Please note: In this article I will reference a number of television series both animated and live-action created by Disney. It is by no means a definitive chronology of Disney's television output, and the examples I have included are simply there to illustrate key developments, years or give a general idea of a certain time period. So Gargoyles (1994) fans – don't take me to task for leaving them out of the main body.
Disney Debates: #4 Should Disney Television be original, or make more use of Disney characters and concepts?
Disney had limited presence in the world of Television until the mid-1980's. Shows such as the various Anthology series, the Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro had started in the 1950's, but since then, apart from various specials, new television productions had been rare.
That all changed when Disney changed. Hard as it may be to imagine today, during the 1980's Disney was dangerously close to either disappearing totally or being swallowed up by another entertainment company. It was only the leadership of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells (both from positions in other entertainment companies – ABC and Warner Brothers respectively) that stopped this from happening. Part of their strategy to improve the financial foundations of the company was diversification. This strategy saw the successful launch of Touchstone Pictures which enabled Disney to create films for an older audience without tainting the Disney name and also Disney's first aggressive steps into becoming content producers for television.
Touchstone Pictures had its own television division called, appropriately enough Touchstone Television, while the Disney name was to be used on new animated series. This was Disney Television Animation, but was later called DisneyToon Studios.
This enterprise launched in 1985 with original properties Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles (according to Wikipedia the latter created by Michael Eisner himself!)
But it wasn't long before well known Disney personalities were used: Ducktales (1987), Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers (1989), Goof Troop (1992) and The Jungle Cubs (1996) being just some examples of the Disney television animation department mining its rich character and concepts vaults.
Also, Disney television animation seems to have no quarms about taking the characters and locations from recently released "Animated Classics" and turning them into weekly television animated series – often using a sizable number of the original voice cast while doing so – so we got series such as The Little Mermaid (The Animated Series) (1992), Aladdin (The Animated Series) (1994) and Hercules (The Animated Series) (1998).
There is no denying the popularity of Disney Television Animation's original characters – all are well loved and fondly remembered, but at the same time, it would appear the series created around existing Disney characters, concepts or films were more popular. No doubt this comes from having a much bigger initial "hook" to draw the viewer in, and enabling the new series to hit the ground running, rather than having to build up speed from a standing start.
Throughout the mid-1980's to the end of the 1990's Disney Television Animation produced a wide range of shows, some with the always popular Disney mainstays of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, some based on well-loved characters from Disney's extensive past, some based on Walt Disney Feature Animation's latest animated films and some wholly original.
But then, towards the end of the 1990's something happened. Animated series based on existing Disney properties became rarer – notable exceptions being shows such as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000), The Legend of Tarzan (2001) and Lilo and Stitch: The Series (2003). But these shows were being created at the same time Disney Television Animation was creating and showing original shows such as Recess (1997), Teacher's Pet (2000) and Kim Possible (2002). Recess and Teacher's Pet – like Ducktales before them – even spun-off their own theatrical movies.
Far from the previous decade where established Disney properties trumped original creations for popularity, it appears that as the audience moved into the 21st century, original creations had the upper hand, and the collective hearts and minds of the viewing public.
When Kim Possible was finally cancelled there was a huge public outcry of disappointment and anger. More so than when shows such as The Legend of Tarzan or Buzz Lightyear of Star Command were.
On the face of it, if you were to see it now for the first time, it would be hard to see why. Like most of the original Disney Television Animation creations of the past decade, the detail on the character and location designs is sparse, with attention being focussed on both simple shapes for easy of animation and modern style. (As an aside please note: that I personally like this style of animation). It may not be a poor looking show, but it cannot compare to the fuller, more expressive animation on shows such as Rescue Rangers or The Little Mermaid's television series.
It's pretty clear that the outcry was because Kim Possible was serving up something clever, witty, exciting and… above all else… original.
But its not just in animation that Disney Television prefers to create new characters rather than look to the past. While there's been a live-action series for Honey I Shrink The Kids (1997) the bulk of Disney's live-action has been creating original properties – from Disney Channel Original Movies (the perfect example being the hugely successful High School Musical and it's sequel) to comedy shows for children like Lizzy McGuire (2001) to today's Hanna Montana (2006) Disney are serving up highly popular television shows without having to rely on reusing or reimagining past Disney glories.
Are Disney correct to go this route – occasionally bringing back Mickey and Co to star in televisual animated antics every so often, and even more occasionally basing a series on a Disney Animated Classic (The Emperor's New School (2006) being the last as far as I can remember) while concentrating on producing fresh, original animated and live-action series?
Or would you prefer Disney Television to go back to its roots more often and give us series based on some of the rich characters, concepts and movies Disney has made over the past 80-odd years?
If a film or series isn't popular immediately, should a television series be dropped, or allowed to build an audience? With Disney now owning ABC there is less commercial pressure to produce an instant audience hit (although I admit in any commercial business, there's always pressure for success). Personally, I was upset when I heard Team Atlantis was going to be cancelled – even though several episodes were in various stages of completion – simply because the motion picture underperformed at the box office.
Other Disney Debates
Disney Debates: #1 Snow White should be redubbed for blu-ray started by Ichabod
Disney Debates: #2 Are People too accepting of Pixar films? started by 2099net
Disney Debates: #3 Disney Princesses, long term damage? started by Ichabod
) than watch the fictional Stewart family.
