Walt in the Neighborhood

When it comes to cartoon-related matters, I’ve always had a bizarre knack for being in the right place at the right time. But this is silly. I’ve just learned that the Disney family (and specifically Diane Disney Miller and Ron Miller, who are San Franciscans these days) intend to build a Walt Disney Family Museum, paying tribute to the man–and it’s going to be in the Presidio, about a mile and a half from my home. (Already, the Presidio has an animation connection: It’s now the home of Industrial Light and Magic.)

Apparently, the plans have been brewing for awhile now, but I managed to miss hearing about ‘em. (That would be the third comics/animation-related museum in the general area, along with the Cartoon Art Museum, which is less than a mile from my office, and Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schulz Museum, which is an hour’s drive away, and worth it.)

There’s a whole section at Disney.com on this proposed Disney museum, and this piece at Jim Hill Media by Roger Colton has more details and says it’s all planned for 2008 or 2009. And here’s the Presidio’s own page on the project, which says that the Walt Disney Family Foundation has been a neighbor of mine since I moved here four years ago. Who knew?

I can’t say for sure that I know Walt would be pleased. But I know I am…