From the Cultural Archives Concern
I had read this years ago and somehow forgot about it, but I think it's a remarkable animation artifact that sheds light on the eternal struggle between artists and executives.
This was submitted to a 1989 Disney Executive retreat where they would be discussing future plans for the company. Note: 1989 saw the release of The Little Mermaid, and both Beauty and Beast and Aladdin were in pre-production.
Sander's allegory compares Disney to an aircraft company and if you don't make better and better jets, the competition can easily scream past you. Sanders was worried that by continuing to make traditional fairytale movies they wouldn't be able to compete. And he was right. Disney had to evolve with the likes of Pixar, Dreamworks and Blue Sky pushing the boundaries of animated films...and that's why we started to see oddball films like Lilo and Stitch, Atlantis, and Treasure Planet. (Eventually Disney realized: why compete when you can own them?! And bought Pixar, Marvel, the Muppets, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox, then shut down Blue Sky once they had the keys to the building).
ANYWAY: read Sanders full allegory here: LINK
Here's a nice follow up interview that he made with Cartoon Brew about it that gives the whole thing more context: LINK
(Thanks to friend of the newsletter Eliav for sending the link and reminding me of this!)
-Jake