Disney Pixar Discussion

Post by **Ben** » June 8th, 2005, 5:15 pm

Okay, let's just hold it right there.

Violet, you've said this time and again, and we know how you feel on the whole situation, but, truth be told, only three people really know what went down, and none of the them are on these boards.

Without wanting to shut this thread down, and not wishing to act as censorship, can I ask that we keep things back on topic and not let this go off into a realm of supposed and unfounded comments.

THANK-YOU.

Now, about the Disney/Pixar thing: what do we think about Bob Iger's recent statements:
http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCo ... 349_newsml

Post by **ShyViolet** » June 8th, 2005, 5:21 pm

'Kay, I won't discuss it anymore.

Post by **Meg** » June 8th, 2005, 5:54 pm

Ben wrote:The Disney board did not perform a proper search and did not treat the one person they did talk to (Meg Whitman) with any respect.

Too bad they didn't pick her - we would've shared the same name!.

..Sort of...

Anyhoo, the Disney/Pixar thing...I personally think they should stay together (for now, anyway). Pixar isn't nearly big enough yet to distribute their own films, and I'm pretty sure they won't do as well with any other company.

Post by **ShyViolet** » June 9th, 2005, 6:19 pm

I bet Meg from Hercules is your favorite character!

Overall I do kind of wish Pixar would stay with Diz because I do like their films a lot. I think that they are headed for a reconciliation especially now that it seems that Steve and Bob are getting on.

Well, only will time will tell.

Post by **Meg** » June 10th, 2005, 3:18 pm

ShyViolet wrote:I bet Meg from Hercules is your favorite character!

Actually, I was just about to make a post on the 'Worst Animated Character" thread ranting about why I don't like her. Strange, I know.

Post by **Ben** » June 10th, 2005, 10:40 pm

Spell it backwards and you have... Gem.

Gawd, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have brought that up!

Post by **ShyViolet** » August 2nd, 2005, 5:54 pm

http://cganimation.blogspot.com/2005/07 ... -tier.html

Really interesting article about the animation studios and where they rank.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » August 3rd, 2005, 12:33 am

Hah.

The real power still belongs to the money people. Persons like the Disney Brothers come along only once in a lifetime.

Pixar is very lucky that Steve Jobs lets John Lasseter run the day-to-day operations of the creative half of that company.

That's not the case with 99% of the other companies out there.

P.S. -- The real reason artists don't have power is that most of them are not interested in politics or running their own companies. Most are also lousy businessmen which is why many animation studios don't last much longer than 10 years. Most people just don't like to delegate to other people and are content to be followers. Due to this fact, they're at the mercy of executives, the economy, and the whims of fate. For all the talk that a lot of people do about artists saving the animation industry, the fact is that most artists pray for a "Super-Disney" individual to come and save them.

So far, it's not happening.

Post by **ShyViolet** » August 8th, 2005, 5:07 pm

Does this mean the end of the movement to save Disney? I can see why they shut it down, I'm sure Iger didn't like that "Stromboli" picture of Eisner manipulating him on a string.

My question is: Is Roy Disney actually going to be putting into practice any of the things he has been preaching on this site for the last year and a half? How about a nice rendition of "Ding, dong, the witch is dead?" I'm sure THAT would help the company.

Post by **Bambi** » August 8th, 2005, 5:42 pm

hey can you explain what was saveDisney?

Post by **Ben** » August 8th, 2005, 5:45 pm

Well, technically speaking, Warners own the rights to that song.

I think Roy got what he wanted. An office back at Disney. We'll have to wait and see what influence he has over anything, but Iger does seem to be trying.

Post by **ShyViolet** » August 8th, 2005, 6:10 pm

hey can you explain what was saveDisney?

In December 2003 the Nephew of Walt Disney, Roy E. Disney, was retired from the board of directors (he was over 72 which was the retirement age). He resigned before they had a chance to let him go, along with Stanley Gold, who was also on the board of directors.

Roy had a lot of problems with the company, paraticularly with the CEO Michael Eisner. He felt that Eisner was letting the company become too corporate, too money-orientated and that the quality from the parks and the films since 1994 had declined steadily. (However, he never mentioned, even on his own website, what HIS role in those ten years was and what HIS experiences in trying to preserve the essential integrity of the company consisted of.)

SaveDisney.com was bascially a pleothera of article links/rants/essays/fan letters/trivia games/photos about the Disney company and how it was declining. Roy Disney wasn't really involved with its day-to-day management other than an occasional "greeting" on the home page, which was updated about every five months or so.

The webmasters were faced with the tricky task of complaining against the company while at the same time not putting down something that a lot of people still loved and enjoyed. Which made their efforts seem, at times, more than a little hypocritical not to mention unprofessional, considering the amount of anti-Disney essays that were put up. On the one hand, the editors were savaging Eisner's Disney in every way imaginable, painting Eisner as only a little less evil than Saddam Hussein. (or Gollum from LOTR, or whatever the writer thought of that day). On the other hand, they claimed to revere the Disney films and Disney parks, promising to return Disney to the pure, magical place it had been before Eisner had taken over. (No doubt forgetting that the creatively stagnent place it had become under Ron Miller AND Roy Disney in the 1970s was the reason Eisner had been brought in in the first place, and BY ROY.)
In order to ward off the lawsuits, the editors made the gutless move of putting the disclaimer: "This essay does not necessarily represent the opinions of SaveDisney.com" on almost every article. OK so...what IS the opinion of SaveDisney.com?

So when Roy left he set up this website in order to rally fans and supporters and eventually get Eisner out of the company and get himself and Gold back in...Then in the March 2004 Shareholders meeting, Eisner got a 43% no confidence vote from the shareholders, in large part due to the efforts of Disney and Gold.

The job of chaiman/CEO was split between Eisner and George Mitchell. But Eisner still had the power at the company, which wasn't what Roy wanted. (He wanted Eisner gone and destroyed.) SaveDisney.com continued, although the main impact of the movement died down after the ShareHolders meeting.

But Roy and Stanley kept complaining in the press an on-line about what a monster Eisner was and how he was destroying Disney. (despite the fact that the stock had gone up the way Eisner predicted and the company was doing a lot better than when Roy first resigned.) Eventually Eisner announced his retirement in 2006, but decided to opt out a year early, in order to go out on a high note with the 50th anniversery and all that.
He named Bob Iger as the new CEO, despite the fact that Roy and Stanley were dead-set against Iger as a "clone" or "puppet" of Eisner. They continued to ridicule both Eisner and Iger on the website, and even filed a lawsuit against the company's "disengenuous" search for a new CEO.

All of which leads up to......this July. Everything changed. It was the 50th Anniversery of DisneyLand, and even Diane Disney Miller and Ron Miller (Disney's daughter and her husband, who ran the company back in the 70s,) attended and applauded Eisner's efforts over the past 20 years.
So guess what? Roy cut his losses and made some kind of deal with Iger and the rest. Now he's back at the company as a "Director Emeritus" and "consultant". (No one really knows what happened to Gold.) But he won't have voting power, and how much influence he'll have is still in question. Not much has been said about this since it happened.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see....

Well, technically speaking, Warners own the rights to that song.

Oh right from the Wizard of Oz?

Love that movie! "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" has been my favorite, favorite song since I was a kid.

Post by **Wonderlicious** » August 8th, 2005, 7:33 pm

[quote="ShyViolet]On the one hand, the editors were savaging Eisner's Disney in every way imaginable, painting Eisner as only a little less evil than Saddam Hussein. (or Gollum from LOTR, or whatever the writer thought of that day).[/quote]

It's interesting to note the "2 Disc Disney Sets" page on SaveDisney.com; I seem to remember there being no mention of any collector's editions of Eisner era films on that site, only Walt-era films and shorts.

Post by **Bambi** » August 9th, 2005, 8:25 pm

2 bad roy disney is retiring, and disney is having a lot o problems.

Post by **Ben** » August 10th, 2005, 7:26 am

Bambi wrote:2 bad roy disney is retiring

???

He just got a plum new role at Disney!?

Disney Pixar Discussion

Who's got the power in animation?

SaveDisney shut down