How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by Vernadyn » March 7th, 2015, 10:23 pm

Jpcase wrote:But when you look at the studio's upcoming slate of films, you see Zootopia, which has a single director and developed as an idea fairly recently.
According to a WDAS Facebook post (made on March 3), Zootopia now has two directors (Byron Howard, who I believe has been attached to the project from its announcement, and Rich Moore) and one co-director (Jared Bush). But the film's still a ways off; I seem to remember Jennifer Lee becoming a director on Frozen a relatively short time before it came out. (And let's not forget The Good Dinosaur).

I suspect everyone here already knows this, but remember that a few films from Disney's 80s/90s renaissance had director changes as well. Richard Purdum was booted off Beauty and the Beast, George Scribner from The Lion King, and Richard Rich from Oliver & Company.

I suppose the difference is that Eisner, Katzenberg, and Schneider never touted Disney as a director-driven studio at the time. But "director-driven" doesn't always necessarily equate with quality. Sure, The Incredibles and Toy Story were superb, but Cars, while not without its merits, pales in comparison to most of the recent "director-switched" WDAS films.

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by Ben » March 8th, 2015, 6:13 am

Disney has always arguably been director driven, especially from the Woolie Reitherman days. In the 1990s, JK was super-reliant on his directors, especially Ron and John...it was when the execs - who thought they were the ones responsible fr the films since they gave the greenlight- started to meddle too much and make changes that the wheels fell off.

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by Vernadyn » March 9th, 2015, 5:18 pm

Yeah, Ron and John are the one constant Disney team now, and have been for awhile. I watched Waking Sleeping Beauty again, and I'm amazed how many faces I saw are now scattered to the four winds (or, like Kirk Wise, sadly not really doing anything now).

I'm no expert on Disney's earlier years, but it seems that Walt himself was more prominent (or at least portrayed as such) than the directors before Reitherman came along. No one really talks about David Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, Wilfred Jackson, Clyde Geronimi, etc. as much as the Nine Old Men or animators such as Vladimir Tytla, Norman Ferguson, Art Babbitt, or Hamilton Luske (yes, I know he became a director later).

Something else I find interesting is that, after Reitherman, Disney animated features were most often directed by two or more people. Only George Scribner (Oliver & Company), Mark Dindal (Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little), Stephen Anderson (Meet the Robinsons), and Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) went solo. (Some of these did have additional directors who ended up leaving or getting booted off, though.)

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by Jpcase » March 24th, 2015, 4:19 pm

I was just reading a the latest issue of Time Magazine, and it has a brief profile on Bob Iger. Apparently he had been planning to step down next year, but is postponing his retirement until 2018.

Has anyone heard anything else about this?

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by ShyViolet » March 24th, 2015, 4:47 pm

I think the TAG blog mentioned it briefly. I know I have been harsh on Iger but it's true that he made some brilliant moves financially. Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar--all wise decisions economically. But aside from acquiring Pixar and bringing back WDAS (if not to its former glory, but a heck of a lot better than it was), in some ways I think Disney has lost its soul. Their only real creative hope is with Pixar and WDAS, but we still haven't been "dazzled" the way we were in the late 80s/early 90s.

Also, I know that it's a different time now but I really wish that the "folksy" feeling of Disney Co. was preserved. Sad that Iger chose not to host Wonderful World of Disney the way Eisner did. It was really neat for its time, and it's not like Iger doesn't have TV speaking skills--the guy used to be a weatherman. Maybe he was afraid that fans and shareholders would accuse him of trying to steal the spotlight the way Eisner supposedly did, but still. It would have been cool to see him interact with Mickey and Minnie rather than just taking a random picture with them here and there for some photo-op.

Iger was very careful not to make Eisner's mistakes. And he achieved this. But in focusing on Disney economically, a lot of the magic was lost along the way. (Also, despite accusations that he was too corporate-minded and not creative enough, I'd say Eisner was actually not corporate-minded at all--at least not as much as he should have been. He made quite a few bad decisions because he didn't have Frank Wells to guide him, and his wrong moves were no longer tempered by his creativity the way they were when Wells would steer him away from a bad idea.)

I think Iger did some great things. But it's time for something different.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by EricJ » March 24th, 2015, 5:18 pm

Also, I know that it's a different time now but I really wish that the "folksy" feeling of Disney Co. was preserved. Sad that Iger chose not to host Wonderful World of Disney the way Eisner did. It was really neat for its time, and it's not like Iger doesn't have TV speaking skills--the guy used to be a weatherman. Maybe he was afraid that fans and shareholders would accuse him of trying to steal the spotlight the way Eisner supposedly did, but still.
However unpopular Eisner may have been with the fans in the early 00's, he was even LESS so in the late 80's and early 90's--Originally, Tom Hanks was set to be the WWoD host, but Eisner grabbing the host spot himself (there was a determination to connect the new regime with the Walt/Ron regime in the minds of the audience, to not be seen as "conquerors") was not seen as "neat", but as pure presumptive ego, and only cemented the "conqueror" image in the fans minds from day one.
Last edited by EricJ on March 24th, 2015, 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: How does everyone feel about Disney these days?

Post by ShyViolet » March 24th, 2015, 5:30 pm

Actually a lot of young children really enjoyed watching him--look up profiles of him from the 80s talking about all the little kids who wanted to talk to the man who talks to Mickey Mouse.

http://youtu.be/-GNo6IbbPQk

This is really cute! (I'm on my phone so I couldn't embed the video) :)

Not to overdo it but I love this one too lol! :)

http://youtu.be/R9gZNUPqLVs
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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