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A review by bks37
DisneyWar by James B. Stewart
4.0
It is always so interesting getting to see behind the curtains of a company that plays such a large role in media and culture. Growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s meant that all of the political machinations and internal power struggles within the Disney Company amounted to little more than fun movies and a memorable trip to Florida when I was 8. I also was not aware Disney buying ABC and other networks without seemingly any plan to fill them. I remember watching Lost, but the strife around landing other big shows is surprising. I know the industry is cut-throat, but ABC had a chance to make Survivor, CSI, Law and Order and others and blew it. Disney as a studio also passed on producing the Lord of the Rings. I honestly can't even think of a nightly lineup for ABC growing up that could rival NBC, CBS or even Fox. Considering this book came out in 2004, my favorite little easter egg was in the meeting our author got to sit in on with the creative team to discuss upcoming movie plans. Because they were in early development, most had code names or simple titles but reading this in 2024 gave some clarity. It's crazy that the animation studio was struggling so hard when they were about to release Frog Princes, Rapunzel and Snow Queen (Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Frozen) shortly after.
A specific complaint about this book was the sheer volume of names presented. Sometimes it felt like a never ending carousal of people coming and going which might have been accurate but not always interesting. I liked it better when the book focused on a specific person or department and stuck with it for a while. Eisner would always make his appearances in all of them, but when you could follow smaller players for a while it was a great narrative. I honestly want a book just about the animation studio in the 90s now. That will probably devolve into an Eisner/Katzenburg spat, but I can't imagine it being boring to see the creation of the Disney Renascence movies.
Reading this it's amazing just how long Eisner lasted and how much money he made working for Disney. Given his constant self-horn tooting about being a creative CEO I can't remember an example of his hands-on style paying off for Disney. In fact they make it pretty clear he was too involved with Euro-Disney and it hampered the project and drove it over-budget. You'd think there would have been at least one positive instance outside of greenlighting certain movies, but even those are overshadowed by pointing out the movies he either passed on or were made despite him and went on to be successful. This didn't even feel like a huge hit-piece against him. He was constantly bringing in value, it just didn't appear tangible to me what he was doing. Especially because I know they left a lot out when it came to the theme parks (barely mentioned), Downtown Disney, ESPN Zone, the video arcade adventures and more that he championed over the years.
In addition to the upcoming movie tidbits I mentioned earlier there were a few other things to mention with hindsight. The author was really hyping up M. Night Shamalan after his critical successes without knowing that flame would quickly fizzle. Harvey Weinstein was presented extremely positively - his history and allegations wouldn't come out until years later. As big of a focus as Katzenburg got, we didn't hear much about Dreamworks, but there golden years with Shrek and Kung Fu Panda were just starting.
A specific complaint about this book was the sheer volume of names presented. Sometimes it felt like a never ending carousal of people coming and going which might have been accurate but not always interesting. I liked it better when the book focused on a specific person or department and stuck with it for a while. Eisner would always make his appearances in all of them, but when you could follow smaller players for a while it was a great narrative. I honestly want a book just about the animation studio in the 90s now. That will probably devolve into an Eisner/Katzenburg spat, but I can't imagine it being boring to see the creation of the Disney Renascence movies.
Reading this it's amazing just how long Eisner lasted and how much money he made working for Disney. Given his constant self-horn tooting about being a creative CEO I can't remember an example of his hands-on style paying off for Disney. In fact they make it pretty clear he was too involved with Euro-Disney and it hampered the project and drove it over-budget. You'd think there would have been at least one positive instance outside of greenlighting certain movies, but even those are overshadowed by pointing out the movies he either passed on or were made despite him and went on to be successful. This didn't even feel like a huge hit-piece against him. He was constantly bringing in value, it just didn't appear tangible to me what he was doing. Especially because I know they left a lot out when it came to the theme parks (barely mentioned), Downtown Disney, ESPN Zone, the video arcade adventures and more that he championed over the years.
In addition to the upcoming movie tidbits I mentioned earlier there were a few other things to mention with hindsight. The author was really hyping up M. Night Shamalan after his critical successes without knowing that flame would quickly fizzle. Harvey Weinstein was presented extremely positively - his history and allegations wouldn't come out until years later. As big of a focus as Katzenburg got, we didn't hear much about Dreamworks, but there golden years with Shrek and Kung Fu Panda were just starting.