Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Snow White’s Personality

The success of Snow White had much to do with the storyteller, that is the one who was telling the story – Walt Disney in this case.

Disney’s animators and concept and story artists commented on his (Disney’s) ability to not only tell a story but to put a story together.

Ollie Johnston, animator, “I was just spellbound. He acted out some stuff. He was a wonderful, spontaneous actor. He’d have you all laughing.  You’d visualize what he was presenting to you. It was amazing.”

Related: Lessons Learned about Life at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco | Introduction

Joe Grant, concept and story artist, “He would repeat it (the story) to as many people as he can, and gather up as much in the way of ideas and thoughts …. it was the old storyteller.”

Ward Kimball, animator, “The best story man in the studio. Nobody even approached him.”

My daddy is a pretty good storyteller … or story book reader. We read books with lots of words on them and no pictures. But when he reads, I can hear the voices and see the faces and watch the action. And it’s more fun than when I see a picture in the book.

I want to learn to teach people how to see words and worlds from my talk. That’d be really cool.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.