The West Side of the Kingdom
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Marty Sklar, of Walt Disney Imagineering, was one of the panelists. I’ve known Marty for years and have spoken with him in-depth about things on many occasions. One of the biggest projects I worked with Marty on was TPA’s Pirates of the Caribbean issue. Without his help, we would never have had the wonderful images to share with readers that we did. For that, I will always be grateful. Unfortunately, as some "rumors" on the Internet have eluded to, Marty and I did have a falling-out of sorts over the Pirates issue; there were things said in the magazine and pictures published that he and some members of the WDI staff disagreed with hotly. I stood my ground and while I have not spoken with Marty for quite a while now, I believe the incident has become water under the bridge.

While interviewing Marty about Pirates and his role at Imagineering, he made it very clear that he hates people asking, "What would Walt do or say about this?" It’s a serious dislike of his because after working for Walt, Marty feels that if Imagineers are questioned with that all the time, it shows that nothing was really learned or passed on by Walt Disney. I understand his position. Imagineering is an entity; a working extension of the spirit of Walt and the original Imagineering pioneers. Perhaps if I had worked with Walt and felt that I had truly learned from him, the question would be offensive to me as well.

That question was directed at Marty regarding DCA during the press conference. I could see his face cloud over a bit underneath his smile. I knew his button had been pushed. His immediate response was, "Well, as I always say, I think Walt would say ‘What took you so long?’" At the risk of mis-quoting Marty, I won’t continue. However, he did state that he felt Walt would totally approve of the new park and that he’d be proud of the accomplishment.

That was a hard one for me to swallow. In my opinion, as well as many people who also worked with Walt that I have spoken to about DCA, the new park represents everything that Walt didn’t want Disneyland to become. It made me very unhappy that an executive, a Disney Legend himself, could sit there in front of the world and say that Walt would totally approve of DCA. I mean, what could Marty say? "I think Walt would be really unhappy and walking papers would have been handed out faster than rice in Africa." The man has a job to do, and so, the answer he gave was the only move he could make. Regardless, it still made me sad to hear the words come from someone that worked closely with Walt on many projects.

I suppose it’s that kind of statement that Jerry Kobrin referred to as "Disney’s arrogance" that offended him so deeply. The company seems to be in a perpetual state of "can do no wrong" mentality. That is a scary state to be in; a lot of damage is being done I think and will continue until Disney managers snap out of it. God only knows what that will take; falling stock price, low gate numbers at the parks or just a slow-burn public distaste for them in general.

Michael Eisner is at the helm and, as a journalist as well as true-blue Disney enthusiast, I hold him accountable for many of the ills of the company these days. The loss of Frank Wells years ago severely crippled Eisner’s focus and leadership. The departure of Katzenberg to DreamWorks certainly didn’t help, either.

Folks that have followed Disney since the bringing on of Michael Eisner can tell you he’s never been a strong public speaker. The man may know how to run a studio, but he’s no publicist’s dream. I remember in the ‘80s, listening to him on television or the radio when there was a Disney story in the news. It was painful. He has improved over the years, but sometimes, things come out of his mouth that I know the media feeds on like a shark frenzy. I was stunned that the following incident at the press conference didn’t make it to someone’s column; I guess it has now.

A journalist from a Latin/Mexican news agency stood and said that Disney’s relationship with South America has always seemed very positive and she wanted to know when they might get a Disney park in Latin America and in which country, considering Japan, Europe and soon, China will have parks.

Michael thought for a moment and stated, "The Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World are major destination resorts for, uh, Mexicans."

I nearly fell out of my seat. I suppose I am more sensitive than most about this, being in an interracial marriage (my wife’s family is from Nicaragua). However, I was stunned beyond words that the figurehead of one of the largest international companies in the world would refer to the citizens of Central and South America generally as "Mexicans". It’s a social boo-boo beyond repair. The term "Latin Americans" or something more general would have been so much better at this moment. However, there it was, from the horse’s mouth.

His response then went off course and the question was never really answered.

It bugged the hell out of me and I couldn’t wait to get out of the Hyperion Theater and call my wife to get her response; it was just as expected - "WHAT?" Michael, if you read this, never refer to someone from a country other than Mexico as a "Mexican." They tend not to dig that, man; especially those fiery Latin women! Had my wife, Venus, been there, she probably would have corrected you out loud on the spot in front of God and everyone!

I don’t want to get off course too much here; I have cited the above two comments as symptoms of something terribly wrong with Disney these days. The list goes on for miles, but if you can’t even speak well during an international press conference, how can you be expected to think clearly when it comes to critical decisions that will impact the company and its supporters forever?

In my opinion as a writer, Disney is plagued with managers and executives that either don’t "get it," refuse to accept the fact that they aren’t alone in this business anymore, seem to settle for whatever the budgets will allow at the cost of the respect of their fans over the years and the scariest of all, feel that what they are producing now (especially in the theme parks) is what the public wants or expects from them.