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The Walt Disney community thread: the Man, the Mouse, and their legacy.

zeemumu

Member
Finally, a legit Disney thread. Subbed.

I spend a lot of time at Disneyland because of my Annual Pass so I feel like I should be fine in contributing to this thread.
 
Longer post later but I will say that moving to Orlando after living in Chicago all my life has opened my Disney floodgates.

Just seeing the projection on the castle and the fireworks the first time (and tink flying overhead) made me believe in magic. I wept openly. Also I love that they not only tolerate me being a giant kid at MK but encourage it!

I've since had the opportunity to sing there (I'm in the Orlando Gay Chorus), and for the employees at Disney Reservation Center, and be streamed to Tampa and to WDL to say thank you since they through their VoulentEars grant program (and our chorus' many Cast Members) have been a major source of not for profit income!
 

TEJ

Member
Okay, so I watched brother bear for the first time.

First hour of it was okay, very predictable buuuuut the last 20 minutes were pretty darned good. Glad I took the time to watch it,
 

TEJ

Member
I've been thinking about it, and here's my top 10 favorite disney hand drawn animated films. will post CG favorites later.

1: The Lion King.

A fairly predictable, cliche choice but fuck that I love the hell out of this movie, not just because it's highly entertaining but for deeply personal reasons too. It saved my soul 20 years ago {long story short, it helped me out a LOT when I was a kid} and fast forward 20 years ago to just recently it saved my soul again when I was facing some pretty dark times.

2: Tarzan

3: The Great Mouse Detective

4: Lilo and stitch.

5: Sleeping Beauty

6: The princess and the frog

7: Aladdin

8: The Rescuers Down Under

9: Bambi

10: Beauty and the beast.

I think, the only one i've seen that I don't like is Pocahontas. I'm not watching home on the range, or most direct to video sequels.
 

Cheerilee

Member
I'm not watching home on the range, or most direct to video sequels.

Do me a favor and give Tinkerbell a chance, if you haven't already. It's not like Disney's other sequels.


A bit of background: Disneytoon Studios was set up by Michael Eisner to cash in on Disney IP by making low-cost high-profit direct-to-video sequels.

Around the time that Eisner got the boot and Lasseter took over, Disney Consumer Products wanted to put some fresh character into Tinkerbell, so a movie franchise became part of that idea. Sharon Morrill, the head of Disneytoon, got an idea in her head of the perfect movie which she wanted to make (referred to as "Tinkerbell and the Ring of Belief"), and she burned through several dozen writers and directors, trying to get them to deliver the movie which she wanted.

When Lasseter came in, he took a look at their latest work, and called it an unwatchable mess. He pulled the (most recent) writer and director aside and asked them what the problem was, and they told him about Morrill. He asked them what kind of Tinkerbell movie they wanted to make, and apparently agreed with everything they said. At the next meeting, he told Morrill to scrap her work-in-progress and start over using the guidelines laid out by the writer and director. Morrill was furious, because RoB was her pet project, so she ordered Disneytoon to make two movies at once, one movie that paid lip service to Lasseter, with the other being her not-trashed pet project. Disneytoon was ordered to hide their work on her movie, and exclusively show people the fake movie that they weren't really working on. She would surprise everyone with her movie, complete before Lasseter's, and then they would have to admit that her movie was better.

Then Lasseter came over and asked to see the preliminary work on the sequel, and they showed him pieces of what was obviously a sequel to Morrill's movie. Her ruse was revealed, and she got fired (technically, she was pulled off all projects and given a window seat until her contract expired). Pixar came in and helped Disneytoon get their movie back on track.

So Tinkerbell is not like other Disney sequels. There are actually five Tinkerbell movies so far, and I've seen four of them, and they're good-to-great. If you watch the first one, you might actually look forward to four Disney sequels. The era of terrible Disney sequels should be over. It left with Eisner. Pixar's recent trouble with sequels is an entirely different disease, with similar looking symptoms.
 

TEJ

Member
Do me a favor and give Tinkerbell a chance, if you haven't already. It's not like Disney's other sequels.


A bit of background: Disneytoon Studios was set up by Michael Eisner to cash in on Disney IP by making low-cost high-profit direct-to-video sequels.

Around the time that Eisner got the boot and Lasseter took over, Disney Consumer Products wanted to put some fresh character into Tinkerbell, so a movie franchise became part of that idea. Sharon Morrill, the head of Disneytoon, got an idea in her head of the perfect movie which she wanted to make (referred to as "Tinkerbell and the Ring of Belief"), and she burned through several dozen writers and directors, trying to get them to deliver the movie which she wanted.

When Lasseter came in, he took a look at their latest work, and called it an unwatchable mess. He pulled the (most recent) writer and director aside and asked them what the problem was, and they told him about Morrill. He asked them what kind of Tinkerbell movie they wanted to make, and apparently agreed with everything they said. At the next meeting, he told Morrill to scrap her work-in-progress and start over using the guidelines laid out by the writer and director. Morrill was furious, because RoB was her pet project, so she ordered Disneytoon to make two movies at once, one movie that paid lip service to Lasseter, with the other being her not-trashed pet project. Disneytoon was ordered to hide their work on her movie, and exclusively show people the fake movie that they weren't really working on. She would surprise everyone with her movie, complete before Lasseter's, and then they would have to admit that her movie was better.

Then Lasseter came over and asked to see the preliminary work on the sequel, and they showed him pieces of what was obviously a sequel to Morrill's movie. Her ruse was revealed, and she got fired (technically, she was pulled off all projects and given a window seat until her contract expired). Pixar came in and helped Disneytoon get their movie back on track.

So Tinkerbell is not like other Disney sequels. There are actually five Tinkerbell movies so far, and I've seen four of them, and they're good-to-great. If you watch the first one, you might actually look forward to four Disney sequels. The era of terrible Disney sequels should be over. It left with Eisner. Pixar's recent trouble with sequels is an entirely different disease, with similar looking symptoms.

well, since you asked so nicely, when I find the time, sure! looks like most of them are on amazon vod, i'll give the first one a rent within the next week.
 

zeemumu

Member
I agree. I've been a pass holder for my family of 4 for the past six years. This is the first year I didn't renew.

True, it really has. And I always have to get parking on mine so that's even more unless I get a premium which already has parking.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
Can we talk about what a fantastic documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty is?

I must have seen that thing like five times already. I absolutely love it. If you haven't seen this yet, go out of your way.
 

TEJ

Member
Can we talk about what a fantastic documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty is?

I must have seen that thing like five times already. I absolutely love it. If you haven't seen this yet, go out of your way.

never heard of it but it's now high up there on my to-watch list
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Oh yeah, I agree, didn't like Robin Hood and Aristocats (though I am fond of 101 Dalmatians).
 
Recently finished reading Michael Barrier's Hollywood Cartoons book and while it wasn't exclusively Disney focused, it did give a really nice insight into the company's starts to the late 60's which I don't think your typical read through of Wikipedia would give you.

Had no clue Pinocchio was a (somewhat) financial failure that forced them to cut back on Dumbo and trend more towards shorts and WW2-related animations, while Sleeping Beauty was in development hell for nearly a decade. You take a lot of granted when you're watching these films as a toddler.
 
I feel absolutely conflicted about Disney, his legacy and the impact of the brand on our modern culture. On one hand, I absolutely love going to WDW and generally get swept away from a lot of life's banal concerns while there. On the other hand, Disney himself was a bit of a fascist and the crass profit motive that informs the modern company is disappointing.
 

Air

Banned
Here is the wiki article for Ub Iwerks if anybody is interested. Any animator should already know his story and those who are really interested in Disney's history should be intrigued about the massive role he played in Disney's inventions, the character if Mickey Mouse and the shorts that came prior. I was did disservice saying in an earlier post that without him there may have not been a Disney studio. The truth is that without him, the Disney we know today would have never existed, and probably would have imploded early on. Disney was never an animator(he tried but he wasn't good at it or drawing). He was an idea man and a good marketer. Disney himself was the brains of the operation, and Ub was the brawn (except that he was so talented it was frightening).

Anyway the article:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub_Iwerks

I just hope that anybody whose really interested in Disney does a little bit of research about this guy, because he doesn't get any love outside of animation circles.
 

Zoso

It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time.
Was a CP for the Disney College program. I worked in entertainment. Miss my Florida home a lot. AMA?

How do most people get full-time jobs at Disney? Seems like they don't publicly post a lot of their openings, I'm guessing they mostly promote from within.

I regret not doing the Disney College program when I was still in University.
 
Agree about the Tinkerbell movies. I never gave them a chance for the longest time but I was roped into watching them one day and really enjoyed them. Sure, they still feel like what they are and not a full on theatrical film but they're better than what most people think. Plus, it made meeting Tink and her friends more fun!

How do most people get full-time jobs at Disney? Seems like they don't publicly post a lot of their openings, I'm guessing they mostly promote from within.

I regret not doing the Disney College program when I was still in University.

Don't know about most people but my friend was in the CP and is waiting in a line for a full-time position now. She's been part-time (she works around 30 hours a week) for a little over a year.
 
This is my girlfriend's and my Dapper Day at Disneyland photo from earlier this year. We plan on going to the next one in September and I'll be sporting a top hat and monocle...been needing that in my repertoire.

tZylJXD.jpg

I'm hoping I'm not the only one that will post our disney related photos :(
 
Here's a great question: What's more likely to happen? Disney goes back to 2D animation or Song of The South is released on bluray.
 

Hex

Banned
Here's a great question: What's more likely to happen? Disney goes back to 2D animation or Song of The South is realized on bluray.

It is a tragedy that it will never see the light of day on a good format, but I have a good LD copy which serves the purpose.
(And no, this is not an open door for a debate on the subject - take that to another thread if it can not be resisted)
 
2D Disney classics list time? 2D disney classics list time!

1. Hercules
Movie quality wise, maybe is not as good as the Lion King, but oh god if I dont love this movie. Favourite musical numbers on a disney movie (gospel is love, gospel is live), amazing villian, best disney girl, love a good superman trope... I love also greek mythology and found really funny all the pop culture mix it had. Gaved us also the best movie to TV series.
Its insane how much I love this movie. The part when Zeus its making Hercules in the stars and the guy says "That's phil's boy!" in the crescendo of A Star is born still gives me the chill up to this day. Best way to finish a movie EVER!

2. Aladdin
Did I say I like fun movies, becuase this one is just fantatsic in that department. The genie is one of the best disney characters ever, good god that 4th wall breaking I always love. The genie's voice in spanish was just incredible, done by Josema Yuste, an awesome 80's-90's comedian (even if robin williams was amzing I still love the spanish version more).

3. The Lion King
Not my favourite, but it's without a doubt a masterpiece. It's a wonderful epic tale, the characters are great, the music is great, the animation is outstanding. The second golden era of Disney was homeround after homeround.

4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
I really didn't like this movie when I was small. Find it boring. Now, after watching it as an adult, its just incredible. I usually love more funny things than more serious type stuff, but this one excels in what it does. Best part without a doubt was the music, (I think is the one that has more music nubers of any disney movie). The villian is perfect (and voiced in spanish by the great Constantino Romero, RIP :( ) and his songs are marvelous. The gargoyles worked perfectly is they were in Quasimodos imagination, sadly they seem to be real becuase they can attack in the battle, I think that brings the movie down, and their musical number is not their best thing either.

5. Fantasia
It can have some boring segments, but when it works, its GRAND. Sorcerer's aprentice and night on the bald mountain are just history of cinema. Fantasia 2000 is worse, but I will say it has some amazing segments like Rhapsody in Blue in New York and Donald's pomp and circumstance.

6. Sleeping Beauty
As someone that have studied animation this one is just mesmerazing. The backgrounds are incredible, the character desing perfect and the animation the best of that era. The story is simple but has probably the best female disney villian (thanks for shitting on that legacy with Maleficent, Disney).

7. The Princess and the Frog
I know some people hate it but I really like it. Some great musical numbers, amazing 2D animation... It's like wathing the second golden era again, until it stoped when they decided not to do any more 2D :(

8. The Beauty and the Beast
This and The Little Mermaid are the start of the second golden era, and this one is the better movie of the two, if only thanks to Gaston, Be our Guest and a cool smart princess.

8. The Great Mouse Detective/The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (sorry for putting two here)
Just so some weeks ago GMD for the first time, and I really like it. Its simple, but the sherlock holmes trope is lovable. Also Ratigan is fantastic. Had to add it becuase I didn't have anything here from the dark ages of animation, and some of them is good.
Adaventure of... is in the list because I love Mr Toad's segement, and the spanish dub is bizarre in a fun way (it's probably the only latin american disney dub I liked, thank god they decided to translate in castillian spanish after the little mermaid, and its fun becuase they try to emulate accents of diferent regions of Spain for the characters, best one being the andalusian horse lol).

10. Snow White
I probably like more the behind the scenes part from this movie than the movie itself (the documentary in the bluray is the best). It's history of animation, and thats why i think it needs to appear. Also the dwarfs are the best characters of the movie.

Out of the list becuase they are not what they call Disney Classics is A Goofie Movie, becuase thats just nuts fun and one of my favourite movies ever Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Buff that took more time than I thought lol
 
Don't agree with you on your absolute favorites but I appreciate PatF and The Great Mouse Detective being there; both excellent Disney films that differed from the norm of their more successful films that come off all the better for it. Frozen has me paranoid we'll get a lot of Broadway-style fairytale musicals once the next few planned films after Big Hero 6 are done which honestly I'd get pretty bored with pretty quickly since there's still a ton of stuff from their 90's library to fill that need, but Zootopia sounds like it might wind up being a bit like Mouse Detective at least.

Both villains are fucking awesome too, Bruce W.Smith made a hell of a jump with Dr. Facilier after Bebe's Kids and Proud Family (which aren't awful per-say, but don't reflect his character animation skills that well IMO).
 
Do me a favor and give Tinkerbell a chance, if you haven't already. It's not like Disney's other sequels.


A bit of background: Disneytoon Studios was set up by Michael Eisner to cash in on Disney IP by making low-cost high-profit direct-to-video sequels.

Around the time that Eisner got the boot and Lasseter took over, Disney Consumer Products wanted to put some fresh character into Tinkerbell, so a movie franchise became part of that idea. Sharon Morrill, the head of Disneytoon, got an idea in her head of the perfect movie which she wanted to make (referred to as "Tinkerbell and the Ring of Belief"), and she burned through several dozen writers and directors, trying to get them to deliver the movie which she wanted.

When Lasseter came in, he took a look at their latest work, and called it an unwatchable mess. He pulled the (most recent) writer and director aside and asked them what the problem was, and they told him about Morrill. He asked them what kind of Tinkerbell movie they wanted to make, and apparently agreed with everything they said. At the next meeting, he told Morrill to scrap her work-in-progress and start over using the guidelines laid out by the writer and director. Morrill was furious, because RoB was her pet project, so she ordered Disneytoon to make two movies at once, one movie that paid lip service to Lasseter, with the other being her not-trashed pet project. Disneytoon was ordered to hide their work on her movie, and exclusively show people the fake movie that they weren't really working on. She would surprise everyone with her movie, complete before Lasseter's, and then they would have to admit that her movie was better.

Then Lasseter came over and asked to see the preliminary work on the sequel, and they showed him pieces of what was obviously a sequel to Morrill's movie. Her ruse was revealed, and she got fired (technically, she was pulled off all projects and given a window seat until her contract expired). Pixar came in and helped Disneytoon get their movie back on track.

So Tinkerbell is not like other Disney sequels. There are actually five Tinkerbell movies so far, and I've seen four of them, and they're good-to-great. If you watch the first one, you might actually look forward to four Disney sequels. The era of terrible Disney sequels should be over. It left with Eisner. Pixar's recent trouble with sequels is an entirely different disease, with similar looking symptoms.

Interesting reading all this. I don't know which Tinkerbell movie I saw but I remember not liking it too much.

Recently finished reading Michael Barrier's Hollywood Cartoons book and while it wasn't exclusively Disney focused, it did give a really nice insight into the company's starts to the late 60's which I don't think your typical read through of Wikipedia would give you.

Had no clue Pinocchio was a (somewhat) financial failure that forced them to cut back on Dumbo and trend more towards shorts and WW2-related animations, while Sleeping Beauty was in development hell for nearly a decade. You take a lot of granted when you're watching these films as a toddler.

If you continue to be interested there are other great books out there. One that covers only Disney is The Art of Walt Disney, and is really interesting when it covers Disney, Iwerks and until Disney's death. Talks about all the movies also, and how succesful they where or problem they had.

I feel absolutely conflicted about Disney, his legacy and the impact of the brand on our modern culture. On one hand, I absolutely love going to WDW and generally get swept away from a lot of life's banal concerns while there. On the other hand, Disney himself was a bit of a fascist and the crass profit motive that informs the modern company is disappointing.

Here we go. Disney was a man of his era, they are really informed history pieces commenting how most of this (antisemitic, racist, blah...) is false. There's no doubt he was a harsh boss, and an asshole too sometimes, and he hated unions, but the thing people always try to bring to the table to criticise disney like the above, are usually false.

Here is the wiki article for Ub Iwerks if anybody is interested. Any animator should already know his story and those who are really interested in Disney's history should be intrigued about the massive role he played in Disney's inventions, the character if Mickey Mouse and the shorts that came prior. I was did disservice saying in an earlier post that without him there may have not been a Disney studio. The truth is that without him, the Disney we know today would have never existed, and probably would have imploded early on. Disney was never an animator(he tried but he wasn't good at it or drawing). He was an idea man and a good marketer. Disney himself was the brains of the operation, and Ub was the brawn (except that he was so talented it was frightening).

Anyway the article:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub_Iwerks

I just hope that anybody whose really interested in Disney does a little bit of research about this guy, because he doesn't get any love outside of animation circles.

On the contrary this is true and its a shame Ub Iwerks is not more known. Would have loved to know what would have happened if Disney treated Iwerks better and he hadn't join the union the year of the strike. I know he returned to Disney, but it's a pity that they never returned to be good friends like they were before that.


How do most people get full-time jobs at Disney? Seems like they don't publicly post a lot of their openings, I'm guessing they mostly promote from within.

I regret not doing the Disney College program when I was still in University.

I would also love to know this.

Here's a great question: What's more likely to happen? Disney goes back to 2D animation or Song of The South is released on bluray.

Probably 2D movies. The aberration they have to Song of the South is surreal.



Don't agree with you on your absolute favorites but I appreciate PatF and The Great Mouse Detective being there, both excellent Disney films that differed from the norm of their more successful films that come off all the better for it.

Both villains are fucking awesome too, Bruce W.Smith made a hell of a jump with Dr. Facilier after Bebe's Kids and Proud Family (which aren't awful per-say, but don't reflect his character animation skills that well IMO).

I know my first spot is a little strange. But i just love that movie. I agree with you in what you said about PatF, Bruce W. Smith did an amazing job with Facilier.
 

Chichikov

Member
Or anyone can run it into the ground and milk off of someone else's legacy.
It goes both ways.
It can be great or it can be terrible.
Think of a world where Shakespeare is copyright protected, think what it would've done to our culture.
Because this is the meaning of "forever minus one day" that Disney (and to be fair, other players too) are pushing for.
And while you're at it, think of the metric ton of terrible Shakespeare adaptations, remakes and ripoffs, none of it, including the porn parodies, was able to run it into the ground.

p.s.
You might also want to consider that under such strict copyrights laws neither Shakespeare nor Disney were able to make most of their works.
Copyrights was designed "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries".
Unlimited copyrights hinders that very goal.
 

TEJ

Member
Don't agree with you on your absolute favorites but I appreciate PatF and The Great Mouse Detective being there; both excellent Disney films that differed from the norm of their more successful films that come off all the better for it. .

Yeah, two great movies.

I kind of hated Hercules at first when I was big into Greek mythology but i've started to like it more recently when watching it as a loose adaptation of Greek mythology.

Hunchback needs more appreciation. Not here, just in general.

It does have the best disney villain song
 
Here we go. Disney was a man of his era, they are really informed history pieces commenting how most of this (antisemitic, racist, blah...) is false. There's no doubt he was a harsh boss, and an asshole too sometimes, and he hated unions, but the thing people always try to bring to the table to criticise disney like the above, are usually false.



On the contrary this is true and its a shame Ub Iwerks is not more known. Would have loved to know what would have happened if Disney treated Iwerks better and he hadn't join the union the year of the strike. I know he returned to Disney, but it's a pity that they never returned to be good friends like they were before that.

.


Ok. I specifically said I was conflicted about the guy and his legacy and that I enjoy going to Disney World. Going full defense force in an effort to whitewash his misdeeds, errors and shortcomings does nothing for the future of the Disney legacy besides make super fans like you look insecure.
 

TEJ

Member
I was wondering what people thought of the image I posted earlier in this topic. I came up with the idea and the artist worked her magic creating it.
 
I was wondering what people thought of the image I posted earlier in this topic. I came up with the idea and the artist worked her magic creating it.

Looks good. Almost could get fooled into thinking it was official if one didn't know.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Also... even though it's crap, somehow I'm not really that much offended by Home on the Range.
 

zeemumu

Member
I liked Treasure Planet and Atlantis a lot. I know that they're seen as B-tier Disney but they're still pretty cool in their world designs.
 

Air

Banned
On the contrary this is true and its a shame Ub Iwerks is not more known. Would have loved to know what would have happened if Disney treated Iwerks better and he hadn't join the union the year of the strike. I know he returned to Disney, but it's a pity that they never returned to be good friends like they were before that.

I don't know, but I think the result would have been great.

Anyway on another note, I watched all the major Disney princess films a couple of months ago (except frozen). They're all interesting in their own way, but I wasn't really smitten by them. I think the one that had the most potential was sleeping beauty (it is by far their prettiest film imo), I just think they focused on the wrong things in that film and it should have been a little longer. Aladdin was good too, but I don't really think Jasmine is that important in it. I had a lot of fun with Rapunzel (it reminded me a lot of beauty and the beast) too, but I thought the other ones could have been stronger.
 

Jigorath

Banned
I'm curious as to why Disney hasn't had a major Mickey Mouse feature film lately. The character has been relegated to kids shows and merchandising and it seems a bit of a waste for one of the biggest characters in history.
 
Anyone else that has a son that loves Cars and Planes and doesn't get the hate?

Sure they are lower tier pixar and Disney but they are fun enough and the toys are great.
 

RobotHaus

Unconfirmed Member
I was thinking of making a thread like this, but calling it "DisneyGAF | The Happiest Thread on Earth"

Anyone else a cast member? I know I've seen at least one or two more here, but no solid proof, plus no meet ups. There's a good chance if any of you have gone to Tomorrowland in the past year that you've seen me.
 

Dai101

Banned
Anyone else that has a son that loves Cars and Planes and doesn't get the hate?

Sure they are lower tier pixar and Disney but they are fun enough and the toys are great.

I love'em. I don't get the hate they receive.

BTW, i think Planes >>>>>>> Cars 2. It was really a surprisingly good movie on it's own.
 

zeemumu

Member
I was thinking of making a thread like this, but calling it "DisneyGAF | The Happiest Thread on Earth"

Anyone else a cast member? I know I've seen at least one or two more here, but no solid proof, plus no meet ups. There's a good chance if any of you have gone to Tomorrowland in the past year that you've seen me.

Do you work one of the rides or are you a character? I know I've seen plenty of stormtroopers whenever I go to Tomorrowland.
 

TEJ

Member
Today I am celebrating America the Disney way, by watching frozen, letting go of frozen to watch Tarzan, and then playing some kingdom hearts dream drop distance and then writing KH3 fanfics where sora teams up with Captain America and Luke Skywalker to fight off galactus.
 
I adore all that is Disney.

My family used to go down every year to Disney World but stopped when I was around 13. Now I'm 26, and I've went the last two years.

Really disappointed to see what they are doing to the Polynesian that's for sure.

Was thinking of going down this year in the fall to do Food and Wine Festival again.

Got a great deal to stay off site at either the Swan/Dolphin or the Orlando Waldorf Astoria.

 
This thread should have an agenda to save Nicolas Cage's acting career by convincing Jerry Bruckheimer to pitch a third National Treasure movie to Disney.
 
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