I look forward to some of their movies, have enjoyed many of their movies my whole life, and I greatly look forward to the day when they get their traditional animation program back on track and start putting out animated flicks that remain great forever.
I used to be one of those huge Disney nuts that would collect Disney stuff & watch all their movies, (mostly the animated ones, I never cared too much about their live action stuff), go to the theme parks at least once a year...& would watch the Disney Channel a lot, get the Disney magazine etc... then something happened around the year 2000, the company changed to the point that it was not the Disney I knew & enjoyed from the late 80's & 90's. It became too big & impersonal & their closing of their 2d animation studio was like a slap to the face. Nowadays Im still a fan of all their classic animated films, as well as Pixar & Im looking forward to Princess & the Frog, and as a fashion doll collector I continue to add Disney princess dolls to my collections, but Im just not as into the company as a whole as I use to be...
Don't like the company. The movies are just filled with loads of racist stereotypes, although they have toned it down in the last decade I would say. In addition, they aren't even that original. WDC is also just another mega conglomerate that really could care less about their workers (starting salary here in Orlando at Disney is about $6/hr or less, which is far below minimum wage. The parks are obscenely overpriced (this has never really changed).
A friend of mine told me that WDC is evil. I got the feeling that when the days coming, WDC will be punishing BIG time. As of my understanding, they were so easily to getting away with it. Oh, well...
This is a money-only move. If they keep a DVD out for a limited time and tell people that's the case, their sales might be higher than expected.
A once great moviemaking company thats fallen on hard times thanks to allowing the money people and paper shufflers make their creative decisions for them.
They need to go away. Now. And take the Jonas Brothers, Miley Frakking Cyrus, High School Musical and the rest of their monumentally dumb garbage with them. Pixar would easily find another distribution partner too.
Divided. Their movies are mostly top notch family entertainment and i remember them fondly when i saw them as a kid. The Fox and the Hound was the first Disney movie i saw as a small kid at the movies and i never stopped loving them even as i grew older. I love their attention to detail (especially the 90s and 00s), their warmth and fun and i'd gladly introduce my kids to them when i get some. However there's the other side of Disney.. business and in there Disney is a big shark. They mil their products for all they're worth to make a profit even so far as to "tarnish" their movies with cheaply produced video knockoffs and treating their basic staff everything but magical and friendly.. from that they differ not much from any other company but they try and retain their image as THE family company where everybody is always happy.. dishonest to say the least. However there was some improvement since Eisner was fired.. the new boss cut off those cheap video knockoffs and wants to return some of those animated magics that made Disney great.
I love old Disney. Well, the 2-D animated Disney classics that more or less ended around the late '90s. I also enjoy some of their classic television and live-action film works. I've been to Disneyland a zillion times (because of living in So.Cal). I had annual passes when I was little. I absolutely ABHOR the refurbishments they've been doing the last few years with removing, completely retheming (Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse! Submarines!) or altering classic rides/lands with stuff that I don't see lasting (I hate Pixar). Leave classic stuff alone and go build new stuff somewhere else. The Indiana Jones ride was the last new ride that was done correctly. I'm still hoping they just combine Disneyland and the California Adventure Park into the same park (just add more lands to Disneyland). It would cure Disneyland's overcrowding problem and the non-attendance problem over at the California Adventure Park in one fell swoop. Make them one park and lower the price. Honestly, the only thing in the last decade worthy of the Disney name has been the PotC movies, which were more Bruckheimer/Depp than Disney. That was a happy accident of Disney not getting their grubby mitts on the project creatively and it actually fitting the genuine gritty darkness of the antique ride that was made when Disney was more interested in family entertainment than just super dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator children's/tweens' entertainment. The straight-to-DVD productions and Disney Channel tween market material (do all their stars need to become horrid recording artists) is killing the company. I still vividly remember when geeky, off-kilter Fi was replaced with a blonde tween pop-star on So Weird (one of the last shows worth a damn). Even the Halloweentown series (the first two actually weren't half-bad) got a tween pink and sparkly pop-princess makeover. The Disney Channel used to have Vault Disney for adults and they used to run Hocus Pocus ad nauseum at Halloween. Now they do neither (Hocus Pocus has moved to ABC Family). That was one of the few decent things they had left. I enjoyed seeing Walt Presents, behind-the-scenes tours of the Disney theme parks and rides, archival behind-the-scenes material on the animated features, the '50s Mickey Mouse Club, Zorro, etc... I loved Vault Disney and the imagineering segments. Don't even get me started on the release of Song of the South. LMAO. Shamelessly plugging that movie is one of my hobbies. That and talking about the sad story of Bobby Driscoll (not one of Walt's shining moments). As for Disney films, my favorites are: 1) Peter Pan 2) The Little Mermaid 3) Sleeping Beauty 4) Pinocchio 5) Aladdin Unfortunately, I don't have high expectations for what their newly reinstated animation department might produce. I'm in fear of the dumbed down animation that is self-aware and wants to parody itself (à la Enchanted). I want more Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio-level maturity in their classic storytelling. And PLEASE no more tie-in soundtracks by popular or in-house Disney artists. It's time to get cozy to the sounds of Tin Pan Alley or Ashman/Menken again. The blocky or rounded animation styles of the new era need to be squashed for the revitalized company. The old films had a maturity that the new company doesn't seem to understand. I also want straight-forward fantasy films based on classic literature and fairy tales that aren't about pleasing demographics or self-parodying the company as if they must apologize for making fairy tales. Let the literature and fairy tales create the story like they used to without modernity completely taking over (The Little Mermaid/Aladdin is about as far as they should be allowed to go with self-awareness or modernist retellings).
they put out some fantastic cartoons . . . but once they started doing cheap sequels to their hit movies like Aladdin 2 and 3 or that Beauty and the Beast christmas thing, not to mention all those Lion King cash grabs . . . they stopped being about new fairytale movies and more about throwing away creativity for what has made money in the past . . . I'm glad that Disney has for the most part kept their creative meddling away from Pixar as far as I know Pixar hasn't done any straight to video lame excuse sequels . . . ellipsis . . .
Well I just spent 6 months working for them, so I have a somewhat different perspective. They are a business, so like any other business they have the usual problems of overpricing and underpaying, and perhaps they have lost a bit of Walt's philosophy along the way. And I don't really like HSM or Jonas bros. or Hannah Montana, they do over-saturate some things. But they sure do know how to make money. They have a hand in practically everything. However even though it costs a lot to go to Disneyworld, it is worth it. They put on a show like no-one else, and they make sure they take care of their guests. It is really stressful sometimes, but the guests are their priority. It's not like the real world there...it's amazing. Even though I got jaded as a cast member sometimes once I went into a park as a guest again it rekindled the joy.
They're a business, they seem to make a good product, and they treat and entertain their customers well. It's no wonder they are a success.