http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-eisner-disney-colleagues-rivals-914841
Pretty interesting article. I miss Eisner
.
Pretty interesting article. I miss Eisner
.
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Michael Eisner on Former Disney Colleagues, Rivals and Bob Iger's Successor
- Thread starter trampdog
- Start date
Schneewittchen
Well-Known Member
Some really interesting insights in there: growth from inside vs. acquisitions. When folks on these boards start bemoaning the loss of the good old days (80s and 90s), I think that growth from within is what they're missing.
And I had to smile when I read "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know".
And I had to smile when I read "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know".
brb1006
Well-Known Member
I love that statement
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
I somewhat agree, but I think people miss the original concepts, particularly at EPCOT and true E-Tickets.
We got Everest, Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, AK Park (and all its contents), Test Track, Mission Space, RnR, etc all under Eisner. Iger has given us New Fantasyland (meh), 7DMT (meh), and promises of Star Wars, Toy Story, Avatar (meh), and a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy chatter.
The theme of new regime is building D ticket attractions completely based on well known current movies, milking what's already there, deleting old favorites by simply closing them or replacing with new concepts, and underwhelming us when they do build something new.
Schneewittchen
Well-Known Member
You're spot on. Under Eisner, most of those rides were new concepts. Iger's new stuff is based on old or recently acquired intellectual property. That sounds like internal growth vs. acquisition.
Or to be even more specific...
Let's build expensive eateries next to the D-Ticket rides that have/will have long lines, so people feel inclined to pay for and eat our expensive food because they are waiting for their Fastpass time to come around.
brb1006
Well-Known Member
I think Everest might had been the last time Disney created a major attraction outside of ToT at HS.
Schneewittchen
Well-Known Member
You mean Eisner, right?
montyz81
Well-Known Member
The reality is that the farther you move from Walt Disney's death and the people that worked for him begin to disappear, the less this will be Walt Disney's parks. Additionally, the more competition grows and makes money off of movie based rides, the more likely leadership will build rides that make money without any thought for how they fit into Walts original vision for his original park. Don't worry, I know Walt was about making money, but at least he did it in a way that kept the theme cohesive.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
ToT came long before Everest. Everest was the last true E-Ticket.
AndyMagic
Well-Known Member
I think most, if not all, of the reasonable old-timers around here willingly acknowledge that Eisner (during his early tenure as CEO) was a competent and at times daring leader who saw the parks through some spectacular transformations. In his later years he lost all or most of his tenacity and did what most CEOs do; he focused on the short-term peaks and valleys of the stock price and was then (rightly or wrongly) blamed for a perceived decrease in quality and investment in the parks department. I'd say most of the scorn of the late-term Eisner years had more to do with Paul Pressler's terrifying and rapid ascension within the parks department and the destruction he and Cynthia Harris bestowed upon Disneyland more than anything he actively did himself. Disney fans felt that Harris and Pressler were Eisner's evil minions and were essentially operating as nothing more than a proxy for the cost-cutting Eisner himself.
Brad Bishop
Well-Known Member
There were a lot of things I liked about Eisner. There were some I didn't.
Liked:
- building out WDW (he was kind of commanded to do so, though)
- building out DL
- I thought he worked well as the spokesman for the company. It sort of filled in as Walt once had.
Didn't like:
- "Ride the movie" - I think he was the one who came up with the notion of, "Everyone wants to "ride the movie" so that's what we're going to give them!" This is more than the traditional "book report" sort of thing that had been done in the past. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of emphasis on "ride the movie" both under Eisner and since he left and that seems to have choked out other, more original, non-IP ideas.
- DHS on the cheap. It was more important that DHS be finished than well thought out.
- DCA on the cheap. Same problem about a decade later.
Liked:
- building out WDW (he was kind of commanded to do so, though)
- building out DL
- I thought he worked well as the spokesman for the company. It sort of filled in as Walt once had.
Didn't like:
- "Ride the movie" - I think he was the one who came up with the notion of, "Everyone wants to "ride the movie" so that's what we're going to give them!" This is more than the traditional "book report" sort of thing that had been done in the past. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of emphasis on "ride the movie" both under Eisner and since he left and that seems to have choked out other, more original, non-IP ideas.
- DHS on the cheap. It was more important that DHS be finished than well thought out.
- DCA on the cheap. Same problem about a decade later.
RobidaFlats
Well-Known Member
Very interesting that Eisner would be so pro insider considering he (if I remember correctly) was the first "outsider" to be CEO of the company. I wonder how much of it has to do with him being familiar with most of the upper-level people on the inside since he probably put a lot of them there.
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-eisner-disney-colleagues-rivals-914841
Pretty interesting article. I miss Eisner
I thought it was an interesting look back, you could tell he has thought about his mis-steps through the years. I find it incredibly mature of him that he didn't bash Iger and seems to recognize that there can be multiple paths toward success.
brb1006
Well-Known Member
I still own an old WDW planning video that featured the first two ships for DCL.
You should upload it and any old ones you have to YouTube . You would get a lot of views.