The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[WDW1974]

@WDW1974 I hope Maleficent didn't cost 200mill+ to make because that movie may have a hard time finding an audience, especially if it gets bad reviews

I need to ask around, but I believe that film cost about that, yes. Give or take $25 million ...

 

[WDW1974]

Hey WDW1974, should we read into Michael's tweets about The Grand Budapest Hotel? Perhaps a jab at the tentpoles only strategy?

Also, you need to see that film. It is just so much fun.

Nah, that is just an added bonus. I think he just liked the film. Everyone I know who has seen it has ...

 

[WDW1974]

With 20 years as CEO to Iger's 9 - Eisner has to cast a very long shadow.

To me, Eisner was almost synonymous with Disney (the company, not Walt) - in a way that Iger has never never recreated.

Well, good, bad or ugly, Michael has a personality ... a soul ... a Spirit ... and isn't afraid to show it.

I swear that Bob Iger isn't human. He just has no emotions whatsoever. He was a weatherman, so he should be able to fake it at least ... but he can't.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

So the Walt Disney Family Museum's special exhibition hit streak continues with Marc Davis!
http://www.waltdisney.org/marc-davis

 

[StageFrenzy]

Well, good, bad or ugly, Michael has a personality ... a soul ... a Spirit ... and isn't afraid to show it.

I swear that Bob Iger isn't human. He just has no emotions whatsoever. He was a weatherman, so he should be able to fake it at least ... but he can't.

“The weather today is slightly sarcastic, with a chance of a) indifference and b) disinterest in what the critics say”

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Well, good, bad or ugly, Michael has a personality ... a soul ... a Spirit ... and isn't afraid to show it.

I swear that Bob Iger isn't human. He just has no emotions whatsoever. He was a weatherman, so he should be able to fake it at least ... but he can't.

Will we ever see footage of him doing the weather? It's the sort of thing I would imagine they would hold until he leaves as a sort of gotcha thing on GMA or at a Shareholders meeting.

 

[BrianLo]

Yes WDW is no better off than it was when Iger stepped in the door, but two out of the three steaming piles (DCA and HKDL) are suddenly some of the jewels in Disney's crown. Even WDS (which I deemed unsalvageable) actually looks like it's getting a better addition than all of WDW in almost the last decade. Thankfully they have perhaps finally learned the lesson that building an empty shell and calling it a theme park is unacceptable. Shanghai may actually open as a superior park to any of the WDW ones in their current form.

Pixar was a good acquisition and honestly Marvel (love them or hate them) is a monetary juggernaut with content that people seem to like. Lucasfilm remains to be seen (but there is reason for optimism). The Disney company may promote from within, but at least they've brought in a lot of external talent into the fold with some of these acquisitions. Certainly Walt Disney Animation is actually on the right track after floundering for 15 years.

Everyone is clearly eager for Iger to go (and he needs to before he completely overstays his welcome), but his time with Disney wasn't honestly that terrible from my perspective.

A decade or two from now we'll be lamenting how they once again have destroyed Disney Animation, but the WDW parks have never been better. It's all a cycle and it will eventually get better (and some aspects will get worse) as long as there is money to be made and someone out there who cares.

 

[aladdin2007]

Well, good, bad or ugly, Michael has a personality ... a soul ... a Spirit ... and isn't afraid to show it.

I swear that Bob Iger isn't human. He just has no emotions whatsoever. He was a weatherman, so he should be able to fake it at least ... but he can't.

Hes a robot (Iger) (igerbot), even the Carousel of Progress animatronics have more animated life to them.

 

[WDW1974]

That desire to deliver on the unsustainable growth is exactly what I was referencing. Instead of accepting the inevitable slow down as natural and healthy, that desire allowed for cuts to be a means of growth. The tent pole strategy was seen more in animation during Eisner's tenure. I understand it is different than live action with a far more limited set of releases, but like with growth the expectations only grew more and more with each film. It is really all different reflections of the same mindset: bigger, BIGGER, BIGGER.

Ah, on that we agree. People (fans especially) have this very skewed ignorant view of WDFA's results post Lion King.

They all seem to block out the fact that films like Pocahontas, Huncback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan (Disney's 1995-1999 releases) were all hugely profitable at the box office and most were critically lauded as well, and resulted in theme park product and also drove consumer products as well (again, some more than others).

You talk to the average fanboi and he thinks that Disney animation ended in 1994 with Lion King and Pixar just took over with Toy Story at Christmas 1995. That's just not reality. Pixar took over the crown THIS century, not last.

1994 and Wells' death I consider important because it really showed Eisner's insecurities in terms of others competing for that top spot. I still would like to read Working Together but where I think Eisner and Wells really differed from a Walt and Roy is that Eisner wanted to be both top creative and top executive. He could not always be the one to demand the creative vision because I think he always feared being replaced if the right people lined up against him, much the way the right people lined up against Miller.

True to some degree. But Michael had great creative instincts MUCH of the time.

 

[englanddg]

Hes a robot, even the Carousel of Progress animatronics have more animated life to them.

Eisner wanted to be Walt 2.0. In many ways, he succeeded. I think, personally, he was overwhelmed by the machine he helped restart...

Iger? He wants to be Donald Trump 2.0.

 

[comics101]

One of my all-time favorite Michael Eisner tales was his response after riding Imagination 2.0 ... and I know it is true because I know the person who rode behind him. Michael was so angry and just yelled ''Where the (f word deleted) did my $53 million go?'' There were other angry comments after but that's the important and telling line.

I can tell you as sure as I am here that if he had known how that disaster would have turned out that we would still have the original (stale, but intact) today.

HA! That's awesome.

What I would give to hear Eisner's opinion of Epcot today. I wonder if he realized Ellen's Energy Adventure would still be around 18 years later...heck, I wonder if he even remembers Ellen's Energy Adventure 18 years later.

 

[WDW1974]

Sure he has. He was there for the opening of Harry Po....wait no. It was the announcement of Cabana Bay hey hey...no..not that one. AH...Cowabunga Dude! The Simpons! He was definitely..not..there for that. Transfor....no. Dispicable NO! Groundbreaking for Diagon(e) forever...nope. Wait a minute..those are all at Universal.

My point is he has not been at a lot of announcements because in order to do so you actually have to have announcements to be made. Four pressers about an overpriced under-whelming New Fantasyland is hardly a photo op. What an assbag.

Wow!!! Where has my night gone? This is a fun discussion, but I had no idea how much ...

I get your point above, but I am not talking of media events. I am talking about you being at DAK Sunday and seeing Bob and family on KS or Dinosaur or enjoying a nice BBQ meal at Flame Tree. Just sampling the product and enjoying it ... you never see that.

Al Lutz used to take Jay Rasulo to task for his contempt for his own product. Well, my question is: how is Bob Iger any different?

Can you see Bob Iger UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES having breakfast at the Cape May Cafe?

Or having an ice cream with Willow at EPCOT's France pavilion with no security detail?

 

[StageFrenzy]

Obviously Iger doesn’t care about the parks, well he cares that it still spits out money like a broken ATM. But he doesn’t like or enjoy them, if he did he would spend more time on them and perhaps do the things that would keep the Disney Parks in Disney shape. From his actions I am going to infer his priorities are productive and profitable media studios. Gathering franchises and then leveraging them across the Disney Empire.

 

[Tip Top Club]

To answer one of your earlier questions, the Dragon in the New Parade has spit fire for all but three days, due to high winds on those days. Saw it breath fire myself today in fact.

 

[tirian]

On every point, you confirmed what I suspected. Thanks.

I know people want a simple answer, and it is complicated. But I think I will try here and offer one: insulation.

As Eisner grew Disney it became a far different animal than the small neglected fawn he rescued from the hunters. Instead of a tiny company, Michael was leading a huge corporation that was growing in all sorts of ways from new film banners to new theme parks to all sorts of new business ventures -- some good (cruise line, retail stores, TV networks), some bad (Internet portals, regional entertainment ventures), some in between (sports franchises, animation studios all over the globe).

The bigger Disney grew, the less Michael was able to truly gauge what was going on at the micro level because he was on top and folks always fear the top guy (we have folks here who are afraid to contact George Kalogridis because they think a phone call or an email will result in a lifetime ban from Disney and the FBI coming to their doors!) and because people in every division would only focus on the good things happening. There is an example I'd love to share on just how much Disney execs would lie and cover things up when Michael was around, but I won't because it, frankly, is too valuable to me to place here.

Michael became so insulated. I recall trying to speak to him at a Disney Parks event a few years before he stepped down (now, realize that I knew him, he knew me and my family ... I wasn't a fanboi angered that Disney was closing Horizons. Well, I was but that was another side of me.) and Disney PR and marketing staff literally played keep away with him. They were blocking like they were the freaking Seattle Seahawks. ... So, I saw Jane head to the restroom, parked myself in front with a glass of champagne and waited for her to come out. She saw me, smiled, we chatted and I then escorted her back right through the crowd of 'obstacles', right back to Michael. I watched the then head of DLR PR Dept. seethe and visibly turn red as he shook my hand and greeted me by first name.

Mind you, while people were leaving the company and others who shouldn't have been coming (Mike Ovitz) came, Michael was dealing with health issues, the death of Frank, the ''gall'' of ''the little midget'', the financial troubles with Euro Disney, the delays starting the DCL, park/resort ideas that were met by resistance and fell apart (in California and Virginia) and many other issues that have been detailed in books and online. But Michael was kept in a bubble that, despite what some believe was not self-imposed, largely by his own exec team for their own reasons. I once overheard him talking about DL maintenance issues with another top level exec who is no longer with Disney by saying ''How did this get so bad?''

INSULATION. That's my simple answer. By the time he realized how bad so many things really were, there were no palatable options. He didn't want to leave Disney, even in 2005. But he just had no choice.

When did it start? Probably way back in 1984. But it got serious around 1997 and it never got better. That's why the fanboi in me wishes he would have resigned after opening DAK.

Now ... just to touch on a few things you brought up above.

The cheap-quels were not a terrible idea in and of themselves. And what brought them about was the success of the first few (the first Aladdin one made a boatload of $$$, despite not having Robin Williams back) and the sheer number or artists Disney was employing at the time. They had animation studios from Australia to France back to Japan. Like everything else with Disney (then and now), they went nuts with them, thinking that you could make hundreds of millions on Aladdin 5: Jafar Tours with a Boy Band and Cinderella 11: The Castle Gets a Queen.

Strategic Planning was just a bad move that was en vogue with every 'cutting edge' company in the 90s. If you read some of the corporate drivel, then it didn't sound so bad. It seemed to make sense. It was all about synergies and taking advantage of existing BRAND strengths to grow the business as a whole. But at the end of the day, it was just drivel.

DCA 1.0 ... uhm ... ah ... that's way too long of a topic to even begin. But the best analogy is a snowball starting at the top of a mountain and rolling. And it should have been stopped multiple times before it became an avalanche, but people (often very respected like Marty Sklar and John Hench) were left back in the ski lodge when that little ball started picking up size and steam. DCA 1.0 happened because multiple high level folks at Disney simply wouldn't stand up and say 'This isn't smart and here are all the reasons why!'

Dumbing down of the US parks (more FL)? That came from the whole Strategic Planning mindset. That came from moving folks into the business from hospitality (Lee Cockerell) and retail (Paul Pressler), listening to consultants who came up with new business models (no, why have an antiques store in Liberty Square that can't carry its own financial weight?) that basically pit every location against every other one. Instead of being parts of a show, things like unique merchandise, entertainment, not allowing costumes off property and themed trash cans became 'fat' ... things that could be cut. Disney had so much quality back in the 90s that cutting was easy. It helped the bottom line and didn't hurt quality all that much ... but well, there's only so long that you can play that game. 15-plus years later and they still are following that.

I probably should have just stopped with one word, but I am quite passionate about this particular subject.

 

[Next Big Thing]

Do you guys/gals see WDW operating monorails in a decade?

I honestly don't know how the resort would function without them.

Besides, what perk could they possibly replace it with to justify the insane prices at the Grand, Poly, and Contemporary demand?

 

[Next Big Thing]

Also, I love that Eisner is just walking out and about like a normal guest enjoying the parks. It's as if he's silently showing up Iger.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yes WDW is no better off than it was when Iger stepped in the door, but two out of the three steaming piles (DCA and HKDL) are suddenly some of the jewels in Disney's crown. Even WDS (which I deemed unsalvageable) actually looks like it's getting a better addition than all of WDW in almost the last decade. Thankfully they have perhaps finally learned the lesson that building an empty shell and calling it a theme park is unacceptable. Shanghai may actually open as a superior park to any of the WDW ones in their current form.

The changes at Disney's California Adventure and Hong Kong Disneyland owe a great deal to the influence of external actors, namely the local governments.

 

[Gabe1]

Spirited Wednesday Musings:
How much fire has that new MK dragon been spewing in that amazing new parade?

Splash Mountain reopened recently after its annual closure. Anyone know what was done? How it looks? Anyone?

How about Blizzard Beach? Closed for three months. Was anything done to plus the place? Fix things that needed it?

Well here is the fire. Comes in at about 50 seconds.



Splash Mountain was pretty much about replacing mechanical parts that were discovered to be worn during last years major rehab. That is what happens when they have fake rehabs and all they really do is save CM $$$ for the month of January. But is was for items like sensors, brake parts etc. These items discovered last year during the overhaul. Budget opened dramatically wider and the rehab went from January to January till end of March. Two years in a row with rehabs almost triple the length of time it is normally down. Speaks to the previous neglect. Wonder if they are done now?

On opening day she broke down in the afternoon but did come back up, the cannons didn't work and blue bird at the end was having issues. Since the rehab was mostly 'parts' there was nothing really to see so the typical media types were not lining up to video her coming back online.

Blizzard seems to closed frequently this year since it opened. Weather hasn't cooperated much. Wonder how many have actually got to visit from this sight since it came back up.

 

[Next Big Thing]

Speaking on the topic of DVC as well, i'd really love it if they built a DVC in Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai. I realize though that Disney doesn't own most of those parks (plus Disney wants to just make WDW one big hotel), but it would encourage travel to those other Disney Resorts by DVC Owners if there were DVC Resorts there.

Not that there isn't reason enough to go already, but business wise, it would seem like the value of the vacation club would be increased if there were more destinations to travel to. Instead of clustering up DVC in one area, it makes much more sense to spread them around where your global destinations are imo.