The Disney Essence Debate
- Disney Duster
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- Disney Duster
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Well I disagree.
And I wanted to add, one time Ray Bradbury, the author of "Something Wicked This Way Comes", showed a screenplay for a film version to Walt Disney and according to Jim Hill Meida, Bradbury got a note back from Walt saying "while he personally enjoyed the book - Disney doesn't feel that this dark fantasy would be a good fit for his studio."
So even though they did eventually make "Something Wicked This Way Comes" at Disney, maybe they shouldn't have because then they were trying to get away from what may have been the Disney Essence that even Walt felt there was. It shows that Disney is not just quality family entertainment, he thought that certain things fit his studio and certain other things didn't, even if they were still family things and of good quality.
And I wanted to add, one time Ray Bradbury, the author of "Something Wicked This Way Comes", showed a screenplay for a film version to Walt Disney and according to Jim Hill Meida, Bradbury got a note back from Walt saying "while he personally enjoyed the book - Disney doesn't feel that this dark fantasy would be a good fit for his studio."
So even though they did eventually make "Something Wicked This Way Comes" at Disney, maybe they shouldn't have because then they were trying to get away from what may have been the Disney Essence that even Walt felt there was. It shows that Disney is not just quality family entertainment, he thought that certain things fit his studio and certain other things didn't, even if they were still family things and of good quality.

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The only problem with that is that it is contradicted by Ron Miller's story of when the family gathered to watch To Kill a Mockingbird and after it ended, Walt told Ron that he wished he could make similar films but couldn't because he felt stifled by the public's expectations of his studio. Ron has said that towards the end of his life, Walt became increasingly frustrated because he felt that he couldn't make the more dramatic films that he wanted for that reason. Perhaps that's part of the reason why, when he took over at Disney after Walt's death, Ron tried to diversify the type of films that Disney made and created Touchstone; its not "trying to get away from Disney essence" so to speak, its doing the things the Walt regretted never doing because he felt that he couldn't. Given that Ron was Walt's son-in-law, the man he deemed his successor in film production at Disney and the fact that Walt confided in Ron to prepare him for his future leadership role at Disney, I'm inclined to believe him. That note is a perfect example of the frustrations that Ron says Walt had.
Last edited by DisneyAnimation88 on Wed Aug 08, 2012 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We're not going to Guam, are we?
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The point is, as Ron has said (after personally being told by Walt Disney, his boss and father-in-law), there were many films that Walt wanted to make that were different from the Disney norm but didn't, not because he chose not to, but because he didn't feel that he could because of the public's expectations of him and his studio. I'm not talking about Something Wicked This Way Comes specifically but films like that in general.Disney Duster wrote:And his note to me sounds like he liked the book but didn't want it at his studio. He didn't say "I wish I could make it," he said "I enjoyed it". Not the same thing.
We're not going to Guam, are we?
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Unfortunately, I don't know what Walt exactly said in that note. You could be right or I could be right. Now all we can do is agree to disagree again. I just know that if the note said that Walt didn't feel a certain thing was a good fit for his studio, it means what it means, he felt only certain things fit his studio.
