Disney Headlines for January 25th, 2023
In this week’s Disney Headlines, we’ll discuss Disney’s $10+ million mistake, its growing Meta problem, and the end of an era at Magic Kingdom.
Let’s all pour one out for Splash Mountain as we discuss this week’s Disney Headlines.
Nation Mourns Splash Mountain
Is the Headline too melodramatic? I’ll defend it by linking to this NPR article.
Yes, most major publications referenced the closing of Splash Mountain this past week, partially for the loss of the ride and partially for what it represents.
Since 1946, The Walt Disney Company has faced questions about its presentation of the characters in Song of the South.
Uncle Walt stated that he had heard and loved the Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus storybook when he was a child.
Meanwhile, Disney faced a post-World War II financial crunch at the time and saved money by combining live action with animation in the film.
Disney’s financial shortcut led to long-term criticisms regarding representation, a conversation where none of us will ever find common ground today.
I’m not here to defend or bury Splash Mountain. Like many of you, I mainly focus on the positive: the ride’s music is wonderful.
In fact, Song of the South won an Oscar for Best Original Song for Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, one of those facts I’m probably not even supposed to know.
Alas, several other aspects of Splash Mountain violate one of Disney’s Five Keys, Inclusion. As such, the ride had to go.
While many accept the truth of this statement, it doesn’t make us miss Splash Mountain any less.
Fans gleefully encircled the bridge surrounding the ride’s splashdown section on Sunday. There, they sang Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah and cheered every log flume.
You can watch the final few log flumes here:
Meanwhile, KTLA and other sites commented on the final day’s popularity for Splash Mountain. As MickeyBlog reported, wait times reached 220 minutes!
Kotaku noticed some eBay predators taking advantage of loyal Splash Mountain fans. Would you pay $150 for some of the water?
I really hope you answered, “Gross! No!”
The Meta Headache
Here’s a Headline that comes with fascinating repercussions for Disney.
Let’s start with the Microsoft side of this conversation. The tech icon just laid off entire teams of workers from its metaverse development.
According to the Headline, “HoloLens, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality are all but dead at Microsoft.”
While I believe that’s a tad premature, I acknowledge there’s at least solid cause for concern here.
In 2015, I wrote about Disney’s fascination with HoloLens, which could have become a new location for the spiritual successor to Disney Infinity.
You may recall that Disney suddenly pulled the plug on its Infinity video games in 2015, even though they were selling well enough.
At the time, consumers were gradually shifting to digital consumption, which comes with fractional manufacturing expenses relative to physical media.
Since then, Disney has eyed the so-called Metaverse as the next way of mining its intellectual properties for revenue.
Technically, Disney is already doing this with digital games like Marvel Snap, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Disney Magic Kingdoms.
These phone apps are free to play, but Disney sells characters and upgrades for a price. It’s a wildly lucrative business.
For this reason, former CEO Bob Chapek envisioned much of Disney’s future in Metaverse terms.
Meanwhile, Bob Iger spent some of his time away from Disney as an angel fund investor and incubator for a Metaverse startup.
The company’s leaders have believed strongly in the earning potential of the Metaverse.
On the ground level, I can tell you that the quickest way to get someone not to read an article is to use the word Metaverse.
The average consumer despises that term, and now the technology giants are laying off the engineers in charge of creating these virtual worlds.
Has the Metaverse gold run already ended?
In the Immortal Words of Archer, That’s…Too Much
Speaking of Chapek, what the Hell, dude? Did you seriously pay more than $10 million for four months of Geoff Morrell’s employment?
I cannot believe I’m typing this, but the answer appears to be yes! According to recent Headlines, Chapek identified Morrell as his missing link.
To Disney’s deposed CEO, Morrell represented the end of all Disney’s post-Iger PR problems.
So, Chapek paid a pretty penny to hire and relocate Morrell and his family.
The details of this decision come with a genuine WOW! factor.
To entice Morrell to join, Chapek:
- Paid $537,438 to relocate the Morrell family from London
- Purchased Morrell’s home for $4.5 million
- Paid Morrell $6.3 million in salary
- Promised Morrell $2 million in bonuses that thankfully never vested
Later, Disney committed to $4 million more in payment to buy Morrell out of his contract.
That extra $4 million price tag stemmed from Morrell’s abject failure as Disney’s new PR guru.
As a reminder, insiders at Disney blamed Morrell for advising Chapek to sit out the Don’t Say Gay bill argument.
That’s the ill-considered decision that could eventually cost Walt Disney World the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
If Disney had opposed the bill initially, it would have been one of many corporations to do so. Instead, Morrell’s “wisdom” caused Disney to wait.
Once the company finally took a stance, the state of Florida could single out the Mouse and score cheap political points at Disney’s expense.
Friends, Disney paid millions and millions of dollars for the advice that could cost it dearly long-term.
That’d be like you paying somebody $20 to punch you in the face. It’s just bad business.
Hopefully, unforced errors like this are a thing of the past at Disney.
Thankfully, Morrell’s gone, Chapek’s gone, and Iger’s back.