this is one of the great what ifs. A lot of early Eisner/ Wells built on Ron Miller and Card Walker. Here is my take
live action movies Miller knew Disney Movies had to get away from its clean cut image in the 80s and founded touchstone to move into more adult fare. From what I’ve read Miller may have brought George Lucas into Disney perhaps in some sort of similar creative role to Lasseter after pixar. Would the studio have improved - probably but maybe not to the degree under Eisner and wells.
Animation - this is more tricky. Miller bought the rights to Roger Rabbit but from the early post Miller fare (Basil, Oliver etc) we might have had a continuation of post Walt safe features every few years rather than the second golden age.
Parks - Almost certainly the standard would have been kept high. EPCOT would have been built out but probably no DHS or Animal Kingdom. Walt Disney World probably wouldn’t have seen the massive 80/90s expansion so would probably have been more like Tokyo smaller but higher quality. Euro Disney might have been built somewhere else and may have been more successful. Disneyland would event have become a resort with a second gate but probably more along the lines of westcot. We would probably have gotten the ski resort as a final era walt plan.
Other - Disney stores were an idea waiting to happen but maybe in partnership with another retailer. Broadway similarly but probably based on walt era classics like Poppins.
overall Disney would probably be more niche. Smaller but higher quality product, a mac rather than a PC. Would it have survived or would it have been bought out by a bigger media company? No way of knowing but possibly more likely for a smaller company
This is a fascinating exercise (in the wrong thread, haha).
Since Eisner birthed Iger, and Iger’s Disney simply purchased other IPs and stripped them of originality, today’s generic entertainment landscape might not exist in this parallel universe.
With new documentaries shedding light on how Ashman/Menkin almost walked because of Katz and Eisner, animation may very well have had a renaissance anyway. According to “Waking Sleepy Beauty,” which you can watch on Disney+, the animators had to beg to complete TLM. Then it was a hit, and Katz/Eisner were — ahem —
magically obsessed with animation. But K’s spoiled-brattiness and Eisner’s cookie-cutter cost-control techniques caught up to them within a few short years.
Eisner was good for the parks for about nine years. His primary advantage over Iger is that he respected the classics and didn’t try to replace them—even if the reason was simply merch sales. Would Iger approve Fantasia Gardens mini-golf or a World of Disney room devoted to the Silly Symphonies? No, we know he spent most of his tenure trying to bury Walt’s heritage and convince everyone Disney had created the MCU (which began at Paramount). He outright replaced Walt’s classics and even Mickey Mouse. He attempted to sell the parks.
He behaved like a typical corporate leader who has no personal connection to the company and simply wants to improve the stock price. He made Disney financially successful, but the original “Walt Disney Productions” and Eisner’s “Walt Disney Company” are dead. And sadly, online forums are full of fans who celebrate this new era because they sincerely believe the cookie-cutter, over-marketed product from their childhood is “Disney.”
Hindsight is 20/20, and Disney’s ‘80s–‘90s history is so convoluted that we’ll never know what would’ve happened.
However, a few things are certain: by the time Roy Jr. ousted Miller to supposedly protect the company, Disney had already recovered from its dark period in the ‘70s and was heading upwards. Eisner/Wells definitely saved the film division and briefly benefited the parks. Yet because of Eisner’s second half, Iger’s conglomerate, and Chapek’s cost cuts — if Disney owned TDR outright, in 2020 the glory days of Disney theme parks wouldn’t exist anywhere anymore.
Good thing we still have OLC and TDR.
