March 7 - Michael Eisner

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On this day, in 1942, Michael Dammann Eisner was born Mount Kisco, New York. Michael came from money. His mother was an heir to the American Safety Razor Company. His great-grandpa Eisner owned a successful clothing company. Becoming a businessman was his destiny. But first, of course, he had to suffer through living on Park Avenue in Manhattan and attending private boys' schools (which can actually be a living form of hell at times). Michael graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1964 with a degree in English. Wait, what? In English? That's right. Michael is more of a liberal arts creative type than a traditional business man (which makes some of what's to come even more painful, but I get ahead of myself).

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Michael began his career in television programming. He spent a little time at NBC, did a brief stint at CBS and then, just to round out his resume, became Assistant to the National Programming Director at ABC, where he settled in for a while. By 1976, he'd risen to the rank of Senior Vice President in charge of Programming and Development. At this point, Barry Diller, who'd first hired Michael into ABC before leaving for Paramount Pictures, lured Michael away from the television network. His new title was now President and CEO. Paramount flourished under Michael. You may have heard of some of the things they produced during the Eisner years: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ordinary People, Star Trek films, Grease and Beverly Hills Cop. Paramount was no stranger to the small screen either, bringing us Happy Days, Lavern and Shirley, Cheers and Family Ties. As marvelous a time as it was at Paramount in the late Seventies and early Eighties, across town, another studio was having a much different experience.

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Since the deaths of its founding pair of brothers, the Walt Disney Studio had not been doing well. By 1984, the company was on the verge of being taken over, split into pieces and sold to the highest bidder. If that had happened, Disney would have ceased to exist. Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew, had cobbled together a coalition of investors to stave that scenario off and brought in Michael from Paramount (who was actually looking for a new job, having just been passed over for promotion) and Frank Wells from Warner Brothers to be CEO and President, respectively. The move literally saved the company from extinction.

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The coming of Michael and Frank was like the second coming of Walt and Roy. Michael took control of the creative side of Disney while Frank concentrated more on the financial side. Michael even became the public face of Disney by hosting a new version of the long running anthology series, The Wonderful World of Disney, just like the founder did. He hired Jeffrey Katzenberg as head of the film division which helped jump start the Disney Renaissance. He created Touchstone Pictures to broaden the types of movies the company produced. And, as profits began to rise, he began buying up other entities, including ESPN and his old employer, ABC. Moving into the Nineties, everything looked so rosy for Disney under Michael that he formulated a ten year vision he called the Disney Decade, with ambitious plans in every sector. That is, naturally, when things began to unravel.

In 1994, Frank was killed in a helicopter crash. Around that time, Michael suffered a massive heart attack. Katzenberg lobbied for Frank's position, but Roy Disney threatened a shareholder fight if he got it, so Katzenberg left to start his own studio, Dreamworks, poaching as much talent as he could on the way out. Michael brought in Mike Ovitz as President, but Mike only lasted 14 months before getting a massive payout to leave, sparking lawsuits that dragged on for a decade. And to top it all off, EuroDisneyland, which had opened in 1992, was hemorrhaging money and threatening to drag the whole company into the pit of despair.

In the midst of all this turmoil, Michael began making serious missteps. He added the role of President to his duties for a time, which meant that he was in charge of creativity and finances, never a good plan. He failed (and some would say refused is actually the word we're looking for) to create a succession plan. Without great people in charge of individual business units, he began trying to micromanage everything himself, slowly squeezing every ounce of creativity out of the company. Television efforts on ABC began to fail. The film division put out a string of flops. In animation, not only was the renaissance over, but Home on the Range failed to turn a profit. Disney's California Adventure opened to terrible reviews and would take years to become something worth seeing. And eventually, Roy, the man who'd hired Michael in the first place, had had enough.

A very public, very ugly battle between Michael and Roy (who was utilizing a website for his side called savedisney.com) began in 2004. Roy managed to get a whopping 43% of shareholders to vote against keeping Michael on the board of directors. The fight would continue for another year until a beleaguered Michael reluctantly agreed to resign a full year before his contract expired. Although he says that having Bob Iger, the company's current leader, in place convinced him to tender that resignation, there's evidence that the board made Bob his replacement whether he liked it or not. On September 2005, Michael severed all formal ties with the Walt Disney Company after more than two decades of both magnificent high points and devastating low points.

Since leaving Disney, Michael has done all right for himself (helped in no small part by the stock he took with him). From 2006-2009, he hosted his own talk show on CNBC, Conversations with Michael Eisner. He's created an investment firm, The Tornante Company (it's the Italian word for hair-pin turn), that owns an English soccer team, half interest in the Topps Company (the baseball card folks) and produces a hit show on Netflix, Bojack Horseman, among other ventures. In 2010, he published a book, Working Together, describing the great partnerships he (and others) has had over his lifetime and why partnerships succeed (too bad he couldn't remember that advice in the late Nineties). And it's not like his relationship with Disney has remained completely sour. In 2006, the Team Disney building in Burbank was renamed the Michael D. Eisner Building.

December 29 - Duncan Marjoribanks

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On this day, in 1953, Duncan Marjoribanks was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Duncan grew up in a liberal family and was considered a far-out hippy type in high school. Painfully introverted, he was also incredibly smart and extremely talented at drawing. His talents would take him to the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada’s premiere school for animation located in Oakville, Ontario. Following his graduation from Sheridan in 1978, Duncan became part of a group that was hired by Hanna-Barbera prompting a move to Los Angeles, California. Duncan quickly became one of the studio’s top animators, working on shows like Scooby and Scrappy Doo and Godzilla. Then the great Animator’s Strike of 1982 happened. 

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The strike began as the union protested how much work was being sent overseas (where it was much cheaper to produce) and lasted for several months. The end result, ironically predictable, was that most US animation production disappeared. Duncan changed his career focus to designing characters and began freelancing for several studios. One of the projects he would work on, and his first as animator in a decade, was a short lived television series called Family Dog. It was created and directed by a guy named Brad Bird who was thoroughly taken with Duncan’s style and talent. Brad recommended Duncan to a friend of his, John Musker. John was starting a little project over at Disney about a mermaid and hired Duncan as the first animator on the team.

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Duncan became supervising animator for Sebastian the Crab on Disney’s 28^th animated feature, The Little Mermaid. He took Samuel E. Wright’s marvelous vocal performance and the basic character designs that had already been done and created one of the most endearing and enduring characters that had been seen in decades. Don’t believe me? Just watch the scene when Sebastian finally decides to help rather than hinder Ariel and get back to me.

The success of The Little Mermaid led to Duncan staying on with Disney and supervising again for the next feature film, The Rescuers Down Under, this time for the villain, McLeach. While this film did end up being less successful, it was the grueling schedule that really took its toll on Duncan. By the time the last frame had been drawn, he needed more than a vacation and actually took a year off to live in England. Which doesn’t mean he didn’t work. He provided some character design for a short-lived Hanna-Barbera show called The Pirates of Dark Water.

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In 1991, Duncan returned to the states, and Disney, to begin supervising work on another great sidekick, Abu in Aladdin. As if his previous work wasn’t impressive enough, now he would create a memorable character without using words at all. His work in the film can also be seen in the opening sequence with the shady salesman. Duncan went right from Aladdin onto the team for Pocahontas and once again supervised a villain, Governor Ratcliffe. His portrayal of Ratcliffe was more cartoonish than the other characters, which give him more of a presence, but still this side of overly flamboyant, so he remains believable. Duncan was then slated to supervise Megera for Hercules but that never happened.

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Around this time, Jeffrey Katzenberg was making his spectacularly messy exit from Disney and starting his own studio, Dreamworks SKG, with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. With big plans to stick it to his former employer, especially in the animation department, one of the first big talents Katzenberg poached was Duncan. The relationship didn't blossom the way anyone hoped. Duncan started out as supervising animator on Moses for Prince of Egypt but struggled with the job so much his only credit on the picture is plain old animator. He did some work on The Road to El Dorado, animating a few scenes with Tzekel-Kan and contributed some story ideas to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron before leaving Dreamworks for good. He spent a year over at Warner Brothers, working on the animated parts of the box office bomb Osmosis Jones (he did pretty good work on the movie but left before it was finished, unhappy with the direction it was taking), before returning to the fold at Disney in 2000.

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Unfortunately, Duncan's return to Burbank came at a time when the studio was producing its worst picture since The Black Cauldron. As supervising animator for Mrs. Calloway on Home on the Range, Duncan managed some moments of greatness but the movie was a critical and financial failure. Following that disaster, he was trained in computer animation and contributed to the Bowler Hat Guy for Meet the Robinsons. Duncan then got the privilege of working on Disney's last hand drawn feature, The Princess and the Frog, as head animator for Big Daddy La Buff. 

In 2009, Duncan and Disney parted ways once again. The company had decided to stop using traditional animation techniques and Duncan didn't feel comfortable working with CGI. The only thing he's really done since then was a hand drawn short utilizing the characters from Kung Fu Panda. Which is really a shame. Hopefully some day the talent behind Sebastian and Abu, who has inspired so many animators still working today, will himself find inspiration in some new project and give us all a reason to smile again.

December 16 - Roy Edward Disney

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On this day, in 2009, Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy O. and nephew of Walt, passed away in Newport Beach, California. Born January 10, 1930, Roy would end up being the last member of the Disney family to take an active part in the company his father and uncle created. He graduated from Pomona College, long considered to be the premier liberal arts college on the West Coast, in 1951 and began working in Hollywood, initially as an assistant editor when Dragnet made the move from radio to television. By 1954, he’d joined the family business as an assistant director and producer on the Tru-Life Adventure series. Six years later, Roy would earn an Oscar nomination for a short film he penned, Mysteries of the Deep.

After Walt’s death, Roy was elected to the company’s board of directors, a position he would hold off and on for the next few decades. Fiercely loyal to the ideals of the elder Disneys and staunchly supportive of all things animation, Roy would often have a cantankerous relationship with the company leaders who came after both founders passed away. In 1977, he resigned his position within Walt Disney Productions in protest over the direction the company’s entertainment division had been taking. He knew the string of mediocre-at-best live action movies the company had been throwing out, coupled with the fact that all the old school animators were disappearing without, in his opinion, being adequately replaced, were hurting the company. The Black Cauldron was still a few years away but Roy could see it coming. He retained his position on the board however and several years later, when the company faced a hostile takeover crisis, he stepped up to the plate to save the company.

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One of the first things Roy had to do in 1984 was create a group of investors large enough to keep the company together. In order to effectively do this, he resigned from his seat on the board. Once he had the necessary funding in place, he then set about forcing the current company president, Ron Miller, out. I’m sure this move made for some awkward moments at family reunions from that point on as Ron was married to Roy’s cousin (and Walt’s daughter), Dianne Disney. He then was instrumental in getting Frank Wells and Michael Eisner hired as president and CEO. When the dust settled, Roy came back to the company as vice chairman of The Walt Disney Company and chairman of the animation branch. Since Michael and Frank were like the second coming of Walt and Roy O, Roy E was heralded as a savior who put loyalty to the company over personal considerations.

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Throughout the remainder of the Eighties and well into the Nineties, the Walt Disney Company experienced a rebirth. Animation hits like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King flowed out of the studio. All seemed rosy for the company, but tensions brewed behind closed doors. Roy clearly didn’t care for the new studio head, Jeffrey Katzenberg. He felt that Jeffrey took too much credit for recent successes and frequently overstepped his place in the scheme of things. When Frank Wells died in a helicopter accident in 1994, Jeffrey demanded a promotion. Roy told Eisner that he would start a proxy war if that happened. Roy would win this round. Jeffrey would leave the company (albeit with a large monetary payout) but his relationship with Eisner would slowly deteriorate over the next decade. This was partly due to the fact that, rather than replace Frank, Eisner simply took on the financial duties of the company (which was not a good move) and partly because the creative juices seemed to be drying up. Again, Home on the Range was a couple years off, but Roy saw it coming.

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During this cooling off period between Roy and Eisner, a couple of bright spots did occur. In 1998, Roy was surprised when he was made an official Disney Legend. Then in December of 1999, Roy’s pet project, Fantasia 2000, was finally released to theaters. The film had been in production for nine years and was meant to fulfill his uncle’s dream of making the 1940 movie Fantasia an on-going, ever evolving picture. Like its predecessor, Fantasia 2000 combined classical music with high quality animation and mostly inventive story lines. And, like its predecessor, it didn’t do terribly well at the box office.

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By 2003, Roy’s relationship with Eisner had not only gone completely south but his influence within the company was evaporating as well, as most of the executives now owed their positions to Eisner. Roy once again resigned his positions with the company and began a second campaign to remove someone he saw as ruining the company from the top spot. Part smear campaign against Eisner, part rally-to-my-last-name-boys bravado, Roy’s efforts eventually worked after he managed to put together a coalition of 43% of shareholders that voted against Eisner at the 2004 meeting. It would take another 18 months of bitter pressure before Eisner would finally resign, but in the end, Roy won that round, too (sort of, Eisner’s second in command, Bob Iger, took the helm). He rejoined the board as Director Emeritus, a non-voting position (although he still retained 1% of all shares) and remained in that position until his death.

In 2008, Roy was diagnosed with stomach cancer, a disease he would battle for over a year before finally succumbing. His passing was truly the end of an era. Other Disneys of his generation were still around, but none of them took an active interest in the company that bears the family name and now even they are gone.

December 11 - The Muppet Christmas Carol

On this day, in 1992, the fourth Muppet movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol, is released in theaters. This is hands down, my favorite adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens story. And to think it almost never happened. After Jim Henson died on May 16, 1990, the fate of his Muppet creations was very much up in the air. He had been in negotiations to sell his empire to the Walt Disney Company for the supposed sum of 150 million dollars. With Jim's unexpected death, the deal fell apart, and, without the creative genius to lead the company, it was unclear what, if anything, the Muppets might do again. Thankfully, one of Jim's sons, Brian, grabbed the baton and ran with it.

While wondering what project might be suitable to keep his father's company going, a talent agent by the name of Bill Haber planted the idea of a Christmas Carol in Brian's brain. The idea was first sold to ABC as a made-for-television movie. Long time Muppet writer Jerry Juhl began working on a script and quickly decided to make Charles Dickens the narrator in order to retain the tone of the book. Various characters were looked at to play the three ghosts, combinations like Robin for Christmas Past, Miss Piggy for Christmas Present and Gonzo for Christmas Future. Ultimately it was decided that the darkness of the story demanded new characters for the ghosts and that the usual Muppet mayhem would come from the established characters playing all the lesser roles. A script was finalized and submitted to ABC. Executives at Disney saw a copy of it, however, and said Hey, why don't we make a theatrical release out of this? So they did with Brian as director.

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When it came time to cast Ebeneezer Scrooge, Brian considered several people ranging from Ron Moody (who played Fagin in Oliver!) and David Warner (who played Bob Cratchit in the George C. Scott version of Carol) to George Carlin. He ultimately settled on Michael Caine and, in my opinion, his choice was perfect. Michael said from the beginning that he was going to play Scrooge like this was a Royal Shakespeare production, no winking at the mayhem, no acknowledging that he was talking to puppets and not real people. It was a strategy that payed off marvelously.

The songs for the movie were written by Paul Williams, who also wrote the songs for the first Muppet movie. In a move that's proven somewhat controversial, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to cut the song When Love Is Gone from the theatrical release. It's sung by Belle during the Christmas Past sequence and is about Scrooge loving her less and his money more. Katzenberg apparently felt that the song would lose the interest of the kids in the audience. Unfortunately, its removal makes the song The Love We Found, which Scrooge sings at the end of the film, much less poignant because we can't relate it back to him losing the love of his life. The real controversy arises, however, in the fact that some versions of the home video release of the movie include When the Love Is Gone and some don't. For those of us who like the song, it's difficult to know which copy we actually want to buy.

When it was released, The Muppet Christmas Carol received mixed reviews and was a modest box office success, coming in third behind its major holiday competition, Home Alone 2 and Aladdin. Since its release, it has become a bona fide cult classic. I know it's a sad Christmas season for me if I don't watch it at least once. In fact, if anyone needs me for the next 86 minutes, I'm not available.

November 25 - Aladdin

On this day, in 1992, Walt Disney Pictures' 31st animated feature, Aladdin, was released in theaters. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Aladdin is the fourth film to be released during Disney's Renaissance period. Ron and John have directed seven Disney animated features together including The Little Mermaid, Hercules and Moana.

Based on the stories from the Arabic folktale One Thousand and One Nights, Aladdin tells the story of a street rat who proves his worth and marries the princess with the help of a genie. The idea for the film originated in 1988 with lyricist Howard Ashman, who wrote a big story treatment, complete with several songs. The studio said no thanks. Later, during production on Beauty and the Beast, the project was partially revived and a new script written. Ron and John then came on board when they chose Aladdin as their next film, passing on a version of Swan Lake and what would eventually become The Lion King. In April of 1991, they showed Jeffrey Katzenberg a third script they'd written. He hated it, demanded a complete rewrite and told them that their release date in November 1992 wasn't changing. Luckily, by October of 1991, a script had been decided on and the production could barrel forward.

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Except, a good chunk of the script wasn't ever written down. When Ron and John conceived the character of the Genie, they'd always had Robin Williams in mind for it. Katzenberg tried to suggest John Candy, Steve Martin or Eddie Murphy, but the directors prevailed and Robin accepted the role. Not only did he accept, but he agreed to do it for scale pay, $75,000, instead of his current rate of 8 million, mostly as a thank you for the success of Good Morning Vietnam. His only conditions: the Genie couldn't be used for marketing purposes and couldn't take up more than 25% of the space in the film's advertising. Disney reneged on both conditions, causing a rift with Robin that wouldn't be healed until well after Katzenberg left the company. Luckily, all of Robin's almost entirely ad libbed dialogue for the Genie had already been recorded.

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Because let's be honest, the Genie is what really makes Aladdin (even if some of the references in it now feel pretty dated). The wildness of Robin's improvisations not only kept the animators on their toes but have made audiences crack up ever since. And since Robin was gifted at projecting sincerity and basic human decency as well, the Genie gives the movie its heart, too. Not that I'm trying to detract from the other voice actors in the film. If the only good thing in Aladdin was the Genie, the movie would have bombed horribly. The rest of the ensemble was marvelous, it's just that the first thing people remember about the movie is the crazy blue guy.

Whatever the cause, Aladdin was a huge success. It became the first animated film to gross over half a billion dollars. Funnily enough, it debuted in the number two slot behind Home Alone 2 with just over 19 million in ticket sales. It didn't become the number one film until its eighth week out and would be number one for five weeks out of its 22 week run.

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When awards time rolled around, Aladdin was showered with mentions. It was nominated for five Oscars (two of those for Best Song), winning Best Original Score and Best Original Song (A Whole New World). The Golden Globes smiled on Aladdin with Best Score, Song and a special award for Robin as well as a nomination for Best Picture. It also won an Annie Award, three Saturn Awards, four Grammy Awards and several others.

As much as I enjoy Aladdin, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the negative reactions to the film, especially from the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee. The ADC's first objection was about the way Aladdin and Jasmine are portrayed as opposed to the rest of the cast. The two main characters are decidedly a whole lot more white than everyone else and are presented as being more sophisticated than most of the other characters. It's a fair point but not one that much can be done about. The change the ADC could bring about was through its objection to one of the lyrics in the movie's opening song. The original line from Arabian Nights was "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." For the home video release (and the Broadway show) the line was changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense." My only problem with this lyric change is that the next line was left intact "It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home." In my opinion, the revised line doesn't flow with that and both lines should have been changed.

November 22 - Toy Story

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On this day, in 1995, Pixar Animation Studios, in partnership with Walt Disney Pictures, generally released its first feature film, Toy Story. Not only is the movie a first for Pixar, it is also the first feature film to be completely computer animated.

Toy Story is directed by one of Pixar's founders, John Lasseter. John's first encounter with computer animation was with the Disney company when he worked on Tron. He became completely enthralled with the new medium and suggested that The Brave Little Toaster be done using it exclusively. Disney disagreed and fired him. John then spent some time at LucasFilm before co-founding Pixar. In 1988, he produced a short, Tin Toy, in order to show off the capabilities of a computer his company had developed, the Pixar Image Computer. Tin Toy would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. From that point forward, Pixar stopped trying to sell computers (which, while really advanced for the time were not flying off the shelves) and began creating animation in earnest. Disney took notice of Tin Toy's success and tried to lure John back into the fold. He decided to stay with Pixar and inked a distribution deal with Disney instead.

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The original script of Toy Story looked nothing like the final film. There was a character named Woody, but he was an evil ventriloquist doll who was paired with Tinny from Tin Toy. Other than the name Woody, the only thing to survive from that first treatment was the conviction that the movie would center around the fact that a toy's deepest desire was to be played with by a child and how that desire affected their entire existence. The film's production also suffered under the interfering of Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of the studio. Jeffrey's insistence that the characters be more and more edgy (Tom Hanks complained at one point that Woody had turned into a jerk) and that tons of adult references be included actually caused the whole process to grind to a halt. A three month recess was called while the script was reworked into the final product.

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The result was phenomenal. Starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, both in their first animated roles, the buddy film was the highest grossing movie its opening weekend (and the next two). Made on a budget of 30 million dollars, Toy Story would take in over 370 million making it the highest grossing film of the year. Universally acclaimed, it would not only give a boost of enthusiasm to animation in general (and forecast the doom of hand-drawn films) but would establish Pixar as a powerhouse studio. Toy Story would win a Special Achievement Oscar, be nominated for three other Oscars (Best Song, Best Score and Best Original Screenplay), garner two Golden Globe nominations and win eight Annies. Two sequels followed, both of which were considered as good as (or even better than) the original, as well as several shorts and television specials. Attractions based on the franchise abound at Disney parks all around the world. A fourth Toy Story movie will be released in the summer of 2019. Only time will tell if it is a worthy successor.

November 16 - The Rescuers Down Under

Photo lifted from imbd.com

On this day, in 1990, Walt Disney Pictures' 29th animated feature, The Rescuers Down Under, opened in theaters. The movie was the second film released during the so called Disney Renaissance, but is rarely seen as being on par with the pictures surrounding it. The Rescuers Down Under is notable for a number of reasons, though. It was the first time a sequel to a Disney animated movie had been produced. It was the first film to be done entirely using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). This means it was the first completely digital Disney animated feature. Everything was still hand drawn, but it was scanned into a computer to be inked, painted and sequenced. No cameras were used in the production. Down Under was also the first Disney movie since Bambi to promote the environment and advocate for animal rights.

The Rescuers Down Under faced an uphill battle from its conception. America went crazy for movies either set in Australia or featuring Australians after the success of Crocodile Dundee in 1986. Unfortunately, by the time this movie opened, the craze had pretty much disappeared. Couple that with the fact that it premiered the same weekend as Home Alone and it's not hard to see why it had to fight for every dollar of 3.5 million it opened with. The studio was so disappointed, Jeffrey Katzenberg killed all further advertising and let the movie limp along to a 27.9 million dollar finish. The fact that Down Under was also a non-musical (and not just in that characters didn't sing songs but that there were no songs period) didn't help, especially coming after The Little Mermaid.

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The critical reception wasn't actually too bad. Most reviewers agreed that the story was nothing special but was still an improvement over the original film. They generally liked the production values, especially the action sequences and thought the voice talent was good. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, in her final film role, reprised their roles. George C. Scott was brought in as the villain McLeach and John Candy replaced the late Jim Jordan as the flying albatross.

The company's disappointment with The Rescuers Down Under, however, has continued in the handling of the film in the home video market. The first release on VHS saw the original film being included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, but not Down Under. It did make it into the Gold Classic Collection for the DVD release, but by the time Blu-ray came along, Down Under would get tacked on to the same box as its older sibling.  It apparently wasn't worth getting its own packaging. The lasting legacy of this, like it or not, mostly forgotten movie, is that sequels can be economically viable.