Janet Wasko's famous expose on Disney in 2001, Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy, sheds much light on a company that many in my generation feel betrayed by. The greedy, downright mean (bullying day care centers? really?!) tactics employed by Disney to retain its stranglehold on childhood come as no surprise, but serve as reminders of how impressionable we are as kids and how masterfully Disney has dominated the childhood "market".
I came of age during the "Disney Renaissance" of 1989-1999. It was during this period that the studio released The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. They also regularly re-released their classic films to theaters before this (the 80s) and I saw everything from Snow White to Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio on the big screen as a kid. These films (along with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the modern Mickey Mouse Club...yes, with Justin and Britney) had a profound influence on me, not just on my imagination and work as a writer, but on my role as a consumer. I was taught HOW to watch television and films by Disney. I was shown how limitless the imagination could be.
I adored Disney. I wrote my first biography paper in the fifth grade on Walt. I begged my parents to let me have the then-suscription based Disney Channel on cable. I watched the Electric Light Parade at Walt Disney World as a five-year-old and can still remember its sights and sounds.
Then, two things began to happen that would combine to destroy my love for the House of Mouse. First, I began to learn (as we all did) in the early 2000s, as I began college, about Disney's awful business practices. These are detailed in Wasko's essay.
Honestly, I could have handled it. I mean, by the early 2000s we were all used to finding out corporations were secretly evil. By 2000 it was obvious we had falsely-elected corporatist president and we were on our way to a decade(s?) long war(s) that decimated the middle class while the Disney camp and other corporations like them made record profits.
I could have handled all of this. I mean, I still watched MTV even though it was clearly corporate and Viacom evil. But then...came the sequels.
WTF?! The Fox and the Hound TWO???? How is that even possible? That movie ends with Copper and Tod realizing they can no longer be friends after adolescence because, you know, one is a fox and the other is a fucking hound dog! It is a gut-wrenching ending that is also perfect and helps kids deal with the ideas of growing up and loss. But hey, why don't we make a crappy direct-to-dvd sequel 25 YEARS LATER!
Yes, it began with the sequels. Suddenly, and at an alarming rate, all of my generation's (actually EVERY generation since the 1930s) favorite movies and beloved childhood fables began to get rush-job hack sequels.
Most of these movies involve the KIDS of the original film's characters getting into the EXACT SAME ADVENTURES their parent's did in the original. It is almost as if Disney is admitting that these stories, around for generations, aren't good enough for today's children. They must need a new, modern take on these classics! You know, one that kids can relate to!
Well....I call bullshit. One of the best things about Disney is they way their classic films can be watched by someone as they are growing up, and then shared with that someone's kids. It bridges the gap between generations. It gives us all the same imaginative stories to grow up with. It bonds us together. Now, it seems Disney thinks that new kids are stupid and can't comprehend or appreciate the tales of their parents. Or...they are greedy shits who want to milk every penny out of families. They prey upon parent's associations with these characters and then exploit their "my kids are so different...times have changed" fears so they buy these new DVDs.
Here's what really happened:
The Disney Afternoon ran in syndication from 1990-97, every weekday from 3-5pm. It was the perfect home-from-school block of programming and I, as a seven year old, loved every bit of it. It was so successful that Disney decided to use the same creative team and create a Saturday morning version of their 1989 film classic The Little Mermaid. CBS picked up this series and it ran for three seasons, inspiring Disney to venture into the world of expansion for their film properties. An Aladdin series came next, and then things came full circle when the intended pilot for that series became their first direct-to-video animated sequel, The Return of Jafar.
Joe Strike's excellent article for Animated World News, "Disney's Animated Cash-Crop", details the blow-by-blow on how this snowballed into Fox and the Hound 2. It seems that Disney began to believe that CGI was the only animation that theatrical audiences would accept in the 21st century and that 2D animation would best be limited to the home video market. Also, two seperate divisions of Disney, the television animation department and the DisneyToons Studios, were both working on the movies, which led to the inconsistent quality and endless release cycle. The "brand" was diluted to the point of being indistinguishable from other children's video brands and losing critically to better, more exciting and adult-friendly programming.
A telling quote from the article, when asked what Walt would think of the sequels, an executive says "I have no idea" before quickly adding, "but I think he would have approved of our story because it's everything he stood for. It's very emotional and also very funny and entertaining. I think he would have approved of the animation and the look of the movie."
No, Walt would not have approved. He nixed ideas for sequels several times in his life. But he also laid down the groundwork for the cash machine Disney became and so the answer may also by yes, he would approve. Someone find his cryogenically frozen head and let's ask him.
Oh, and when Pixar's John Lassetter took over as head of Disney Animation, he immediatley put a stop to these Direct-to-Video sequels.
And they lived happily ever after.
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