The year 2003 has been something of a watershed for the Walt Disney
Company. As we put our champagne on ice and sit back to watch the ball
drop in Times Square, let’s take a look what I think are the top 10 events
that shook the world of Disney in 2003.
10. Sale of the Anaheim Angels
Rumors swirled after the Anaheim Angels baseball team won the World Series
in 2002 that the Walt Disney Company was contemplating selling the team
while it was still hot. The final deal was closed in May when Major League
Baseball approved the sale of the team to Arizona businessman Arte Moreno
for $184 million. Not a particularly bad deal… for Moreno.
Considering that Disney first bought 25 percent of the franchise in 1996,
then paid $140 million three years later to the family of Gene Autry for
the remaining equity, and sunk $100 million into Edison Field stadium,
Disney probably figured it was best to cut its losses and sell while it
could. After all, no one seemed particularly surprised that the Angels
didn’t make it to the playoffs this year.
In related news, word is that Disney is still actively looking to sell
its Anaheim Ducks hockey franchise. Perhaps they’ll have to wait until
the Ducks win the Stanley Cup.
9. Closing and selling off The Disney Stores
Since its explosive and successful growth in the early 1990s thanks to
wunderkind Paul Pressler (who then became the prime example of the Peter
Principle of rising to one’s own level of incompetence when promoted to
President of the Disneyland Resort), The Disney Store chain has been stagnated
by numerous miscues and missteps.
Although no buyer has yet officially emerged to purchase The Disney Stores
from Disney, the corporate giant is making no bones of laying off Disney
Store staff and closing numerous stores around the country. As much as
the Walt Disney Company likes to tout corporate synergy, it’s awfully
hard for its right hand to operate a successful chain of brand-exclusive
retail stores while signing off on the sales of el-cheapo Made in China
products in Wal-Marts.
8. Sudden death of John Ritter, and poor performance at ABC-TV
John Ritter, at the press conference for 8 Simple Rules for Dating
My Daughter at DCA in 2002 for the ABC Primetime Weekend event. [Read
of the event.] Photo by Alex Stroup, file photo.
Just days after his personal appearance at Disney’s California Adventure
park during the second annual ABC Primetime Weekend on September 6 and
7, actor John Ritter died suddenly from a previously undetected heart
defect.
After a brief period of mourning, ABC-TV announced that the show he was
on, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, would continue
on without him. Writers wove his death into the storyline, and brought
veterans James Garner and Suzanne Pleshette into the cast to try to keep
alive one of the very few hits the network has.
ABC-TV has come a long way from those years in the 1970s when, thanks
to that young creative programming genius at the time, Michael Eisner,
the network captured much of the Nielsen ratings for the top spots. Happy
Days… Laverne & Shirley… Oh, those were the days.
Will ABC be able to turn itself around and stop sucking in the ratings
department? You think 8 Simple Rules will do it? Where’s the Fonz
when you need him?
7. Negotiations with Pixar dragging
After the 2005 release of Cars, Pixar fulfills
its five-picture contract with the Walt Disney Company. As such, Pixar
has been on an incredible window shopping spree as it meets with various
companies to decide on a new partner.
If it hadn’t been for the creative imaginations at Pixar, Disney wouldn’t
be able to tout so many movie hits—Toy Story, A Bug’s Life,
Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo… tales that have charmed
audiences and brought new meet-and-greet characters to the Disney parks.
Why, without them, children visiting the parks would have had to get their
autograph books signed by such lovable and memorable characters as Morph,
the shape-shifting floaty-pink thingy, and B.E.N., the C3PO wannabe from
Treasure Planet.
By most accounts, Disney really needs to renew its deal with Pixar, even
if it means Disney takes a smaller cut. There’s hope yet; the fact that
Pixar has yet to announce a new partner is a sign that the haggling is
still going on. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
6. Mission: Space and PhilharMagic open at WDW
The exterior of the Mission: Space attraction at Epcot beckons park visitors
to go on this astronaut-approved simulator. See our Mission:
Space photo tour. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix, file photo.
Walt Disney World has opened two pretty big attractions this year at
its resort. One is PhilharMagic, a sort of CGI-infused musical show in
its own theater in the Magic Kingdom.
Bigger news is the opening of the long-awaited Mission: Space attraction
in Epcot. A space-flight simulation attraction, Mission: Space is not
only an E-ticket attraction drawing crowds to Florida, but it’s also a
bona fide V-ticket attraction; WDW recently announced that air sickness
bags are now available in the attraction—probably to prevent so many
“Code V” announcements from going out over its employee radios.
When former astronaut Jim Lovell proclaimed this as the best, closest
simulator he had been on, Epcot got one leg up on the nearby Kennedy Space
Center. Best of all, Epcot now has two thrill rides (the other being Test
Track) to pull in visitors who might otherwise find the resort boring
with its lack of E-ticket attractions. An ale at the Rose & Crown Pub
at the UK pavillion may be dandy, but apparently not everyone wants to
pay $50 for the privilege of eating around the world all day.
5. 50th Anniversary non-event
Our rendition of what the gold-painted castle might look like. MousePlanet
file photo.
Surely the merchandising geniuses at Team Disney Anaheim, and the creative
wizards at Walt Disney Imagineering must be coming up with some pretty
spectacular magic for Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary celebration? After
all, it’s only a year and a half away, and they don’t call the 50th a
“golden anniversary” for nothing. For a park that has made a
big deal of its “minor” anniversaries like the 35th, park fans
can’t wait to hear what the park will unveil.
…and we’re still waiting.
We’ve heard various pronouncements about the plans to celebrate the 50th—how
it will last 18 months, and how all resorts will celebrate. I realize
it’s over a year away, but really. If Disney drops the ball on this one,
we’ll be so disheartened we won’t know what to say. There may be some
hope left yet, but even Tinker Bell can only sprinkle so much pixie dust
when we know it takes a long time to construct brand new attractions in
time for a special celebration.
…but we’ll still wait, anyway.
4. Strong showing for Walt Disney Studios/shuttering Florida Feature
Animation
Surprise! Walt Disney Studios brought in quite a chunk o’ change this
year. Finding Nemo showed incredible legs—er, fins—with
a domestic gross of almost $340 million. That puts Finding Nemo
at the number-one spot for top movies of 2003.
The story, of a lost boy-fish and his father’s quest to find him, was
a universal theme everyone could empathize with. Great characters, an
involving plot, and jaw-dropping computer animation made this Pixar flick
both a must-see in theaters, as well as a must-have for the home theater
market.
Not far behind is yet another Disney picture, Pirates of the Caribbean:
The Curse of the Black Pearl. By taking in a domestic gross of over
$305 million, it is sitting pretty in the number-two spot.
There is a fair amount of buzz of getting Johnny Depp a Best Actor Oscar
nomination, and some buzz that Jamie Lee Curtis should get one, too, for
her role in Freaky Friday.
Although they may be longshots, if either were to win, they would be
the first acting Academy Awards to come from a Disney Pictures film since
Julie Andrews in 1965 for Mary Poppins (and fourth overall if you
include juvenile acting awards for Bobby Driscoll in 1950 for So Dear
to My Heart and Hayley Mills for Pollyanna in 1960).
It would be the first acting nomination from a Walt Disney Pictures film
since Richard Farnsworth in 1999’s The Straight Story.
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King will most likely surpass
both movies in total box office, although a good portion of it will be
made in 2004. If you only count actual gross for 2003, the two Disney
movies will remain in their top spots.
Despite these strong showings—or perhaps because of them and their
formats—Disney caused the fans of traditional animation to tremble
in fear when it laid off its pen-and-ink animators and shuttered its Feature
Animation division in Florida.
It didn’t help that domestic gross for Brother Bear is $82 million.
Fans have cried foul, seeing the axe as sealing the fate of the next generation
of Disney “animation” (using computer animation) as harkening
back the dark days of Disney’s animation output in the 1970s.
3. Regime change at Disneyland
The very sudden departure of Disneyland president Cynthia Harriss earlier
this fall, and the quick appointment of Matt Oiumet from Disney Cruise Line,
is being seen by many in the Disney park fan community as a ray of hope.
A foundational shift in corporate philosophy seems to be occurring at
Disneyland, with far more emphasis placed on guest experience, safety,
and maintenance. From what we can tell, Oiumet has rolled up his sleeves
and is really working on giving the resort a good scrubbing. Thank goodness—it’s
about time.
2. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad accident
After decades of sound maintenance and safety practices, the years of
cost-cutting and neglect in the 1990s finally started catching up on Disneyland.
And while the accidents from the past handful of years (such as with the
Sailing Ship Columbia pulling a cleat off the dock and killing
a park visitor, and a child falling under the Roger Rabbit CarToon Spin
ride vehicle and becoming comatose) have been unfortunate, it was the
accident at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad this fall that seemed to scream
out that there was something terribly wrong with the park.
To many, the Big Thunder accident is a culmination of all that went bad
in the park… inadequate staffing, poor training, lack of safeguards,
poor quality assurance or quality control. It was no surprise, then, when
the State of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health announced
in its findings last month that Disney’s maintenance and procedures were
at fault for the accident.
Unfortunately, it’s not easy for anyone to say, “See, I told you
so; it was just an accident waiting to happen,” when the accident
causes injuries to a dozen people, and kills a person.
Our hearts go out to those who were affected by the accident. With such
a damning investigative report, we truly hope the Disney parks—and
all other amusement and theme parks—take a careful look at their
procedures, to make sure this type of event doesn’t happen again. Surely
no amount of cost-savings is worth the heartache, or the lawsuits, that
come from this sort of tragedy.
1. Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold resignations/open rebellion against
Eisner
The resignations of Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold from the Walt Disney
Company’s Board of Directors hit an 8.0 on the online Disney community’s
Richter scale.
Although the Walt Disney Company tried to minimize the news coverage
of the resignations to the general public, the loyal fan base was shaken
to the core—and simultaneously invigorated.
Talks of an involuntary resignation by Eisner or speculation of another
successful coup by Roy Disney have filled online discussion boards, while
the board of directors itself has moved on, selecting a software industry
CEO to a director seat soon after the resignations were announced.
MousePlanet’s David Koenig wrote his thoughts on whether their resignations
would be effective in “Coup
II.” Even indirectly, the resignations have created a rift
in the space-time continuum, so to speak. For the first time, former board
members (such as Andrea Van de Kamp, forced to resign earlier this year
after a falling out with Eisner) and Miramax head Harvey Weinstein, have
been openly critical of Eisner.
For the first time, Big Cheese Eisner is starting to be portrayed publicly
like Head Cheese by persons willing to be quoted by name. How long will
it be before the voices of displeasure and rebellion grow so loud that
Eisner finds himself announcing his retirement so he could spend more
time with his family?
