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The Story Of Disney's Lost Generation

Its not so long ago that Disney lost an entire generaton

By Spencer HawkenPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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The Story Of Disney's Lost Generation
Photo by pan xiaozhen on Unsplash

It's hard to believe now but for a period of about 15 years Walt Disney pictures had a lost generation. What's even stranger looking at the conglomerate that Disney has become that only 30 years ago Disney was in terrible trouble.

As we know during the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s Disney was a massive deal, films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella and Lady & The Tramp helped to make Disney the massive powerhouse that is become today however as the 60s gave way for the 70s Disney found itself in trouble, a long line of movies put Disney in a tight spot, there was a large array of films that worked badly in the favour of Disney not least films such as Popeye, Something Wicked This Way Comes; and as the 70s moved into the 80s The Black Hole tried to capitalise on the success of Star Wars but instead saw space travellers literally crossing through a pathway into hell a trait that mimicked exactly what was happening to Disney.

With one crushing box office blow after another Disney realised that they needed to capitalise off of their back catalogue rather than for trying to produce new films as a result films like Snow White and Cinderella continuously returned year after year to cinemas across the world, rather than making the same move the other studios had and taken their films to television, Walt Disney only allowed a very small amount of films to be screened on television networks so films such as the Rescuers, The Aristocrats and 101 Dalmatians were lost for a whole generation of people. It's hard to believe now that for many families during the 70s and the 1980s the cinema was something that was completely unaffordable the average family went a whole generation without taking a visit to a cinema instead opting to wait 2,3,4,5 years for a film to come to television, but with Disney movies this was never going to happen, or so it seemed. Then with the advent of videotape rental companies like Disney put all their focus on releasing the movies so popular at cinema to video tape and therefore capitalising on the success of those in a while new way. But Disney realised that the profits made by videotape were limited because a video tape could only be sold once whereas a visit to a cinema could happen again and again and again.

By Kin Li on Unsplash

And thus those born between 1965 and 1980 unless they were from middle class or upper class families, were essentially deprived of the experience of Walt Disney. I myself was one of those, my only experience of Walt Disney was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Robin Hood, Dumbo, One of our Dinosaurs is Missing and the Herbie films, that was it, that was the extent of my Disney knowledge. While I’d seen other Disney films advertised on television, returning to cinema time and time again; and I'd get the sticker albums for films like Pete’s Dragon and avidly collect the stickers, the chances of seeing the films were almost like a thing that might never happen, we knew for world Disney probably would not screen on television and therefore there was a possibility that I might never get to see films whose sticker books I adored so much.

Things changed for Disney however very early in the 1980s they saw an opportunity to capitalise on the younger audience that had now become an older audience and in doing so created Touchstone Pictures. Touchstone Pictures were films that had kind of Disney heart about them but were aimed at an audience that was growing, films such as Splash and Down and out in Beverly Hills became incredibly popular incredibly quickly and in the process often reviving the careers of actors who would taking a back seat. As an example Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler whom both starred Down and Out in Beverly Hills had barely been seen since the 1970s when their careers peaked almost overnight.

The success of these films, the target of whom a now adult audience allowed Disney to essentially regear and reinvest and give money to departments that were so clearly underfunded during the 1980s particularly after films such as Robert Altman's Popeye bombed so terribly badly. At the time of its release Popeye was the most expensive production that Disney had ever created and those costs caused the creation of an entire village in a Maltese community and then transporting its stars all the way over to Malta weighed heavily on Disney's bank balances, especially given that two of the movies stars Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall had just been in incredibly successful movies or TV shows so were far from “affordable”. So having been underfunded Disney started reinvesting money in the very things that helped to create it and that was its animation department and began analysing the very qualities that made their movies massive successes before.

By Héctor Vásquez on Unsplash

It was in 1989 that Disney struck gold with animation again and that movie was The Little Mermaid. The success of The Little Mermaid meant that Disney was back in the public eye again for the first time in many years, Disney truest form not under the guise of the now hugely successful Touchstone Pictures.

It's hard to believe now the 32 years after the return of Disney animation and with the full knowledge of films such as Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh, Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp all under their belt that there was ever a time that a generation missed out on Disney, people find it incredibly bizarre when I explained to them that I didn't grow up with Disney it's a concept that seems almost alien to them. By the time I was able to see Disney movies most successful movies I and my children were too old to be sat down watching animation, there was almost a level of snobbery about it. But I'm not alone there is that whole generation from 1965 to 1980 the has missed out on Disney for these were dreams that your heart made, a fantasy as strong as the image that Disney itself tries so hard to sell. So while I don't deny that Disney are dreammakers for me they'll never have the magic of those that were born in the 80s, nineties, noughties and present day. For I was one of Disney’s lost generation.

entertainment
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About the Creator

Spencer Hawken

I'm a fiftysomething guy with a passion for films, travel and gluten free food. I work in property management, have a history in television presentation and am a multi award wining filmmaker, even though my films are/were all trash.

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