Page 1 of 1

The Disney Decade

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:05 pm
by pap64
With just a few days till the year ends and the new decade begins, everyone is talking about some of the most significant events of the last decade. Everything from politics to movies are being discussed. I think that Disney is no exception, so I decided to write something about it. I shall post a list about some of the most important events in the Disney universe, raging from movies to trends in the company.

So without further ado, here are some of my picks as the most important Disney events in the last decade...

1. The death and return of hand drawn animation: Without a shadow of a doubt, this has got to be one of the most historic moments in the company. The entire Disney company was created upon the cinematic efforts done with hand drawn animation. So when the company announced that after the release of Home on the Range in 2004 they would abandon hand drawn animation and focus on CG instead it truly was a devastating blow for fans. Their first CG movie after their decision, Chicken Little, was panned by everyone, yet it was one of their biggest hits since Tarzan in 1999.

So two more movies are made, Meet the Robinsons and Bolt, both movies who have suffered through a lot of changes and barely made it to theaters. And both of them didn't perform as well as anyone expected, so fans began to wonder if it was truly the right thing to focus on CG when the market is already cluttered by them.

Their next movie announcement, however, gave hope to many. The next movie, The Princess and the Frog, will be a hand drawn, classic fairy tale musical film akin to the fab four.

So in a way, the decade starts with the end of hand drawn films by Disney, and ends with the return to the format. Time, however, is uncertain, and we don't know if they will actually commit to it. We'll see...

2. The start of a franchise: When Disney announced that they would be making a feature film based on their Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at the Disney theme parks people were beginning to think that they were starting to lose it. But many were surprised to see the name Johnny Depp attached to the project. People then began to approach the film with cautious optimism.

Who would have thought that a concept as far fetched as a movie based on a theme park ride would create a phenomenon that is still felt to this day? The movie delivered on nearly all aspects, from the extraordinary performances by the cast to the action and humor of the storyline.

The release of its sequels further cemented the popularity, even if they weren't as kindly received as the first film.

3. Roy becomes a catalyst for change: Every fan knows Roy Disney as the man that worked hard to make sure his family's tradition was honored, no matter how many CEOs, suits or legal people came to the company. The Disney legacy above all. So when the company began to change towards an unfavorable outlook, Roy began a huge campaign to save the company from itself, to make sure that the Disney magic remained intact no matter what kind of efforts were made to keep the company afloat.

Its kind of sad to think that the decade ends with his recent passing. But his efforts definitely made him a Disney legend.

4. Mickey loses his voice: In what seems to be a terrible year for deaths, the Disney company was one of the many entities that were impacted by them. They lost one of their most cherish performers, Wayne Allwine, AKA, Mickey's voice.

For more than a decade he had provided the voice of the cartoon icon, and its the Mickey Mouse many of us grew up with. His recent passing impacted many of us who had somehow naively expected him to do this till he was very old and gray.

5. Pixar becomes Disney, and Disney becomes Pixar: Easily one of the most controversial decisions of the decade, Disney finally decided to buy Pixar animation studios, turning John Lasseter into one of the most important players in the industry and the company. This was a decision that many embraced while others completely disagreed with.

6. The Disney Channel Tween Phenomenon: When the Disney Channel first launched, it was a channel dedicated to bringing quality family programming, and it featured high quality films, TV specials and animated series. Just as the decade was ending, however, the channel then began to focus more on programming aimed at teenagers, but was still dedicated to overall family programming.

When the decade begins, the channel saw a significant change in its programming, mainly due to the success of Lizzie Macguire. Afterwards, its focus was on cheap, low quality shows featuring charismatic teenaged actors. These shows proved to be highly successful as teens just couldn't get enough of them. By the end of the decade, the channel completely changed, making a lot of older fans upset since the channel was no longer dedicated to overall family equality and looked like it mainly wanted to cater to a successful section.

7. Disney buys Marvel Entertainment: Easily one of the most surprising events in the decade, Disney acquires all of Marvel's assets, which includes a huge list of characters, including Spider-Man, Captain America, the X-Men and many more. As expected, fans didn't know what to think. Should they embrace it, or should they protest it? What about the Marvel films currently in the works by other studios? A lot of questions surfaced from this decision, and only a handful have been answered so far. Disney can't fully use its properties until all other companies, so we might have to wait another decade for us to see how Disney will handle them.

This is what I have so far. This is very rough and informal so my apologies. Feel free to elaborate on these events as well as add more to the list, since I know many, many, MANY things happened at Disney during the last ten years.

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:20 pm
by SpringHeelJack
Not to be "that guy", but we still have over another year until the new decade begins. Continue discussion.

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:26 pm
by toonaspie
SpringHeelJack wrote:Not to be "that guy", but we still have over another year until the new decade begins. Continue discussion.
Well, everyone is entitled to their own idea as to when each decade ends or begins. :P

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:56 pm
by SpringHeelJack
Well... no. Assuming we started with a year numbered one, we would have completed the first decade at year ten, not year nine because we don't count year zero. You can say "decade" as a unit of time as in "Boy, it's been a decade since I've been twelve years old", but "the" decade, the decade in which we are in, won't end until next year.

It's like the millennium. While it's more exciting for 2000 to begin than 2001, 2000 was the last year of the second millennium.

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:19 pm
by Gregg
It's like the millennium. While it's more exciting for 2000 to begin than 2001, 2000 was the last year of the second millennium.
+1

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:32 pm
by pap64
I'm sorry if what I am about to say is harsh, but if you guys want to discuss about the validity of the beginning/end of a decade make a thread about it. Use ancient Chinese manuscripts, Mayan calendars, read the stars, learn the patterns of the sun and moon, ANYTHING that help you prove if we are really about to end a decade or start a new one. But PLEASE, don't derail the thread over a technicality and either discuss the topic or ignore it completely if you think it doesn't have merit...

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:49 pm
by zackiellovedisney
8. Disney franchises just started popping up. The Disney Princess franchise was born in 2000 just shy from last decade. That franchise is a powerhouse for money for the company. It is their biggest cash cow for girls. For girls they also came up with Disney Fairies. They built a whole franchise on Tinkerbell. This franchise has released 2 movies and is going to release 3 more. That is 5 movies all on Tinkerbell. For us boys the Car franchise has become humongous. From one movie they have toys,hats,video games, you name it. This is definitely the Disney franchise decade.

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:07 pm
by SpringHeelJack
Um, this is UD. Every single discussion post we ever have gets derailed into something else. Point it out, join in, hold your breath and pound your fists and cry until it stops, but it happens. I'm just pointing out that we have another year of whatever to go before we declare something to be an epic event of this decade.

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:24 pm
by pap64
SpringHeelJack wrote:Um, this is UD. Every single discussion post we ever have gets derailed into something else. Point it out, join in, hold your breath and pound your fists and cry until it stops, but it happens. I'm just pointing out that we have another year of whatever to go before we declare something to be an epic event of this decade.
I've been browsing internet forums for years now, and I KNOW that threads will always go off topic and derails. Ultimate Disney will not be the first and will definitely not be the last one to do this.

Still, it is common etiquette to try and bring the discussion back to the original topic if it goes too far. And I believe UD has some rules about this.

Your comment about the technicality of the beginning and end of a decade is unrelated to the topic and the forum it is created on. That's why we have an off-topic forum, for topics unrelated to Disney.

So I ask you to stop this discussion because we would be wasting our time trying to convince each other that we are right while the other is wrong. The topic has been derailed enough, so either bring it back to the discussion or end it.

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 1:12 am
by Escapay
Here's my personal picks of important Disney-related events from the decade defined as 2000 to 2009, though since none of the ones I mention take place in 2000, I guess it can also fit in Brendan's "proper" decade of 2001-2010. These are personal ways that Disney things affected me in the past ten years, so I won't talk about stuff like "Eisner leaves and stockholders heave a collective sigh of relief" or "Disney kills 2D and fans villify CGI".

10. WDW College Program 2007 - It would be stupid of me to just include all the *nice* things that happened to me that was Disney related. So I'm including this particular bad memory. Anyone who's been here long enough or who's chatted with me on AIM/Facebook/elsewhere know the story. As bad as this memory is, it happened and I can't change that. It's here simply to remind myself to always take the good AND take the bad. Take them both and there you have...the facts of life. The facts of life. There's a time you got to go and show you're growing, now you know about the facts of life. The facts of life. When the world never seems to be living up to your dreams, suddenly you're finding out the facts of life are all about you. You. It takes a lot to get 'em right, when you're learning the facts of life.

9. I buy Tuck Everlasting on DVD on February 13, 2004 - I fell in love with the book when I was in sixth grade, and never knew there was a movie version until I saw a poster at the movie theatres. Needless to say, when it hit DVD, we rented it and like the book, I immediately fell in love with the movie. I didn't buy it on DVD until about a year after it was released, mainly because I wasn't as big a DVD buyer yet. It's one of the few live-action Disney movies from the past 10 years that I'd readily watch over and over again (others being the first POTC, both Narnia films, and both Princess Diaries films). It's got a haunting soundtrack and a stellar cast. The story seems simple on the surface, but is far more complex and while it's not the most faithful adaptation of a book (no movie really is anyway, it's its own interpretation of a story), it is one of the best I've seen.

8. Washington Township High School Senior Trip 2003 - honestly, I really don't remember as much as I thought I would of this particular trip to Walt Disney World. But it was the first time ever going to the park without my family and playing in the parks with friends was quite surreal. I still remember being trapped in Epcot's Norway's Stave Church for a couple hours because of the rain. We rode POTC probably three times in a row because the ride was not as popular with most guests as it would be after the movie came out. And the highlight of MGM Studios day was being the rather-clueless captain of the ship for the Backlot Tour whilst my friends shot at enemy planes with...broomsticks. But the best part of Senior Trip had nothing to do with Disney. It was going to Universal's Islands of Adventure and astonishing several jock friends of mine by riding The Incredible Hulk Coaster. Apparently none of them took me as being a thrill-seeker (well, rollercoaster-wise) and so when I stood *ahead* of them in line, they were all "Al, what are you doing here?" and I was all "It's Hulk! What do you think?" :lol: Plus, the Islands of Adventure night was also the night that they had bands playing in various areas and great big bubble and foaming soapsuds machines. There's nothing more fun than running through a wall of soapsuds whilst Good Charlotte is performing a mere ten feet away.

7. Finding Nemo - my favourite Pixar movie ever and it needs no explanation. Actually, it does. Because when I first saw the movie, I enjoyed it more for its comedy and its quirkiness rather than the drama and emotion. But over the years, I've grown to appreciate Finding Nemo more and more for its emotional journey rather than the comedy. Of course, the comedy is still there and if not for Dory I wouldn't have my username. A lot of people seem to call the movie overrated (and even I admit it is at times), sometimes simply because it's so popular, but it's still my favourite. No other Pixar film really touched me the way Finding Nemo did. Not even Up, which does come close.

6. Disney & Youtube - thanks to Youtube, I can see Disney as never before. I mean, just look at classics like Enchantment and Delight and the Scary Mary trailer. And it's even led to some of the NJ Trilogy making their own Disney fun! Kram Nebuer has the heartbreaking "Candle on the Water" music video while I made an entirely nonsensical "Ballroom Blitz" music video set to clips from Fantasia. Disney even has their own videos such as the Disneyland Musical Marriage Proposal which was fake but still fun to watch!

5. UltimateDisney.com - when I first discovered this site in very-very-late 2003, it was because Kram was doing one of the contests and asked for my help with some of the answers. It led to a general rediscovery of Disney as a whole, and I decided in late January 2004 to join the forums as a way of annoying Kram. Because at the time, I would almost-always monopolize the computer when I was at home (I was living at school at the time) because I was posting on Soap Opera Network (a rather prominent soap opera messageboard). So I figured I'd annoy him by joining UD and posting now and then. Little did I know that I'd still be here more than five years later, and even contributed to the site by writing reviews from June 2006 to September 2007. I've done five UD Secret Santas, presented at three UD Awards, won a UD contest and had an honourable mention in another, and became a fan on Facebook. UD's come a long way and I'm glad to have been a part of it for all these years.

4. Aladdin: Platinum Edition is released October 5, 2004 - the first DAC I acquired on DVD (won it in a contest on the now-defunct DisneyDatabase.com) and of course, it's of my #1 favourite (tied with BATB) Disney Animated Classic. It's easily one of my favourite DVDs as well, and one of the best Disney ever made. It's likely my most-watched Disney DVD (even more than The Rocketeer) and I would be very very disappointed if something ever were to happen to it.

3. Revisiting Disneyland in 2009 after an 11-year absence - needless to say, it was the highlight of my year. We went with cousins and no parents, so we didn't have to worry about waiting for people lagging behind and we could just chill and hang out. Unfortunately, both days we were there weren't used to their fullest potential, but we still had a lot of fun. I may never understand the whole "Disneyland is better than Walt Disney World because Walt tread his holy feet upon that sacred ground and it was there first anyway" mentality, to me a park is a park and it's the company you keep and the experience you have that defines your day and subsequent memory of that park. And the company I kept and experiences I had were definitely worth flying across the country. But because of many many sentimental reasons, I still prefer WDW's Magic Kingdom.

2. Bedknobs and Broomsticks: 30th Anniversary Edition & UD's March 2004 Review of the DVD - this is a story I sometimes tell on UD, usually when it's one of those "how did you find UD?". I already noted how I found the site (see #5), but this is the reason I stayed. By March 2004 I had grown a bit bored with posting at UD, when the front page noted that an updated version of their Bedknobs and Broomsticks DVD review was up. I read it, and feeling nostalgic for the movie, ordered it from Amazon, directed from the review page. When I got it, I watched it and remembered why I loved Disney so much as a kid, and decided to stay at UD. So, if not for the review (written by Kelvin Cedeno a.k.a. Disneykid), I'd have packed up and left this place long ago. So thanks, Kelvin. :)

1. WDW College Programs 2005 & 2006 - I did the college program from January to August in 2005, then did the summer alumni program from May to August 2006 and both of those times are easily some of my best memories of Disney and my life. Where else can you get paid to ride-test "it's a small world" for 3 hours (followed by 4 hours of playing in the parks while still on the clock)? And I will always have fond memories of getting "the usual" at Downtown Disney's Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop. I still remember cleaning Castle Popcorn (Popcorn 2) with Tony and getting our own private fireworks show. It was canceled earlier that night due to rain, so they shot the fireworks after closing. We cheered and cheered with each firework, and when the whole shebang was over, resumed cleaning the wagon. There were wonderful friends like Rachael, Jenny Lamb, and Jack-Jack, the love saga that was James A & Joyce, the drama with Kelcey and Zack, the fun that was Tristan and Emily, the sexy accents on Steph and Patrick and Julie and Nicholas and both Lauras (Laura Co. and Laura Cav.). Half my paychecks would go to places like Earl of Sandwich, Virgin Megastore, and Sunshine Tree Terrace where I almost always got the Citrus Swirl. I could go on and on. They were some of the best times of my life.

albert