The "F" Word
By Jim Douglas
Disney uses the word "family" a lot - but seems to have forgotten what it really means...
Shrek 2 opens in theaters on May 20 and is expected to be one of the summer's biggest hits. Early reviews are strong and word-of-mouth is growing that it tops the original in many ways. One thing is certain: Both kids and adults will be turning out in droves to see it.
Yes, kids and adults, and not necessarily together - something that hasn't happened at a Disney movie for a very long time (Because Finding Nemo was developed and created entirely by Pixar, it doesn't count).
The family audience seems to have given up on The Walt Disney Company, though Disney itself would never admit that. Indeed, it rushed to term itself a "family entertainment company" when it offered up facetious excuses for refusing to distribute Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Disney's puppet mouthpiece Zenia Mucha said it would be inappropriate for a "family entertainment company" to distribute a movie that was critical of the President of the United States.
That wasn't the first time in recent weeks that Disney has trotted out the old "family" warhorse in defending itself. During the days leading up to its disastrous March shareholder's meeting, Disney took out full-page color newspaper advertisements with Mickey Mouse espousing it as "the world's foremost family entertainment company." When in the heat of battle, "family" suits Disney just fine - but usually, it might as well be a four-letter word.
Remember, Disney is the same company whose radio stations feature the hate-mongering of Rush Limbaugh, whose language is hardly suitable for family audiences. It airs NYPD Blue, which carries a parental-advisory warning. It recently released Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent Kill Bill movies. Disney is also the company that presented Are You Hot? on ABC, a program Salon magazine described as "Just a steady flow of flesh and bones, trotted out for our arousal."
In its relentless quest to become a global media conglomerate, Disney has completely lost sight of the family audience. Should that matter? Absolutely - more than anyone might think, because it means Disney is routinely failing at its most important core business, the one that is its very reason for being.
Family entertainment - that is, entertainment that is suitable for everyone, regardless of who it's "made for" - is exactly what made the company grow from the day Walt founded it until the early 1970s. It's what saved the company and brought it back to prosperity and phenomenal growth from 1984 to the mid-1990s. More importantly, it's what can drive its growth in the future, because it's what people still think of when they see the Disney name.
But Disney has forgotten how to do the very thing it used to do better than anyone else.
Creating entertainment for the family is very different than creating things that kids, teens or adults like. When Disney's California Adventure unveiled the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, did it cross anyone's mind that kids can't ride? Maybe they just figured that Mom and Dad could drop the kids off at Flik's Fun Fair while they rode. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the concept, but that doesn't seem very family friendly to me.
Likewise, Disney animated films have failed in recent years because they were children's movies. Teacher's Pet and The Jungle Book 2 just don't attract much of a date crowd. Conversely, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are classics because they meant as much to adults as they did to kids. (The 2002 hit Lilo & Stitch fit that mold, too, but Disney insisted on marketing it as a children's movie, leaving many potential fans out in the cold.)
The best Disney entertainment thrills everyone - remember when they used to say they were for "kids and kids at heart"? Disney seems incapable of doing that anymore, and its one of the biggest reasons for its continued creative stagnation. Meanwhile, every other entertainment company in the industry noticed that Disney's failure resulted in enormous opportunity.
Universal has not only created the Islands of Adventure theme park but also the most successful new Broadway musical in years with Wicked -- a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz. In addition to Pixar and DreamWorks, Twentieth Century Fox has successfully appealed to all ages with Ice Age and the Star Wars prequels, and has reaped enormous financial success by doing so.
Meanwhile, Disney is increasingly content to compare itself with Nickelodeon and Six Flags. No doubt, those are good companies, but they don't have the reputation, the history or the legacy of The Walt Disney Company.
The trouble is, Disney has increasingly become overrun by "strategic" planners, people who think in terms of market segments. Unfortunately, "family" isn't one of them. "General audience" is a concept that they don't understand. They don't seem to realize that people like to dream, to imagine, to be inspired, because those concepts don't have numerical equivalents to plug into a spreadsheet.
It is easy, though, to say, "Let's make something for the kids," or "Let's make that movie for the 18- to 25-year-olds." If that leaves grown-ups or very young children out in the cold, they don't care. They look at the "Disney side" of their business (as opposed to broadcasting, which is what they really want do be doing) and they think it means "kids." It's an increasingly damaging misjudgment.
Nearly 40 ago, when Walt Disney was overseeing the expansion of Disneyland, he poured enormous amounts of money into two attractions in particular: The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. Today, they still attract more people than any other rides at Disney theme parks. Why? Just hop on one of those boats or climb into a Doom Buggy and you'll see right away: Grown-ups ride with kids; kids ride together; teens hold hands and smooch in them; adults squeeze next to each other and enjoy the show. Everyone gets into the act and everyone comes away delighted.
Those attractions may represent the pinnacle of family entertainment - something Disney used to do better than anyone else. Today, you can call Disney a lot of things, but the world's best family entertainment company, sadly, isn't one of them. That's something to think about when you're sitting in the theater watching Shrek 2, surrounded by other laughing adults and teenagers who want to see it themselves, whether or not there are any kids around. After all, they're just kids at heart.
"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty. Call the child innocence. The worst of us is not without innocence, though buried deeply it might be. In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence, showing it the fun and joy of living; showing it that laughter is healthy; showing it that the human species, although happily ridiculous at times, is still reaching for the stars."
—Walt Disney
By Jim Douglas
Disney uses the word "family" a lot - but seems to have forgotten what it really means...
Shrek 2 opens in theaters on May 20 and is expected to be one of the summer's biggest hits. Early reviews are strong and word-of-mouth is growing that it tops the original in many ways. One thing is certain: Both kids and adults will be turning out in droves to see it.
Yes, kids and adults, and not necessarily together - something that hasn't happened at a Disney movie for a very long time (Because Finding Nemo was developed and created entirely by Pixar, it doesn't count).
The family audience seems to have given up on The Walt Disney Company, though Disney itself would never admit that. Indeed, it rushed to term itself a "family entertainment company" when it offered up facetious excuses for refusing to distribute Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Disney's puppet mouthpiece Zenia Mucha said it would be inappropriate for a "family entertainment company" to distribute a movie that was critical of the President of the United States.
That wasn't the first time in recent weeks that Disney has trotted out the old "family" warhorse in defending itself. During the days leading up to its disastrous March shareholder's meeting, Disney took out full-page color newspaper advertisements with Mickey Mouse espousing it as "the world's foremost family entertainment company." When in the heat of battle, "family" suits Disney just fine - but usually, it might as well be a four-letter word.
Remember, Disney is the same company whose radio stations feature the hate-mongering of Rush Limbaugh, whose language is hardly suitable for family audiences. It airs NYPD Blue, which carries a parental-advisory warning. It recently released Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent Kill Bill movies. Disney is also the company that presented Are You Hot? on ABC, a program Salon magazine described as "Just a steady flow of flesh and bones, trotted out for our arousal."
In its relentless quest to become a global media conglomerate, Disney has completely lost sight of the family audience. Should that matter? Absolutely - more than anyone might think, because it means Disney is routinely failing at its most important core business, the one that is its very reason for being.
Family entertainment - that is, entertainment that is suitable for everyone, regardless of who it's "made for" - is exactly what made the company grow from the day Walt founded it until the early 1970s. It's what saved the company and brought it back to prosperity and phenomenal growth from 1984 to the mid-1990s. More importantly, it's what can drive its growth in the future, because it's what people still think of when they see the Disney name.
But Disney has forgotten how to do the very thing it used to do better than anyone else.
Creating entertainment for the family is very different than creating things that kids, teens or adults like. When Disney's California Adventure unveiled the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, did it cross anyone's mind that kids can't ride? Maybe they just figured that Mom and Dad could drop the kids off at Flik's Fun Fair while they rode. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the concept, but that doesn't seem very family friendly to me.
Likewise, Disney animated films have failed in recent years because they were children's movies. Teacher's Pet and The Jungle Book 2 just don't attract much of a date crowd. Conversely, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are classics because they meant as much to adults as they did to kids. (The 2002 hit Lilo & Stitch fit that mold, too, but Disney insisted on marketing it as a children's movie, leaving many potential fans out in the cold.)
The best Disney entertainment thrills everyone - remember when they used to say they were for "kids and kids at heart"? Disney seems incapable of doing that anymore, and its one of the biggest reasons for its continued creative stagnation. Meanwhile, every other entertainment company in the industry noticed that Disney's failure resulted in enormous opportunity.
Universal has not only created the Islands of Adventure theme park but also the most successful new Broadway musical in years with Wicked -- a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz. In addition to Pixar and DreamWorks, Twentieth Century Fox has successfully appealed to all ages with Ice Age and the Star Wars prequels, and has reaped enormous financial success by doing so.
Meanwhile, Disney is increasingly content to compare itself with Nickelodeon and Six Flags. No doubt, those are good companies, but they don't have the reputation, the history or the legacy of The Walt Disney Company.
The trouble is, Disney has increasingly become overrun by "strategic" planners, people who think in terms of market segments. Unfortunately, "family" isn't one of them. "General audience" is a concept that they don't understand. They don't seem to realize that people like to dream, to imagine, to be inspired, because those concepts don't have numerical equivalents to plug into a spreadsheet.
It is easy, though, to say, "Let's make something for the kids," or "Let's make that movie for the 18- to 25-year-olds." If that leaves grown-ups or very young children out in the cold, they don't care. They look at the "Disney side" of their business (as opposed to broadcasting, which is what they really want do be doing) and they think it means "kids." It's an increasingly damaging misjudgment.
Nearly 40 ago, when Walt Disney was overseeing the expansion of Disneyland, he poured enormous amounts of money into two attractions in particular: The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. Today, they still attract more people than any other rides at Disney theme parks. Why? Just hop on one of those boats or climb into a Doom Buggy and you'll see right away: Grown-ups ride with kids; kids ride together; teens hold hands and smooch in them; adults squeeze next to each other and enjoy the show. Everyone gets into the act and everyone comes away delighted.
Those attractions may represent the pinnacle of family entertainment - something Disney used to do better than anyone else. Today, you can call Disney a lot of things, but the world's best family entertainment company, sadly, isn't one of them. That's something to think about when you're sitting in the theater watching Shrek 2, surrounded by other laughing adults and teenagers who want to see it themselves, whether or not there are any kids around. After all, they're just kids at heart.
"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty. Call the child innocence. The worst of us is not without innocence, though buried deeply it might be. In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence, showing it the fun and joy of living; showing it that laughter is healthy; showing it that the human species, although happily ridiculous at times, is still reaching for the stars."
—Walt Disney
