mmounsey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2002
- Messages
- 545
I just posted this on MFL groups, and also sent copies to All Ears and Passporter, but also had to post on my favorite board!
hope you enjoy!
maria
=================================================
I had the chance to attend the meeting this year, after only becoming a shareholder just last April (just before Pixar was bought out). I knew this may be my only chance to attend so off I went!
No cameras or cell phone with cameras were allowed, so I missed out getting photographs with the characters that were in the lobby just outside the Auditorium (in the Convention Center) but I did manage to snag Jiminy Crickets autograph!
(A huge plus for me since I had never seen him before this
other than parades). Cinderella, Goofy (who visited me a few times), and Donald were there at first; I also saw 3 characters from the upcoming movie, Meet the Robinsons as I went up the escalator (the two boys: Lewis and Wilbur, and a villain-ly type of guy, whose name I didnt catch), Lewis (the blonde) peeked around the corner and waved as I went up
it was very cute.
Upon entering the meeting (registration was at 8, doors opened at 9, and the meeting was to start at 10), we were given a pin (handed out by our local Radio Disney) that had the cover of the annual report on it and said The Walt Disney Company, 2007 Annual Meeting of Shareholders at the top. I managed to get a front row seat, which was actual the 5th row, since the first 4 were roped off for the Board members and other suits (This is also where Bob Iger and Roy Disney (!) sat.) A slideshow and music played while we waited. At one point, I went out the bathroom and when I came back into the meeting, I ran into Jiminy, and also saw Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto hanging around. This meeting was as packed as I heard these could be, but there were definitely lots of people around. I did see at least one family there, with 3 small children! ( I went solo, since dh couldnt get away from work at the last minute but my kids were either in school or at my MILs there is no way theyd be able to sit still for this).
The meeting started with John Pepper, Jr. (CEO) welcoming everyone, including board members (about 8 others were there, but no Steve Jobs), and Roy Disney! (this was a nice surprise). A nice video came up showing highlights of the past year with #1 in this and that and flashes and clips from all things Disney/ABC/ESPN
it was very hyped and pretty cool. Then Bob Iger came up and mentioned that it was time for a meeting in N.O. post-Katrina
to help the rebuilding effort, blah, blah and then showed a video, featuring mostly Robin Roberts from GMA. Then Robin came out and talked for bit and *announced* that ESPN would be helping to build a new playground and basketball court next month in Slidell! This was great news, since ds who is a cub scout helped out last year in cleaning up the B&G club and we know it is really needed.
Bob came back up and talked a little bit about things shown in the video, and then brought up Tom Staggs (CFO) who talked a bit about growth, showed a slideshow with some numbers, etc. It was surprisingly not as dull as I thought it might be.
Again Bob came up again and mentioned a few upcoming things: a POC online game, a HS Musical feature film in 2008, a game(?) called Spectrobes coming to Disney.com this month, Meet the Robinsons, the new ships for the cruise line, Ratatouille; and couple of holiday movies (Enchanted and National Treasure 2). He then introduced John Lasseter!
Hearing Lasseter talk about animation is awesome, he gets so excited (in fact, I think he was the most excited one there!). He showed a small clip from Meet the Robinsons and a longer 12 minute clip of Ratatouille (coming June 29---it was really cute too, not at all what I was expecting).
A really crazy thing happened just before Lasseter came up, an elderly woman came up and started complaining that we did not come here to be entertained and we want to talk business Ill spare you the details, but just google Evelyn Y. Davis and youll find out what she is capable of it made for a bit of craziness at times. I thought it was a joke
Lasseter also talked about a movie called Wall-e, about a futuristic robot only sketches and few drawings, so well where it goes. He also mentioned American Dog and Toy Story 3!
Lasseters *BIG* announcement was that a new feature film, The Frog Princess due for 2009, would be New Orleans based! (this went over very well). It will also feature the very 1st African American Disney Princess and will be done in 2-D Animation. He mentions that Randy Newman will be doing the music and then all the sudden, the screen goes up and out comes Randy Newman himself and his piano along with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to perform a song live!!! This was the coolest! They showed all sorts of sketches and art for this movie and at the end confetti exploded everywhere!!!
This was the end of the fun stuff (unless you count Davis the gadfly) and it went into the Business portion of the meeting (11:20) and I wont bore with this part, but again, it was surprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be. A short Q&A followed, which of course including someone trying to drop off a script!
Another note, someone asked if The Frog Princess would have its world premiere in New Orleans (as Hunchback did), and Iger said it was very likely! (cant wait).
Upon exiting, there were green travel mugs for Disneys Environmentality on tables for everyone to take and that was that! I think it was all said and done by around 12:30 or so!
I met dh for lunch at a great Cuban restaurant in the Quarter and then walked around at a nearby mall after until I met him after work to go home and grab the boys off the bus.
All in all, Im glad I went and got to see everything, Lasseter and Newman were definitely worth it! (and Jiminy too!) If you ever have a chance, I would definitely recommend it!
hope you enjoy!
maria
=================================================
I had the chance to attend the meeting this year, after only becoming a shareholder just last April (just before Pixar was bought out). I knew this may be my only chance to attend so off I went!
No cameras or cell phone with cameras were allowed, so I missed out getting photographs with the characters that were in the lobby just outside the Auditorium (in the Convention Center) but I did manage to snag Jiminy Crickets autograph!
(A huge plus for me since I had never seen him before this
other than parades). Cinderella, Goofy (who visited me a few times), and Donald were there at first; I also saw 3 characters from the upcoming movie, Meet the Robinsons as I went up the escalator (the two boys: Lewis and Wilbur, and a villain-ly type of guy, whose name I didnt catch), Lewis (the blonde) peeked around the corner and waved as I went up
it was very cute.Upon entering the meeting (registration was at 8, doors opened at 9, and the meeting was to start at 10), we were given a pin (handed out by our local Radio Disney) that had the cover of the annual report on it and said The Walt Disney Company, 2007 Annual Meeting of Shareholders at the top. I managed to get a front row seat, which was actual the 5th row, since the first 4 were roped off for the Board members and other suits (This is also where Bob Iger and Roy Disney (!) sat.) A slideshow and music played while we waited. At one point, I went out the bathroom and when I came back into the meeting, I ran into Jiminy, and also saw Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto hanging around. This meeting was as packed as I heard these could be, but there were definitely lots of people around. I did see at least one family there, with 3 small children! ( I went solo, since dh couldnt get away from work at the last minute but my kids were either in school or at my MILs there is no way theyd be able to sit still for this).
The meeting started with John Pepper, Jr. (CEO) welcoming everyone, including board members (about 8 others were there, but no Steve Jobs), and Roy Disney!
(this was a nice surprise). A nice video came up showing highlights of the past year with #1 in this and that and flashes and clips from all things Disney/ABC/ESPN
it was very hyped and pretty cool. Then Bob Iger came up and mentioned that it was time for a meeting in N.O. post-Katrina
to help the rebuilding effort, blah, blah and then showed a video, featuring mostly Robin Roberts from GMA. Then Robin came out and talked for bit and *announced* that ESPN would be helping to build a new playground and basketball court next month in Slidell! This was great news, since ds who is a cub scout helped out last year in cleaning up the B&G club and we know it is really needed. Bob came back up and talked a little bit about things shown in the video, and then brought up Tom Staggs (CFO) who talked a bit about growth, showed a slideshow with some numbers, etc. It was surprisingly not as dull as I thought it might be.
Again Bob came up again and mentioned a few upcoming things: a POC online game, a HS Musical feature film in 2008, a game(?) called Spectrobes coming to Disney.com this month, Meet the Robinsons, the new ships for the cruise line, Ratatouille; and couple of holiday movies (Enchanted and National Treasure 2). He then introduced John Lasseter!
Hearing Lasseter talk about animation is awesome, he gets so excited (in fact, I think he was the most excited one there!). He showed a small clip from Meet the Robinsons and a longer 12 minute clip of Ratatouille (coming June 29---it was really cute too, not at all what I was expecting).
A really crazy thing happened just before Lasseter came up, an elderly woman came up and started complaining that we did not come here to be entertained and we want to talk business Ill spare you the details, but just google Evelyn Y. Davis and youll find out what she is capable of it made for a bit of craziness at times. I thought it was a joke
Lasseter also talked about a movie called Wall-e, about a futuristic robot only sketches and few drawings, so well where it goes. He also mentioned American Dog and Toy Story 3!
Lasseters *BIG* announcement was that a new feature film, The Frog Princess due for 2009, would be New Orleans based! (this went over very well). It will also feature the very 1st African American Disney Princess and will be done in 2-D Animation. He mentions that Randy Newman will be doing the music and then all the sudden, the screen goes up and out comes Randy Newman himself and his piano along with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to perform a song live!!! This was the coolest! They showed all sorts of sketches and art for this movie and at the end confetti exploded everywhere!!!
This was the end of the fun stuff (unless you count Davis the gadfly) and it went into the Business portion of the meeting (11:20) and I wont bore with this part, but again, it was surprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be. A short Q&A followed, which of course including someone trying to drop off a script!
Another note, someone asked if The Frog Princess would have its world premiere in New Orleans (as Hunchback did), and Iger said it was very likely! (cant wait).
Upon exiting, there were green travel mugs for Disneys Environmentality on tables for everyone to take and that was that! I think it was all said and done by around 12:30 or so!
I met dh for lunch at a great Cuban restaurant in the Quarter and then walked around at a nearby mall after until I met him after work to go home and grab the boys off the bus.
All in all, Im glad I went and got to see everything, Lasseter and Newman were definitely worth it! (and Jiminy too!) If you ever have a chance, I would definitely recommend it!
