Monday Mouse Watch : Give the Geeks a Chance

Jim Hill

16 years ago

From the people who brought you …

“We have to save ‘The Land.’ The Imagineers are planning on adding a clone of ‘Soarin’ Over California‘ to this Future World pavilion. And this will ruin Epcot.”

… and …

“Have you heard about what they’re planning on doing at Disneyland? They’re going to add the ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ characters to The Haunted Mansion. We have to stop them!”

… and …

“A movie
based on the Pirates of the Caribbean?! What a stupid idea. Who would go to see a piece of cr@p like that?”

… comes the latest thing that some members of the online Disneyana community are going off half-cocked about: D23.

Let’s cut to the chase: The “Official Community for Disney Fans” wasn’t created so The Walt Disney Company would then have a place where it could sell $850 pens. The execs at Disney Consumer Products are the ones behind those pricey writing implements. They launched the Walt Disney Signature Collection back in April of 2006 when the Company decided to take a run at the high-end adult market. Specifically targeting consumers who are interested in purchasing high priced luxury items.

Whereas D23 … Well, as much as some folks on the Web would like you to believe that this new Disney business initiative is just more money grubbing by the Mouse, it really isn’t. “And how do you know this?,” you ask. Well, over the past week, I’ve talked with a number of people associated with D23. And — to be honest — they’re not exactly financial wizards. If anything …

Look, there’s no polite way to say this. So I’m just going to blurt it out: The guys behind this “Official Community for Disney Fans”? They’re geeks just like us.

Don’t believe me? Okay. Then let’s talk about Steven B. Clark, the head of D23. He got his start the way the lot of us did. By religiously watching the Disney television shows. And by reading everything that he could get his hands on about Walt and the Company he created. And then came his first Disneyana convention.

“This was the Summer of 1991 and I went with my cousin,” Steven remembered. “And as I was sitting there, waiting for the next panel to begin, I looked around the hall and noticed that – sitting right behind me – was Dave Smith. Well, I recognized Dave from that column that he used to write for Disney Channel Magazine. So I turned around and introduced myself. We then struck up a conversation and Dave was nice enough to invite me out to the Studios to come visit him at the Archives.”

While he was on the lot, Smith asked Clark about his interests. When Steve confessed that he wanted to work for the Company one day, Dave suggested that he apply for a job at Disneyland. And that’s just what Turner did.

So we’re not talking about some faceless suit here. Some overly-ambitious business school grad who only views The Walt Disney Company as a great thing to have on his resume. A stepping stone that he can then use to climb the corporate ladder. No, Steve was (more importantly, still is) a Disney dweeb just like us. Which is why he was thrilled to get hired as a Submarine Voyage captain and then spend the Summer of 1992 endlessly circling through liquid space.

I mean, this is a guy who just couldn’t get enough of The Walt Disney Company. Which is why – when an internship opened at Disneyland’s Publicity office – Steve quickly applied for that gig so that he could then learn about that side of the Mouse House.

And that internship led to other jobs in Feature Animation, the Disney Channel and Corporate Communications. And everywhere he went in the Company, Clark found other died-in-the-wool Disney geeks. People deep within the organization who shared his passion for the stories, the characters and the history of The Walt Disney Company.

And it’s still like that today. So many of the folks who are heavily involved with the launch of D23 were / are big-time Disney dweebs. Steven recently related what happened when he showed an early prototype of this “Official Community for Disney Fans” to his longtime friend, Don Hahn.

“Don took one look at it and said ‘Pete’s gotta see this,’ “Turner recalled. “And Pete – as it turns out – was Pete Docter, who’s a huge Disney fan. So then Pete saw what we were doing and said ‘Well, John’s gotta see this.’ And John was obviously John Lasseter. And once he saw what we were doing, John became a huge supporter of the project. He actually came by our office twice.”

And the reason that all these powerful people at Disney Studios are being so supportive of D23 is because … Well, it’s different. It’s smarter. It’s going to try & use the Company’s own heritage, its huge untapped reservoirs of images & anecdotes as a way to really connect with the fans.

“This is all about going beyond the press release,” Steven explained. “Not giving people the very same pictures that they’ve already seen in the Los Angeles Times or Entertainment Weekly or stories that they’ve already read at other websites. We’re working with every single publicity department within the Company to create all-new content. To give people access to material they’ve never before gotten their hands on.”

And one of the reasons that D23 is able to get this high level of access, this huge amount of cooperation is that the man at the top is 100% behind this project.
“Bob Iger really gets what we’re trying to do here,” Clark continued. “He has been to that warehouse in Glendale. He has seen the Disney Crown Jewels that are hidden away there. He has a real affinity for the fans and is all about reaching out to them in the right way.”

And how exactly did the fans respond when The Walt Disney Company reached out and launched D23? When Steven and I spoke late last week, he said that he was pleased with their response to date. More importantly, that he was grateful that so many people had given D23 the benefit of the doubt. That they recognized that this “Official Community of Disney Fans” was trying to do something different here. Which is why it really deserved their support.

“You know – what with all the books and magazine articles and web posts that have been written about The Walt Disney Company – you’d think that all of the stories have already been told,” Clark said. “But that’s just not true. As I dug through files at that warehouse, I found things that no Disneyana fan had ever seen before. Things like Dick Irvine’s old correspondence. There was stuff in there that I’d never ever heard about before.”

And it’s just these sorts of untold tales that D23 will get out there if the fan community actually gives this new Disney business initiative the support it needs, the support it deserves. Rather than picking D23 apart because of its allegedly high price point and/or carping about those over-priced Walt Disney Signature Collection items that are currently up for sale over at Boutique 23.

Obviously, it’s your choice. But if it were up to me, I’d give the geeks a chance.

Your thoughts?