[kidd]

I'm very sorry to hear that Walt Disney is planning to do the Narnia films.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I think Disney is going to do this up right. Several reasons:

1. The rights to CS Lewis' writings belong to a Christian entrepeneur.
2. Disney is in transition. Eisner, if he is allowed to stick around, knows he needs to change his approach. The making of a religious movie would silence a lot of his religious critics. This is the perfect material to do this with.
3. The timing of this announcement was prompted by the success of a religious project. The religious imagery HAS to be retained.
4. The LWW CAN be made such that the religious overtones can be retained for religious people to see, while non-religious-types can see something else (the LOTR series was able to do this quite well).
5. The core Disney customer is STILL the family looking for wholesome entertainment - despite Eisner's bungling that has driven many of them away. There is a huge set of unsatisfied Disney customers out there - the "Passion" must have shown him that they are absolutely starved for something substantial, not the teen-centered pap that we've been force-fed.

[Cicero]

I know what you're saying. I know about the Roy Disney campaign and I know that Eisner almost lost the vote at the recent annual meeting. His back is against the wall.

Nevertheless, this would require not only management changes at the top, but huge changes in the personnel who do the actual movie. I'm not just talking about putting in a Christian message. I'm almost more worried about the style of the cartoons. As Marshall McLuhan pointed out, the medium is the message. All you need is a bunch of cutesy fawns doing a dance to a Caribbean tune or a bunch of kids who look like they live in Marin County rather than England to wreck the whole tone of the movies. Not to speak of a lion with one of those Disney grins.

If you don't want that kind of effect, then you're probably going to have to fire 3/4 of the cartoonists and start all over again.