I'm a little confused about this one...

[JacksLilWench]

Okay, so a few weeks ago I watched "Waking Sleeping Beauty" for the first time and I LOVED it! I love hearing about the back story to stuff like this, especially about a reniassance in my favorite subject But it left me a little baffled...

In the movie, it appears that Jeffrey Katzenburg was made out to be the bad guy, while Roy Disney and Michael Eisner were kinda left unscathed. All this time I thought it was Eisner that was the "bad guy". Don't ask me where I got this notion (probably one of Pete's rants )

Now, I know I didn't just dream this up out of nowhere, it had to some from something. I will say, I don't know the whole history of the company, because it is huge. And I don't really know any one in the company that IS a "bad guy". But I was just hoping someone could tell me where I might have gotten this notion!

TIA!!

 

[planaholic]

I don't know where you specifically got this notion, but in the online Disney community in general I often hear less than positive remarks about decisions made during the Eisner-Era. Even the more "consistently positive" (for lack of a better term) personalities will make comments about that time. Generally these comments are about decisions in the Disney Parks, whereas Waking Sleeping Beauty was focused on Disney Animation.

 

[topolino]

I agree, the film does really shed a bad light on Katzenberg, and it made him seem like an egotistical, clueless figurehead who was in way over his head.

I have read/seen other documentary type retellings of this point in the history of the Disney company, and Michael Eisner, as you said, is the one who seems to be made a scapegoat.

To me, this is just further proof that any version of history is going to be slanted, at least in part, to conform to the agenda of those telling it. The documentary makers of Waking Sleeping Beauty, for one reason or another, did seem to have a bias against Katzenberg. How much of that history is credible is competely up to the viewer to decide.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Two sides to every story.

 

[sshaw10060]

Don't forget that the movie focused on animation not on the whole corporation which is where Eisner has is detractors, particularly from later in he tenure.

 

[Swank]

Two sides to every story.

Actually there are three. The third is the truth...

 

[darrengs]

Despite Eisner's issues later in his Disney career, he did rescue Disney from a hostile takeover where they were going to be taken over and broken up and sold off.

 

[FireDancer]

I highly recommend reading DisneyWar. While Eisner was the right guy at the right time my opinion is that he was only that guy because he had Katzenburg and Frank Wells around him. Michael, much like many CEOs, far too often made decisions that had nothing to do with what was best for the company long term.

I don't want to make this into an Eisner thread, I neither love nor hate the guy, but that book will shed a lot of light on what happened between 1984 and 2005.

 

[WaltD4Me]

I highly recommend reading DisneyWar. While Eisner was the right guy at the right time my opinion is that he was only that guy because he had Katzenburg and Frank Wells around him. Michael, much like many CEOs, far too often made decisions that had nothing to do with what was best for the company long term.

I don't want to make this into an Eisner thread, I neither love nor hate the guy, but that book will shed a lot of light on what happened between 1984 and 2005.

ITA. I think Disney would be very different today if it only had been Eisner without Katzenberg and Frank Wells. I also think things would have turned out very differently for Eisner if Frank Wells hadn't died so tragically.

 

[schoen]

I love documentary films. It is important to remember that they are filmed and edited through a person's lens. They are all presented as fact, when in reality there is a lot of extrapolation and agenda pushing in many of them. They often present only one side of an argument of story.

I haven't seen this one yet, BUT i always take everything i see in a documentary with a grain of salt.

 

[txvjc]

it did seem anti-Katsenberg at times, but I'm sure if he watched, he just sat back and counted all his settlement money he got from Disney after he sued them after being forced to resign while showering in the DreamWorks money that keeps pouring