Boxoffice-June.1995

change within The Walt Disney Co. was
inevitable, and could have been said to be
in the works at the time of Wells' death.
"TWo or three years ago, Michael and
Frank began talking about reinventing the
company," says Disney, "about the seven
year itch, the fact that you're sort ofdoomed
to reinvent things in cycles that way. And
so what happened in this last year, which of
course not only included Frank's deadi, but
to do — the responsibilities he wanted
weren't there for him. They weren't available."
Disney scofife at speculation that Disney
Co.'s 1994 management shake-up resulted
in part from his ovm desire to claim a more
active role in the filmmaking division. "My
role in the company is what it has been for
almost the last 10 years," he says. "It's a little
bit the owl in the tree, a litde bit the philosber
24, 1984, a bunch of us went over to
Lakeside Golf Club and had lunch after the
board meeting. We were aU sitting there
saying, 'Wow, we did it! Finally it's ovef— it
had been a long year Michael looked at me
and he said, 'Now that this is all over with,
what do you want to do?' And absolutely out
of instinct, I said, 'Wliy don't j-ou give me
the animation department? Because although
I never was an animator, I know
them all, I grew up around them.
Disney promises
some new creative
plateaus in
"Pocahontas:^'
"I think you'll
probably see
better 'acting'
of human figures
than you 've ever
seen before.
also eartiiquakes and Hres (in Southern California],
plus the whole overly public thing
with Jeffrey Katzenberg, was that we wound
up reinventing the company. Not because
we just did it of our own volition, but because
it kind of happened to us."
Disney is seated in a sort of living symbol
of that reinvention: the giant, "Sorcerer's
Apprentice"-derived "magic hat" that is the
architectural centerpiece of Disney's gargantuan
new Animation Building. In a
move fraught with all kinds of symbolism,
Roy Disney (who has made the long-rtimored
"Fantasia" redux "Fantasia Continued"
what he calls his "pet project") is
making his corporate home in the still-unfinished
and highly reverberant cement interior
of the pointed, star-emblazoned,
three-story hat itself— so much so that tlie
early portions of this conversation are given
over to such problems as the hat's unique
ventilation and lighting challenges.
Ostensibly, we're here to discuss
"Pocahontas," Disney's 33rd animated feature.
But if Roy Disney doesn't quite seem
to relish them, he doesn't shy away from the
inevitable questions about his (rumored to
be critical) role in Kiitzenberg's departure.
"I think the jierson that had the most to
do with it was Jeffrey," Disney says diplomatically.
"1 think in a psychological sense
it was time for him to move on. The things
he wanted— and this was said over and over
again in the meetings about what he wanted
opher Not too much hands on, and veiy
much deliberately so on my part, because
I've always thought I worked better at a littie
bit of a distance. You keep things in perspective."
Tlie exception to Roy Disney's "hands off"
rule would appear to be Disney animation,
where he is highly visible these days. As
mentioned, his office is now located in the
hub of a building where Disney hopes to
manufacttire tlie next generation of animated
hits, films to stand beside not only
formative classics like "Snow White,"
"Pinocchio" and "Dumbo," but also the films
of what could be called the Eisner era's
"second renaissance": "The Little Mermaid,
"Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Lion
King" and (hopefully) "Pocahontas." And
when the studio finally got around to releasing
"Snow White" to home video this year, it
was Roy Disney who taped a special introduction
to the work that transformed his
uncle into an industry visionary: producer
of the first fully animated theatrical feature.
Circumstantially, it could therefore be
argued that Roy Disney is indeed pursuing
a higher profile since Katzenberg's exit. But
according to Disney, the reality of tiic situation
is somewhat different.
"I've certainly been more involved with
animation than with any other aspect of tlie
company for these past 10 years," Disney
says. "On the day ofthe election to the board
of Michael and Frank, which was Septemand
I know that there's more to
drat department then presentiy is e\'ident
on the surface.'"
The very first thing Roy Disney did in his
new executive capacity was to take a look at
the expensive animated feature the new
regime had just inherited from the old
one—a 70mm boondoggle called "The Black
Cauldron" wliich had consumed a then-startling
$35 million (or roughly the same
amount it cost to make Michael Cimino's
studio-busting "Heaven's Gate" during tlie
same era). His reaction was prescient; "Oh
God," he thought of the film that would
become Disney animation's all-time money
loser, "This is a big bad problem. So I said,
'What else is going on?' And they said, 'Well,
John Musker and Roger Clemens are working
on a little thing called 'Basil of Baker
Street...' And I diought, 'Well this is more like
it.'"
After dragging Wells and Eisner dirough
offices, corridors and accessways dirougliout
the old Animation Department while
Musker and Clemens (who would later codirect
"The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin")
acted out the story of "Basil of Biiker Street"
before some 45 floor-to-ceiling stoiyboaixis,
the new Disney regime "greonlightcd" its
first animated feature, "Tlu^ Great Mouse
Detective," an inexpensive Sherlock
Holmes piirody tliat pioneered much of
what would come to fmition in Disney's
later animated efforts— including Disney's
first
use of computer animation, a process
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