shines through - or is it the directing, that lacks compassion?- I can't tell. The lines are great and quotable... But lacks life. :( And that's pretty much the same for the rest of the movie as the Disneys move on from one place to another. Well, Elias Disney was great - and Walt the older grew by it. the story IS worth telling, so watch the movie, if you want the story behind Disney. But if' you're looking for a good time... find another movie. I'm so sorry... And the Ending? - I would expect some scenes from the successful Disney Studios - delivering something known - you know - to end the circle... So don't expect it. It won't happen.

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. I've enjoyed many Disney movies in my life and was eager to see a story of the man's life. My wife and I recently saw Saving Mr. Banks which was wonderful. But this ... We couldn't believe the poor acting. It was like seeing a Junior High play where all the kids had learned their lines well, but the acting and sets were amateur and incredibly poorly done. I'm glad I missed this movie in the theaters and only lost the rental fee. I think we made it about half way through before we quit because it was obvious it wasn't going to get any better. With the movie still running, I went to my computer, read the other reviews on this site and decided not to waste my time. I didn't know this movie was produced by some well-meaning Christians. I am a Christian and appreciate actors and producers who seek to promote Christ and the Christian life and world-view in the arts. There are an increasing number of great movies out there that present an authentic Christian perspective well and engagingly. I read the reviews and repeatedly notice an anti-Christian bias by the reviewer that does not correlate with the crafting of the movie. This was not like that. This movie was just poorly done. And as such,it does a disservice with no redeeming quality.

Yes the acting was somewhat played by cardboard actors and actresses who were obviously gathered together rather quickly with little preparation to memorize their lines. As a result it leaves us the viewers with an initial impression that it is a lousy film. Instead, since the film was not just about Walt Disney's growing years and his hungry years as a very young artist I must emphasize it was just as much about his big brother Roy's early life. I suggest you give the story a full view to understand what the director and writer were attempting to portray. Try and ignore the subtle religious overtones but accept we are witnessing a simpler time in the first quarter of the 1900's and we are viewing the Disney families real life and series of events of the early 1900's. The Disney family was struggling to make a living as were most families in the pre-World War 1 days. Walt was born in 1901 and the Disney families ties as devout Congregationalist Christians is obvious throughout the film. I wanted to learn as much about Walt's early life as possible as his story of his Disney empire is intriguing. As the film focuses on Walt's earliest days moving from his birth place of the big city Chicago to the countryside in Marceline, Missouri and then back to the big city of Kansas City, Missouri, we learn about Walt's families financial struggles which is where we also learn about Walt's never ending positive attitude as a dreamer and with an aptitude for drawing that allows his surrounding world to be his canvas. If you are wanting to see that magical moment when Walt actually becomes successful with such film classics as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or how he created Mickey Mouse then this film is not for you. Rather, this film focuses on the Disney family unit and the early influence his Aunt Margaret embedded in his heart and mind by bringing him his first tablet and coloring crayons which she always encouraged him with words of how talented Walt was. Upon reviewing this film as a whole I do get it. No this is not a film of high quality with actors the caliber of Clooney, DeCaprio and/or DeNiro but the essence of a young Congregationalist Christian from Marceline, Missouri who was a caring and loving brother and future employer speaks well of Walt's early upbringing and of the film's ability to portray a young dreamer at the turn of the 20th century who came in to a bleak world and had a vision to make the world a much happier place which allowed people to laugh and cry in a secure and wonderful imagined film after film. Overall, I liked it even with the cardboard acting and religious overtones because the story is real. That story being the early childhood and working years of a hungry and struggling artist named Walt Disney. I give the film a 6 out of 10 rating.

I don't usually comment on films but had to for this one. It is a truly appalling film, possibly the worst I have ever seen. I don't know how anyone can think otherwise. The acting really made me cringe, it gave you no real insight into Disney's life, and the script was full of awful 'follow your heart' clichés. I was laughing my head off through most of the woeful language. One of the standout worst bits was when Disney starts using cellular animation and does a scene with some wording which says 'your fired'. Really???? It's 'YOU'RE fired', idiots. I mean how could they not even check this grammar????? My advice: avoid the film at all costs!

The film starts out with Walt being a young and somewhat troublesome boy, and is narrated well. However, that's where the good part of this review stops. I wish I had more good things to say, but I simply can't think of one more thing that I actually liked about this. I was so excited to watch this. Walt Disney's life would have made such an excellent film, IF it weren't for the over the top cheesy acting that pretty much made the movie almost painful to watch. I kept hoping that it would get better. I caught glimpses of what could have been greatness, but it fell flat and left me feeling extremely disappointed. The concept was great... if only the casting would have been done by someone who knew what good acting should look like. If you can make it past the bad acting, the story itself is fascinating.

i was very excited that this movie was about Walt Disney until i got 1 minute into the movie where i was cringing at how awful the scripting was written as pure emphasis on just blurting out what happened rather than making a film out of the story. the film did not give me any incentive to watch on. There was no sense of realism and follow on to the movie, rather just meaningless scenes. There was NO character development what so ever and like the summary states just a really awful movie to watch. i REALLY wanted to find out how Walt Disney came to be but the TERRIBLE story line and writing didn't allow me to find anything out as i found myself shaking from how poor it was in every sense of imagination.