The Little Mermaid, despite being made by Eisner, was actually pretty dang close to what Walt Disney wrote for the film. In fact, apparently they even noted the coincidence a while back about how the changes they made were the same ones Walt made. Of the ones Eisner made, The Little Mermaid and possibly The Lion King probably will be timeless. I know Beauty and the Beast certainly wouldn’t have been timeless, though (of course, in that case, BATB’s rendition was more due to Jeffrey Katzenberg and not Eisner. Actually, if anything, Eisner backed Jim Cox’s rendition and loved his treatment enough that he hired him to make a full-fledged screenplay. Unfortunately, Katzenberg axed that one, ultimately in favor of a feminist propaganda film that barely had any connection to the original story.).
But I definitely agree, Walt’s stories were better ultimately.
I’m not saying Eisner-era stuff isn’t “good” - as in quality (largely, post-Walt was rather weak quality). But in “goodness” - not shoving agendas down the throat, including questionable characters of PC relevence, etc, this era rather stinks.
Personally I love the Beast and like Mermaid - they are actually least agenda-driven if at all (yes Beauty is somewhat feminist but the worst part to me was the unnecessary Gaston which dragged down the story). Lion King is FULL of PCness including homo characters, and “Africanness” (and I didn’t care for some of the brattiness in there). Overrated on all fronts. Never mind Aladdin, the 1st real agenda-driven and SPASTIC (another thing I hate about modern kids’ stuff) characterizations.