Book-It 'o13! Book #15
The Fifty Books Challenge, year four! (Years one, two, three, and four just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: DisneyWar by James B Stewart
Details: Copyright 2005, Simon & Schuster
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): ""When You Wish Upon a Star," "Whistle While You Work," "The Happiest Place on Earth" -- these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world -- everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished.
DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America's best-known entertainment company to civil war, told by one of our most acclaimed writers and reporters.
Drawing on unprecedented access to both Eisner and Roy Disney, current and former Disney executives and board members, as well as thousands of pages of never-before-seen letters, memos, transcripts, and other documents, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years: What really caused the rupture with studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who once regarded Eisner as a father but who became his fiercest rival? How could Eisner have so misjudged Michael Ovitz, a man who was not only "the most powerful man in Hollywood" but also his friend, whom he appointed as Disney president and immediately wanted to fire? What caused the break between Eisner and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs, and why did Pixar abruptly abandon its partnership with Disney? Why did Eisner so mistrust Roy Disney that he assigned Disney company executives to spy on him? How did Eisner control the Disney board for so long, and what really happened in the fateful board meeting in September 2004, when Eisner played his last cards?
Here, too, is the creative process that lies at the heart of Disney -- from the making of The Lion King to Pirates of the Caribbean. Even as the executive suite has been engulfed in turmoil, Disney has worked -- and sometimes clashed -- with a glittering array of stars, directors, designers, artists, and producers, many of whom tell their stories here for the first time.
Stewart describes how Eisner lost his chairmanship and why he felt obliged to resign as CEO, effective 2006. No other book so thoroughly penetrates the secretive world of the corporate boardroom. DisneyWar is an enthralling tale of one of America's most powerful media and entertainment companies, the people who control it, and those trying to overthrow them.
DisneyWar is an epic achievement. It tells a story that -- in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax -- might itself have been the subject of a Disney animated classic -- except that it's all true."
Why I Wanted to Read It: The Disney company has a fascinating history. Michael Eisner's tenure with the company not only spanned my childhood (and he was a recognizable figure from the TV specials) but one of the most impressive turns of the company: In the floundering years since Walt Disney's death and the push and pull of the old guard, the studio only saw a few successes and nothing that touched the epic nature of its material under Walt, until 1989's The Little Mermaid, and the string of animated successes that some would even argue surpassed Walt's work, that followed.
I was more interested in the history of the company than the corporate takeover drama that this suggested to be, but this is generally regarded to be one of the best written histories of the company, so I thought I'd give it a try.
How I Liked It: The book opens with a list of "Cast Members", including the Disney family, and the top executives of each of the branches of the Walt Disney company, including Feature Animation, Parks and Resorts, and splinter studios (Miramax, Pixar, Dreamworks). This gave me a sinking feeling since in my experience, it's almost always been a sign that the author is going to bloat the book with characters you'll have difficulty keeping straight, and rather than refine his or her writing, a hasty cast listing is stuck at the top of the book.
The book has a slow, jumbled start, largely because it can't quite decide where to begin. The Prologue opens with Roy E Disney (the nephew of Walt Disney and son of Walt's brother Roy O) rolling out of his Ferrari into the parking lot of a trendy wine bar in Pasadena for a meeting with some other top Disney players, in the midst of the fight over who would stay with the company (himself or Michael Eisner) in November 2003. A jumble of characters fly at us as we're taken through the nearly two decades of complex history between Eisner and Roy E, all while we're supposed to be taking in the vignette at the table (Roy dramatically walks out).
From that exit, we're suddenly in Disney World, watching a new actor try out his role as a Disney cast member, specifically Goofy. In the third person, we rather curiously observe "Goofy's" struggle with the costume and performance anxiety. Goofy's interaction with excited children manages to go smoothly and ends with Goofy wiping away a tear of emotion.
This odd detour is then explained by the author's revelation that it was he playing Goofy in the scene we just witnessed. Apparently, a standard part of the orientation for top Disney executives is to appear as a character in a theme park. The author explains it wasn't until after he accepted the role (presumably begged for the opportunity as a kicker in the book) that he was told he was not allowed to write about it, at least in a way that "stated or implied that Goofy was an actor inside a costume."
As bizarre and self-injecting as this sounds, it does serve a bit as a mission statement into how the author plans to treat the company. It's bizarre at first, absurd even, but it's for a good reason, or at least for a well-intentioned reason (so committed are the staff at the parks, they do not want to break the illusion that Goofy is "real" even amongst those playing him). However apparently since the fact that top executives appear as cast members in the parks broke in a 2004 Wallstreet Journal piece, Michael Eisner himself apparently gave the author the go-ahead to write about his experience.
Then, we're taken on a trip through the author's past with Eisner (since the late seventies), and how he came to proposition him for a book in 2003.
Then the book swiftly changes direction again, taking us back to the author's castmember experience, which occurs two months after his first dinner with Eisner regarding the book. For the rest of the prologue, we're treated to the intricacies of the author's experience.
The first chapter then leaps back nearly two decades to September 1984, as Eisner is poised to take the Disney throne.
Why do I mention these first few pages in such detail? Because it gives you an idea of the pacing as well as the depth of the book.
The book doesn't cover merely Eisner's reign, it also picks up the friction between the Disney brothers over Walt's decision to ultimately name the company after himself, something that came as a bit of a shock to his brother, that felt their business was a joint venture (and in labor was certainly treated as a partnership). What's more, the book doesn't give such events a casual backstory to lead us to Eisner entering the picture, it mixes Disney's history including such trivialities as personal letters between the two Disney brothers with a kind of personal biography of Eisner himself, pre-Disney. The book lacks any kind of real coherent storyline until Eisner more or less settles into his throne, sometime in the latter mid-eighties, and starts fucking things up (hit after hit Eisner turns down, and his own pet projects frequently prove to be atrocious detriments to the company) in earnest.
For the four hundred plus pages from there, the book is basically a corporate soap opera, only the author never really bothers to familiarize us enough with the constant stream of characters for us to care. Even long-time Eisner associates (with whom he ultimately parts) are never fully fleshed out. Background tidbits like the animators revenge and contempt at certain executives (producing frequently profane drawings depicting their overlord targets "unflatteringly"; wonder how much one of those would be worth if it still existed?) that should be shocking (and even delicious in their obvious "backstage" feel) come across as merely somewhat desperate bids to tie sections together.
The book attempts to span multiple business ventures in great depth (the various intricacies of the Disney-acquired ABC and such minutia as Eisner's preferences for one actor over another) over several decades and clocks a hefty five hundred plus pages-- yet it's still padded with filler.
The end, uncertain as the book went to print, is as hazy and indistinct as its beginning, only much more hasty.
However, there are enough tidbits in the book to explain why it's considered a must-read of Disney history. The fascinating elements that went into what turned out to be the savior of the Disney company brand (and even reinventor), the film The Little Mermaid are almost priceless, as are the construction of the classics that followed. The author gives not enough time to genius Howard Ashman, the writer/composer/artist with ideas that reinvented not only the fairytales Disney was seeking to tell, but in doing so, Disney itself. Ashman's alterations can't be emphasized enough, from his reworking of characters and musical sequences in both The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin (and his influence was attributed to later films as well) to the fact he was responsible for some of the most memorable twists in Disney animated history (just one example: it was Ashman's idea for the royal servants in Beauty and the Beast to become objects, forced to suffer along with their master, who Ashman reworked as a tortured soul undergoing a revelation of his own, not merely a plot device from whom the female lead learns to "unlearn" the vanity of appearance). His tragic death from AIDS before Beauty and the Beast is even completed is actually one of the most emotionally vivid scenes in a book attempting (but so often failing) to be full of them. Three top Disney executives visit Ashman on his death bed in the overcrowded AIDS ward in St. Vincent Hospital to brief Ashman on developments on the film, and one, David Geffen, who would later go on to co-found DreamWorks, has a particularly heart-breaking scene.
“Word that three powerful Hollywood executives had come to see Ashman rippled through the [hospital] ward. Ashman lay in his bed, blind and frail. He had trouble breathing and could no longer speak. Geffen knelt by the bed and took Ashman's hand. "You're going to recover," he said. "This is going to be cured. A miracle will happen. You have to believe, just as you have inspired so many other people to believe in magical things. You must never give up. And I want you to know that you are surrounded by people who love you." They couldn't be sure Ashman heard or understood the words, but his eyes filled with tears.
A week later, Ashman died. He never saw the finished print of Beauty and the Beast. ” (pg 120)
The book notes that Ashman's partner, Bill Launch, and Ashman's mother were treated accordingly to Ashman's contributions, included in ceremonies honoring and celebrating the film.
Beyond Ashman, there are other little gems in the book. One example is Eisner's truly creepy suggestion for Fantasia 2000 (to the song "Pomp and Circumstance", he envisioned all the classic Disney heroes and heroines, Snow White and Prince Charming, Ariel and Eric, and so on, marching in wedding procession carrying their "future" babies, which they would present in some sort of ceremony) and Roy Disney's almost equally creepy reason for rejection (aside from the fact it resembled in his opinion, a"something out of a Korean religious cult," showing "the hallowed Disney characters as married with babies implied they had engaged in sex.").
While the book is a bloated and yet not-that-informative read, it's still worthwhile for those interested in animation and/or Disney history, and may retain some redeeming qualities to fans of corporate dramas.
Notable: An interesting look into how long ideas stay in development (and how they change) is the author's documentation of a June 2003 creative meeting to which he's invited.
“The discussion turns to Christmas 2007. Eisner has just read a script for Rapunzel. "Someone told me a woman with long hair is old-fashion," Eisner says.
"That's why this has to be a Legally Blonde-type comedy," replies Mary Jane Ruggels, another creative vice president.
"Sleeping Beauty was 1938 [sic]," Eisner says. "The ending was forced. Like Treasure Planet-- it just ended. It wasn't funny or clever. Are you sure you can save this? Is Ice Queen better?"
"You mean Snow Queen," Ruggels says.
"I love the Taming of the Shrew idea," Eisner says. "Take Martha Stewart. She's tough, smart, a worthy adversary. If she was a doormat of a woman, no one would be after her. Marlo Thomas used to call me about marketing 'That Girl'. She said, 'If I was a man, I'd be president of the network.'"
Eisner expressed some reservations about the team assigned to Snow Queen, then adds, "John Lasseter. If we make a deal with Pixar..."
[David]Stainton [, president of Walt Disney Feature Entertainment] jumps in: "You mean when we make a new deal with Pixar."
"I said to John, you can have Snow Queen. He loved it. John said, 'I want to do a princess movie.'"
Eisner asks for the Snow Queen synopsis.
"The Snow Queen is a terrible bitch," Ruggels says. "When her suitors try to melt her heart, the Snow Queen freezes them."
"Each one should be a phony, but different," Eisner says of the suitors.
"Then along comes a regular guy," Ruggels continues.
"This is perfect!" Eisner exclaims. "I'm afraid to hear more."
"The regular guy goes up there, he's not that great, but he's a good person. He starts to unfreeze her... she melts."
"It's great," Eisner says. "Finally. We're had twenty meetings on this."
"We'll have a treatment in two weeks," Ruggels promises.
"Can we have this for 2006?" Eisner asks.
"No way," [senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Feature Animation Pam] Coats says.
More ideas are tossed around: Frog Princess, Rumpelstiltskin, You Don't Know Jack About the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel (with a twist: the kids are obnoxious, the witch likable), Mother Goose as a sassy, Queen Latifah type; and something, maybe Aida, that would feature an African "princess". Eisner worries that Aida is still too live-action. "What's the Howard Ashman piece we can layer on? he asks, one of several times Ashman's name has come up in the meeting.
"This is good," Eisner concludes, "a good start." He gets up to leave. "I love Snow Queen."” (pgs 436, 437)
Title: DisneyWar by James B Stewart
Details: Copyright 2005, Simon & Schuster
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): ""When You Wish Upon a Star," "Whistle While You Work," "The Happiest Place on Earth" -- these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world -- everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished.
DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America's best-known entertainment company to civil war, told by one of our most acclaimed writers and reporters.
Drawing on unprecedented access to both Eisner and Roy Disney, current and former Disney executives and board members, as well as thousands of pages of never-before-seen letters, memos, transcripts, and other documents, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years: What really caused the rupture with studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who once regarded Eisner as a father but who became his fiercest rival? How could Eisner have so misjudged Michael Ovitz, a man who was not only "the most powerful man in Hollywood" but also his friend, whom he appointed as Disney president and immediately wanted to fire? What caused the break between Eisner and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs, and why did Pixar abruptly abandon its partnership with Disney? Why did Eisner so mistrust Roy Disney that he assigned Disney company executives to spy on him? How did Eisner control the Disney board for so long, and what really happened in the fateful board meeting in September 2004, when Eisner played his last cards?
Here, too, is the creative process that lies at the heart of Disney -- from the making of The Lion King to Pirates of the Caribbean. Even as the executive suite has been engulfed in turmoil, Disney has worked -- and sometimes clashed -- with a glittering array of stars, directors, designers, artists, and producers, many of whom tell their stories here for the first time.
Stewart describes how Eisner lost his chairmanship and why he felt obliged to resign as CEO, effective 2006. No other book so thoroughly penetrates the secretive world of the corporate boardroom. DisneyWar is an enthralling tale of one of America's most powerful media and entertainment companies, the people who control it, and those trying to overthrow them.
DisneyWar is an epic achievement. It tells a story that -- in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax -- might itself have been the subject of a Disney animated classic -- except that it's all true."
Why I Wanted to Read It: The Disney company has a fascinating history. Michael Eisner's tenure with the company not only spanned my childhood (and he was a recognizable figure from the TV specials) but one of the most impressive turns of the company: In the floundering years since Walt Disney's death and the push and pull of the old guard, the studio only saw a few successes and nothing that touched the epic nature of its material under Walt, until 1989's The Little Mermaid, and the string of animated successes that some would even argue surpassed Walt's work, that followed.
I was more interested in the history of the company than the corporate takeover drama that this suggested to be, but this is generally regarded to be one of the best written histories of the company, so I thought I'd give it a try.
How I Liked It: The book opens with a list of "Cast Members", including the Disney family, and the top executives of each of the branches of the Walt Disney company, including Feature Animation, Parks and Resorts, and splinter studios (Miramax, Pixar, Dreamworks). This gave me a sinking feeling since in my experience, it's almost always been a sign that the author is going to bloat the book with characters you'll have difficulty keeping straight, and rather than refine his or her writing, a hasty cast listing is stuck at the top of the book.
The book has a slow, jumbled start, largely because it can't quite decide where to begin. The Prologue opens with Roy E Disney (the nephew of Walt Disney and son of Walt's brother Roy O) rolling out of his Ferrari into the parking lot of a trendy wine bar in Pasadena for a meeting with some other top Disney players, in the midst of the fight over who would stay with the company (himself or Michael Eisner) in November 2003. A jumble of characters fly at us as we're taken through the nearly two decades of complex history between Eisner and Roy E, all while we're supposed to be taking in the vignette at the table (Roy dramatically walks out).
From that exit, we're suddenly in Disney World, watching a new actor try out his role as a Disney cast member, specifically Goofy. In the third person, we rather curiously observe "Goofy's" struggle with the costume and performance anxiety. Goofy's interaction with excited children manages to go smoothly and ends with Goofy wiping away a tear of emotion.
This odd detour is then explained by the author's revelation that it was he playing Goofy in the scene we just witnessed. Apparently, a standard part of the orientation for top Disney executives is to appear as a character in a theme park. The author explains it wasn't until after he accepted the role (presumably begged for the opportunity as a kicker in the book) that he was told he was not allowed to write about it, at least in a way that "stated or implied that Goofy was an actor inside a costume."
As bizarre and self-injecting as this sounds, it does serve a bit as a mission statement into how the author plans to treat the company. It's bizarre at first, absurd even, but it's for a good reason, or at least for a well-intentioned reason (so committed are the staff at the parks, they do not want to break the illusion that Goofy is "real" even amongst those playing him). However apparently since the fact that top executives appear as cast members in the parks broke in a 2004 Wallstreet Journal piece, Michael Eisner himself apparently gave the author the go-ahead to write about his experience.
Then, we're taken on a trip through the author's past with Eisner (since the late seventies), and how he came to proposition him for a book in 2003.
Then the book swiftly changes direction again, taking us back to the author's castmember experience, which occurs two months after his first dinner with Eisner regarding the book. For the rest of the prologue, we're treated to the intricacies of the author's experience.
The first chapter then leaps back nearly two decades to September 1984, as Eisner is poised to take the Disney throne.
Why do I mention these first few pages in such detail? Because it gives you an idea of the pacing as well as the depth of the book.
The book doesn't cover merely Eisner's reign, it also picks up the friction between the Disney brothers over Walt's decision to ultimately name the company after himself, something that came as a bit of a shock to his brother, that felt their business was a joint venture (and in labor was certainly treated as a partnership). What's more, the book doesn't give such events a casual backstory to lead us to Eisner entering the picture, it mixes Disney's history including such trivialities as personal letters between the two Disney brothers with a kind of personal biography of Eisner himself, pre-Disney. The book lacks any kind of real coherent storyline until Eisner more or less settles into his throne, sometime in the latter mid-eighties, and starts fucking things up (hit after hit Eisner turns down, and his own pet projects frequently prove to be atrocious detriments to the company) in earnest.
For the four hundred plus pages from there, the book is basically a corporate soap opera, only the author never really bothers to familiarize us enough with the constant stream of characters for us to care. Even long-time Eisner associates (with whom he ultimately parts) are never fully fleshed out. Background tidbits like the animators revenge and contempt at certain executives (producing frequently profane drawings depicting their overlord targets "unflatteringly"; wonder how much one of those would be worth if it still existed?) that should be shocking (and even delicious in their obvious "backstage" feel) come across as merely somewhat desperate bids to tie sections together.
The book attempts to span multiple business ventures in great depth (the various intricacies of the Disney-acquired ABC and such minutia as Eisner's preferences for one actor over another) over several decades and clocks a hefty five hundred plus pages-- yet it's still padded with filler.
The end, uncertain as the book went to print, is as hazy and indistinct as its beginning, only much more hasty.
However, there are enough tidbits in the book to explain why it's considered a must-read of Disney history. The fascinating elements that went into what turned out to be the savior of the Disney company brand (and even reinventor), the film The Little Mermaid are almost priceless, as are the construction of the classics that followed. The author gives not enough time to genius Howard Ashman, the writer/composer/artist with ideas that reinvented not only the fairytales Disney was seeking to tell, but in doing so, Disney itself. Ashman's alterations can't be emphasized enough, from his reworking of characters and musical sequences in both The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin (and his influence was attributed to later films as well) to the fact he was responsible for some of the most memorable twists in Disney animated history (just one example: it was Ashman's idea for the royal servants in Beauty and the Beast to become objects, forced to suffer along with their master, who Ashman reworked as a tortured soul undergoing a revelation of his own, not merely a plot device from whom the female lead learns to "unlearn" the vanity of appearance). His tragic death from AIDS before Beauty and the Beast is even completed is actually one of the most emotionally vivid scenes in a book attempting (but so often failing) to be full of them. Three top Disney executives visit Ashman on his death bed in the overcrowded AIDS ward in St. Vincent Hospital to brief Ashman on developments on the film, and one, David Geffen, who would later go on to co-found DreamWorks, has a particularly heart-breaking scene.
“Word that three powerful Hollywood executives had come to see Ashman rippled through the [hospital] ward. Ashman lay in his bed, blind and frail. He had trouble breathing and could no longer speak. Geffen knelt by the bed and took Ashman's hand. "You're going to recover," he said. "This is going to be cured. A miracle will happen. You have to believe, just as you have inspired so many other people to believe in magical things. You must never give up. And I want you to know that you are surrounded by people who love you." They couldn't be sure Ashman heard or understood the words, but his eyes filled with tears.
A week later, Ashman died. He never saw the finished print of Beauty and the Beast. ” (pg 120)
The book notes that Ashman's partner, Bill Launch, and Ashman's mother were treated accordingly to Ashman's contributions, included in ceremonies honoring and celebrating the film.
Beyond Ashman, there are other little gems in the book. One example is Eisner's truly creepy suggestion for Fantasia 2000 (to the song "Pomp and Circumstance", he envisioned all the classic Disney heroes and heroines, Snow White and Prince Charming, Ariel and Eric, and so on, marching in wedding procession carrying their "future" babies, which they would present in some sort of ceremony) and Roy Disney's almost equally creepy reason for rejection (aside from the fact it resembled in his opinion, a"something out of a Korean religious cult," showing "the hallowed Disney characters as married with babies implied they had engaged in sex.").
While the book is a bloated and yet not-that-informative read, it's still worthwhile for those interested in animation and/or Disney history, and may retain some redeeming qualities to fans of corporate dramas.
Notable: An interesting look into how long ideas stay in development (and how they change) is the author's documentation of a June 2003 creative meeting to which he's invited.
“The discussion turns to Christmas 2007. Eisner has just read a script for Rapunzel. "Someone told me a woman with long hair is old-fashion," Eisner says.
"That's why this has to be a Legally Blonde-type comedy," replies Mary Jane Ruggels, another creative vice president.
"Sleeping Beauty was 1938 [sic]," Eisner says. "The ending was forced. Like Treasure Planet-- it just ended. It wasn't funny or clever. Are you sure you can save this? Is Ice Queen better?"
"You mean Snow Queen," Ruggels says.
"I love the Taming of the Shrew idea," Eisner says. "Take Martha Stewart. She's tough, smart, a worthy adversary. If she was a doormat of a woman, no one would be after her. Marlo Thomas used to call me about marketing 'That Girl'. She said, 'If I was a man, I'd be president of the network.'"
Eisner expressed some reservations about the team assigned to Snow Queen, then adds, "John Lasseter. If we make a deal with Pixar..."
[David]Stainton [, president of Walt Disney Feature Entertainment] jumps in: "You mean when we make a new deal with Pixar."
"I said to John, you can have Snow Queen. He loved it. John said, 'I want to do a princess movie.'"
Eisner asks for the Snow Queen synopsis.
"The Snow Queen is a terrible bitch," Ruggels says. "When her suitors try to melt her heart, the Snow Queen freezes them."
"Each one should be a phony, but different," Eisner says of the suitors.
"Then along comes a regular guy," Ruggels continues.
"This is perfect!" Eisner exclaims. "I'm afraid to hear more."
"The regular guy goes up there, he's not that great, but he's a good person. He starts to unfreeze her... she melts."
"It's great," Eisner says. "Finally. We're had twenty meetings on this."
"We'll have a treatment in two weeks," Ruggels promises.
"Can we have this for 2006?" Eisner asks.
"No way," [senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Feature Animation Pam] Coats says.
More ideas are tossed around: Frog Princess, Rumpelstiltskin, You Don't Know Jack About the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel (with a twist: the kids are obnoxious, the witch likable), Mother Goose as a sassy, Queen Latifah type; and something, maybe Aida, that would feature an African "princess". Eisner worries that Aida is still too live-action. "What's the Howard Ashman piece we can layer on? he asks, one of several times Ashman's name has come up in the meeting.
"This is good," Eisner concludes, "a good start." He gets up to leave. "I love Snow Queen."” (pgs 436, 437)