the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
New MAGIC user: Michael Eisner??
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Spirited News & Observations II -- NGE/Baxter
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Are you suggesting that our Spirit is Michael Eisner?
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
See, that's why I hate fortune cookies. Because none of them ever make sense!
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Confusious say Monorail always run in circle but never to Hollywood.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Did you watch when he had that show on CNBC where he interviewed other executives and former executives and billionaires and other celebrities. He had Gerald Levin (former CEO of Time-Warner), Sumner Redstone (billionaire and owner of Viacom/CBS/Paramount), Ted Turner, Barbara Walters, Mark Cuban, Sarah Silverman, Larry King, Bob Iger, and others on his show that he interviewed. He would talk about Disney and about the competition to the people he competed with or worked with. It was quite an enlightening show.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Confusious say monorail run around in circle like threads. Confusious say that if don't change monorail discussion venue, be like dog chasing its tale and will get very very tired and upset and turn into Samurai warrior!
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Confusious say Honey Sesame Chicken with jasmine rice and two spring rolls. Please.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Confusious say that if spell check turns him into confusions one more time, no Dizney in Shanghai for you. Pork fried rice, maybe.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Im fine with that. I think we're expanding globally way too fast.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
The issue is...they have far more lenient building and labor codes...
Calvin Coolidge
Well-Known Member
I do as well. The passage of time has allowed for a more nuanced understanding of Eisner's reign. A lot of growth, and a lot of upheaval as well. Some great decisions (even some great decisions made accidentally or arbitrarily) but some big missteps which the company is still struggling to get past.
Fair or not, the part of 2013 Disney where I see Eisner's fingerprints the most is this weird attachment to "story" in theme parks. Every ride has to have a "story" - no matter that Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Thunder Mtn Railroad, and Haunted Mansion, and it's a small world, and the Jungle Cruise, and so many of the most famous theme park attractions of all time have no "story." Oh, and every story has to follow the same plot: You are on some sort of routine or mundane trip, when suddenly SOMETHING GOES WRONG. This builds to a climax where the wrong is ameliorated and the ends are neatly tied up. And every bad decision can be excused as long as there's a story behind it. You built a crappy roadside carnival? Make an elaborate backstory and your crappy roadside carnival is a visionary masterstroke. You can pat yourselves on the back.
I don't think he's a bad guy. I just think Disney needs to learn from his time at the company, to see what works and what doesn't. Michael Eisner wouldn't have allowed a princess movie where the beautiful princess spends the whole movie in the form of a frog. Michael Eisner didn't take his eye off the ball in growing WDW. Michael Eisner not only supported the Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night, he hosted it.
Let's bring that back. Let's bring back a little Eisner. Not all of him, just enough. Enough, perhaps, for some "spirited" change?
Calvin Coolidge
Well-Known Member
A classic. The entire blog is worth reading, and I'm particularly fond of the "Myth of Story" one that precedes it (http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2006/11/myth-of-story.html), which pretty expertly articulates the point I was trying to make. Sometimes the story works - I certainly think it worked well in Alien Encounter, and Tower of Terror, and a few others. But a ride doesn't need a story.
A perfect example of this is The Great Movie Ride. Does this ride really need a story? Does it add much to the attraction that your guide gets kidnapped? I'm not sure it does. I certainly don't think it'd be a lesser attraction if your guide stayed put and narrated the whole way through. It doesn't hurt the Jungle Cruise or, especially, Kilimanjaro Safaris. Getting rid of the contrived "story" of Kilimanjaro Safaris elevated the ride significantly. KS might be the prime example of how tacking on a "something goes wrong" plot to a ride is detrimental. Surely a premise of "photo safari through the African savanna" is sufficient to a world-class themed attraction.
Mystic Manor is successful in part because it doesn't really have a "story," it more has a "premise": What if you were in a museum of antiquities and everything came to life? This premise is applied to various gags and vignettes, similar to the way premises like "you are on a boat ride through the Spanish Main and there are pirates" or "you are in a mansion and it is full of ghosts" are applied to the old Marc Davis gags of the past. Some of Mystic Manor's gags are more effective than others, but I appreciate the effort that was put into them.
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
Yes, it does add to the ride. The ride doesn't have any more story than Jungle Cruise except for this one bit, so I'm not sure why GMR is a "perfect example" of too much story. It's not like there is a Kingdom Keepers-like backstory where the villains from the movies are plotting together and we have to stop them! You're just going through movie scenes randomly and stuff happens. Don't remember ever getting the cowboy, but the gangster really spices up the ride. Actually, I'd kinda like to have the gangster for the whole ride. I bet he'd have some things to say about the Footlight Parade girls or to the Wicked Witch of the West.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
I agree
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Much of what Disney does damages the U.S. economy and it's largely driven by how senior management influences supposedly independent executive compensation committees to organize pay packages. They arrange packages to offer quick returns, something Wall Street is obsessed with, rather than looking at long term value. Wall Street's volatility is driven largely by its fixation with the quick buck. Entire nations are held financially hostage as a result of this shortsighted thinking.
Historically, CEO-to-worker compensation was about 20-to-1. Beginning in the 1980s, this ratio began to change. In the last 20 years, it's increased dramatically and is approaching 300-to-1. The ratio hasn't been this lopsided since the days of the Robber Barons.
It would be a bit different if corporations "shared" the wealth with those who are doing the vast majority of the work. Instead, worker pay is squeezed by corporations such as Disney, even as they report record profits. Meanwhile, senior executives at those same companies collect double-digit pay increases.
Productivity of typical U.S. workers reach record levels yet the fruits of their labors are being distributed to only a select few.
Disney (yet again) has record profits, Iger receives a 20% compensation increase, and then Disney announces layoffs of those actually performing the work. Large numbers collect unemployment from the government while those remaining are required to work even harder to retain their jobs. That's not good for the economy or for families.
Modern economies grow through innovation. Instead of innovating, Iger buys IP created at other companies while terminating those responsible for innovation within his own company. He raises prices 6-to-8% while holding employee pay to less than 3%. Compounded over years, these price increases are crushing for the average family.
Taken as a whole, these trends do not bode well for the economic future of this country.
Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
I agree with this and my opinion derives from the fact that he seems to be a nice guy with some sense. Although, as a former CFO he is totally a numbers guy. Rasulo becoming CEO would be a bad bad thing. From a non disney fan perspective I think Staggs has talent in business. I just wouldn't want him running this company but his future as CEO here or elsewhere is inevitable.
I would rather see Kathleen Kennedy or Stacey Snyder considering their ties to the movie business. I don't know how good or bad they'd be for $DIS particularly animation and P&R though. That you would certainly know better than me, so perhaps your opinion is desired on this topic.
Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
I LOLed
Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
He used to manage Iger, Staggs and Vaughn during their previous 'entertainment' careers, discussed earlier in this thread. Real lucrative business.
Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
Does Michael still have his show on CNBC?