Legendary Disney Director John Musker Reflects Back on His Time With the Studio
During his nearly four decades working at Walt Disney Animation, director John Musker saw it all.
While Musker would eventually be known as one of the leading figures of the Disney Renaissance, bringing to life the films that would come define Disney for generations to come, he would actually begin his career working as an animator on The Fox and the Hound alongside Disney Legends Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Eric Larson.
Eric Larson. Photo: D23
Eventually, Musker and his frequent collaborator Don Clements were tasked with directing The Great Mouse Detective before setting out to create The Little Mermaid, a film that would change the course of Disney’s history.
Disney Did Not Exepect ‘The Little Mermaid’ to be a Smash Hit
In a recent interview with El Pais, Musker reflected back on the early days of the Disney Renaissance and admitted that the animation department was, in many ways, flying by the seat of its pants.
Photo: Disney
“It was done with a sense of almost naivety,” Musker recalled. “We weren’t trying to imitate. It was more freeing. We didn’t have past successes, like ‘Is your movie going to be good as The Little Mermaid?’ We hadn’t made it yet.”
While The Little Mermaid would eventually become an almost unfathomable success and create the template for Disney films moving forward, according to Musker, the then-chairman of The Walt Disney Studios was not initially optimistic about the film’s prospects.
Photo: Disney
“The big eye-opener was when we had a preview. It played so well to a public audience, all ages, including adults,” says Musker. “They decided they were doing two different ad campaigns. One was a silhouette of a mermaid, looking wistfully out. I think they saw there was a way to treat it a little more adult, classier. It has a lot of fun as a comedy. But there’s an emotional story, not just silliness. I mean, the Hans Christian Andersen’s story was that.”
Taking Inspiration From ‘Die Hard’?
During the making of the film, Katezenbrg even told The Little Mermaid team that he wanted the film to have “more ‘Die Hard'” in it.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
“Die Hard had been a box-office hit. So he came into the office saying, ‘We need The Little Mermaid to be more Die Hard. That’s how we got the second action sequence, with an Ursula who is as big as the building in Nakatomi Plaza.
Making Moana
While Musker did not exactly have glowing things to say about Katzeberg, he was less complimentary to the men who would replace him. By the time Musker and Clements set out to make Moana, there were too many cooks in the kitchen.
Photo: Disney
“Moana was a very difficult project. It was our idea, but with Pixar and John Lasseter, our story kept changing hands. In the ‘90s, we had Jeffrey. He was an emperor, you know. But there weren’t 10 Jeffreys. Now, you have too many people to satisfy, before we didn’t have 15 directors telling you how to make the movie.”
Looking back, perhaps the most shocking moment of Musker’s time at Disney came with the advent of digital animation.
Photo: Disney
“After Toy Story, they proposed that we convert all the classic films into digital animation. I told them I’d commit harikari first,” he recalled.
Today’s Disney
These days, Musker believes that Disney has lost its way with its live-action remakes. Still, he understands that the studio is simply working within the current confines of Hollywood.
Photo: D23
“They’re just risk-averse. It’s like, we’re going to spend a lot of money and we want to make a lot of money.” Not even Steven Spielberg can get his every project greenlit. Musker warns: “Just like how in the seed of every failure is a success, in the seed of every success is failure. Too much control kills projects.”
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