WI: Disney never goes into live-action

What if Disney never made live-action films (aside from the Alice comedies)? No Treasure Island or anything else (this also butterflies away Touchstone). Would they still be as succesful if they only focused on animation?
 

Driftless

Donor
By the late 1960's & 1970's; I think it becomes progressively more difficult for Disney to remain a major studio, just relying on animated film. The big cash influx from the earlier live action movies & TV series helped fund the theme parks and keep the studio rolling.

* Treasure Island
* Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
* Old Yeller
* Swiss Family Robinson
* The Flubber movies
* The Parent Trap (cripes, my kids still prefer the Hayley Mills version to the newer one..)

* The Davy Crockett series (a juggernaut of merchandising and a TV allstar)
* The Mickey Mouse Club ( another merchandising juggernaut - and cultural phenom)
 
Live action was inevitable and Disney expanding and improving on their live action offerings, beginning with Splash (1984), was necessary and couldn't be ignored.
 
I'd want them to make the early Herbie movies, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins (but loose Dick Van Dyke's cocekrney accent), Witch Mountain and the one where Peter Ustinov was the ghost of a pirate.

Though it would be better if they can avoid things like Space Cat (although it has a fantastic cast) and The Last Flight of Noah's Ark.

Though I liked the Spaeceman and King Arthur. E.g. the bit when the scientist finds the robot's porn collection, which he later uses to enlist the help of Rodney Bewes (well known in the UK for Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads) but unknown in the USA, which is where it counts. Also where the scientist says so Jim Dale, "Well discression is he greater part of valour," to which Dale replies, "That's good, I must remember that!"
 
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Driftless

Donor
(snip).... and the one where Peter Ustinov was the ghost of a pirate.

"Blackbeard's Ghost" Or, how to get sooo little humor from so much talent...:D That one could have been so much funnier. Swap out Dean Jones, bring in Dick Van Dyke, or James Garner?

Peter Ustinov
Elsa Lanchester
Susan Pleshette
Dean Jones

And a who's who of American 1960's era character actors: Richard Deacon, Ned Glass, Michael Conrad, Joby Baker, Hank Jones, George Murdock, etc
 
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