Disney – Four artists paint one tree
An evening pause: This short was aired in 1958 on the Disney children’s television show, Disneyland. I emphasize children because this is the kind of material I was offered as a child.
Today it would be considered too sophisticated, and definitely unacceptable because it doesn’t indoctrinate the young on the importance of “racial justice.” My god, all the artists happen to be white!
Yet I know from experience that kids under six would love it just because it is fun to watch the artists work, while older children would find the narration by the artists themselves fascinating. I can say this with confidence because I am certain Disney showed this clip more than once, and I saw it multiple times as a child, watching it with pleasure at different times and ages.
And then there’s the main point. As Walt Disney himself says in the opening, “Don’t imitate anyone. … Go forward with what you have to say, expressing things as you see them. … Be yourself.”