Cinema Tuesdays Review

Twenty Tortured Years in the Mouse House
DisneyWar by James B. Stewart
(Simon & Schuster)
Book Review by Nathan Cone

When Disney's big cheese Michael Eisner agreed in 2003 to allow the award-winning writer James B. Stewart access to Walt Disney Co. staff members for a proposed book about the House of Mouse, he had no idea of what was to come, both in print and at his company. Two years later, after a shareholder revolt that left Eisner stripped of his title as Chairman of the Board of Disney, and amid a hostile public relations campaign by former Disney board members Stanley Gold and Roy E. Disney, Robert Iger is set to take over the reins as CEO, and Stewart's DisneyWar documents the fascinating story of how the once-powerful Eisner lost his kingdom.

Stewart begins his book with equal parts menace and whimsy. In the prologue he details the awkward chat between John Bryson and Roy Disney, as Bryson informed Disney the board "concluded [he] shouldn't run for reelection." Disney, in turn, told Bryson: "You're going to regret doing this." Meanwhile, Stewart was allowed to don a Goofy outfit at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park to get into the skin of the company.

DisneyWar's main cast member (to use the Disney company parlance) is Eisner. This is his story, of how he rose to fame as president of Paramount, where, under chairman Barry Diller, he was instrumental in the making of TV hits like "Taxi" and "Happy Days," and movies such as "Grease," "Flashdance," and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." And so in 1984, when the Disney board brought Eisner to the struggling company, they did so with high hopes. As Stewart astutely points out, it was Roy Disney who championed Eisner's hire -- ironic considering the current animosity between the two.

Over the next ten years, Eisner, along with president Frank Wells and studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, turned Disney into a powerhouse company, by pumping up video sales, raising theme park admissions, and most importantly, resuscitating its dismal animation wing with a string of hits, beginning with "The Little Mermaid." However, by the time of the lackluster response to the EuroDisney theme park in 1992, and Wells' tragic death in a helicopter accident in 1994, some of the magic was gone at Disney.

Eisner's refusal to bump Katzenberg up to the number two position in the company after Wells' death drove a wedge between the two men, and eventually led to Katzenberg's departure, and a lawsuit filed against the company by Katzenberg for breach of contract. The suit dragged on for years, as did a later suit, after Eisner hired Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz as president, only to drive him out a year and a half later. Stewart's detailing of these ego battles is engrossing, and is full of little details that make for a colorful read, such as the moniker Katzenberg was saddled with: Eisner's "golden retriever."

Stewart continues by demonstrating how Michael Eisner's grip on Disney and its subsidiaries tightened as the 1990s progressed. ABC, ESPN, Miramax, and the various wings of Disney were all under Eisner's domain, and autonomy was a word seldom heard in the House of Mouse. Heart surgery did not even slow down Eisner, who Stewart says seemed to see himself as the heir apparent to Walt Disney himself.

Even as Eisner expressed concern about Robert Iger's creative abilities, and whether Iger should succeed him at Disney, the list of failed projects and rejected films and television shows with Eisner's own fingerprints on them is eye opening. "Survivor,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and “Lord of the Rings” were all rejected for various reasons. Films like "The Emperor's New Groove," "Treasure Planet," and "Home on the Range," were commercial and/or critical failures. Even hits like ABC's 2004 breakout series "Lost" and Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" were looked at with a skeptical eye by Eisner. To be sure, there were some unexpected hits Eisner green lighted, like "Freaky Friday" and the American production of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," but under his leadership, ABC also killed “Millionaire” after only a year and a half by forcing it down the throats of the American people four, even five times a week. Stewart makes an effective case that Eisner has lost his creative touch.

And then we come back to that fateful board meeting between Roy Disney and John Bryson. After resigning from the board in 2003, Disney and his ally Stanley Gold mounted a campaign to oust Eisner, using their website, www.savedisney.com. The following spring, Disney faced a hostile takeover bid from Comcast, saw the collapse of its negotiations to broker a new deal with animation studio Pixar, and an astonishing 43 percent of Disney shareholders at the company's annual stockholder's meeting withheld their votes, in effect recommending Eisner not be reelected to the company Board of Directors. Shortly after that, George Mitchell replaced Eisner as Chairman of the Board.

Stewart's access to current and former Disney employees makes DisneyWar a thorough report, exhaustively documented. The book includes text from emails and memos sent to staff and board members, and detailed accounts of conversations that offer insight into the hearts and minds of everyone associated with the company (as a side note, these documents reveal amazingly petty behavior among executives). One thing DisneyWar is not is a hatchet job on Eisner. Katzenberg, Ovitz, Iger, Disney, and Disney general counsel Sanford Litvack all come off looking pretty bullheaded and childish at times. About the only ones whose reputations are intact are the various heads of ABC and Disney’s creative departments, who struggle valiantly to do their jobs and make decisions as the company’s upper management feuds.

Stewart agrees with Eisner that the ongoing drama surrounding him is almost Shakespearean. Stewart obviously has admiration and sympathy for Eisner, despite his faults. After reading DisneyWar, Michael Eisner seems like a guy who has it all, and whose intentions are good, but whose unfortunate inability to cede control leads him to fall on his sword.

DisneyWar is a terrific book, maybe one of the best about media since Ken Auletta's seminal Three Blind Mice. It's a quick read, and a rare opportunity to learn the recent 20-year history of one of America's most powerful companies from the inside.

4/21/05

Back to the main Cinema Tuesdays Reviews page

More about the Cinema Tuesdays series