A few extra moments can bring interesting thoughts to mind. Hence:
I guess I’m just reaching a point where all of the Mike versus Roy, Disney versus Pixar, theme parks, movies, out-of-work animators and etcetera is kind of reaching my limit of nonsense. Brown right up to my eyes, okay?
Once upon a time, there was something magical about all of this form of entertainment. Lately, it seems like that is all forgotten.
Let me point out a just few things that ain’t what they used to be:
Quality. Case in point, a visit to Disneyland seems to offer a guest more construction fences, tarps and projects and closed attractions than ever before. Admittedly, this is a season for this kind of thing, but there does seem to be an abundance of that kind of clutter at the moment.
Animated films were one of the things that the average person always associated with the Disney Company. Yet, the staff of folks doing anything related to that for Disney is getting smaller each day. And you don’t have to have graduated from Cal-Arts to see that the product released under the Disney name is less than attractive. How in heck did “Teacher’s Pet” ever see the light of projection in a theater, much less on a home video?
Way back when, I used to visit my local Disney Store once or twice a week. It wasn’t unusual for me to walk out after having made a purchase. T-shirt, pin, video, compact disc, plush… Yet I haven’t been in a Disney Store since a very disappointing stop at the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, and I didn’t spend even a few bucks. Guess they didn’t need the income any more?
And ABC TV is bringing back “Millionaire” with Regis to prime time?
Hello???
One more time, the overwhelming sound of crickets is heard.
Just to check and see, I don’t think that the issues fall on my, a.k.a. the consumer, side of the coin. A visit to Disneyland still manages to evoke all the special moments for me, even if some of them manage to be a bit rugged around the edges (thank you Matt for the upcoming Tiki Room project). The fun of trading pins with other guests is still there despite the sharks circling just outside the Premiere Shop. Movies with stories that involve the audience by making them invest emotionally do work (Lord of the Rings), where as shallow plots and points cut to meet a budget don’t, no matter how well drawn or computer generated they are.
And the magic still can be seen when a child visits one of the Park’s and meet their favorite character for that first time. The power of that simple smile can’t be measured.
So, while Mikey and folks like him, even Steve, wonder how to get us back, maybe what they should wonder more is why we are going away.
Disneyland was and can be a magical place where a family experiences something they can not find anywhere else. And if given the opportunities, they will spend a few dollars beyond what they planned for that something special to mark that event. But that is not a chance buy the same thing for a higher price than what Wal-mart has in stock back home. And if that visit is truly magical, then they will share those videos and photos with family and friends who just might decide that they need to have the same experience for themselves. But if they find the place covered in tarps and construction walls and have a less than interesting visit, odds are strong that they will share that instead, and who wants to spend those hard earned dollars on that? Not me and I’m sure not you, either…
Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. I know that Walt and Roy wanted to make a profit, and there is nothing wrong with that. But somewhere along the way, that profit seems to have become the most important goal. Maybe the future can offer more of a balance between profit and product with the consumer as the benefactor of that balance?
Someone once described the future of entertainment like this. “To think six years ahead – even two or three – in this business of making animated cartoon features, it takes calculated risk and much more than blind faith in the future of theatrical motion pictures. I see motion pictures as a family-founded institution closely related to the life and labor of millions of people. Entertainment such as our business provides has become a necessity, not a luxury… it is the part which offers us the greatest reassurance about the future in the animation field.”
Too bad thinking like that seems kind of out of place at the moment…
Where are people like Walt Disney when we need them?
So that’s all for this time. Who knows what you’ll find taking up this space next week? Roger doesn’t and that’s a fact! If you’re enjoying these “Ruminations”, show that appreciation by dropping a buck or two in his Paypal Donation Box. As Joel Grey put it so well in his performance of “Cabaret”, “Money makes the world go round!”