Disney History 1984-2008

By
on

Ryan Peterson, a student of Media Studies at Vassar College, created this mini-film (technically an animatic) about the Michael Eisner years and how Disney got to where it is today. A bit crudely assembled, but it sums it all up in a nice, concise way.

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  • Aaron

    The cross-outs of Hamlet and Leo were pretty damn funny.

  • Paul N

    Um… technically, he calls it an animatic in the credits…

  • ridgecity

    better than the Biography Channel…

  • EHH

    Mulan 7: Hang 10. LOL
    He did make one mistake. He showed Lasseter in a suit and not a hawaiian shirt.

  • Beckee

    funny :)

    The maniacal looking Ted Turner was my favorite part.

  • http://myotherdrawingblog.blogspot.com/ sasha m

    Very interesting!

    8 SHREKS?!! That’s some amazing creative and intellectual bankruptcy.

  • http://www.imaginerding.com biblioadonis aka George

    Jerry…

    Thanks for sharing this. This should be basic fodder for any Disney Geek / animation enthusiast! A very condensed version of The Disney War.

  • Chris Sobieniak

    Everything I need to know about the animation scene, but was afraid to ask!

  • Mr. Semaj

    They said they were ending the 5th Shrek.

    Already four Shreks too many. :(

  • http://geritopiablogspot.com Professor Widebottom

    Nicely done, although Eisner looks more like Gerald Ford.

    The bloated company with too many business school execs reminds me of fixing government with more bureaucrats. Won’t humans ever learn?

  • http://www.jessica-plummer.com Jessica Plummer

    Haw! This gave me a fit of giggles; loved the very – um – descriptive images for each corresponding film! Good work, Ryan =)

  • http://thadkomorowski.com Thad

    “Dinosaur: No image found. Even the Internet forgot this film existed.”
    Hilarious.

  • Magnusson

    Jessica P:
    Wow, thanks! That really means a lot coming from you. Your artwork is fantastic! I can only hope that when I finally get accepted into animation school that my work can get to that level.

  • http://thelink.concordia.ca Christopher Olson

    ridgecity:

    Wouldn’t it be great if someone at the Biography Channel paid this guy to do more “biographies” like this?

  • Keith Paynter

    Spot on!

    Especially Hamlet, er, Kimba>, er, The Lion King.

  • http://daryl-rhystaylor.blogspot.com Daryl T

    Sums it up quite nicely doesn’t it.

  • Gobo

    Very cool. Needs more sketches though; “dead air time” with white screens and a voiceover isn’t compelling viewing.

  • Artisticulated

    So how many luft balloons went up during the credits?

  • http://kitschensyngk.deviantart.com/ Kitschensyngk

    Ha ha. Even I forgot Dinosaur existed.

    Loved the images with Hamlet, Kimba and The Lion King.

    Eight Shreks. Heaven help us.

  • Dave

    I realize the video is a humorous broad overview , but this is somewhat inaccurate starting around 3:50 mark:

    “all the other assets were relocated to their new 3D film development dept. starting with Dinosaurs (sic) and Chicken Little.”

    Not quite. Dinosaur was under way at least as early as 1995 and released in 2000. Dinosaur was made by Disney’s FIRST attempt to build a CG studio, but was subsequently shut down by Disney. Then later they retooled the feature animation dept. in Burbank to do CG animated features , starting with Chicken Little (which was in production from 2003 – 2005 ) . So the chronology is a little more extended than you would think from what the narrator says in the video.

  • OliverB

    it’s just some geek narrating wikipedia facts over pencil drawings for what I can only assume would be some lame artschool project…

    whats the point of this?

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_qD-RBMpu4 IKR

    LOL at “No Image. Even the internet forgot “Dinosaur” ever existed.”

  • Zep

    …and the point of this is? Was this an assignment for a business/media class at Vassar? Sorry, not impressed. There are one or two semi-witty seconds in a long, pedantic video that’s not so much crude-funny as it is cheesy-for-real execution.

  • Pedro Nakama

    Well I heard that Dinosaur cost about $500 million to set up the CG studio, hire artists and produce, which is the reason for the downfall of the Disney Feature Animation department.

    I loved it when Disney bought Pixar. They bought a company that was doing what Disney forgot how to do… tell a story and tell it good to everyone!

  • Keith Bryant

    How delightfully cynical. I love it!

  • David Brachiosaur

    Uh, and he forgot that “Shrek” won the first Oscar for Best Animated Film. But a nice capsule survey of the past quarter century or so, centered on Disney’s players.

  • http://johnpannozzi.blogspot.com John Pannozzi

    They forgot to mention that Lasseter ressurected 2-D animation at Disney, as well as Lilo and Stitch. Otherwise, very nice and very funny.

  • Some Guy

    This video is a great crash course in animation corporate history.

    “it’s just some geek narrating wikipedia facts over pencil drawings for what I can only assume would be some lame artschool project… “

    It’s easier to criticize things than to do them, isn’t it?

  • OliverB

    It is when you have access to the internet, a basic facts comprehension of an overly conversed subject and zero creative inspiration or aptitude coupled with cheap flash/editing tools unfortunately.

    Making a bulletin list in MS Word would have served just as effective. Again I ask, what’s the point?

  • DaggerMind

    “So how many luft balloons went up during the credits?”

    Swedish =/= German

  • Bobby D.

    Fun little piece…a lot of major gaps and harsh generalizations, but, this is the “bash anyone who’s not Pixar” era.

    Oh, and while we’re talking about Pixar, (don’t we always end up there no matter what the subject:)…memo to WALL-E…ET called…he wants his voice back:)

  • Masten

    I liked it pretty well, but man…If I had tried to pass off wikipedia as a legitimate academic source when I was in college (a scant few years ago) I’d have gotten an “F” no matter how funny it was.

  • Chris Sobieniak

    Sad fate of today’s world where people end up using Wiki for their ordeals. I remember when I had to turn in a report and cited magazines and other periodicals I footnoted in the process, and got a terrific grade over. That was what I called “work”. Kids today have it TOO easy.