Page 25 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

6 The Disney Way

No matter how ingenious an idea was, no matter what kind of financial
interests were at stake, Disney demanded that the company adhere to his
belief in and commitment to honesty, reliability, loyalty, and respect for
people as individuals. Whether he was producing a cartoon or building an
amusement park, he refused to palm off a shoddy product on his audience.
When Pinocchio was released in February 1940, the New York Times hailed
it as “the best cartoon ever made.” But Pinocchio had a difficult birth. The
story of the puppet-maker Geppetto and his “son” Pinocchio, the all-but-
human puppet he created, was six months into production, and the team of
animation artists was almost halfway through its meticulous, time-consuming
drawings for the full-length feature when Walt Disney called a halt. Pinocchio
was altogether too wooden, he said, and the character proposed for Jiminy
Cricket made him look too much like, well, a cricket. Never mind that
$500,000 had already been spent, Disney was not deterred. Previous efforts
were tossed aside, and Disney called Ward Kimball, one of his talented
young animators, into his office.
Kimball, who was upset because his labors on Snow White had ended up
on the cutting-room floor, was planning to use the occasion to resign when
Disney summoned him. But the animator never had a chance. He got so
excited listening to Disney talk about his dreams for the film and his ideas about
Jiminy Cricket that Kimball entirely forgot his own intentions of resigning.
Instead, he stayed at the company and went on to create a cricket that was
more human than insect, one that embodied the spirit of hope that children
of all ages possess but which sometimes needs reinforcing.
The decision to halt the production of Pinocchio was made because the
movie was failing to live up to one of Walt Disney’s principles, his insistence
on excellence. At the time, Disney already had won worldwide acclaim.
He probably could have let the film go as it was without doing any serious
damage to his company or his reputation—and with substantial savings. But
Disney recognized the difference between adequate and excellent, and he
would not compromise.
That’s not to say that Disney was a spendthrift. Quite the contrary: He was
always acutely aware of the bottom line; he simply refused to let it dictate every
decision he made. “Why should we let a few dollars jeopardize our chances?”
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Walt once wrote to his brother Roy . Before it was finished, Pinocchio cost
$3 million, more than any other animated picture up to that point. Although
high-priced for its day, this film classic long ago paid for itself in the degree of
sophisticated animation, craft, and artwork it achieves.