To Mark and Mel: I thought those qualifications were important to make, because most of the stories you read about that period make it sound like WDP was saved from complete and immediate destruction at the last second by the genius of Eisner and Wells. Growing up a Disney fan right as Eisner’s meteoric rise took off, I just absorbed the “conventional wisdom” that Miller was a hapless doof who bumbled his way into the position because he was Walt’s favorite.

In fact, I would have to say that the single biggest revelation of my recent years of “real” research into Disney has been how wrong I was about Miller. All my conclusions are speculation, of course, and drawn merely from what I can glean from articles and news from the time, but it seems to me that Miller struggled for a long time in the shadow of Card Walker, and that many of the problems that are historically associated with Ron Miller are actually the legacy of Walker.

When you actually read the statements that Miller made before and during his surprisingly brief tenure as head of the company, a lot of it is downright prescient. In fact, I’ve become incredibly impressed with his vision at the time of where the company needed to go. Of course I don’t know him, and don’t know if he had the chops to pull it off, but he did seem to have a clear vision of what needed to be done to revive the studio. This can be seen with Splash; I’m sure 99% of Disney fans think that Eisner started Touchstone. Miller at least had a stated commitment to bringing in new creative talent, and diversifying the product. He also, of course, pushed for the Disney Channel and for Disney to enter the home video market. He was mostly spot-on about what Disney needed to do to become competitive again.

In fact, I would say that most of the big successes of Eisner’s early years came directly from enterprises that Ron Miller had pushed for. Eisner even acknowledged this at the time.

It’s impossible to say what would have happened, of course, although I would love to see what that alternate world looks like. But I do think it’s important to keep the historical record accurate and give credit where it’s due, and not pretend that WDP was a heartbeat away from annihilation because of Miller mismanagement. I didn’t want to get too into the weeds when my piece was intended to be about Roy, but it’s an important point.

Hardly anything has been written about Ron Miller. But the more I learn about what really happened then, the more I want to know his story. The story of the greenmail and takeover and Eisner’s rise is well documented, as is the “Disney War” of 2003. But nothing has even really been written about the Card Walker – Ron Miller era. I think that it’s a shame that Miller has never really gotten to tell his side of the story. It would be interesting, at the very lease, from an historical perspective.

Back to Roy – while I’m not convinced that he saved WDP from certain doom, I do believe that he saved Disney animation. Walker seemed more interested in the parks, Miller with the parks and the live-action studio, and of course Eisner, Wells and Katzenberg wanted nothing to do with animation. Roy was the only one that would speak up for it who was in any position to do anything about it. Thank heavens that he did.

This is one of the best that I have read, Michael. Thank you!

December 18th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
“This is one of the best bios, collections of information, and representations of Roy I’ve read thus far. Excellent, and thanks.”

I wholeheartedly agree with AJ above. Thank you for mentioning the accomplishments of Ron Miller, many of the earliest accomplishments of the Eisner era were actually begun by Walt Disney Productions under the leadership of Ron Miller before Eisner came on board. I also hope to see another Disney family member rise to the call and become actively involved in The Walt Disney Company. Thank you for also mentioning the fact that, for persons of my generation, those too young or not born yet when Walt was still alive, Roy E. Disney was our Disney.

Thank you SO MUCH for saying that. It really irks me when people imply (especially those with enough Disney knowledge to know better) that Miller was a hopeless failure, that the company was headed for certain doom w/out Eisner, and/or that the turnaround once Eisner came onboard was solely thanks to Eisner and Well’s fresh creativity. That is a GROSS oversimplification that gives too much credit to Eisner/Wells and not enough to Miller; and also completely ignores the outside economic forces that were making life difficult for Disney (and lots of other companies) in the early ’80s, and that would have been the case no matter who was in charge. Eisner did great things, no doubt, but I oftentimes wonder if the parks, imagineering, and the overall state/focus of the WDC would be in a much better place if Eisner had never had the chance to f everything up with his mismanagement of EuroDisney.

Tangential, to the article’s focus, I know; but I just had to thank you for the qualifications you made.

I will miss Roy. I often questioned his motives for some of the decisions he made, but if for no other reason than his contributions to the second golden age of Disney Animation – he deserves all the praise you heaped on him and more.