CONTENTS 6―PREFACE
10―NOSTALGIA: An Idealized Yesteryear
28―FANTASY: The Art of Make-Believe
56―DISCOVERY: Adventure and Exploration
88―TOMORROW: A Step into the Future
100―REFLECTIONS: Looking Back at the World
114―THE WORLD’S MOST MAGICAL CELEBRATION
The Fiftieth Anniversary of Walt Disney World
124―BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ENDNOTES
125―ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
126―IMAGE CREDITS
127―“A BLANK PAGE”
PREFACE “Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination.” —Walt Disney THE VERY CONCEPT OF WHAT “CREATIVITY” IS—or what it can be—amounts to a great many things to each of us. Colors. Patterns. Mediums. Each is a tool at the behest of the artist within, ready to help employ perhaps the most precious of humanity’s gifts—imagination. When confronted with a blank canvas, sheet of paper, sidewalk, bedroom wall—or any surface, really—one thing unites us in our artistic journey: the decision to adventure forward and make our first mark.
For me, the Walt Disney World Resort has always been one of those inspirational instigators. Serving as a seemingly endless source of brilliance from which we can draw to not only help make sense of the world around us, but to move ourselves to bring some of its creative magic home, this happy place is a true wellspring of innovation that is capable of imparting joy and new knowledge on any who visit.
The coloring pages we’ve pulled together in this book come from a variety of historical sources that dot the resort’s now half-century legacy, including a few vintage publications that I collected as a child. Many pieces trigger distinct memories of feverishly doodling away to my heart’s content while camping with my family at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. These fleeting moments are representative not of bygone days, but of a beloved temporal space deep in our souls that’s always only moments away.
Above all, I hope you find the same beacon of inspiration our creative team did in pulling these pages together for you. Use pencils, crayons, paint; you name it. I pray you make the following pages yours. There’s nothing holding you back from covering them with the wildest, craziest, and most remarkable creations yet. May your creative compass help guide the artistic adventures that lie ahead within these views, these snapshots, these memories of our grand muse, The Most Magical Place on Earth: Walt Disney World.
Kevin M. Kern
June 2021
NOSTALGIA: An Idealized Yesteryear “Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards—the things we live by and teach our children—are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.” —Walt Disney STEEPED IN THE YEARNING FOR AN IDYLLIC TIME gone by—or that never was!—a rich sense of nostalgia informs many of the experiences that exist at Walt Disney World. Imbued with a feeling that is meant to reassure all who visit, you’re bound to find a fulfilling, optimistic adventure that also reminds you of a familiar sense of belonging. What Walt and Roy O. Disney envisioned with their Vacation Kingdom was a place that entertained as well as reassured. Marty Sklar, a longtime Walt Disney Imagineering creative executive and Disney Legend, outlined the understanding of this communal, harmonious intent: “As a visitor, you know where you are, and every detail reinforces the time period and the experience. Even though you have never been there, somehow you and your family are at home here.” Just as the sands of time are ever shifting, pangs of nostalgia for the resort are united via one simple constant: afterward, we all seek to relive the joy and magic we encounter during our visit. And, as a result, those memories are what help call us back, time and time again.
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