Charles H. from Menlo Park, CA. writes:
Dear Jim:
I’m loving this new web site of yours. It’s great to finally have a steady stream of great inside stories about the Mouse Works, all delivered in that snarky Jim Hill style. Keep up the great work, guy!
Anywho … Here’s a quick question for your “Why For?” column. I know that you try to be even handed and all when you’re writing about the Mouse. But you and I both know that the Walt Disney Company has been going through a prolonged rough patch. That the corporation’s been on the skids for least two or three years now. So what do you think started this all, Jim? Was there one key event that you personally think sent Mickey over to the dark side?
Thanks for your note, Charles. As for this “rough patch” (as you call it) that the Walt Disney Company has been going through, my personal opinion is that its origins can traced a hell of lot further back than just “two or three years” ago. I’d set the start of Mickey’s slide “to the dark side” back to April 1994. April 2nd, to be precise. That terrible Easter Sunday when Frank Wells, Disney’s then-president, was killed in a helicopter crash while vacationing in Nevada’s Rudy Mountains.
To hear some Disney insiders tell this story, the day that Frank died was the very same day that things started to go wrong at the Mouse Factory. Why? Because (at least according to folks that I’ve talked with), Wells was this incredibly honorable man. His word was his bond. If Frank told you that something was a “go,” you could actually count on it happening.
Plus Wells understood that – sometimes – in order to make money, you actually have to spend money. Case in point: (This is a story that I’ve heard from a number of Imagineers over the past few years. So I’m going to assume that it’s not apocryphal. Anyway … ) In late 1984, just weeks after he and Michael Eisner had come on board at the Walt Disney Company, Frank sat down with some senior Imagineers at WDI. The subject up for discussion was “Splash Mountain.”
This is the make-or-break meeting for this project. The one where the Imagineers actually got the funding that they needed to finally go forward for this proposed Disneyland addition OR the one where “Splash Mountain” was shelved. Permanently.
I’m told that Bruce Gordon and Tony Baxter put on a wonderful dog-and-pony show that morning. Walking Frank through the 1″ scale model of the proposed attraction. Talking him through the show’s elaborate storyboards (with the “Song of the South” soundtrack blaring in the background). Stressing the amount of money that Disney would actually be saving on this Disneyland addition by recycling the old “America Sings” AA figures.
Of course, Bruce & Tony knew that they had to stress cost savings wherever they could in this presentation. Why for? Because they knew that “Splash Mountain” was going to be one of the most expensive attractions ever built for the park. In-house estimates reportedly placed “Splash”‘s initial construction costs at around $17 million. Which is nearly as much as Walt Disney spent to build all of Disneyland back in 1955.
I’ve heard that Gordon and Baxter were absolutely crestfallen when they heard Wells say that “This ride is just too expensive …” But then – after a somewhat lengthy pause – they were stunned to hear Wells continue by saying ” … but we’re still going to have to build it. This idea’s just too good to keep out of the parks.”
So Wells went back to Burbank and convinced Eisner that “Splash Mountain” – though expensive – was still worth building. And the end result was a franchise attraction (With one “Splash Mountain” in Anaheim, another in Orlando, still another in Tokyo and – if the rumors coming out of Marne la Valle lately prove to be true – another “Splash Mountain” is due to leap up out of the ground over at Disneyland Paris sometime in the next five years) that’s loved the world over.
Of course, to hear some other Disney insiders tell this story, perhaps the most valuable thing that Frank Wells used to do WASN’T going to bat for the Imagineers. But – rather – keeping Michael Eisner in check.
To hear Peter Clark, a veteran Disney executive tell it: “Frank was actually (Michael’s) moral compass. He was the Jiminey Cricket” who kept the Mouse House’s somewhat slippery Chairman & CEO on the straight & narrow path.
Don’t believe me? Michael Eisner actually admitted as much in his autobiography, “Work in Progress (1998 Random House) when he said “If I was the rudder, he was the keel. For 10 years (that they worked together) we never had a fight or disagreement…I never once felt angry at him ? not until Easter Sunday afternoon in April 1994 when the ski helicopter carrying him out of the back country in northern Nevada crashed and he died instantly. Even then I felt angry only because Frank was not around to help me out with a difficult situation, as he had so many times before. But mostly what I felt was an overwhelming sense of sadness and loss.”
Just as Eisner says, Frank was the guy who fixed things. The man who got the Walt Disney Company out of a lot of difficult situations. EX: That financial restructuring deal that saved Euro Disney? That was Frank’s doing.
“It’s just hard to imagine what Disney would be like today if Frank hadn’t died back in 1994,” said one Mouse House insider when we spoke earlier today. “Wells would have probably found a way to keep Jeffrey from going off the reservation. At the very least, Frank would have kept the damage down to an absolute minimum. He’d have cut Katzenberg a nice fat check, probably help Jeffrey set up his own production company with an exclusive distribution deal with Disney.”
“You see what I’m saying, Jim? If Wells was still alive, there probably wouldn’t have been a Dreamworks. At the very least, we wouldn’t have gone through that whole Ovitz debacle. And Frank certainly wouldn’t have allowed Eisner to go forward with that stupid Katzenberg royalties trial. The company would have avoided tons of unnecessary negative publicity and financial hardship.”
“Plus I’m betting that Wells wouldn’t have allowed DCA to end up the way that it did. I’m sure that Frank would have run interference for the Imagineers with Pressler on that project. Kept Paul from cutting that thing to the very bone.”
It’s statements like this, Charlie H., that make me think that the Walt Disney Company would be a very different corporation today if Frank Wells had just survived that crash.
Which is why I was never one of those people who got behind the whole “Promote Paul Pressler” movement. I was always the guy who was saying “Screw that Paul Pressler crap. Let’s help Disney try and find another Frank Wells.”
Anyway …
BettyBoob writes:
Dear Jim (AKA Of Great Knower of All Pointless Disney Trivia)
I keep hearing that there are a lot of veteran Disney animators who just hate the studio’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Why’s that? Because of the gargoyles, Jim! To hear these toonsmiths tell the story, Victor, Hugo and Laverne just ruin that movie for them.
Me personally? I love the gargoyles. Especially Hugo. And I think that the gargoyle’s musical number – “A Guy Like You” – is one of the very best things in Disney’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame.” So can you please tell me, Jim, why it is animation pros like Nik Ranieri supposedly hate “Hunchback”‘s Victor, Hugo and Laverne?
Thanks for your e-mail, BettyBoob. To answer your question: it’s not so much the gargoyles themselves that make some Disney animators dislike the studio’s “Hunchback.” But – rather – what the gargoyles represent.
You see, back in the early 1990s, there were a number of animators at Walt Disney Studios who were pushing for “Hunchback” to become the studio’s very first really adult piece of animation. A feature length animated film that actually dared to take a few chances.
The version of “Hunchback” that these guys wanted to do … Well, pieces of it still remain in the finished film. By that I mean, picture a movie that was as dramatic & daring at “Hunchback”‘s “Hellfire” sequence. But all the way through the film.
But as this project made its way through the studio’s pre-production pipeline, WDFA management started to get a little nervous. A Disney animation film without any comic sidekicks and/or cute little animal friends? Would audiences actually go for that?
More to the point, what about all the money that the Mouse would potentially miss out on if “Hunchback” didn’t cough up a few marketable characters? Friends of Quasi that could be reproduced as ceramics, plush and/or turned into cute little promotional toys that could be dropped into Burger King Kids Club meals.
So it was about this time that studio execs began leaning on the “Hunchback” production team to “cute up” their project. Which is undoubtedly why – in the sequence in that picture where we first meet the adult Quasimodo – the film’s title character befriends a baby bird AS WELL AS talks with his kooky, krazy stone pals.
So what these animators actually resent about “Hunchback”‘s gargoyles, BettyBoob, is – because they had to make room for these comic characters in the movie – a lot of the more adult, edgier material had to fall by the wayside. Which, at least to the point of view of animation veterans like Mr. Ranieri, was to the detriment of the finished film.
Me personally? I LOVE the gargoyles in “Hunchback” too. I actually did a story about these characters and how they came to be in that film for MousePlanet back in the Spring of 2000. Which – if I’m remembering correctly – ended up being archived over at LaughingPlace.com last year. If you’d like to read that story & learn more about Victor, Laverne & Hugo, follow this link.
Anyway … For those of you Disney animators who still hate the idea of “Hunchback”‘s comical gargoyles, let me remind you that they weren’t the first choice to portray Quasi’s playmates. Do you recall when the production team was actually toying with making Notre Dame’s bells Quasimodo’s confidantes? Where – just like Mrs. Potts & Cogsworth in “Beauty & the Beast” – these enormous inanimate objects would have been able to speak and (of course) sing & dance. So, instead of Victor, Hugo & Laverne, we could have had little Sophia, Jean Marie, Anne Marie, Louise Marie and Big Marie.
Giant bells that sang, danced & talk?! Yikes!
Hey, we were just talking about LaughingPlace.com, weren’t we? Which reminds me of another e-mail that I received this week. Mebert of Fort Drum, N.Y, wrote just today to say:
Jim –
Did you see that article over at LaughingPlace.com today? The one about the new “Winnie the Pooh” attraction at Disneyland. Man, that makes me so sad. Why for? (Tee Hee!) Because that “Pooh” ride makes me think about the other “Pooh” ride. The one in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Which makes me think about the old “Mr. Toad” ride that used to occupy that show building.
Why did the Imagineers have to close that ride, Jim? Doesn’t anyone at WDI like Mr. Toad?
Actually, Mebert, there are lot of people at Walt Disney Imagineering who like WDW’s “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” And please note that I used the present tense in that last sentence. “Like.” Not “liked.”
Why is that? Well, here’s kind of a weird story about how Disneyana fans actually managed to get through to the guys working at WDI. You may recall the whole brouhaha that leaped up a few years back around the closure of WDW’s “Mr. Toad.” How hundreds of Toad fans then banded together. Set up web sites. Signed petitions. Doing everything that they could to try to keep the attraction open.
Meanwhile – out in Glendale, CA. – a bunch of Imagineers were actually working on the replacement for WDW’s “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” (I.E., a somewhat dumbed down version of Toyko Disneyland’s “Pooh’s Hunny Hunt” attraction). And these folks eventually got wind about how upset Disneyana fans were about the pending closure of Florida’s “Toad.”
Now you have to understand that the folks who work at Walt Disney Imagineering are fairly sensitive souls. And – as proud as these people may have been of the “Pooh” ride that they were putting on – they were still pretty shocked to hear about how upset Disneyana fans seemed to be about WDW’s “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” closing.
These California-based Imagineers read all the posts on the “Save Toad” web site and thought “These people can’t really be as upset as they sound here.” Which is why these folks decided to fly out to Orlando on September 7, 1998. The very last day that WDW’s “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” was supposed to be in operation. So that they could see for themselves if people really were as upset as they sounded about this attraction’s closing.
So WDI was there that day, guys. Standing quietly off to the sides. Watching all the people in line tear up and/or complain loudly about how their favorite WDW attraction was being shut down for no good reason. And the Imagineers couldn’t help but be … well … touched.
Which is why – the very next day, as the “Toad” tear-down began – these same Imagineers went into WDW’s “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” and began harvesting props. Black light painted plywood flats. Signs. Anything that they could carry …
And – then – they packed these pieces up and took them back home to WDI Headquarters. Where these chunks of this much beloved WDW ride were distributed and then used to decorate offices & cubbies all over the Glendale campus.
So – in a weird sort of way – the enthusiasm of some very vocal Disneyana fans turned a lot of Imagineers into hardcore “Toad” fans. Which is one of the main reasons that those paintings depicting Pooh shaking hands with Moley and Toad handing the deed to Toad Hall over to Owl ended up in WDW’s “Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.” As sort of a tribute to the attraction that used to occupy that show building.
And that’s why – when you walk through WDI these days – you keep running into all these little pieces of WDW’s “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” And – just for the record – the most prized pieces of that attraction (the one that Imagineers keep stealing back & forth from one another) are those little devils that kept popping up in the ride’s “Hell”scene. If you have one of those decorating your office at WDI these days … Well, you’re considered to be a pretty hot ticket.
Hell … Hot ticket … I know there’s a halfway decent joke in there somewhere. But I’m just too tired to find it right now.
Tell you what: You folks have a great weekend, okay? And we’ll talk again on Monday.
jrh