There is much ado about how Disney has lost its way, particularly when it comes to the core of what the company is built on -- animation. As the saying goes, it all started with a mouse; that phrase would be more accurate if it included "an animated mouse."
Eisner for all of his faults, knew this. And he knew that in order for the parks to leverage this they needed to include Walt's mantra of explaining to the public how things worked behind the scenes.
And thus, Disney MGM studios was born, complete with a working animation studio that gave park guests backstage access to the company's most sacred of art forms.
A YouTube fan page of the parks run by a 20 year old guy from Landsdowne PA realized the significance of Disney closing this aspect of their filmmaking and put together a doc on it.
Despite the bare bones production value and his small follower base, it has amassed a crazy number of views telling the story of the little studio that could in the swamps of Florida. It has in fact spawned the production of a full documentary that I am producing and directing.
I take pride in the fact that I bring tears to viewers eyes in my part. But most importantly it holds the missing piece in Disney Animation's problematic status (that will continue for the foreseeable future).
If Iger really wanted to fix things, he would take a page from Eisner's book.
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Hi Laurie, I know you’ve mentioned this project before and it sounds fascinating. Please let me know if you require some original animation or motion graphics for the doc.
I presume you believe they shouldn’t have closed the studio? Why DID they close it?
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Hi Mike - thanks for the offer. I likely won't know until fall or later in the year what elements will stitch segments together. Ideally if animation was needed it would come from those of us who worked there, but we'll see how schedules pan out.
As for my feelings on the closing, the short answer is that the fact that the current mandate of the company chooses to ignore its very foundational core for merchandising an acquired brand that already had representation on the property is a shameful act that has demonstrated its karmic return. In other words, there's no heart in their films because they've lost sight of who they are.
The longer detail is, I left the studio a few years before it closed (in the middle of Lilo and Stitch) - it was a decision to own my personal content - something that Disney employees at any level cannot do. However, it was also because I was enmeshed enough with the executives that I could see the writing on the wall. Aaron Blaise eludes to something similar in the doc linked here.
The disagreement about shutting down the studio from most, stems from the short lived asshat in charge that did it. Florida was much different than California, and California management hated our youth, fearlessness and autonomy When I would be workingin California and hanging out with other departments and other productions, people in my department thought I was crazy, because that was not typical behavior.
MULAN and LILO & STITCH would not be the same films had they been done under the heavy oversight of California. In many ways it was closer to the original vision of Walt's than what became of the California studio. He would never have allowed a Star Wars Landing to take the place of a working animation studio.
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Well I certainly don’t envy those who have to steer a company so large it eats other companies for breakfast. And I’ve never worked at an animation company that had ”departments,” since my experience has been either independent or working with small groups. The closest I’ve seen to that kind of bureaucracy is in the college where I teach.
Let me know if you need anything for the project.
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Comprehensive Laurie Ashbourne! What an impressive historical detail. Saddening to learn about the downside of things.!