The Imagineering Story: The Midas Touch Review
This week on The Imagineering Story, we’ve reached one of the most fascinating spots in Disney history. History remembers Michael Eisner as someone forced out of office due to questionable decision-making.
Business analysts who lived through the era evaluate his tenure quite differently. Let’s examine how the documentary treats him in the latest episode, The Midas Touch.
The Michael Eisner Era
In 1984, something vaguely Game of Thrones-ish happened with The Walt Disney Company. Roy E. Disney, the son of the late Roy O. Disney, orchestrated the termination of his company’s CEO. He would do this twice during his lifetime, and history has proven him right each time, although he’s perceived as a meddler by some.
At the time, former NFL player Ron Miller led Disney. Importantly, Miller was married to Diane Disney, the only biological child of Walt and Abigail Disney. The couple had adopted their other daughter, Sharon, a few weeks after her birth. So, Roy Disney fired his cousin’s husband and the father to Walt Disney’s biological grandchildren. Imagine Thanksgiving dinner that year.
Roy Disney performed these Machiavellian maneuvers to place the future of Disney in the hands of a pair of Hollywood power brokers. At the time, Disney’s vaunted movie studio had fallen into disarray. Roy Disney believed that the most crucial factor in the quality of the parks was the intellectual property created through the film division. It’s the same strategy that current CEO Robert Iger has employed so effectively during his tenure.
The Midas Touch demonstrates that Roy Disney had the right idea, but fate intervened. A tragedy weakened the company’s leadership in an unpredictable way that eventually sealed Eisner’s fate at Disney. This episode primarily explores the good that Eisner did, but it doesn’t ignore the disappointments, either.
An Unlikely Marriage
Most analysts refer to this period as the Michael Eisner era, but footage of Connie Chung reminds us that Disney double-dipped on Hollywood royalty. Eisner came on board as the company’s Chairman and CEO, but Frank Wells simultaneously joined as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Wells had previously run Warner Bros. as Vice-Chairman and became an integral part of Disney. He joined Eisner, who had just finished a run as the President and CEO at Paramount Pictures.
As a duo, they were the first outsiders to run the company, and Roy Disney had chosen them after a failed hostile takeover attempt. He needed power players to right the ship at Disney.
Eisner and Wells immediately became the Batman and Robin at Disney. At the same time, Eisner brought over one of his most successful lieutenants, Jeffrey Katzenberg, to lead Walt Disney Studios.
The three of them sought to modernize Disney while maintaining its core values. During his introductory speech, Eisner acknowledged that Disney had hired three creatives rather than businesspeople, indicating this focus on innovation and artistry.
The importance of this statement directly reflects on what happened next at Disney. The Imagineering department had suffered so many layoffs that the employees there braced for the worst.
They believed that Eisner and Wells would eliminate the entire division. On the contrary, the two leaders who had no experience with Imagineering doubled down on the concept.
The Imagineering Perspective
One of my favorite Imagineers, Tony Baxter, receives a great deal of face-time in this episode. The delightful man with the cherubic smile recounts how his career as an ice cream vendor led to his career as a Disney creator.
Fittingly, Baxter’s first pitch to Eisner celebrated a movie franchise. He wanted to build Star Tours. The episode recounts the hilarious way that the fate of this attraction rested on the opinion of a teenage boy. Star Wars fans will also adore behind-the-scenes footage of the ride’s construction and voiceover work.
Fun fact: On opening day, Disney kept Star Tours open for 60 straight hours. That really places the debut of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in perspective. History has repeated itself as Star Wars demand is seemingly always overwhelming at Disney theme parks.
Eisner and Wells accomplished something remarkable. They doubled the budget at Disney’s parks, and then they raised admission prices by 30 percent. Attendance increased anyway. It was a blueprint example of, “If you build it, they will come.”
Thanks to the significant revenue gains, Disney could expand even more. A long-percolating idea for a studio tour ride, something from blue sky plans for Epcot, gained steam. Eisner decided that it needed to be bigger and, thus, Disney-MGM Studios, aka Disney’s Hollywood Studios, came into being.
The footage of the early days at this park justifies the entire episode. It will force anyone to re-evaluate the importance of Hollywood Studios as a park over the past 30 years. Whereas many Imagineers saw the studio tour as a one-off, Eisner deduced that a Disney version of Hollywood in Central Florida would thrill guests. History has proven him right.
Everything Eisner Touches Turns to Gold
The episode displays this very real headline from the Eisner/Wells tenure. And it reinforces the point by showing the creative process for Splash Mountain. Tony Baxter recounts how he took outdated Audio-Animatronics from a centennial event and then built one of the greatest theme park attractions ever.
The funniest part of this segment involves the proverbial splashdown. Baxter describes how he miscalculated the amount of water that the raft would absorb. Suffice to say that people would have gotten drenched with those original boats. So, Imagineers spent many months developing a ride cart that could eliminate some of the splashing. Yes, you could have gotten even wetter on Splash Mountain!
After so many successes, Wells and Eisner thought even bigger. They planned the Disney Decade for the 1990s. For starters, they would construct a new theme park in Paris, France. You’ve undoubtedly heard the stories about EuroDisney, the name that Parisians derisively coined for Euro Disney Resort, aka Disneyland Paris.
A Cultural Chernobyl? Really?
During this episode, you learn the details about the construction. The documentary details all of the challenges that Imagineers faced in building fantastical and architectural wonders in one of the cities that anchored the Renaissance. Disney had to create fictional structures that surpassed the real ones in Paris, an impossible challenge.
Since day one, Tomorrowland has stood out as the most impressive part of Disneyland Paris. Its famous steampunk style pays tribute to visionaries like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, with the latter author’s From the Earth to the Moon inspiring not just the look and feel of this version of Space Mountain but also the ride mechanics.
The disconnect in this segment involves Imagineers and the public reception to Disneyland Paris. The cast members who worked on the project take so much pride in its meticulous details and gorgeous set pieces.
Then, Baxter recounts that a Parisian neighbor of his describes her park visit thusly: “You know, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.” And that would qualify as glowing praise compared to the public’s overall reaction to a Disney theme park.
The documentary actually gets a bit defensive about Disneyland Paris. It explains the protests in a tone that hints that they were misplaced…which they were. Then, it ascribes the financial disappointment of the park as mainly due to an economic depression in France at the time. That’s not as true.
Sure, the economy suffered through weak phases, but Disneyland Paris just never sold as many tickets as park officials had projected. The French just didn’t want it. Eisner, who frequently appears in the episode, has recognized over the years that he miscalculated with ticket pricing and poor financial outlays, among other things.
The Disney Decade at Home
While the Parisian expansion failed mightily during the 1990s, Hollywood Studios excelled. For me, the most engaging part of the episode recounts the construction of Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, arguably the greatest themed attraction in Disney history.
An Imagineer named Daniel Jue recounts one of my most treasured Imagineering stories. Disney needed an elevator that would drop at an alarming rate. The company outsourced the project to an elevator company. As you really ought to know, the entire business model of an elevator company depends on the elevator NOT dropping at such speed.
Of course, I’m a passionate fan of Indiana Jones, too. And so I’m thrilled that The Imagineering Story pulls back the curtain to show how Disney built the Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) ride.
The best part of this discussion isn’t about the mechanics, though. It’s about the psychology of Indiana Jones Adventure, an element that most riders take for granted. The Parisian discussion about the fourth iteration of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is similarly enlightening.
The Tragedy That Ruined the Disney Decade
During various parts of the episode, Marty Sklar and others discuss the yin and yang personalities of Eisner and Wells. What’s clear is that Wells kept Eisner in check. Tragically, Wells died in a plane crash during his tenth year as Disney COO.
The episode recounts how some Imagineers learned about the incident. It also shows news footage reporting the incident. Wells had gone skiing with his dear friend, Clint Eastwood. While the actor’s helicopter left an hour earlier, Wells took a later flight.
A snowstorm caused a mechanical failure in the President of Disney’s helicopter, and the vehicle lost power. Wells died immediately on impact. It was a devastating loss not just to Disney but to the entire world. People revered Wells for his personality and wisdom.
From that point forward, Eisner’s tenure took a turn. Without someone to balance his excesses, Eisner’s decision-making declined precipitously. Imagineers recount how the idea of theming waned without Wells championing the concept.
For the second straight episode, The Imagineering Story finishes on a down note. It shows how financial woes caused by Disneyland Paris spilled over into American theme parks as well.
“We’re not doing any more theme parks now.” These final words punctuate how quickly the Disney Decade collapsed after Frank Wells died. It’s a devastating conclusion to an episode brimming with achievements.
