Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Of course. All of us at Disney are really proud of Walt, and we salute him for whatever he's created throughout his lifetime.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: Not just the man, even his team. Lucas Films gave the world movies like Star World, but Walt Disney and his current team's vision and management is not much talked about. People outside the industry have no idea how big they are.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: Definitely. Although 21st Century and Disney are competitors, I admit that they are better than us. But unfortunately, people still just see them as a cartoon company.

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: That's true. When I say Disney, some of you might think of classic cartoons & modern-day movie masterpieces, others a grand theme park or a mass media holding company and others, still a man. All of you are correct.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: But it's the man that created all of what you spoke about. Walt Disney was a pure genius, but the aspects of his life that made him different from others are hazy to most.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: Well, Walt was a pretty regular kid. It was only after his father got the boys in drawing lessons that he subsequently started drawing for his high school paper. The thing was nobody thought of him as a particularly great artist.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: Tame, don’t forget that when Walt decided to send some of his drawings to magazines for publication at 17 years, they were all rejected. Rejection and persistence would be all too familiar to Walt over the next few years.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Yes, we've heard it all. The Pesmen-Ruben Commercial Art Studio fired him, and his ideas at Kansas City film company were rejected by owners. So he brought a book on animation and a camera, and began to start shooting his own cartoons in a shed behind his house.

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Precisely. That’s when he created Laugh-o-Gram. Most people would be conservative with their first business venture, but Walt was passionate. He went out and spent all his investment money on hiring animators for a film called Alice's Wonderland based on the 1865 novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.'

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: This project was one of the first instances of Walt’s creative genius. He took animation to another level. Unfortunately, Walt’s grand plan didn’t catch and halfway through production in 1923, the studio went into bankruptcy. He quoted, "it's important to have a failure when you're young", and was definitely right.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: That's what made him who he is. If anyone knew not to take failure to heart, it was that man. At such a time he traveled to LA to visit his sick brother. While searching for jobs there, he asked all the big studios to take him on, and they all said no.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: That's not it. Walt finally got lucky when he managed to sell a half-finished version of Alice's Wonderland to a New York film distributor and founded Disney Brothers' Studio with his brother.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: That was a good beginning, wasn't it?

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Don't disrespect our founder, Tame. You very well know that didn't work out. His new character (rabbit) Oswald was bought by Universal, and they refused to renew his contract because they already had rights.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: He did hit rock bottom, didn't he?

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Yeah, and now there was just one direction to move in - ahead. When all this drama unfolded in 1928, Disney hit the jackpot when their hard work paid off in the form of a rodent.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: Yeah, here comes Mickey Mouse!

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Yes, Mickey Mouse is almost 90 years old. But that wasn't his original name. Walt was going to name him 'Mortimer', but his wife suggested otherwise. Disney owes its success to this character.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: The character was definitely good, but he capitalized on a brand new technology that had just been incorporated into the film industry. Y'all very well know what it is.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Yes, the truly revolutionary phenomenon: sound. At that point in time, there were no dubbing-like techniques. People wouldn't have been able to comprehend that an animated character can whistle, sing and have corresponding sounds on film.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: Not to forget his strategy - until 1935, only he had rights to use technicolor in animation films. That gave Disney quite a lead. He was able to create Snow White at the cost of whopping 1.5 million dollars.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: That was just the beginning. After Snow White, came many meticulously animated masterpieces like Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. Audiences often underestimate the budget and efforts that go into animated films. 'Tangled' was more expensive than 'Avatar.'

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: But exploring other areas, apart from animation was the genius of Walt, when in 1950, he moved into creating amusement parks. Traditionally, amusement parks were only for children, leaving tag-along parents with nothing to do. Disney envisioned a place where both children and parents could share fun experiences together.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: You may not know, but he was at a Copenhagen-based park when he thought of venturing into this business. And, he was so impressed with the design and layout, that he incorporated all the good designs.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: Not just good, the designs are great! Disneyland is so very well planned that dustbins are placed at an optimum distance from hot dog carts, based on the average number of steps it takes a person to finish a hot dog!

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Classic Walt! He was a perfectionist and often stern with his staff. So strict that when Walt Disney was coming down the hallway, the animators used a code ‘Man in the forest’ to warn colleagues to get back to work .

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: In fact, Walt Disney actually decided to do the voice of Mickey Mouse himself because he couldn't find anyone else to do it the way he imagined. And it happened: in 1929, Mickey was the first animated character to ever talk his first words, ‘hot dog’.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: But all his hard work paid off, didn't it?

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Definitely, today we earn more through our amusement parks than through films. Our parks are spread across continents, and the sheer size is overwhelming.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: I remember a few Disney employees boasting how Disneyland in Florida covers 43 square miles and is the size of San Fransisco, twice the size of Manhattan.

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: It's gigantic, no doubt. Every year the park finds an average of 6,000 cell phones 3,500 digital cameras and 18,000 hats. Since 1971, 1.6 million pairs of sunglasses have been lost there.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Those are big numbers. Did that attract Steve Jobs to you? You even flew your flag at half mast as a sign of respect when he passed away.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: Well, big money always attracted Steve. He was the largest individual shareholder in Disney at 7% stake. His Pixar connection drew him here.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: Speaking of Pixar, Torbert; don't you own it, just like Lucas Films?

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Kathleen, don't forget - Disney owns Marvel and Pixar, ABC, ESPN, A&E, Lifetime, the History Channel and the YouTube multi-channel network Maker Studios.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: That's too much power in one hand. Is it right? Or, is it dangerous?

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: It is what it is. Disney made $52.46 billion in revenue with a net income of 8.38 Billion and currently owns $88 billion in assets. Their number of employees is 180,000. I'm sorry Tame, we can't apologize for being large and profitable.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Torbert, there is nothing to apologize for. Walt had been nominated for Oscars every year and is the person with the highest number of Academy Awards to his name. That man was appointed to produce the opening and closing ceremonies of 1960 Winter Olympics. It is just fair that his legacy continues.

Tame Murdoch (CEO, 21st Century) :
21st Century: And what about the fact that Disney is the 2nd largest buyer of explosives in America?

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: Oh, that's for the fireworks at the parks. I've been to Disney World. It is the size of a city! It is said that we'll take 68 years if we want to sleep in every room there. It is but obvious that a lot of fireworks are required to light up the night sky there.

Dusk Hudson (CEO, Oscars) :
Oscar: Just like the sky, even the future of Walt Disney group is bright. All the very best for all your upcoming projects. Keep entertaining us with great cinema.

Torbert Iger (CEO, Walt Disney) :
CEO: Thank you, Dusk, we'll strive our best to live up to your expectations.

Kathleen Blindly (CEO, Lucas Films) :
Lucas: There is surely a lot that can be learnt from him.