Things would probably be different, but who knows how. All of the men had massive egos, but Wells seemed to be the one who kept Eisner grounded. Jeffrey Katzenberg, though not popular by many really helped to rebuild the feature animation department. It was a mess when he was brought on board and probably close to being completely dismantled. His departure was probably inevitable, too many egos and not enough room.
I do believe that Dreamworks was going to happen. Competition is always good whether you like the others product or not. Unfortunately for Disney, some of their product simply did not stack up to what Dreamworks did. Luckily for Disney, Dreamworks had a hard time keeping up with Pixar.
The direct-to-video sequels were going to happen no matter what. Once Disney broke the mold and released Pinocchio on video tape, Disney soon learned that those videos were a cash cow. Sequels aimed primarily at children (unlike the originals) were even better because no one knew how sub par they were going be. Plus they were animated over in different parts of Asia (India, China, etc) which made them much cheaper to produce. Though very few were "decent" at best, they made Disney a ton of money which was probably allocated into various divisions of the company.
If you haven't seen it, there is a DVD out called "Waking Sleeping Beauty". It is a documentary with very old footage taken by animator Mark Henn from his mid-70s (ish) beginning with Disney. It talks about the state of the animation division at that point and the low points. It goes into detail about the egos of all involved and how they shaped the company to become what it is today. It's mainly about the resurgence of feature animation due to all of these men. Its animated film timeframe starts with Fox and the Hound and finishes on Lion King (when everything finally exploded) and has interviews with all parties involved including Katzenberg. Its a good movie and I recommend watching it.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...+sleeping+beauty&sprefix=waking+sleep,aps,270
