If Disney wasn't the king of animation

I imagine even if Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros films were butterflied away, Jose Carioca and Panchito would still appear in shorts alongside Donald, and they might even become more popular ITTL. Hell, if Disney goes into television animation earlier ITTL, they could get a TV show.
 
I was also thinking: what about animated sequels?

Disney planned on making sequels to some of Walt's films, but Walt turned down the offers because he thought sequels were a terrible idea due to the failure of the Three Little Pigs followup shorts. ("You can't top pigs with pigs" he would say.)

Sequels to animated films didn't become popular until the nineties, and those were mainly direct-to-video. THEATRICAL sequels didn't become popular until the 2000s, after the success of Toy Story 2.

So with that in mind, even if Disney didn't want to do any sequels, would any of these other studios want to do them?

Also, a lot of animation studios back then often remade animated shorts a decade or two after their debut. So would they remake entire FILMS as well?
 
Does anyone know a way WW2 wouldn't affect the animation studios as much as IOTL without having it go into ASB territory?
 
Nah, I want the divergence to happen REALLY early on. I'm talking the 1940s.

What about Disney being taken into the war effort in WWII and spending the war making instructional animated 'service manuals' by 1945, he would have perfect technical expertise but lost his narrative edge. On the other hand, animation will take off big time for education and training, possible also for car commercials. In the meantime, France and Canada make the jump from graphic novels to graphic animation.
 
If you guys are itnerested, I personally had some ideas regarding what TV studios would air whose films on TV ITTL...

Disney Channel: Disney

Nickeloden: Fleischer, Universal

Cartoon Network: Warner Bros, MGM
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
Eh, I'm not sure it's very likely at all. Let me ask you this: when the New York Yankees have a crappy stretch, what's the most iconic MLB franchise? Still the Yankees. Same goes for Disney and animation. Sure, they may have rough stretches now and again, but the throne is still waiting for them when they get their shit in order. So much of entertainment is about the brand.
 
Eh, I'm not sure it's very likely at all. Let me ask you this: when the New York Yankees have a crappy stretch, what's the most iconic MLB franchise? Still the Yankees. Same goes for Disney and animation. Sure, they may have rough stretches now and again, but the throne is still waiting for them when they get their shit in order. So much of entertainment is about the brand.
pretty much. you need a very early POD (relatively speaking) to keep Disney out of the running. things could easily have gone over badly for Walt, but i wouldn't begin to speculate on when that could be 1) because i don't know Walt Disney's personal history well enough to judge exactly when and 2) i'm feeling a little muddled after work and apparently not getting enough sleep last night XD

i can't remember if it came up in the thread before, but another important thing to remember is that Walt made a point of elevating animation to into a high art--that, more than anything else, is of key importance here since Disney not doing that would probably mean that animation really does match the reputation it still has IOTL, that it's basically just pointless and stupid and only ever meant for children. this is even more important because, understandably, Disney was a big influence on many later animators who matched or even exceeded Walt himself (depending on opinion) and were either directly inspired by him (such as Osamu Tezuka, which would have drastic effects on the entire anime industry) or worked for Disney before setting off on their own (such as Don Bluth, who was a Disney animator before starting his own studio and even outcompeted Disney for a time)
 
I would also like to add that in the TL that developed from this discussion, I find it very unlikely Disney would completely shut down its animated film department. At least if other studios are rising up to the challenge.
 
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