John Hench Quotes

• When you go to the park, there is no horizon – just Disneyland.

  John Hench

• What happen to the pirates we are supposed to see? Then we go down the chutes, and it’s where the pirates were. But they’re all gone. There is nothing but skeletons down here!

  John Hench

• Well, it was never supposed to be like that. Walt died before we had finished. The original idea of Walt’s was that you came down there, into the caves, and there were no pirates. But they had been there just seconds before! There was a hot meal on the table, steaming.

  John Hench

• We’ve achieved this feeling, for instance, with the colors. The colors in the park are harmonious with each other, not like in big cities where they don’t.

  John Hench

• We finally found out the technique of separating and getting information about where every train would be at any moment. Of course, I went over budget many times, because – as you go along – some things improved, and you get better ideas.

  John Hench

• We don’t have too much ritual in our life anymore. And these life symbols which people rely on to keep their feeling of well being, that life is not too bad after all are required more and more.

  John Hench

• Walt’s idea was that – as soon as the people who were dining got through their main course. They were supposed to all be seated, served at the same time, when they got into the dessert.

  John Hench

• Walt understood all of those things, and even common things about people. For instance: Usually you get your idea of what kind of day it is by looking at the horizon, because the horizon is your eye level. So what Walt did is to eliminate the horizon.

  John Hench

• Walt put everything he knew about communication with images into the park, so it was very familiar.

  John Hench

• Walt had a marvelous intuition. And because he understood people very well, liked them and had great respect for people, there was nothing cynical about Walt.

  John Hench

• This music that was supposed to only come from tapes like in any restaurant. Something would happened. One bird will start to do a little jazz thing, and another bird will start to answer.

  John Hench

• There were no jewelry hidden. Walt wanted this atmosphere: They were supposed to live here, they’ve been outside somewhere, but they could come back at any minute and catch us.

  John Hench

• Then, you were supposed to discover the city, where they were. But because somebody like skeletons. And that they discovered that they were at a cheap price, we used too many skeletons all over the place, and the public got the wrong message.

  John Hench

• The show is being changed right now, by the way. Jeff Burke is doing it for the Magic Kingdom. And I think it will be better, with new birds, master of ceremonies, etc.

  John Hench

• The park achieved a kind of reality. Like these virtual reality games the children are playing with. I told them we were doing this 40 years ago! Disneyland is virtual reality.

  John Hench

• The colors I choose there was to paint the first hotel, the Disneyland Hotel. Because of the cloudy sky we had in Paris, it had to be a particular kind of color who will fight those grey days. And also something you can see when you’re driving up ‘There it is! We’re arriving!’

  John Hench

• Of course, it gave the studio an enormous power, because I don’t know any other place who had that skill with images to communicate with. And the need of these kinds of images are even greater now than they ever were because we are losing our life symbols.

  John Hench

• Nobody now is going from department to another department. Only Walt did that. I was very fond of him, really.

  John Hench

• Mickey is one of the prime examples: Mickey has never been suspected of being an American export. It was deja vu. They gave him a local name and he’s been accepted everywhere he goes.

  John Hench

• It was supposed to be in the second street project for Main Street. But who knows? Maybe it will be built one of these days. We never throw away any idea.

  John Hench

John Hench (34)

Birth:	29th June, 1908
Death:	5th February, 2004
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Animator, Artist, Creator, Designer

About

John Hench was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. He was an American animator, artist, designer and creator. He was an employee of The Walt Disney Company for more than 65 years, during which saw the creation of nearly every Disney animated feature and theme park. He studied at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He was respected by Walt Disney as one of the studio's most gifted artists and teamed him with Salvador Dalí on the animated short Destino, a project begun in 1945 that was not completed and released until 2003. By 1954, he was in the studio's live action department, as lead developer of the hydraulic giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, helping to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects for the film. He led the design for Tomorrowland, the Adventureland buildings and walkways, New Orleans Square and the Snow White Grotto. He also designed Space Mountain, and Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland. In 1990, he received the Disney Legend award, the company's highest honor, presented to him by Michael Eisner.

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