Thursday, September 25, 2008

Disney Talking Smack

Brains of the operation...

Ok, let's talk film. Yes, I think that I may be getting a little of my old spunk back. I am getting comments again, so that keeps me writing at my best. I know. What an attention whore if you will, I am. Well, I think it's just a need for recognition from my peers. If you have read my Monday's blog about Diablo Cody, you may noticed I have revised it (four times). That is because if you google, Jennifer's body, Diablo cody, this site comes up at like third or fourth on the list. So I am actually trying to proofread now.

Well let's dive into this Article posted today by the Hollywood Reporter. Apparently Dick Cook, Disney Exec extraordinaire, gathered the who's who of the media biz and announced their future schedule. I am sure everyone waited with bated breath to see what Disney will have in store for us regarding live action. Do we really care? We know what Disney does. They rehash anything in their path and pass it off as their own. They ran out of ideas a while back so they had to come up with a brilliant idea to tie in the Disneyland theme park rides with the movies.

Haunted Mansion tanked at the BO. But, Pirates did not suffer a tragic fate. Yes Disney was saved by talent. If Disney does success, they DO NOT do it themselves. There is not ONE talented person at Disney. All of their talent is outsourced. Johnny Depp saved them in POTC. Looking back, Pixar saved their animation department since Howard Ashman died in the 90's. He was the lyricist for Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. They did not resuscitate their animation quality until Pixar did their Toy Story thing and breathed life into animation again.

But again it was not Disney themselves. Disney as a new idea factory is non existent. Well here you have Dick Cook giving us a quote for his vision of the future, "Movies are constantly changing, and we want to be at the forefront," said Cook, hammering home themes of innovation and creativity throughout the day."

"innovation and creativity", you have got to be kidding me Mr. Cook! Since when has Disney themselves been self sufficient at creativity? Well at the time of Walt Disney, yes! He was a hallmark of creativity. But then that's it. The Disney Classics such as Cinderella and so forth were staples of uniqueness and treasure. But, then once Walt and his people were out of the picture. Then what happened? Well they had a few live action films in the 70's and 80's, Flubber, Love Bug, all that. But then nothing until talent found them in the form of a lyricist named Howard Ashman and a musician names Alan Menken, who still does great work. But, they were a Lennon/Macarthy, it hasn't been the same since. Road to El Dorado anyone?

Now Pixar is giving them wings. Pirates and Johnny Depp is giving them wings. So how is Disney on the forefront? How are they ever going to be on the forefront? With Pixar! With Johnny Depp. Not with Disney themselves. Let's take another quote.
"We add that extra increment of quality to everything we do," Cook said.
No you don't Mr. Cook! You have others to do that for you who are not direct representatives of Disney. So you Mr. Cook and Disney. Do not do anything except ride the coat tails of others! That's it!

This is typical exec thinking. They think they are the talented ones when they have no more responsibility of a McDonalds manager. But, that's what they do! Mr. Cook is diluted. He is in Fantasyland. He nor any other person has true talent like the talent the outsource. Until later, let's talk film!