Kenversations™
Page 2 of 2

Other Corporate Musings
Another annual Disney shareholder meeting has come and gone. I've only been present for one, and was it ever entertaining. I didn't feel like travelling to attend the one this year, but I remember that one in Anaheim a few years back. Every activist with a gripe, every single-share owner who felt his investment in Walt's dream was being jeopardized lined up to yell at Michael Eisner. One person asked why it had gotten darker in Pirates of the Caribbean. Another asked why it was so cold in the meeting (at The Pond) to which Eisner replied "You are standing on ice."

There has been speculation in Disney fan circles and in business reports in the news media of who might replace Michael Eisner when he leaves his position as Chairman of CEO Disney. Michael has not announced (or even hinted, as far as I know) that he plans to leave any time soon. He's turning 60, has been at Disney since September of 1984, and could easily stay over ten years more, as long as Wall Street doesn't turn completely sour on him.

Bob Iger, who came to Disney with ABC, is President and COO. There are other notable executives elsewhere in Disney. If Michael were to leave or be forced out by shareholders, health, or suddenly thinking "Hey, I've got hundreds of millions of dollars to my name. Why don't I spend more time enjoying it before I die, instead of being a workaholic?", would he be replaced by someone from the inside or the outside?

I would think candidates from the outside would have to include someone like Mel Karmazin, President and COO of Viacom, Inc. He oversees a gigantic corporation that, like Disney, has a studio, theme parks, television properties, radio properties, publishing, and more. He has been an active and key player the rise of Viacom/CBS.

The Resorts Keep Growing
Disney is no longer interested in owning theme parks. It wants to own resorts. A "resort" is a property that has both a theme park and a hotel, and the hotel is usually referred to as a "resort" itself. In some cases, it looks like Disney wants to add additional theme parks to existing sites to encourage people to stay in Disney's expensive hotel rooms more than it is hoping to generate much revenue from the park itself.

It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since the new Disneyland Resort officially premiered to the world with the opening of Disney's California Adventure park, and we're now seeing the Disneyland Paris park joined by a second incarnation of a Disney studio-themed park. With the opening of Tokyo Disney Seas by the Oriental Land Company and Disney this past September, the Paris site is the last one to be upgraded to two theme parks, building on the model Walt Disney World Resort provided with the opening of EPCOT Center almost twenty years ago.

Pirates of the Box Office
When Disneyland park opened, it used Disney's films and television programs to theme the attractions in the park. Disney has done little with films from the Michael Eisner era in the way of permanent attractions in its theme parks.

The trend now seems to be to make films based on attractions in the parks that were not directly based on films themselves. You may remember (you'd be one of the few - it wasn't a theatrical release) a movie based on the Tower of Terror. It was the last time I've seen Steve Guttenberg in anything (Stonecutters?…Stonecutters?). Coming soon will be a movie inspired by the Country Bear performers who first performed at Walt Disney World. In an instance of strange timing, their attraction was recently removed from Disneyland Park.

It looks like films based on Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion are also in the works. A lot of Disney fans I know have been hoping for this sort of thing for a long time. I hope it adds to the legacy of these attractions instead of diminishing them. There's potential for some great tributes, in-jokes, layered storytelling, and character enhancement. There's also the potential to tick off a lot of people who have grown up on these attractions.

Disney Loves Roman Numerals
I'd rather see more of Disney's films and television shows turned into theme park attractions and vice-versa than to see this seemingly endless parade of lower quality animated sequels that are flooding the video market. Parents buy them because it will keep their young kids busy in front of the tube, as young kids will watch just about anything with familiar characters. To me, this tends to cheapen the brand of the high-quality animated features.

Disney first entered this game with television animation for Saturday morning cartoons, and later with afternoon programming during the week. Animated sequels started being released on video. There were two Aladdin sequels, a Lion King sequel, and now there seems to be too many to count coming out. There are more films with Roman numerals in the titles being release than not.

When Disney released a Duck Tales movie into theaters, an effort was made to distinguish it from the work being done by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Since then, there has been a Goofy movie, a Tigger movie, and now a Peter Pan sequel in the theaters, and the line in how these films are marketed differently to the public than Feature Animation productions seems to be disappearing.

The only true sequel done by Feature Animation for release in theaters was The Rescuers Down Under, which had the misfortune of being the film between The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Of course, Feature Animation work is more expensive than Television Animation work. With the proliferation of the Television Animation productions and the success of Pixar's films, things must be tense for Feature Animation.

I hope Lilo and Stitch and Treasure Planet both do well this year.

Finally, Speaking of Animation…
Chuck Jones. I needed to mention him.

Another animation legend has gone to that Toontown of the great beyond. I, like so many others, grew up on both Disney animated shorts and those of Chuck Jones. Whether it was a phantom tollbooth, a daffy duck, a bugging bunny, or the grinch who stole a holiday with the help of good ol' Thurl Ravenscroft, Chuck Jones was a huge part of my childhood… heck, a huge part of my adulthood, too!

As we continue into the twenty-first century, we will soon be without all of the great pioneers of the art of animation. Just three of the Nine Old Men of Disney remain, and now Mr. Jones has left us. They all provided generations past and future with entertainment and laughter, and today's largest entertainment & media corporations with some of their most valuable assets.

The parade fades away, and Chuck Jones was the Grand Marshall.

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-- Ken Pellman

-- Posted February 28, 2002
-- Ken Pellman