Last week, Disney lost one of the most important storytellers in the company’s history.
Don Iwerks passed away last week at the age of 96. A Disney Legend and Academy Award winner, Iwerks helped create technology that drives Disney’s films and theme park attractions to this day.
While Iwerks was a technical genius, his creations worked so well for Disney because Iwerks understood the importance of storytelling. That’s definitely a family trait for the Iwerks. Don’s father, Ub Iwerks, co-created Mickey Mouse with Walt Disney. His daughter, Leslie Iwerks, is the leading documentarian of Disney’s creative history, directing “The Imagineering Story” and “Disneyland Handcrafted.”
Throughout his career, Don Iwerks invented techniques and crafted tools that made modern storytelling possible. From Disney’s Circle-Vision 360 system to 3D films such as “Captain EO,” motion-base attractions such as Star Tours and cinema productions such as “Mary Poppins,” Iwerks’ technical developments in film production and projection have helped entertain many millions of fans around the world over the years.
Bob Rogers, an award-winning attraction designer and Academy Award nominee, told me how Iwerks once stepped in to help make possible the finale of “Impressions de France,” the Walt Disney World movie that has run since EPCOT’s opening day.
The problem was how to make the Circle-Vision 200 camera tilt to film the Eiffel Tower from a close angle. Rogers said, “while the executives argued, Don quietly engineered and built a perfectly balanced, gimballed camera rig that a single cameraman could tilt to any angle using just one finger.”
I first talked with Iwerks when I interviewed him after the publication of his 2019 book about his Disney Legend father, “Walt Disney’s Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks.” The book is a master class in simply explaining technical concepts to even the most non-techie Disney fan.
In reading the book and speaking with Iwerks, I understood why he was the perfect person to create large-scale film technologies that immerse viewers into another world. He naturally made people feel welcomed and comfortable. Everyone I spoke with in this industry has told the same story about Iwerks. You could not help but want to listen to and watch and follow him.
“He treated everyone with that kind of care, humanity and respect,” Rogers said. “Don was a mentor and a role model, a humble person with deep, world-class knowledge of his craft but also a high level of personal integrity. By his example, being around him made you a better person because you wanted to live up to his personal standards.”
Yes, the Disney community has lost another of its personal connections to the early days of the company. Too few of those individuals are left now. But the work that Don Iwerks did for Disney and other companies in the themed entertainment business endures.
So, too, does the community of creators and innovators that Don Iwerks inspired and trained. He will be missed, but never forgotten.