Free Of The Mountain...

Famed Archaeologist freed from unknown red tape...

Been keeping an eye on things even though I haven't posted lately.  I said I'd try to do a few posts before Blue Sky goes quite for a while.  This story is enough to make my fingers reach for the keyboard.  I'm sure you've heard the news, and if you haven't why are you reading this?

When The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm last year, it was primarily for the Star Wars franchise. But George Lucas' company has many other valuable properties, but none more valuable besides Luke Skywalker than the Man in the Hat.  Many people thought that the Mouse would not do anything with the iconic character because of entanglement of distribution rights that belong, not to it but to Paramount Pictures.

Sure, Disney owned the character, but to distribute it they had to go through the original studio that Lucas and Spielberg partnered with back in 1979.  This all comes from a deal that then Paramount executive Michael Eisner made with the two wunderkind storytellers.  Many people thought that Iger and the Mouse Suits around him wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of the previous contracts and hoops the studio would have to jump through.

It appears now that they/we were wrong.

According to Variety today, the Walt Disney Studios has negotiated an agreement with Paramount Pictures where the new owner has distribution rights to all new films related to the classic adventure. Paramount does retain distribution rights to the original four films, and will receive a percentage of the profits from any new films of this valuable franchise.

Although this doesn't mean that Walt Disney Pictures has a Indiana Jones film in the pipeline, it does clear the way for one. And with Harrison Ford's interest in playing the character again it looks like the green light could soon be given, if it hasn't already been.  Hopefully they will play this smart and hire the right people for it. No more space aliens even if it fits the 1950s Red Scare time period.  I would immediately get Lawrence Kasdan to brainstorm ideas with Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas over the coming months.

Once a great idea is approved, hire someone who is capable of creating great screenplays like Mark Protosevich or the hot flavor-of-the-month Simon Kinberg.  Any film that they make would likely be Ford's last adventure as the character since he is 72 years old and I can't imagine him in a sixth film because it would probably involve a wheelchair.  Let's face it, if there's an Indy VI then the MacGuffin will have to search for him instead of the other way around.

I'm sure after that Disney will want to continue such a valuable creation, but it leaves me fearful of the character's future. Sure, I would love to see an Indiana Jones Animated Series, or maybe an Indiana Jones animated film. But Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. Just like he IS Han Solo.  It's hard to imagine anyone with his form of masculinity playing those characters. Then again, I guess it would be hard for some to have pictured anyone taking over James Bond from Sean Connery, but someone did. Many, many times.

It might just be my soft spot for the portrayal he created in the character that sprang forth from his performance, but I have trouble imagining a future reboot/reinterpretation of the whip carrying, pistol packing, hat wearing archaeologist from America.  It could happen, and it likely will. But it won't be the hero from the past, his, yours or mine.  Sometimes it's hard to let go of things, even when you know it's right.  People, characters, and events seem to attach themselves to your heart and create a bond that is hard to separate.

Like the red tape Doctor Jones just was set free from...

Once Upon An Unintended Consequence...

The Mouse is an open book...

It's almost the anniversary of Michael Eisner's retraction from creativity...

That's right, DCA turns ten next week and I think it's time for a little perspective.  It's important to take a look at what has been built since that fateful error, um, I mean era.  And important to look at what the Walt Disney Company has done in response to the reaction to those projects.  Nothing is perfect, nor will it ever be.  Even in the Disney world.  But we as fans and guests always expect Disney, particularly the creative side (mainly WDAS and WDI), to strive towards it.  I don't expect everything to be exactly what I want, but I do expect high standards when I look at something the Mouse creates.

So let's examine the past while focusing on the present and future.  When Eisner and his Burbank cohorts started coming up with ideas for turning the Disney park into the Disneyland Resort, the sky was the limit.  And the result of that wide eyed search for profits meant that Imagineers could dream to their hearts desire.  Word has it when the Imagineers asked Michael what he was looking for, he responded with: "Amaze Me."  And amaze they did.  The results of this was the wonderful (but cloned) WestCOT park and the off shoot of capitalistic competition known as Port Disney.  We all know that park featured the seed known as DisneySea that became the flower that is Tokyo DisneySEA.  These were massive projects with levels of detail unseen in even Disney's park history, with the exception of EPCOT.  And even that project only took into account the park and not building an entire resort around it.  It was to be an unprecedented move of artistic creation and an example of what could be accomplished as a merging of entertainment and business.

And then Euro Disneyland opened...

And all that came after would be lacking, to put it mildly.  Gone was the first version of WestCOT, with a smaller less expensive WestCOT 2.0 that lost a bit of the charm and grandiose of the original.  Then Port Disney was canceled, after which we got an even more scaled back West COT 3.0 which shortly got the axe itself.  Then it was back to the drawing board which led to that dreaded Aspen retreat that led to He Who Should Not Be Named coming up with a park in California about California.  This was misguided and with a room filled with Yes Men and soulless bean counter, there was no countering voice to say: "No.  This is wrong.  Stop.  Rethink.  Redo."  It just didn't happen.  To make matters worse, even after the bad reception and confused response of the public to this announcement, the powers-that-be felt they had such a sure fire hit that they didn't believe they would have to ensure that it was very themed.  It could be as average as any other park, but the Disney name would make them come in droves.  So they cut the budget for it.  By a third.

And now we have to live with the results.  And now we make lemonade from lemons.

For the longest time the Suits and soulless bean counters tried to explain the reaction to the opening away with every excuse possible.  It was rainy.  Summer will be better.  911 kept it from succeeding, ect. and on and on.  The truth which they knew, they didn't dare say.  They screwed up.  The problem was that by this time, there were already two parks in construction under this model.  Walt Disney Studios in Paris and Disney's Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.  The park in Paris was being built simply to secure the land, which would be lost if a park wasn't created by a certain date.  The park in Florida was simply an addition to expand the opportunities in that golden island of Disney just below Orlando.  The flaw in that park, wasn't its design, it was in its implementation and by that I mean, what it left out: Beastley Kingdomme.  While Paris is a park that still needs drastic work, Animal Kingdom is a park that is like a great stool, but missing one of its powerful legs.

By the time the mistake was realized a third park was planned under this model, Hong Kong Disneyland.  To be fair, this park, like DAK, was designed quite well, but also like DAK, was underbuilt.  Eisner had got out of the problem of theming, but had refused to address the problem of scale.  He gave both park's guest a great meal, but didn't give them a proper portion to eat.

Much has happened since then.  First, many of the Suits that were in power then are no longer there; either having quit or fired over the past decade (Michael Eisner and Paul Pressler aren't the only ones with blood on their hands).  Second, the current members of Disney's Board as well as many, but not all, of the executives are of the opinion that the project was a failure and the park was a disappointment.  This is something that you couldn't get anyone in the Team Disney Building to mention the first couple of years after California Adventure opened up.  Thirdly, the rise of the Internet has changed how we deal with the parks and how information is given/gotten.  We see this with all the information about Tokyo DisneySEA that wasn't available in such great quantity while that gate was being built.  Access to information is a powerful thing.  Lastly, the competition has gotten better.  Part of this is the fact that many of the companies that do contract work now are headed by former Imagineers and thus the quality of their projects are greatly higher quality than in the late 80's/early 90's.  The chief among these is the new Harry Potter attractions in IOA that have Disney Suits looking over their shoulders.  That, as I've always said, is a good thing.  Competition is great.  It brings out better work and the consumer/guest will be the one to benefit.

So as we look forward to Shanghai and the next Magic Kingdom styled park, or a second or third or fifth gate at some other resort, we know that Disney will not be able to get away with the creation of another DCA.  Will the next park be perfect?  Doubtful, but it won't/shouldn't have the faults that DCA or WDS has.  The heads of the Walt Disney Company aren't perfect and sometimes make decisions that fans might hate, but they know that the parks created after the last decade can't rely on coasting by with the Disney name on them.  They have to actually have the Disney quality that we've come to expect; that those former Disney Suits had somehow forgotten, or never really knew.  The next collection of parks shouldn't be hampered by the restrictions placed on Barry Braverman when he was put in charge of Disneyland's Second Gate.  Instead they'll be burdened by the knowledge that fans know what they're capable of with DisneySEA.  It's amazing that during this period the parks produced both the worst and best examples of what a park bearing the Disney name could be.  The current crop in Burbank know that there is no fooling us with a simple moniker above the title.

And that is a positive, unintended consequence to a dark decade of the Mouse forgetting where it came from, but more importantly where it's going...

Small Favors...

Sorry for the lull in post, guys...

I've had a very busy week followed by an even busier weekend. I've been attending, with the help of a couple friends, the Destination D events and figured I'd bring you a couple of interesting nuggets. The first one was when asked about what was his favorite attraction never built, Tony Baxter mentioned that his favorite was DisneySea in Long Beach (the Port Disney Resort he was referring to). And the designs and plan for that is what allowed Tokyo DisneySEA to be built. That's music to my ears, hearing someone I greatly admire mention that. He GETS it. Let's hope the Disney Suits let him pursue some other dreams he has. I know he had been working on Plus +ing several attractions around the park, but he's got a few grand designs I'd love to see get greenlit. And if all goes well, we should start to hear about some of those as DCA's Phase One gets closer to the end. Cross your fingers. Too bad the Suits wouldn't let him talk about any of this.

But the other thing I wanted to mention, which is rather interesting is how much we owe to Breck Eisner. You know him, right? He's Michael's son. When Eisner first became head of the Mouse he put a halt to all development so he could see what they were working on and decide what would continue and what would be halted. Being as he wanted to see how these projects would be perceived by kids, he brought along his fourteen year old son, Breck to look at the projects. He wanted to see what ideas/concepts lit a fire under his son. Three things in particular made the young lad's eyes light up. Out of all the projects, Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Captain EO were what he liked. All three were then greenlight and the rest is history. We owe that young fella more than you can comprehend, so I guess I'll just have to forgive him for "Sahara."

So with that I only have one question. Where was young Breck when Disney's California Adventure was being thought up? Couldn't Eisner have brought his now early twenties son in and showed him the carnival model? He could of said: "Dad! What were you thinking!?" Saved a lot of time and money. Sadly he was around twenty-four or so and likely finishing up college. Dang higher education! Look at what you have wrought! Ok, ok. Enough of that, but imagine how things could have been different if the young man had just happened to have had bad taste?

You know, like his father...

Epic Fail...

Yeah, another DCA post lamenting the failure of the past...


Lame...

Can't read it? Here:

"To all who believe in the power of dreams... welcome!
Disney's California Adventure opens its golden gates to you.
Here we pay tribute to the dreamers of the past...
the native people, explorers, immigrants, aviators,
entrepreneurs and entertainers who built the Golden State.
And we salute a new generation of dreamers who are
creating the wonders of tomorrow... from the silver screen
to the computer screen... from the fertile farmlands to the
far reaches of space. Disney's California Adventure
celebrates the richness and diversity of California... its
land, its people, its spirit and, above all, the dreams
that it continues to inspire."

Michael D. Eisner
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Walt Disney Company
February 8, 2001

That was the original address to DCA that Michael Eisner delivered at the park's opening. Sounds totally like something you want to spend forty or fifty bucks on, doesn't it? I read that and just couldn't imagine how this man did not realize how totally out of touch had become with the general guest and average Disney fan. It's not that he hadn't done anything right before. For the better part of the first decade he did a great deal of good. Not everything, but most of what he did was smart and effective. The exact opposite happened the second decade he was there. I sometimes wonder what would have happened had Frank Wells not taken that helicopter ride. Perhaps he would have continued to been the balancing act to Eisner's hubris.

So let me take this opportunity to give an address for the new DCA in 2012. Let's just pretend that I'm giving that rechristening speech when Cars Land is opened and Phase One has officially ended:

"To all those that love the Disney name, what it represents and the meaning it has to California... welcome! Disney California Adventure represents to the world that Walt Disney saw when he stepped off that train to begin building his dreams. From the seaside of a Golden State that had already faded to the place where our company's first animated feature premiered, you will see and live those dreams. From the golden era of Hollywood, where this company's foundations were set to the great mountains of Yosemite, the myths of its native peoples, and the dreams that they brought forth. From historic Route 66 through which the path to California was not only a destination, but a world through which Walt let everyone experience the magic. The wonders that this land offered our founder helped us create this great company: the films, the parks and the experiences that it fostered. California offered to us a platform to construct a world; one which no longer exist, never was or someday might be. But one that could be dreamed. And when you walk through these gates, you will become entranced by it. Not only our past or present, but our future."

Honor Hunter
Temporary CEO for a day
Walt Disney Company

Ok, so it's a first draft, but it's better than the limp attempt that Michael tried to pass off as something even remotely interesting...

Mikey's New Gig...

Maybe...

Deadline is reporting that Michael Eisner is in line to run the Tribune Company.

There goes their theme park division...

Sightlines & Timelines (Part One)...

The one thing that has always separated a Disney theme park from any other park has always been details...

Details, details, details. From the original Anaheim park to the one that's in planning for Shanghai; a park by the Mouse is one to set the standards for the other guys.

Well, it's supposed to be that way. Work that way in theory at least. Where Disney has had successes and failures is in planning and details have broken or made the difference.

Many people blame the extravagant details that were put into the design of Euro Disneyland for it's failure, but it wasn't the problem that resulted in the financial mess the this park became. It was the over building of hotel rooms that created the economic problems for Paris. Michael Eisner deserves praise and scorn for the opening of Disney's European resort. He did encourage the Imagineers to go all out on designs for what we now know as Disneyland Paris. Eisner deserves credit for that. But he also was the one that told WDI to build six hotels instead of starting with two or three. Will all these empty hotels the debt that the company held increased greatly and caused Disney to lose/sell almost twenty percent of its investment (from 49% controlling interest to 39%). For than he should have a very harsh critique. And sadly, he didn't learn from his mistake... instead he spread the blame around to everyone else and didn't look inward into that mirror that showed him an ever balding man.

He thought it was the details and so on many of the future projects, the details suffered. DCA being the prime example of this. Not that it didn't have lavish detailing. But with the budget, not quality being the high standard to go by, Paul Pressler cut a third of the money from the park with no conception of what he was doing. Is it any wonder this man has been fired twice since leaving Disney? But even inside the budget there were other design problems with that park and several others that have been created in the past decade.

Sightlines and Timelines.

These are the main reason for such harsh criticism over the the past decade. As Eisner got further into his insular state he brushed aside design elements that Imagineers had mastered over the past quarter of a century. Not only were the budget cuts in California Adventure bad, the design had major misdirections. One thing that Eisner forget and several at WDI managed not to address was making things throughout the areas of the park contemporary. There is nothing so dated as to put something in the present. Five years from now it will feel weathered and outdated. If you look back to the original Disneyland you see lands that evoke times and places that don't exist anymore, never existed or idyllically exist in our minds. That way there is no permanent point for the brain to fix on and be critical of.

Main Street U.S.A. is an idealized representation of Walt's childhood, but it's not a literal example of the time he lived. Imagineers build what people wanted to remember, not what they strive to forget. Adventureland and Frontierland draw upon mythic memories of a past that may have existed, but they're shown to us as something of a tall tale, not a realistic grim presentation. Fantasyland is exactly that. Tales of wonder that never existed, but in a place you would love to go. And Tomorrowland was the representation of what the future could hold. It was this land that WDI has had so much trouble with. Trying to keep it contemporary with people's views of what the future would be like is why Euro Disneyland chose to call this land Disneycoveryland so as to not date the area and make it easier to add and take away from it without disrupting the theming.

Look at DCA with a front entrance that is supposed to be a postcard from California, but winds up being nothing more than a pop-culture nightmare. A collection of stores and signs that mark no distinction from any mall you can find within a hundred mile radius of the park. Did the Suits really think people were going to be willing to fork over forty to fifty dollars to see what they can get in a mall for free? One of many reasons this park has failed to impress up till now. Even the parks best themed land, the Golden State is a compromise at best. Although it is lush in greenery and detail, it's overly theming to a contemporary white water rafting company is flawed. Again, you can find this in other areas. The original concepts of having it in a turn of the century "Yosemite National Park" styled land with animatronic animals would have worked much better. Even the more current plan for turning it into a mid-fifties national park style land with animatronic animals works much better than layering the attractions in the hear now.

Thankfully, some of this is changing. And if all goes well then you'll more than likely see it continue. With the pier slowly evolving into a Victorian, seaside midway, a front entrance that brings to mind a late 20's/early 30's Los Angeles that Walt might have seen and a Hollywood Backlot that becomes more old Tinseltown, they're clearly on the right track. Turning all these areas into a throwback to times and places that most Californians don't even know is a great way to differentiate this park from the outside world. It's also a great place to show that it is Disney.

And hopefully in Disney's future we'll get more of Disney's past...

Twenty Years Ago Today...

Michael Eisner's first attempt at a theme park emerged from the swamplands of the Reedy Creek Improvement District...

The Disney-MGM Studios debuted in Walt Disney World on this day. Now known as Disney's Hollywood Studios, the park was designed as an answer to Universal Studios successful theme park back in California(and opening ahead of Universal Studios Orlando). Conceived of originally as an attraction at another park it blossomed into a full park under Eisner's plans. Both for a park and as a way of upstaging Universal and giving guests less of an incentive to leave the resort.

While the park has gotten muddled in theming over the past two decades it's still a fun park. I personally love the Great Movie Ride, the Art-Deco theming and various attractions. It's far from perfect and WDI knows this. I believe the Suits know this as well and there have been numerous plans laid out as to what to do about this. I'm not really a fan of the Pixar Place area but any plans that were going forward were put on hold with the current economic situation. Should things turn around in the next year or so we may see those plans come off the back burner.

So even as much work lies ahead, hat, cough, hat, cough. I want to wish Disney-MGM St- errr, Disney's Hollywood Studios a happy Twentieth birthday!

Continuing...

And if you'd like to see some fantastic artwork from Disney-MGM Studios then go over to Disney and More and wallow in the details. The lovely, lovely details...

Part One HERE. Part Two HERE.

Failure To Communicate...

You know, one of the reasons I'm glad to see John Lasseter in charge of the Mouse is that he has a vision of clarity that those before him did not...

One of Eisner's biggest mistakes in the mid 90's was putting some truly incompetent morons in charge of divisions that they knew nothing about(Pressler anyone?)

One of those Suits that was a glittering jewel of ignorance when it comes to animation was the head of Walt Disney Feature Animation during the latter part of that decade. David Stainton, whom appears now to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and is in the process of a complete whitewash of his tenure as head of the Mouse's animation division. We know that many people pad their resume, but I think Stainton isn't just padding, he's creating it from whole cloth.

I believe the propagandist in the old Soviet Union would be proud of his revisionist history. One would be hard pressed to find any negative attention to the turds he cranked out while there. No mention is also made of how demeaning and belittling he was to the talent. He was the Anti-Lasseter to be quite blunt. But with all his blathering on his new website, you wouldn't know this, somehow facts seem to get in the way of men like Mr. Stainton. History thankfully, doesn't and won't be so kind to such pompous egos...

Hat Tip to Cartoon Brew.

Euro Disney Princess Turns Seventeen...

Seventeen years ago today Euro Disneyland opened up just outside Paris...

The park was simply beautiful. It is still to this day the most gorgeous "Magic Kingdom" style park(the original is still my favorite though).

Like my post about Tokyo DisneySEA, "Born Full Grown," the park was built up from the beginning and had a lavish amount of attractions so it should have been a success, right? Well, truthfully it was, but the resort was not. Eisner let them create a grand park, an immaculate resort, but he misstepped in putting in more hotels than were necessary. Instead of just two or three, there were six hotels and far too many rooms. Despite the resort getting great numbers of people attending the park, the hotels suffered and pulled the project deep into the red. Michael Eisner learned from his mistake to not build more hotels than were needed. Sadly, he also learned to build mini-parks and we would never again under his regime see another Disney park like Euro Disney. Instead of cutting back on the accommodations till demand meets up with the need, he focused on smaller projects waiting for a demand and slower build up. To swing from one extreme to the others was just as wrong as his initial blunder. Her ugly sister, Walt Disney Studios is looking prettier and prettier each day and isn't it nice to know that she's going in for more plastic surgery to have those three new attractions added?

But that's all in the past. Today, we celebrate Disneyland Paris on her seventeenth birthday!

If you'd like some stunningly beautiful pictures of Disneyland Paris' celebration then go over to Disney and More and check out Alain's post. And wish that lovely park a special birthday as she blows out those candles...

A High Stakes Case Of Chicken For The Mouse...

I know some of you have seen this in the news...

The abrubt end of negotiation over Hong Kong Disneyland. It was to be expected as the negotiations that have dragged on haven't came to a satisfying conclusion for TeamDisney Burbank. I can understand the Hong Kong Governments frustration as the park hasn't turned out to be the success it wanted. I can understand Disney's desire to expand the park and have the city government help foot the bill. But this impasse is both Disney's fault and not its fault.

What you are seeing on display here is a high stakes game of chicken. To see who will blink first. The Hong Kong government feels(rightly so, I believe) that they put forth a great deal of money for a disappointing return and right now they don't want to invest more without a proper guarantee of results. Very little money was put down on the project by Disney under Eisner's regime, but they got a great deal. The park they built is a very beautiful theme park and the resort is nothing if not picturesque. Eisner didn't skimp on the theming when it came to China's first park, but he did skimp on the attractions. Several key attractions that would have drawn more guest through the turnstiles were left for a second phase. Pirates, Haunted Mansion and IASW would have to wait. A big mistake that the Mouse is now having to deal with. They opened Small World last year and got an immediate attendance boost that shows if you build what guest want, they come. Well duh...

Small world is a nicely themed, very needed addition to worlds smallest Disney park, but it was built because the will of the company to fork over the cash for a major attraction like POTC or HM wasn't there. Still isn't there. Not yet, anyway...

Make no mistake about my argument here. HKDL is a very nice park, but it's one that absolutely should have opened with two or three more iconic Disney E-Tickets and the company and the local government are now in a fight because of it. Will they build the much ballyhooed Second Phase that will cost over a half billion dollars? They want to, they intend to and they should. But right now, the HK officials are having a fit and expecting Disney to pony up more than Iger and company feel is feasible. I think that as disappointing as this news is, Disney is the one with the bigger cards... or card I should say.

Shanghai.

That is a card that will make government officials in Hong Kong think twice. They're trying to expand the tourist trade in their area and the Mouse plays a bigger role than they're going to admit. I think they expected Disney to just give in and fund the project themselves. As the time gets closer to an announcement of a mainland Disney theme park the government will come around. If they don't they're going to have some serious explaining to do in five or six years. As much as a bad decision it was for them to build that resort and expect a dramatic debut for the park, it'll be an even more dramatic ending were they to let the park fail. Which, I believe they aren't about to do.

Interesting times are ahead for the Mouse and the Middle Kingdom this year...

I Know Nothing...

Apparently Michael Eisner has been seen walking around on crutches with a cast on his leg...

All I can tell you is I have an alibi. Not to mention I disposed of the tire iron and it'll never be found. Errr... scratch that. You didn't hear nuthin'. Nothing, I tell you!

Now, where did I leave that address for Paul Pressler...

Mary Shelley's DCA Turns Eight...

Eight years ago today, Doctor Victor Frankenstein took a collection of bodies he'd stolen from the local morgue, stitched together and placed them on table. He then pulled a lever which lifted this mass of unliving meat into a skylight above his laboratory. You see, a storm was brewing. And that was his plan. Once it had reached the top, the electrodes and wires that flowed from the "Creature" could be seen connecting to several conduits that the mad doctor had put together. Finally, lightning struck the right place and traveled along to the coils. This transmitted a surge of current through the dead collection of body parts. Several moments of silence followed and then he could hear it...

A heartbeat.

It was alive... It's Alive!

No, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" isn't a parable for "Disney's California Adventure," but it sure could be. After years of several stalled attempts at turning the Disneyland Park into the Disneyland Resort, on this day eight years ago, Eisner succeeded in doing so. And not.

A disappointment from the beginning. Many were confused when the project was first announced. A park about California IN California? A collection of lands that differed in both quality and style depending on where you start out. The only land that initially screamed out "Disney" was the Golden State area. And that was because it was by the entrance to the new Grand Californian Hotel where guest payed lots of money to be where an entrance to the park was. Eisner must have hoped that guest didn't notice the decline in detail and quality as you left the area and moved to the Pier and elsewhere. It looked like Disney's attempt to create it's own Six Flaggs or Knott's Berry Farm and for some reason Dr. Frankenstein, uhm, I mean, Michael Eisner didn't get it. He'd become delusional over the past few years, and along with his other Suits and Bean Counters had designed an inferior park that he thought would collect lines of guest simply because of the Disney name, not the Disney quality...

He was wrong then... and on that opening weekend as he stayed in the penthouse suite at the Grand Californian, I think reality began to set in. I can't say for sure, and his hubris would never let him admit it, but I believe he knew it. I think he knows it for sure now. If only he hadn't appointed that Igor, I mean, Pressler, to come up with this idea. But alas, it was too late... After years of promising to give us a Ruth's Criss Stake House, he gave us a McDonalds with a Ruth's Criss Stake House sign out front to fool us.

It didn't...

Which is why today, on the eighth anniversary of Disneyland's Second Gate there's no big ceremony. No big announcement. No big... anything. Only a park filled with walls and constructions. You see, the Monster's body is being worked on, quite extensively, to the point of around 900 million dollars. And when it's done, this park will finally start to look like a Disney park. A worthy park. But think of all the pain that it's went through to get there...

Happy Birthay, DCA.

Disney's First Foray Into Saturday...

Twenty-three years ago today, Michael Eisner put Disney animation where it hadn't gone before...

Saturday morning.

Kids today are used to cartoons/animation all the time, everywhere... but if you take the wayback machine into the past a little more than a decade you'll find that the primary time for kids to see animation was Saturday morning.

The Wuzzles and the Gummi Bears were a statement to television that Disney under Eisner was going to be a far different Disney than what came before. These shows would build the road to the "The Disney Afternoon" that fans around the world love to this day...

In Stitches...

On this date nine years ago, production began on Disney's last great animated movie: "Lilo & Stitch"... the Chris Sanders' film would not be released until 2002, but it was the closing of an era. Although there would be one more hand-drawn animated film in production before Eisner decided to pull the plug on 2D animation at Disney, the writing was on the wall. Now, 2D is coming back to Disney an Chris Sanders is gone... Funny how things work out, hmmm?

The marketing campaign for "Lilo & Stitch" was clever in how it poked fun at other Disney classics like "Aladdin" with Stitch barging into a preview of one of those films and totally disrupting it. Another interesting thing about "Stitch" is that it was the first Disney animated feature to deviate from the classic music and use tunes from the King, Elvis Presley.

Thank ya, thank ya very much...

Planning For A Disaster...

Thirteen years ago on this date, a group of 36 Disney Suits gathered with Michael Eisner in Aspen, Colorado at a ski resort. For the next few days they'll be sitting around trying to come up with a Second Gate for Disneyland that is a cheaper alternative to the high priced concepts of WestCOT and Port Disney...

Eisner wants something that will be less of a headache in terms of conception, construction and cost than the previous designs that WDI turned into him. By the end of the retreat they come up with a bold new concept for a Disney theme park in California:

"Disney's California Adventure"

Eisner, Pressler and the other Suits believe they have a winner on their hands. Something that is a sure-fire bet that can't loose. After all, the public would pay to see anything with Disney's name on it.

Right?

Seeing Stars...

"You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain" - Harvey Dent(Two-Face) to Bruce Wayne in "The Dark Knight"


Michael Eisner got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Yesterday.

I don't think anything else needs to be said... but I'll say it anyway. He does deserve it for taking the Mouse from where it was to where he left it in 1995 or so... of course, he then deserves to have it taken away for what he did the remaining ten years.

The World's Fourth Kingdom At Ten...

On this day...

Ten years ago, the largest Disney theme park in the world(over 500 acres) opened up in Walt Disney World. Disney's Animal Kingdom's gates swung out to welcome guests on this day a decade ago. It was a little lacking in rides, but hey... what theme park under Eisner wasn't after Euro Disneyland? Granted, one its two major lands(Asia) wouldn't open for another year, but the Mouse trudged forward with this new park.



And to be frank, out of all WDW's parks, the most beautiful and filled with the theming one expects from a Disney park... DAK is it. It is still lacking in any nighttime entertainment(River of Dreams is on hold), and several areas aren't what was or should have been built(Hello: Camp Minnie-Mickey!) and one area is surprisingly garish and carnie in nature(Dinoland U.S.A.), but this theme park is well worth the experience. Anyone that has seen its lush scenery, animals and Expedition Everest realize how wonderful and different this is from the normal Disney experience... and yet, it's still Disney.



Now the great news is this park is still young... and it has nowhere near the problems that DCA has. This is mainly due to the leadership of one Imagineer Czar that has watched over it since he pitched the idea to Eisner in the first place: Joe Rohde. Now, we can't blame Joe for the mess that is Dinoland or the out of place Camp Minnie-Mickey... he's a man that knows when and where to fight his battles. He got to build a good percentage of what he wanted and realized that the rest could come with time. That time may soon arrive over the next four to six years. By then it will hopefully reflect the original intention of the park: to have examples of animals that are real, extinct and myth... with Asian and Africa they have the living part, and Dinoland U.S.A. they have the extinct part, but the third land that was to represent the animals of myth never really materialized. Now some think that having the Yeti from Expedition Everest fills this category, but let's face it; Yeti's are real. I've seen them many a time when I was night skiing up in Big Bear and Parking City. The fact that alcohol was involved is purely coincidental.

Disney's Hollywood Studios will be getting the majority of the TLC over the next few years, but DAK will get some loving. One of the best bits of news for Disney Geeks/Fans in years is that "Beastly Kingdom" is not dead. It's not only dead, but the concept is apparently moving forward although slower than we'd like and is going to be different than what was originally conceived. Put that together with Steven Davison's(Vice President, Disney Creative Entertainment) plans to come up with a nighttime alternative to River of Lights and things could be downright rosy...



Come 2011(there's that year again!) or 2012 if plans shift and construction dates slip, Disney's Animal Kingdom will be the crown jewel of all five parks. Errr... oops, I meant four parks. Didn't I?

Anyways, happy birthday DAK. You don't look a day over nine...

Unbound By Unbraided...

This is a film that has been in development almost as long as Rapunzel's hair. When Glen Keane first pitched the idea of doing this classic fairy tale he envisioned a classic telling of the beautiful girl with the endlessly long locks locked high up inside a tower by an evil Witch who one day has a handsome Prince climb her hair to save her. Actually, the Brother's Grimm version of this tale does end so quickly and the road to it is not so happily. In their version the Prince doesn't play as prominent a role. In fact, when he gets to the imprisoned girl, he's confronted by the Witch and cowardly jumps from the tower. As he runs away through a brush of thorns he becomes blinded. Years later he comes upon an older Rapunzel and she recognizes him she cries and her tears land in his eyes, restoring his vision...

And they lived happily ever after.

Not quite the Disney tale, huh? Eisner thought so as well. And being as this was the time that "Shrek" had just come out he had Keane take "Rapunzel" and turn it into a "Shrek-like" retelling where a modern girl and boy are transported back into the fairy tale. A modern edgy fantasy that became known as "Rapunzel Unbraider". Through the years of development we've seen more and more animated films with this pop-culture/edgy feel to it and the uniqueness of "Shrek" and this tale has dwindled. By the time Lasseter got there the only thing exciting about the story was the fact that Keane was directing it. The designs which he had literally spent years working on were/are amazing. It's like watching a moving painting. The Mousetro thought that it would be better to go back to the original plan that Glen had and do a classic version of the story. So off Glen Keane went to do another pass at the story. When he returned to Keane months later, Lasseter loved the version of the story Keane had brought him. He felt the first act was as good if not better than the best Disney films from the first and second Golden Age's of Mouse animation. But that was the first act... the second and third act needed work. So off the animator did again to work on the second and third acts. When he returned, what was the result? Lasseter still wasn't happy with the new middle and ending. So another pass was taking and this time it still didn't meet approvingly. Lasseter talked to Keane about possibly having another director with a fresh set of eyes co-direct this movie with him. At first, as expected, Glen Keane resisted... this was after all going to be his directorial debut. Eventually he chose Dean Wellins(The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones), whom has worked closely with Keane on "Treasure Planet". Lasseter wanted to make sure the two could get along so he chose someone that the artist would feel comfortable with and whom Keane would not see as a threat to his vision or another example of the studio taking control of a project. After they collaborated, the resulting first showing of their story to Lasseter? He liked it... it was more in the direction he thought it should head and the finale was more focused, but it was not ready for a complete greenlight.

Thus is the case with the Pixar mode of story that is now being routinely practiced at the Hat Building. Story. Story. Story. What is the focus of the characters? Why are they doing what they are doing? Where is the narrative taking us? Those kinds of things get asked and re-asked until they are answered satisfactorily to Lasseter. The Story Trust also keeps commenting each time a film gets a showing when it goes "up on reels". Such is the case with "Rapunzel" right now. It's not totally there yet, but it's getting extremely close. Those that have seen it think it will be one of the strongest stories that Disney has put out. The first film of Lasseter's tenure at the Mouse may be "Bolt", but his stamp will be set when "The Princess and the Frog" comes out next year and the new seal of quality, style and direction will reach a pinnacle in 2010 when "Rapunzel" unfurls her blond strands of hair. By then, we will hopefully be in a Third Golden Age of Disney Animation...

By the end of the decade we'll have an answer to the question everyone was asking when Iger purchased the Lamp and brought its talent in to revive WDFA.

"Was Pixar worth the price Disney paid?"

With the new slate that was announced last week that fuzzy question is closer to having a clear answer. For the moment, it looks like they got a bargain...

In Memorium: Frank Wells...

On this day...

Fourteen years ago today...

The beginning of the end of Michael Eisner's reign as savior of the Mouse started...

While on a skiing trip in Nevada's 's Ruby Mountains, Disney's President and Chief Operating Officer Frank Wells is killed when his helicopter experiences mechanical problems and crashes into a slope at 7,500 feet. With Wells gone, Eisner has lost his balance and greatly over compensates...

Jeffrey Katzenberg now wants the top spot now that Wells is no longer there, Eisner doesn't give it to him and Katzenberg leaves the company shortly thereafter(a lawsuit later filed by Katzenberg will cost the Mouse millions). The first ten years under their leadership has been a stunning success, thus begins Eisner's downfall...

Of course, it would take twelve years and many disappointments before the axe finally came, but this is the event that set that all in motion.

Frank Wells will be missed. He was a very good leader, a fine Suit for the Mouse and well liked among his colleagues. He and his family were/are/will always be remembered in our hearts and prayers.

The Elephant Graveyard...

On March, 25th 2005, Bob Iger put to death a department within the Walt Disney Company that has long been despised by many Suits and Creatives alike inside the Mouse.

The Strategic Planning Group.

Known inside Disney as the place where good ideas go to die... an Elephant Graveyard, really. If you had an idea, plan or proposal that went there, it stayed there.

Here is a snippet from the original press release from the Mouse:


________________________________________________

March 25, 2005
THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY TO REORGANIZE STRATEGIC PLANNING DIVISION

BURBANK, Calif., March 25, 2005 – To address today's rapidly evolving global business landscape, Michael D. Eisner, chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, and Robert A. Iger, president and chief operating officer and CEO-elect, today announced a restructuring of the company's Corporate Strategic Planning Division. The division will be restructured to more closely align with the company's growth priorities, including creativity and innovation, new technologies and international expansion.

Many of Strategic Planning's activities will be incorporated into the company's four business segments -- Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Consumer Products and Media Networks, as well as Disney's international organization. A smaller corporate group will continue to develop the corporate five-year plan and focus on acquisition opportunities, emerging businesses new to the company's existing portfolio and new technologies.
________________________________________________



And it was never, ever seen again(hopefully). This division of the company was like the KGB of the Mouse. When a memo was sent to you informing you that it was "evaluating" something of yours it was equivalent to the Soviet Secret Police coming to your home, knocking on your door and taking your idea/proposal away for questioning.

Yet another byproduct of that tragic helicopter crash which killed Frank Wells. Michael Eisner had great skills but great weaknesses also. Frank Wells was there to balance Eisner and give the Mouse and it's CEO a bit of perspective. the SPG was another growing example of how Eisner's ego grew when unchecked by Wells.

Several people at the Mouse are a result of the SPG. Among them are Jay Rasulo, President of Parks and Resorts(we all know my opinion of him), David Stainton, former President of Walt Disney Feature Animation(gone and thankfully forgotten), and Tom Staggs, Chief Financial Officer at the Mouse(Whom I've met only once and don't yet know enough about to justify praise or condemnation).

This group reported directly to Eisner and tended to bolster his need for justification of a project. If the SPG wanted to come to a conclusion that a proposal or particular part of the company was inefficient or unprofitable then the division would do the research it needed to come to that conclusion. It created the reality to back up its facts and I use the word "facts" very liberally here, friends. If the SPG wanted to prove the world was flat, it would begin doing research to prove it... not try and actually find out if the world is flat. Amazing, ain't it?

The company and particularly the SPG, through Eisner became increasingly "risk adverse" to the point of even telling one person in a meeting where it was pitched a cutting edge proposal that: ""we don't want to be the first into any new business... we'd rather be second or third, after the concept is proven." Now would Walt have ever succeeded if he had followed this model? Essentially, Eisner was using this division as his reasoning for "coasting" on the huge success and fortunes created by the company in the past. There was, perhaps, some creativity within the company but far less than a decade earlier and even more so than what had been there when Walt and Roy ran the company.

Want a shining example of what results from the Strategic Planning Group? It's something most of you all know...

Disney's California Adventure

In a letter that Roy E. Disney wrote when he was on his "Save Disney" campaign there was this little jewel:

"Strat Planning, in effect, "designed" Disney's California Adventure, by (1) setting a profit goal, (2) calculating how many people would attend, at what admission price, level of food consumption, and merchandise purchased, and then (3) capping the expenditure for the "show" at a figure which was almost guaranteed to produce a sub-standard park experience. The "real world" falls entirely outside of all these calculations, questions like "will I like this place?" or "Would I go there repeatedly?' simply are immaterial."

And we all know what happened. Roy knew what he was talking about. Having attended the openings of both DCA and Tokyo DisneySEA later in the same year, he could see which park was catering to its guest and which one was catering to the bottom line.

Thankfully the company is freed from such restraints now... is it perfect, though? No. There is still way too much bureaucracy. Much of it created by our good friend Jay Rasulo. All corporations tend to have layers of red tape and the Mouse still has more than its share, but it has been unburdened by a large creative impediment. Hopefully, the likes of Lasseter and others will overwhelm and simply outlast the remaining road blocks within the Mouse.

It's ironic that for the company to succeed the SPG must die... but even more ironic that the death of creativity at the Mouse was known as the Elephant Graveyard...

We all know an Elephant is supposed to be afraid of a Mouse, not the other way around.