Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Walt Disney -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: M CAHILL who wrote (1395)	1/13/1999 7:45:00 AM
From: Neil H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2222

Sucker Punching Disney January 07, 1999 Brutus, hand me my knife sharpener! We all love Disney. We loved it when Simba learned that because he was a bad kitty his daddy the Lion King was smushed to death by 100,000 stampeding wildebeests. We loved it when we got jacked up on a bad spiral lollipop from the Cinderella's Castle concession stand and talked to God throughout the 8.5 miles of winding staircase leading to the Space Mountain roller coaster. We loved it when ABC clipped Kirk Cameron's curls, hollowed out Scott Baio's chest and turned illiterate TV affrontery into "Dharma and Greg" with a Disney spit-shine. Vengeance is ours. It's been a horrible year for Disney. I'm all for gentlemanly fair play. I enjoy a nice sporting match. But it's time to kick Disney when it's down. Why? Because when it comes back up, it will be buying the Social Security system and using new revenues to pipe the lyrics to "Be Our Guest" subliminally from low Earth-orbiting satellites. I'll turn into a lobotomized Angela Lansbury in her younger years, and animatronic bluegrass-loving bears will run the DMV. The mouse house has a backed-up septic system this year after flushing Mike Ovitz down the toilet to the tune of $100 million, gobbling up any and every media outlet on the planet and trying to win even bigger than usual at the box office. For its troubles, the stalling Asian markets have pinched Disney's worldwide video sales, and broadcast TV's current hellish plight has kicked Mickey right below the white buttons. Eisner came out to face the cameras Wednesday, assuring the public with an immaculately bonded toothy smile that 1998 was a building year. Like little mermaid Ariel giving away her voice to the voluptuous meanie sea witch Ursula, Disney last year was merely sacrificing to make way for serious economic love to flood its way soon. Economic results should be seen, not heard. In case you're starting to soften, watching the sweat beads drip off Eisner's finely styled hair, Disney also unveiled plans for a new theme park in China Wednesday. How off-puttingly Disney. Donald and Daisy in their People's Revolution Mao jackets, pinning nice red buttons on newly initiated Chinese consumers. It rolls the stomach as only Disney can. Disney lost big on Oprah's "Beloved" project. "The Waterboy" was the only 1998 film success that could come to the rescue. Outrageous advertising costs on TV only go so far to pad the pain caused by production companies with their hefty-price-tag sledgehammers. Eisner is in trouble. Not the kind of trouble he was in back when Disney was a burned-out, looted strip-mall-peddling 1950s fantasy. But a new, difficult kind of trouble. Markets are spinning his innards like 3-year-olds on the Tea Cup ride. Changing business environments are spitting at his business like Frenchmen scorning EuroDisney. Even Jeffrey Katzenberg's belly flop with "The Prince of Egypt" can't soothe Eisner's inflamed stomach lining. So it's time to enjoy Cinderella with her pumpkin, mice and ragged clothing. Sure, all that steel and glass is a technicolor dream, but we like our worldwide media outlets humble. Take a seat next to Rupert Murdoch on the chump train. I like Disney when it doesn't have that uber-media, Orwellian feel. It won't last long. But I will be enjoying the ride. From upside Magazine Neil