"Letter to the Editor"

May 2002

The following "Letter to the Editor" was written in response to the article published May 16, 2002 in the Pasadena Weekly entitled "The UNhappiest Place On Earth" by Judy Seckler. This letter responds to the ridiculous corporate response to the issues presented them by the writer of the article. The letter has been published in it's entirety in the June 13, 2002 issue of Pasadena Weekly and it is my hope that it will help bring greater insight into the truth of the goings on at The Walt Disney Company to help effect greatly needed change:

Dear Pasadena Weekly,

I recently read your article about the situation at Disney Feature Animation; an article that I was actually interviewed for and quoted in so I was already familiar with it's content. As published, I found it a fair and well handled piece by writer Judy Seckler. I did, however, feel that I would like to comment on the response by corporate Disney. I think that it was commendable on the part of the writer to contact corporate Disney for the purpose of including another point of view in this article. However, I have to say that I found the Disney responses insincere and laughable at best.

Clearly, the "leaders" at Disney do not want to deal with responding to the issues here as the real perpetrators of this current downturn just never seem to be available for comment. Instead, their flunkies and spin-doctors always take the calls and spew the same tired company line we have heard repeatedly for months and years; the very line of denial that has brought about the great Disney downfall. Of course, these foolish, self-proclaimed "leaders" would deny that there is any degradation in the quality of the Disney product at all. And why would they? It would appear that few of them even view the product produced by Disney and, therefore, they would most likely not notice any decline in quality until it began effecting them and their cushy, parasitic positions. Frankly, I found the tone of the corporate Disney response to be typically condescending and superfluous overall. Of course, I have felt this way for some time and that is one reason why I left Feature Animation in the first place. But, in the case of this article I found two specific points to be particularly ludicrous and thus felt compelled to mention them in this letter to the editor.

First of all, these "so called" executives at Disney Feature Animation are clearly not qualified to be judges of quality of the animation product at all. They contribute nothing to production but confusion and headaches for talented, dedicated and experienced artists and few to none of these executives have any background in the art of animation to begin with. In fact, if there is a need to "Trim the Fat" and cut the costs of feature animation, it would seem only obvious that the first place those cuts should be made are in areas such as top heavy, useless "creative" management. The very unqualified people, in fact, who are actually making the cuts and not with the artists who literally make the films and have built the industry these corporate leeches now control. The inmates are indeed running the asylum.

Secondly, I am sorry that any criticisms of the low quality drivel that his division perpetrates and passes off as Disney Animation leaves Disney "Executive" David Strainton speechless. But then, perhaps he might appear even somewhat intelligent if that is how he remained. Does this arrogant corporate executive really think that the public will swallow his theory that diminishing the staff at Feature Animation and then having the displaced, talented people transfer over to work on the unmitigated garbage that Disney TV produces will somehow lift the overall quality of animation at Disney? That theory is not only stupid but truly laughable. An analogy of this scenario would play out something like this: One has two pots on the stove. One pot is filled with rich, hearty soup and the other with nothing but hot water. Now, if we would apply Mr. Strainton's ridiculous theory to this situation and blend the contents of the two pots together we would end up with 2 pots full of rich soup on the stove, right? Wrong! The result may be 2 pots of soup, but they would now be two very watered down pots of soup at the very best. The clear water clouded by the soup. The rich soup diminished by the water.

To me, statements like Mr. Strainton's truly bespeak the contempt that Disney management has for their audience if they honestly think the public is stupid enough to buy logic like that. And I am sorry Mr. Strainton, but even a small child can tell the difference between the REAL Cinderella and the tragically inferior "Video Premiere" Cinderella 2, (the operative phrase here being "number 2" because that's what these sequels appear to be made of). Case in point, a friend's 6 year old daughter was barely able to sit through that fiasco of a video and when it was finally over she came to us in the next room and said, "That wasn't like Cinderella at all. Don't they know there is nothing after Happily Ever After?" Out of the mouths of babes...

It is amazing to me that these representatives from Disney continue to think that people will believe that their corporate actions are anything but marketing strategies based on greed and the bottom line over quality every time. In practically every article and investigation the facts about the obvious downturns in quality in virtually EVERY division at The Walt Disney Company just keep pointing the finger of responsibility at Disney executives and their terrible mismanagement of the company. And yet, corporate Disney's only defense to any criticism is nearly always to deny the facts; to simply say, "No it's not" or "No we're not" or "We feel we have done nothing wrong" as they quietly settle out of Court. That is simply no defense.

What I would really like to know is when the stockholders and the public are going to get up off their rears and demand that the executive management of Disney becomes accountable for their actions and their roles in the downfall of the quality of Disney. I, for one, would say this day of reckoning is long overdue. I feel that the time has come to REALLY trim the fat, the fat at the TOP that is driving this good company into the dirt. But then, that kind of change is going to take some pretty hard and critical scrutiny and I don't know where that level of self assessment and moral evaluation is going to come from. It is clearly not going to come from within the walls of the Walt Disney Company. The NEW Disney magic seems to be the fact that these executives and vice presidents and managers at Disney have been able to operate unchecked and with impunity for so long. Sadly, it shows no signs of slowing and that is unfortunate because before long it may actually be too late to salvage anything of any value from the wreckage.

At any rate, those are my thoughts and I thank you for this forum.

Sincerely,

David Pruiksma

Retired 20 year Supervising Animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation