Hey Guys, Wrote this email to David, and was wondering what you guys thought about it:

Got a feeling/idea that I would like to bounce off you and see what you think. Walt was always the kind of person looking to the future. With animation, he used levels in his art, so the animated movies would show depth. But since his passing, everybody has believed that he would always continue with animating things by free hand. Could it be possible, that Walt, too, might have gone the way of computer animation? Might it have been possible, if he was alive, that he would have come up with the idea of animating by way of computer?

My problem with Disney is that their ideas are stuck in the past. Disney was always trying to think again, make things the best that they can be, and be ahead of everybody else. It seems to me, that people these days go to theme parks for thrills. They go to Disneyland for the same thing, as well as a safe environment. Yet, the thrill rides are slowly falling apart, and many of the ideas are old ideas.

I feel like these ideas are going against everything that I love in the park. I would love for unity in cast members again. I would love for Disney to bring out some great animated films again. But I think the company needs some youth in the management. The thing about Disney was that he never grew up, he was the modern day Peter Pan. His ideas were always new, his projects were always something never seen before.

In today's parks you got imitations of Dumbo popping up where ever there's free space. Great old ideas falling apart. And even whole lands turning into Ghost towns of the future.

While I may agree with Roy about kicking Eisner out. I think it's
time to let a new generation take control of Disney. It's too bad
that the experienced ones can't start training the young ones, and it's too bad that the company is now all about money.

Am I wrong? Am I going against what every Disney fan believes in? I fear for the company that was supposed to entertain my kids, one who will be born in June. Will he/she not enjoy the adventure, the fantasy, and the imagination that I loved so much when I was a child?

Hope I didn't tick too many people off. Just a thought. Take care.

I'm certain Walt would have been an advocate of computer animation. He (and Ub Iwerks) were always experimenting with different technology and gadgetry.

He also was aware and even critical of their short comings - 101 Dalmations used a form of Xerography to speed the animation process, but it lacked the clean lines of hand drawn images.

I'm not sure if Disney is "stuckin the past" - rather they seem to be to eager to mine their past reputation for short term gains with direct-to-video sequels, and generally devaluing their brand.

I'd love to see Disney chmpioning some new ideas, but I think they've become too big and too much part of Wall Street institutionalism to be like the risk-taking visionary company Disney used to be.

I think certain things about Disney are timeless and aren't broke that needs fixing. Emphasis on story, emphasis on story, emphasis on story then develop characters that are real that audiences can empathize with...these have never gone out of style. In fact, Pixar is doing it better than Disney is AND Pixar is very contemporary and technologically forward. But Disney allowed it's "ownership" of that kind of approach to animated movie-making slip away. Now movies from other studios eat into Disney's once dominant market share, sometimes a little sometimes such as with Pixar's movies or "Shrek" and "Ice Age" a lot. The talent and the drive is still within Disney to regain it's prominent and respected position in the marketplace, but it needs to retain it's talent, constantly stimulate and nurture it's talent, strive to be technologically forward, but also never lose sight of the story and depth of character in its movies. Disney just needs to rediscover itself all over again, and realize its founder, Walt Disney, did know what he was doing decades ago and it can be recreated for contemporary audiences without being saccharine or diluted. It takes qualities of leadership that can come from within the company, because those who still believe in Walt Disney were inspired by his movies to attend art school in recent years to qualify to work there and are still there today.