Just about everyone in America has some sort of relationship to Disney. Whether through the movies and shows in its ever-growing library; experiences inside its theme parks or on its cruises; or simple social absorption of its many generations of iconic characters — Disney has achieved cultural ubiquity. The challenge facing the company now, as both a business and a creative operation, is sustaining that all-ages appeal as it charts a course toward an uncertain future.
In Land of the Giants: The Disney Dilemma, from Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network (you can subscribe here), we revisit the past 40 years of the sprawling entertainment giant to understand how it arrived at this point and where it may be heading next. Hosted by Vulture writers Joe Adalian, Rebecca Alter, Bilge Ebiri, and Chris Lee, the six-episode series will examine Disney’s theme parks (what happens when imagination is replaced with IP?), scuffling animation operation (what were they thinking with Wish?), studio acquisition successes and stumbles (how did Marvel and Star Wars lose their mojo?), and more. Please keep your arms and legs inside at all times, we hope you enjoy the ride.
Disney is a TV Company
How Magic (and a Major Television Deal) Fixed Disney
“When I joined Disney, I took over as CFO. And it was a broken company. And I’d never really seen a broken company before.” That’s how Gary Wilson characterizes his first impression of the ailing organization after becoming part of Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s C-suite in 1985. The company — the brand, really — had lost its way, creatively and financially, and Eisner & Co. had been brought in to change course. How exactly Disney re-created that magic, reversed its fortunes, and became a TV juggernaut (owning ESPN helped) is the subject of episode one, hosted by our own TV reporter and Buffering columnist Joe Adalian.
Further Reading
➼ Inside the 1995 Media Merger That Changed Disney Forever
➼ From the Archives: Mickey Mouse Time at Disney (October 1991)
Disney is a Theme Parks Company
How Disneyland Became America’s Great National Park
Without a doubt the buzziest piece of criticism of the year so far is a four-hour video in which YouTuber Jenny Nicholson thoroughly analyzes every inch of the now-defunct Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser immersive hotel at Walt Disney World. The screed, which is 33 percent longer than Oppenheimer, has had over 9.2 million views since it dropped mid-May, and its popularity proves that adult Disney tourism is far from niche. Disney adults, that much-maligned subgenre of person, have truly become the mainstream. And Disney’s parks division knows it; it earns 70 percent of the company’s operating income, compared to the entertainment-and-streaming division’s 11 percent. How did Disney World’s Cinderella Castle become an American landmark on the level of Mount Rushmore? And how did the development of a Tomorrowland ride possibly influence the Space Race? We get into all that with the help of some experts on this week’s episode of Land of the Giants: The Disney Dilemma, hosted by Rebecca Alter.
Further Reading
➼ Disney vs. Universal: The Ultimate Theme-Park Showdown
➼ Phil Simms on the Disney Ad That Overshadowed the Super Bowl
➼ Muppet*Vision 3D Should Be a National Heritage Site
➼ From the Archives: A Guide to Defunctland: YouTube’s Favorite Theme-Park Enthusiast (November 2023)
Disney is an Animation Company
Does ‘Disney Animation’ Still Mean Anything?
No one’s in the mood to revisit Wish, the 2023 Walt Disney Animation Studios release that attempted to honor Disney’s 100th anniversary by packing in fun historical winks and instead ended up feeling like a cry for help. But in the aftermath of that flop, and with the two films on the upcoming Disney Animation slate being sequels (Moana 2 later this year and Zootopia 2 in 2025), the current moment prompted host Bilge Ebiri to ask, early in the third episode of Land of the Giants: The Disney Dilemma, “What even is a Disney movie today?”
Further Reading
➼ How to Watch Every Stitch Thing After Lilo & Stitch
➼ From the Archives: Bring Back the Animation
➼ From the Archives: A Crash Course in a Century of Walt Disney Animation Studios
➼ From the Archives: A Rare Trip Inside Disney’s Secret Animation Vault
➼ From the Archives: Every Disney ‘I Want’ Song, Ranked
Disney Is a Cinematic Universe Company
Disney Is Bob Iger’s Company
Disney Is a Tech Company?
