He thinks animation is Disney's birthright and that nobody has the right to be in animation but them. For 60 years, since its release of the cinema's first cartoon feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney has been the brand name for animation. Its chief rivals in the '40s and '50s, Warner Bros. and MGM, which were besting Disney in the quality and appeal of their animated shorts, never produced a feature-length cartoon. Under Katzenberg, Disney animation flourished with a new visual and musical verve. But that's chump change for animation.
Video is animation's private bank.
The figures that movie moguls dream of have dollar signs in front, and Disney's were enough to goad any showman into finding his inner children's market. It was time for Disney rivals to wake up and smell the cash flow. You needn't cry for Eisner. But you are free to wonder whether studios without the mouse-ears logo can count on customers that even Disney is losing. DreamWorks is too committed to wonder, too busy to worry.