Marty Sklar and Dave Smith

Marty Sklar and Dave Smith have both sent out letters to the public and the fan community over the Small World cartoonization issue. What’s amazing about the letters these two gentlemen have sent out is that they sent them at all. This has not happened before, let alone having two letters sent out.

They are interesting for several reasons. The first is that it is a real indicator that the people in the Disney Corporation are actively reading what fans are saying online, and are either engaging in internal discussions about it or are in some way trying to stop the issue from spiraling even further out of control. This puts the lie to the idea that what is said online is ignored. Something I’ve personally said for a long time, as well. However, it is obvious now that not only do they read what is said on blogs and websites, but they also must discuss these things, and formulate plans to either bolster or counter what is said. It is highly unlikely that a VP at Disney and the chief archivist would randomly send out letters without some discussion behind the scenes. People who are in a position to know have told me that the boards are looked over very carefully and some people’s writings are summarized for higher ups, and some of what is said is discussed at length. This can absolutely no longer be denied, and the response by Disney to this Small World matter is proof of that.

Whom the Disney Company picked to respond to this issue is very calculated. First, they tapped Marty Sklar, who has a large amount of goodwill with the fan base because of the years he has been associated with Disney and the things he’s done. When that didn’t suffice, and in fact made things even worse, they then picked on Dave Smith, also very much respected, who wrote in a tone that was very noticeably less confrontational. It comes across as almost a bewildered note, questioning why people are in such a frazzle over this.

I think these two notes reflect, perhaps, a bit of the inner thinking of what is going on inside Disney. The first, by Sklar is a bit annoyed and dismissive. How dare people question us? The one by Smith is, wait, why are you, our loyal fans, so mad?

What is also interesting to see is how that while they are reading and discussing the comments on the net, they are absolutely not absorbing the information, or if they are, they are so solidly entrenched in their corporate mindset and speech that they simply can not get off of it. Both letters contain the now very trite “Disneyland will never be completed…” company line of manure. People are complaining about this being said repeatedly, and they still just keep shoveling this same tired refrain out to the public. It’s a non-response to the points raised about the issues regarding this changeover.

I have said, others have said, in fact, nearly all people have said that the park must change. That is not the issue. So repeating that Walt Disney said the park would change is utterly beside the point. Yet, they persist in going down this road over and over again. In press releases and in letters to individuals, they keep saying this same exact thing. It’s like talking to a broken record that can only regurgitate one single phrase endlessly.

This dehumanizes not only themselves, but the public as well—many who have constructed some very reasoned discourses on why this is wrong—which are totally ignored. A lot has been said to Disney, and yet Disney can say little else other than “Disneyland will never be completed.” Is their communications department so outrageously stuck on autopilot that it cannot figure out how to stop saying this one sentence? We all know Walt Disney said this. You can stop telling us about it for a few years. I am sure if I sent this blog in a letter to Disney, one sentence would be “Walt Disney said…” regardless of me saying I’ve already heard it too often.

What they also don’t seem to get, as evidenced by Dave Smith’s letter, is why people are so very annoyed with this turn of events. There are several reasons, and they seem to not be able to comprehend any of them. Dave Smith basically said “Gee, we’ve done this so many times before, why are people mad about this?” However, that is exactly the point. They have done this so many times. Too many times. Each time it was done, where cartoons have been crammed into an area they don’t belong, there was a lot of complaining about it. Each time it happened, there were more people being unhappy about it.

It has finally gotten so blatantly commercial with this incarnation that there is, at long last, a large enough backlash so that this issue is finally getting some traction. Disney is over cartooning their parks, they have been doing it for a while, and although it has been tolerated for one reason or another, it is often not appreciated at all. They are wrecking what were once theme parks with all kinds of entertainments by changing them to ones that have one single type of entertainment.

Movie people originally constructed Disneyland, and in a way, going to a Disney park is very much like going to a multiplex theater to see different types of movies, with each area within the park representing another type of film. This theater has a western, that theater has a horror film, the other theater has a drama or a comedy, and yet another has an animated feature. What they have been doing, and are continuing to do, is turn every single theater in that multiplex into being about animation, and they are doing so with very little artistic integrity. The shows they produce with this mindset are often very poor and poorly received. Shows, such as Soarin’ and Expedition Everest don’t follow this mindset and are their great recent successes.

Yet, they still keep dumping the cartoons in. They are not even paying attention to the negative reaction to the cartooned up attractions that they have already built; they just keep doing it, seemingly without any regard to anything other than their own egos or their marketing department. Is it any wonder that the fan base and the public (as expressed in the Los Angeles Times) are now becoming fully exasperated with them? What is incredible, though, is that the people running this corporation can’t seem to figure this out at all. Instead they have their employees issue corporate letters either chastising the public for being too dumb to appreciate their ingenious efforts at destroying their own products, or flat out stating they have no comprehension as to why this is even a problem at all.

I don’t understand how you can get to a position of authority in a corporation without having a single clue about the product you are selling, it’s history, or why the public is even interested in it.

Now Kim Irvine is adding another voice to the chorus of the same. Saying the exact same things in the exact same way. “We’ve always changed things. Walt was about change!” Completely ignoring the point and going off responding to strawman arguments which almost no one is making.

They are reading this stuff. However, there are two parts to reading: Vocabulary and comprehension. They have shown no indication whatsoever that they understand what people are saying to them.

What they are doing to Small World is exactly what they have been doing all along, yes, and all along, it has been an absolutely dismal idea. It’s just to the point where nearly everyone has finally had enough. Disney is going to be able to skate by on its reputation for only so long, then it is going to start to really hurt them. All one has to do is look at General Motors for a good example of the well-worn path that Disney is walking down. If it can happen to GM, it can happen to Disney. Don’t think it can’t. They will start falling behind. While Universal builds a new Harry Potter land, and Sea World gets Aquatica, Walt Disney World gets a cloned Toy Story shooting gallery ride and American Idol. The levels of investment are not even close to comparable. While Disney is currently ahead on the massive infrastructure built by previous and more talented groups of Imagineers and managers, inertia won’t hold out forever.

Disney is creatively in trouble. Not only can you see this in the attractions they are building, but also in the singular lack of creativity or insight in being able to craft a response to the public commentary on their attempts to continually destroy their own legacy.