Roy E. Disney: Life Celebration
Page 4 of 5

John Lasseter
Click here for a much larger version of this picture

John Lasseter, Oscar winning director of Toy Story, Cars and chief creative officer for the Disney Company, said �You�ve heard this a few times today. It is without question Disney animation would not exist without Roy E. Disney�Roy believed in Disney animation� There was quite a bit of discussion to take and just send all animation to be produced overseas because it�s just much much cheaper...and Roy prevented that�.� In a lighter note John talked about Roy and their common interest in cars and planes. He said Roy came one day and said �I�m thinking about getting a new jet�I�ve been in line for a Gulfstream a G5, because they can fly me to Ireland without stopping. So I�ve been in line for a year and all of a sudden I get this call and it�s from the Boeing company�.We understand you are in line for a buy. Mr. Disney, have you ever considered a 737?

�Well no, I hadn�t considered a 737. Why don�t you come on down to the Burbank Airport? We have a 737 decked out as an executive jet and you can come look at it�John, I went down and looked at it and it�s a flying apartment! And they�re going to give it to me for the same price as the G5. I (John) said What are you gonna do? He said what do you think I should do? I (John) said well I think you should do it. He later called me and said I sold my place in line for the G5 for a million dollars. I could design it however I want. (John said) What are you going to do? (Roy) I don�t know, what should I do? Next day in my office I get the big box that he got from Boeing. And it had all the big plans and it�s like designing a house. It was so much fun to share this love�.Through all the work that I�ve done at Pixar and now Disney, I couldn�t do what I do without Roy Disney, the support that he had, and the belief he had in how important this art form is to this company and to our audience�I will always be making films the way Roy E. Disney wanted me to make them and wanted all of us to make them. So I cherish you, Roy, and I�ll always remember you. Thank you.�

Panel of Animators
Click here for a much larger version of this picture

A film about Roy and animation which was put together by Leslie Iwerks, the granddaughter of Ub Iwerks was then shown. A panel of top Disney animators took the stage with a backdrop of humorous sketches that they had drawn of Roy. These included Eric Goldberg, Andreas Deja, Mike Gabriel, Glenn Keane, Dave Bossert, George Scribner, Ron Clements and John Musker. All of these great talents spoke a little about their memories of Roy. Glen Keane (animator of Ariel, the Beast, Pocahontas) �Roy was a picture of humility�.One day in Florida there was a stockholders convention and there were lots of people going into the auditorium�.And as we came in, the security stops us and says to Roy, excuse me, sir, you don�t have a badge. (Glenn) This is going to be interesting�.Roy turned and around and said where do I get one? Well it�s right over there. And this huge line of people from Iowa and everywhere else were lining up to get their badges. So Roy said well I�d better go get a badge. And so I walk over there with Roy and he doesn�t go up to the front of the line but goes to the back of the line. And we waited our turn and got up all the way to the front and the girl there was checking names and we made sure we were in the D line and get up there and she said Oh, Mr. Disney, you don�t need a badge. He said Yes I do; the young man out there said I need a badge. She said Make Mr. Disney a badge so they made Roy a badge and he puts it on�.So then we come walking to the same door with the same guy. (Glen) Well this is going to be interesting. (I wonder) what�s going to happen. Roy comes up and the guy checks and said Go on in. I was amazed. Roy didn�t say anything, just Thank you. We walked on in. I said Roy that was incredible. You could have fired that guy. He said, why, I�m paying him to do his job and he did his job. That�s what our employees are here to do�I just never forgot that. That�s the kind of guy Roy was.�

Ron Clements (director of Little Mermaid, Aladdin as well as Princess and the Frog) told about an event that occurred when they were promoting the Little Mermaid in Europe. �I went with Roy�all over Europe�..Flying from Rome to Munich. there were UFO�s sightings outside the window of the airplane. Roy had never seen anything like this before. The pilot, who had many years of experience, had never seen anything like this. There were these f lights that were kind of following the airplane and then they were veering off. I�ve never Roy as excited as with these UFO�s. When we got to Munich and we were supposed to be doing press about the Little Mermaid, Roy kept talking about the UFO�s�.I love Roy very much. He was a great great human being.�

Click here for a much larger version of this picture

An element of humor came with John Musker�s showing of some drawings he had done of Roy. One showed Roy with Michael Eisner, both as contestants at a game show with the question being Name one of the Seven Dwarfs. John said Siegfried of Siegfried and Roy was the most flamboyant performer in show business and Roy Disney �is the least ostentatious and least flamboyant person in show business�. So then he showed his sketch of Siegfriend and Roy (Disney) to the audience�s delight. John ended with �It was a testament to Roy Disney�s sense of humor, though that he actually wanted a copy of this drawing�he has the original.�

Peter Schneider, former president of feature animation for Walt Disney�s Studios, talked about Roy as a businessman. �We were negotiating the contract with Pixar at the time and I said�Roy why don�t you come with me for the day�You�ll be helping negotiate. You know, we�re in process. Roy said great, we�ll take the plane�At that time, it was still part of Lucas Films and we went in the building, we had our tour and the very last stop was the conference room, just to meet and greet and have coffee and chit chat. Well Roy pulls out a pack of cigarettes and says to someone standing there, could I have an ashtray please? There was some shuffling of feet and some confusion. Finally someone said Mr. Disney, this is a non smoking building. And Roy says Could I have an ashtray please? (Peter) It�s kind of uncomfortable and I�m sitting there going Holy Cow, what is going on here�..This is before the non smoking laws in California....Mr. Disney, in fact no one has ever smoked in our building. This is a non smoking building. And Roy looked him in the eye and said Yes, could I have an ashtray please? And sure enough an ashtray was produced and Roy smoked through the entire meeting. So now we�re going back to the airport and I�m a little uncomfortable. I�m not quite sure how to bring up the subject of this rather uncomfortable, awkward, smoke filled kind of thing. And I guess Roy, as he always did, knew what I was thinking. He turns to me and says Peter, we were negotiating.�