Jim Hill is apparently going to publish a story a day until Disney's Florida animation wing goes bye-bye. Fortunately that's only four days away! I have made my feelings known, but really, how important is the Florida division? Yes, "Lilo and Stitch" was a bonafide hit at $146M. And "Mulan" was kind of a hit at $120M. But the $82M "Brother Bear" brought in hardly makes that a hit. Regardless, they made three movies. THREE! Will their output really be missed?
The best parts of the articles, though, are the letters from people within the animation department. They all place blame squarely on those "cheapquels" we have all complained about. Eisner recently bragged that those crapfests will make BILLIONS for the company over time. But internal surveys are proving what some people here didn't want to believe: About 35% of BB's target audience said they would wait for it to come out on video/DVD. Disney basically trained people to spend more time at the video store than the movie theater.
Simply put, Disney's animated films are no longer events, because Disney just put out too many of them each year. One animator says, "The people don't know the difference between 'Piglet's Big Movie' and 'Treasure Planet.'" But then again, he says "the people" don't know the difference between who made "Finding Nemo" and "Lilo" which may make him dumber than "the people" he is insulting. Hey, Numbskull! Why don't you compare opening weekends for both films and try that one again.
It is obvious, though, that Disney put out too much crap, thereby diluting what should have been their "event" pictures. Disney needs to get their films back to that status, and lower output is the only way to accomplish that.
THE TOWER OF ERROR?
LA Times - Jan 6
Disney got in trouble for rushing its Tournament of Roses Parade float out of Pasadena in the middle of the night. Now they are getting in trouble for the float itself. Many people know what the float represents, but many don't, and many of those people are apparently seeing a tower full of screaming people and thinking 9/11.
Normally I would scream hypersensitivity - like everything has to forever be linked to that attack - but since when has the ToRP been a place to hawk your goods? And that's clearly what Disney's float was. Although corporations sponsor floats, the floats at least have something to do with the theme of the parade. This year's theme was "Music, Music, Music" and we all know how musical the Tower of Terror is. They at least made an effort, by naming it "A Sudden Drop in Pitch" but that's still pushing it. They should have kept the float for their dumb Christmas commercial... I mean Parade!
REGISTERS RING, ARE YA LISTENIN'?
Orlando Sentinel - Jan 7
Not that Disney needed much advertising. I heard Disneyland was turning away people as 80,000 jammed the park several times over the holidays. Well, it was much the same at Walt Disney World. If Michael Eisner could be trusted - which he can't - the parks set daily and weekly records between Christmas and New Year's. Apparently much of the increase is happening over at Epcot, which had a record New Year's Eve. Okay, that's all basically believable, but the "fact" of WDW reservationists needing to work 60-hour weeks to handle all the post-Christmas Parade calls is stretching it.
Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando are both claiming record weeks too. Universal says their parks are still crowded even after school started back up. Crowded? Okay, that may be another stretch. If anything, this does indicate that people may no longer be fearing the economy, so take that into account if you are planning a trip for Spring or Summer break.
INDEPENDENT OR CODEPENDENT?
LA Times - Jan 7
The Disney board is making more moves to become more independent. Director John Bryson will no longer be considered independent due to his wife's position at Lifetime, which Disney co-owns. Bryson will no longer chair the governance and nominating committee because of the title change, which is funny since this was the committee that Stanley Gold, one of the few anti-Eisner people on the Board, was removed from because he wasn't considered independent. The rest of the article is about Eisner crowing about this and that and more of his pie-in-the-sky predictions. Moron.
I'd say there were record highs all around--it was holiday vacation time, that's all. Disney's numbers were nothing special, because I can personally vouch for Universal's crowds, and reliable friends told me Busch Gardens saw unusual numbers as well. Nothing vastly important.
