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With Eisner at the helm, the studio produced inexpensive hits like Three Men and a Baby (1987), as well as several popular tv shows, including “The Golden Girls” (1985). “Eisner was fanatical at keeping costs low to earn a profit,” wrote Stewart.ĭisney traditionalists were aghast, but the plan seemed to work. Though he had no experience with animation and no personal connection to Disney (according to journalist James Stewart’s searing exposé Disney War, Eisner had not seen a Disney film until adulthood and had never even visited Disneyland), the new CEO was confident he could save the company by cutting costs, eliminating Walt-era traditions, and focusing on television and live-action films. Disney, brought in a brash young executive from ABC and Paramount: Michael Eisner.
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To prevent a hostile takeover, Disney’s Board of Directors, led by Roy E. To make matters worse, Walt Disney World opened in central Florida in 1971 (followed by EPCOT in 1982), costing a fortune but yielding little profit.īy 1984, stock prices sagged, wages were cut, layoffs ensued, and corporate raiders circled. Movies were the lifeblood of Disney, and the company was suffering. The animation studio kept cranking out films, but they were expensive to make, spent years in production, and lacked the inspiration of earlier “classics.” Features like The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973) and Pete’s Dragon (1977) failed at the box office and seemed out of place in a new era of gritty Hollywood film noir. “Uncle Walt” had personally overseen almost every project, and without his direction, production slowed and revenue declined.
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Disney in his 1977 resignation letter from Walt Disney Productions (though he retained his seat on the board). “The creative atmosphere for which the Company has so long been famous and on which it prides itself has, in my opinion, become stagnant,” wrote Walt’s nephew Roy E. When Walt Disney died suddenly in 1966, his company was left aimless. And without the profits from those films, Disney would not have had the capital to build new parks and resorts, invest in new media ventures, or expand its urban planning program, let alone gobble up Pixar, Marvel, Fox, the Star Wars universe, National Geographic, ESPN, A&E and Hulu-moves entirely unthinkable back in the 1980s, when the corporation was in its darkest hour. Without the brave storytellers and desperate animators of The Little Mermaid, moviegoers would have missed out on the new classics of Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994).
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Moreover, the movie not only saved the company from almost certain death, but allowed Disney to become the international corporate juggernaut we know today. The character of Ursula, a sea witch who gives Ariel her legs, is based on the drag performer Divine.Īllstar Picture Library / Alamy Stock PhotoĪ drag show? Gay rights? Body image issues? Hardly the stuff of Disney animation, but 30 years ago, Disney’s The Little Mermaid tackled these topics and made a courageous statement about identity in Reagan-era America.