Which movie truly "saved" the Disney company?

[Walt Disney1955]

Okay, no doubt about it Snow White is the topper here. We all know Snow White started all that we see today, well, I guess Mickey did, but without the success of Snow White who knows what happens.

But a while back when Sarah Michelle Gellar's "Princess Rap battle" debuted on Youtube she mentions that Cinderella saved the company at that point, which was 1950, 5 years before Disneyland. How much truth is there to this?

I know that even after Snow White there were certain movies that did better than others in the box office. Bambi and Dumbo did well I believe. Fantasia and Pinocchio did not.

But was Cinderella indirectly credited with jump starting Disneyland? It is hard to imagine the company wouldn't have had enough money had it not done well.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

I'm not sure about that kind of history as far back as the time around the inception of Disneyland, but I do know that the "Disney Renaissance" in the 1980s and 1990s surely change things around, I guess for good.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Cinderella was the first really successful film in years, since the start of World War II.

 

[Glasgow]

I have to stick with Snow White here - it was the genesis of what we know as the Walt Disney Company today, IMO. It generated the capital necessary to move to the new Burbank studios as well, if I recall correctly. Without that, TWDC may have been a small time operation indefinitely. Plus, SW was a historical first in so many aspects .. first full length animated feature, first animated feature with a real story, new multi-plane camera technology, first Disney Oscar (I think?), etc.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

Honestly, I don't know.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I have to stick with Snow White here - it was the genesis of what we know as the Walt Disney Company today, IMO. It generated the capital necessary to move to the new Burbank studios as well, if I recall correctly. Without that, TWDC may have been a small time operation indefinitely. Plus, SW was a historical first in so many aspects .. first full length animated feature, first animated feature with a real story, new multi-plane camera technology, first Disney Oscar (I think?), etc.

Disney really was a rather small time operation until at least the late-1980s if not the mid-1990s when Capital Cities/ABC was acquired.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Cinderella was important in justifying the continued production of animated features, but it was really just one part of an overall change in strategy which included live action features, eductaional shorts, theatrical re-issues and television, which started at Christmas 1950 with "One Hour in Wonderland". Disney was more or less broke in the late 1940s and it was decided that diversification was the only way to succeed.

Regarding Cinderella, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston believed it was "the most carefully planned" animated feature they did because it HAD to make money. As a result, Disney decided to cut back on production costs, license and copyright the music themselves and shoot everything in live-action first to help plot and stage the action of the scenes. The financial failure of Fantasia taught Walt that it was more important to produce a popular movie, than an artistically great one.

In truth there is no one movie that ever "saved" Disney, the company, as a whole. That idea is simply corporate mythbuilding and fanboi oversimplification.

 

[ShoalFox]

What really kept the company afloat during the late 40s was the package films. Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad were all released from 1943-1949. They all combined multiple narratives into a single, long feature in order to keep money flowing to the studio. Disney did this because it was deemed too expensive to produce single narrative features while most of the animation staff was busy being drafted or working on propaganda cartoons. Heck, even Bambi was a financial loss back in 1942, but is now regarded as one of the greatest animated movies of all time. As has been mentioned before, Cinderella was the studio's return to form.

During the mid 80s, the animation studio rather than the company as a whole was in jeopardy after The Black Cauldron's massive financial failure. The Great Mouse Detective's mild success in 1986 convinced Disney to keep the animation department open, and that of course led to the renaissance from 1989-1999.

 

[JPPT1974]

I always thought in the 1980's and 1990's it was the Little Mermaid that saved the Disney and the whole entire movie animation department.

 

[Dead2009]

Frozen /sarcasm

 

[MKCP 1985]

Some of this may sound like "Drunk Uncle" from Saturday Night Live because I know the big picture but am not going to sources to double check details:

I am surprised no-one has mentioned Mary Poppins. Again, as with Snow White, Walt Disney took a big gamble on the film and it paid off handsomely. MaPo (sp?) was the engineering company formed to design the attractions for Disneyland and was the predecessor to Walt Disney Imagineering. Without Mary Poppins, much of what brings us to these forums would not exist. Mary Poppins was the cash cow for much of the 1950s expansion of the company.

Similarly, how many people know how bad a shape the film division of Walt Disney Pictures was in by the mid 1980s? Walt Disney's son in law Ron Miller had been given the reins to keep the company going after Walt's death and in an attempt to maintain the family image, the company put out films that were family friendly but didn't make any money. By 1984, the company was on the cusp of being acquired, chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. Roy Disney Jr (the nephew) formed a company to bring change to save the company and his efforts led to the hiring of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, and the company was able to fend off a hostile takeover bid from corporate raider Saul Steinberg. The film division formed Touchstone pictures and its first movie to gross $100,000,000 (big money in the 1980s) was - no, not Splash (this was before that):

Down and Out in Beverly Hills - starring Bette Midler and Nick Nolte. That may have been a film that saved the Walt Disney Company.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Cinderella was the first film that saved the studio, then 101 Dalmatians, Little Mermaid began the Renaissance, and Bolt & Princess and the Frog began the revival era.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

What really kept the company afloat during the late 40s was the package films. Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad were all released from 1943-1949. They all combined multiple narratives into a single, long feature in order to keep money flowing to the studio. Disney did this because it was deemed too expensive to produce single narrative features while most of the animation staff was busy being drafted or working on propaganda cartoons.

These movies didn't really generate much revenue. They didn't run losses, but they were not big hits either. The studio was more half-sunk than afloat in the immediate post-war years.

I always thought in the 1980's and 1990's it was the Little Mermaid that saved the Disney and the whole entire movie animation department.

Besides Black Cauldron, Disney didn't really have a hard time producing animated money makers. Oliver and Company, released 1 year before Mermaid, was a hit in its own right. Mermaid et al propelled animation back to blockbuster status, but Disney wasn't struggling to make money there either. Animation was kicked off the Disney lot because the live action (Touchstone) movies were generating more revenue and it was deemed more important for a time. Eisner did think of dropping animation because he thought it would save production costs and the re-issue market (then still a cash cow for the company) had enough titels to sustain itself, but it was a combination of titles that changed his mind (like Roger Rabbit, a much bigger hit than Mermaid at the time).

I am surprised no-one has mentioned Mary Poppins. Again, as with Snow White, Walt Disney took a big gamble on the film and it paid off handsomely. MaPo (sp?) was the engineering company formed to design the attractions for Disneyland and was the predecessor to Walt Disney Imagineering. Without Mary Poppins, much of what brings us to these forums would not exist. Mary Poppins was the cash cow for much of the 1950s expansion of the company.

By the time Mary Poppins was released, the company was well established and at the peak of its success during Walt's life. Mary was confirmation of that (in a big way), but Disney had plenty of other hits during that era like Swiss Family Robinson and The Parent Trap. I don't think "saving the company" is the right term for it.

Similarly, how many people know how bad a shape the film division of Walt Disney Pictures was in by the mid 1980s? Walt Disney's son in law Ron Miller had been given the reins to keep the company going after Walt's death and in an attempt to maintain the family image, the company put out films that were family friendly but didn't make any money. By 1984, the company was on the cusp of being acquired, chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. Roy Disney Jr (the nephew) formed a company to bring change to save the company and his efforts led to the hiring of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, and the company was able to fend off a hostile takeover bid from corporate raider Saul Steinberg. The film division formed Touchstone pictures and its first movie to gross $100,000,000 (big money in the 1980s) was - no, not Splash (this was before that):

Down and Out in Beverly Hills - starring Bette Midler and Nick Nolte. That may have been a film that saved the Walt Disney Company.

I was about to bring up Touchstone, so this is the point I agree with the most.

It should be noted though that Ron Miller tried to release atypical Disney features in the early 80s (Tex, Never Cry Wolf, The Watcher in the Woods) but they were not money makers. They also helped to influce the creation of Touchstone, by showing that Disney needed some other label to expand they kind of movies they needed to produce. It (and The Disney Channel) was the right idea, but it came too late to save his position in the company.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I am surprised no-one has mentioned Mary Poppins. Again, as with Snow White, Walt Disney took a big gamble on the film and it paid off handsomely. MaPo (sp?) was the engineering company formed to design the attractions for Disneyland and was the predecessor to Walt Disney Imagineering. Without Mary Poppins, much of what brings us to these forums would not exist. Mary Poppins was the cash cow for much of the 1950s expansion of the company.

Mary Poppins was released in 1964. Disneyland opened nine years earlier in 1955. At that same time Project X was moving forward with clandestine land acquisition in Florida. The film was not at all related to enabling Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

 

[216bruce]

Frozen /sarcasm

Sequel to Frozen Fever?

 

[ULPO46]

It depends when you are talking about the exact history of the Walt Disney Co. in it's early days Snow White. Cinderella definitely helped. But after Walt died, defiantly have to say The Disney Renaissance helped make the brand as powerful as it is today. It's just hard to point out a good film. But terrible you can name them all from the Black Cauldron to John Carter. These films nearly bankrupted the studios finances or caused a little tremor in the studios with a couple of high level execs getting sacked for recent flops. Films are hard to make, you never no if something will succeed or fail or become a cult classic.

 

[ShoalFox]

But terrible you can name them all from the Black Cauldron to John Carter.

Slightly off-topic, but (at least in my opinion) The Black Cauldron is actually very, very good. The movie is very misunderstood due to how much of a box office bomb it was.

 

[216bruce]

Cinderella sure helped the company recover financially after the war and later Little Mermaid sure helped the animation division when it was being "looked at" and it ushered in a new golden age. Snow White put it on the map, big time as a features producing studio (obviously). Before Disneyland and later WDW, when the company was just a studio, it was possible for a film to save the company. Now that the company is so diversified it's a lot more likely that a film will 'save' the studio, but unlikely it'd save the company as a whole. I think had Snow White not been the blockbuster it was that there would be no studio...or company for that matter. Don't discount The Great Mouse Detective as it let studio powers-that-be see that the place could still make at least a modest hit. It was/is under-appreciated somewhat in it's importance.
Now, there's some Star Wars thing that just may make a few bucks....

 

[216bruce]

Slightly off-topic, but (at least in my opinion) The Black Cauldron is actually very, very goo. The movie is very misunderstood due to how much of a box office bomb it was.

Supposedly there is a cut of the movie that exists that is more coherent and generally 'better', even though I agree that it's not a bad movie at all. I guess that Jeffrey Katzenberg saw this 'other' cut when he was hired and was concerned that the movie was too dark and scary, so he personally oversaw the re-editing of the film down, excising about 10 minutes of film to tone down the scariness of it. At least that's what I've read. I'd love to see it.

 

[ShoalFox]

Supposedly there is a cut of the movie that exists that is more coherent and generally 'better', even though I agree that it's not a bad movie at all. I guess that Jeffrey Katzenberg saw this 'other' cut when he was hired and was concerned that the movie was too dark and scary, so he personally oversaw the re-editing of the film down, excising about 10 minutes of film to tone down the scariness of it. At least that's what I've read. I'd love to see it.

People are hoping that if The Black Cauldron comes out on Blu-ray, it will include these deleted scenes. I doubt it since Disney hasn't cared about the movie since 1985. Katzenberg's editing got to the point where EISNER had to convince him to stop.