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I can still remember when Disney first tried to really step out of the traditional Disney movie genre back in the late 70’s with a bizarre (but enjoyable) little sci-fi flick called The Black Hole. It was a strange one, in that you had a mish-mash of very typical Disney G-rated elements and some stuff that bordered on R-rating (Anthony Perkins’ fate comes to mind). And that ending - whoa!
As for Disney today...meh. I doubt Walt would have approved of much they they have done in the past decade (at least), so I’m not really sure there’s that much of the “original” Disney culture left to lose. I do admit I lament the decline of traditional animation, though. I just don’t go for the Pixar-type stuff. Each to their own, but I like the older hand-drawn stuff when it comes to animating.
What a shame about Pixar, their brand was destroyed when they allowed themselves to be sold to Disney.
How many moviegoers under 45 even know who The Lone Ranger and Tonto were?? Not many, I would think. These characters would need to be re-introduced for today and somehow be connected to the superheroes or anti heroes of today for it to ever work.
Disney’s decline is due to going homo. It can all be traced back to that. All the lack of talent, all the lack of ideas, it cna all be traced back to putting a pro-homo agenda in place.
In future, if Disney wants to cut its losses, it needs to rethink how it produces movies. To start with, it should make a “storyboard movie”, for say, $10m. Disney actually created the modern form of graphic storyboard, as a group of pictures that show plot development; but they need to take it further.
Get stand-ins for the big budget actors, and do green screen shoots of the most important scenes. At the end you will have a low budget approximation of your movie. This helps to judge timing, pacing, dialogue, and other critical elements. A test audience could actually watch it and point out turn-ons and turn-offs, so they wouldn’t have to rely on biased opinions.
I think Fantasia was the high water mark for Disney animation. Now Disney just seems tired and out of ideas.
They've gone for the over-stimulating, over-priced BS that just isn't as much fun. That's why TV shows such as "Leverage", "Psych" and the old "McGyver" are so popular for DVD season purchases....they're clever and they're fun.
The people who run Disney have none of Walt’s imagination or sense of beauty or storytelling, nor his common sense. And they are totally opposite his political views. Is it any wonder it’s not the Disney we remember?
The opening scene in THE LITTLE MERMAID took my breath away when watched on the big screen. It was all up hill from there. I remember thinking Disney has gone back to their roots. Beautiful movie. I love old fashioned animation...and TLM certainly filled that bill. The musical score was a delight too.