Being a former Disney animator and manager, I am very sad to see the end of "Disney Animation in the grand tradition" occuring before our eyes. Yet nobody seems to care or to be aware of the great loss. Management would have us believe that everything is rosy in a pinkish world. But not so my dear friends and Disney lovers. They have killed the golden goose by swamping the market with subproducts, for the mere sake of total corporate greed. The fact is that even the top CEO of this multinational corporation doesn't have a clue, less even a loving interest, in the grand tradition of Disney character Animation. They would be incapable of telling good animation from bad one, good art from bad one etc...etc... the only thing that counts is quicker, faster, cheaper. Oh uncle Walt how many terrible things have we produced in thy name! for the sake of money earnings. Be totally assured that if uncle Walt had the same motivations as Mr Eisner, there would never have been great Disney Animation at all! The fact is that Walt had a vision and a passion for this extraordinary medium. He always refused to go the easy road, like making sequels. How many times did he refuse to make Snow White II or Dumbo II etc...my grief today goes toward the admirable character animation of the Milt Khal, Frank Thomas, Ollie Jonhston, Freddy Moore and many others...that is being burried for good by the blind proponants of the all 3D digital Animation; Be sure my friends that 3D Animation, as good as it is, hasn't come close to the best of traditional Disney Animation. traditional Animation involved drawing mastery, excellence in painting and story telling. It offered a total evasion into another realm, not the very boring photorealistic, stiff puppet like nature of CG Animation.
And it is not the subproducts produced by the loads, such as the straight to video Disney sequels or TV series that are going to fill the gap. imagine a bunch of managers at Disney brainstorming over what to do next. One comes up with a fantastic idea : OH! let's do "Snow White sequel #33" wearing jeans, living in a little ranch in Texas, and surrounded by 7 little cowboys dwarfs! That's the kind of lunatic stupidity that prevails in management today. It is a fact that since Walt's demise, no artist ever had a say at the studio. Why would you ask the specialist, it is so much better to follow the ideas of the ones who don't have a clue. Sorry, If I want my car fixed, I don't take it to the Hair Salon!; well, with Animation, that's exactly the sort of things Disney management does. Also, I am getting a little tired of the false sense of emotion and sentimentality around the remembrance of Walt's legacy. Uncle Walt is being honored at every occasion for this or for that, while at the same time, the people in his shoes today are walking all over what he stood for. Surely Walt has never stopped spinning in his grave since the people in charge have been desacrating every day the beautiful things that he brought to the world. Well, Walt was a unique achiever. He had a vision, he had taste, he had the ability to put together hundreds of artists under the same roof and to get the best out of them. He was articulate, sincere and he had the guts to bet his last shirt to make his dream come true. In other words, he was the opposite of his successors, he was not after money for the sake of money, he was not a cynical individual, he respected the audience's intelligence.
And it is not the subproducts produced by the loads, such as the straight to video Disney sequels or TV series that are going to fill the gap. imagine a bunch of managers at Disney brainstorming over what to do next. One comes up with a fantastic idea : OH! let's do "Snow White sequel #33" wearing jeans, living in a little ranch in Texas, and surrounded by 7 little cowboys dwarfs! That's the kind of lunatic stupidity that prevails in management today. It is a fact that since Walt's demise, no artist ever had a say at the studio. Why would you ask the specialist, it is so much better to follow the ideas of the ones who don't have a clue. Sorry, If I want my car fixed, I don't take it to the Hair Salon!; well, with Animation, that's exactly the sort of things Disney management does. Also, I am getting a little tired of the false sense of emotion and sentimentality around the remembrance of Walt's legacy. Uncle Walt is being honored at every occasion for this or for that, while at the same time, the people in his shoes today are walking all over what he stood for. Surely Walt has never stopped spinning in his grave since the people in charge have been desacrating every day the beautiful things that he brought to the world. Well, Walt was a unique achiever. He had a vision, he had taste, he had the ability to put together hundreds of artists under the same roof and to get the best out of them. He was articulate, sincere and he had the guts to bet his last shirt to make his dream come true. In other words, he was the opposite of his successors, he was not after money for the sake of money, he was not a cynical individual, he respected the audience's intelligence.