WI: Jeffery Katzenberg promoted to President of Disney in 1994?

As any animation historian knows, Frank Wells, second-in-command at Disney, tragically died in a plane crash in 1994. Jeffery Katzenberg, head of Disney's motion picture division and one of the main people responsible for the Disney Renaissance alongside CEO Micheal Eisner and vice-chairman of the board of directors and chairman of the animation department Roy E. Disney, seemed like the obvious choice to be promoted to President. When Eisner passed him over, Katzenberg got pissed and resigned followed by launching a lawsuit against Disney to recover money allegedly owed to him which was settled out of court for $250 million. Katzenberg was still angry which was why later that year, he, along with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, founded a little company called Dreamworks. Without Katzenberg, Disney basically underwent a slow motion collapse throughout the rest of the 90s and spent the first decade of the 2000s wandering blind through the desert of mediocrity with the animation world being dominated by the competition between newfound partner Pixar and the aforementioned Dreamworks. Non-Pixar Disney animation would finally get back on top around 2010 but that's a story for another time.
Now that i'm finished giving you an animation history lesson, I finally get to the point of this: What would have happened if Katzenberg had been promoted to President? The Disney Renaissance probably lasts longer and Disney as a company is probably in better shape throughout the 2000s. It might even impact politics as Katzenberg OTL actively supported the Barack Obama campaign and is a heavy fundraiser for the Democratic Party. Your thoughts?
 
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I'll say this: if Katzenberg had been promoted to President at Disney, he would have eventually replaced Michael Eisner as CEO. And that could butterfly away a LOT of Disney's current history after 2006.
 
I'll say this: if Katzenberg had been promoted to President at Disney, he would have eventually replaced Michael Eisner as CEO. And that could butterfly away a LOT of Disney's current history after 2006.

Hell all of Disney would be butterflied because of this. We might see Disney not start having really shitty 2D movies and stick to 2D.
 
No Dreamworks means no Shreck or Madagascar franchises. Katzenberg might have overruled some of Eisner's bad ideas, but some might have been made anyway. (See "Disneywar".) I'm not sure if the shareholder revolt of OTL would still happen- or if it might include Katzenberg.
Disney is somewhat of a bipartisan donor (and seeks to have a good relationship with the government). A Katzenberg shift might rile up the right wing- but then again, the SBC boycott didn't work well.
 
No Dreamworks means no Shreck or Madagascar franchises. Katzenberg might have overruled some of Eisner's bad ideas, but some might have been made anyway. (See "Disneywar".) I'm not sure if the shareholder revolt of OTL would still happen- or if it might include Katzenberg.
Disney is somewhat of a bipartisan donor (and seeks to have a good relationship with the government). A Katzenberg shift might rile up the right wing- but then again, the SBC boycott didn't work well.
That alone has some huge Butterflies! Shrek's success was pretty much what killed off traditional 2D hand drawn animation in theaters and started the parody trend in animated fantasy movies.
 
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There are probably some Butterflies on non-Disney cartoons, things like Tiny Toon Adventures freakish. Maybe Warner Brothers decides to redouble its efforts in response to Disney's even higher success? What about the DCAU or Nicktoons or Cartoon Cartoons? Disney is the center of the animation industry and what happens to them will have Butterflies, not just in animation but all of pop culture.
 
Would DreamWorks still happen without Katzenberg and will the live action divisions have the same success as OTL? If so then many would consider DreamWorks ITTL to be an unsuccessful attempt at creating another major studio.
 

Heavy

Banned
Hell all of Disney would be butterflied because of this. We might see Disney not start having really shitty 2D movies and stick to 2D.

Katzenberg's big into 3D; in fact, I believe he used to say it is the future of animation (I'm unsure of whether or not he still holds to that view). I don't know what his relationship with guys like Lasseter was or is like, but it's entirely possible that if he'd been given the top job, he might have tried to push Disney's non-Pixar 3D efforts (Chicken Little, Bolt, Meet the Robinsons etc), which could well have alienated Pixar, who may have ended their partnership with Disney and struck out on their own (as they planned to, before Eisner left the company).

Alternateively, Jeffrey Katzenberg might have a great relationship with Pixar, and push them even harder than Disney did without him; they might have become even more integrated into the Disney system; Tangled and Frozen could have been Pixar movies.

Either way, I'm not convinced stuff like The Princess and the Frog would have happened under his watch.
 
So I'm searching my house for surveillance devices right now, because I was actually working on a timeline that included this (the POD was something else kind of unrelated, but Katzenberg was a significant side effect). :D

The problem I'm running into is that Michael Eisner didn't really want the President of Disney to have any power. He was running the show as CEO and he wanted the President to be a yes-man. That's why Michael Ovitz (who got the job in OTL) only lasted a year and a half. He wasn't interested in being a figurehead and I can't imagine Katzenberg is going to be any happier with it. Katzenberg is initially going to be happy that he basically got his dream job, but within a few years he's going to be upset with Eisner breathing down his neck all the time. Katzenberg's departure may not be avoided, it may just be delayed. That itself could have some interesting impact though.

As I see it, Katzenberg staying at Disney (regardless of how long) could mean several things:

1. Katzenberg liked 3-D digital animation more than traditional 2-D animation. If he has more power at Disney, we might see some of their OTL movies (probably too late for Pocahantas, but maybe Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, or Mulan) get the 3-D treatment.

2. As you can see from his work at DreamWorks, Katzenberg puts less emphasis on music than others at Disney. It's not that he's anti-music, he just doesn't care that much about it. With that being said, the musical culture might be so ingrained at Disney that it won't make a difference. But there is the possibility that they make some non-musical cartoons under a more powerful Katzenberg.

3. At DreamWorks, Katzenberg pushed for telling new stories instead of just re-telling legends and fairy tales (even Shrek was a parody fairy tale rather than a straight-up one). In OTL, re-telling fairy tales is pretty much Disney's entire business. I can't see Disney completely abandoning what has been a very successful model, but it's possible that they may branch out a little more under Katzenberg.
 
So I'm searching my house for surveillance devices right now, because I was actually working on a timeline that included this (the POD was something else kind of unrelated, but Katzenberg was a significant side effect). :D

The problem I'm running into is that Michael Eisner didn't really want the President of Disney to have any power. He was running the show as CEO and he wanted the President to be a yes-man. That's why Michael Ovitz (who got the job in OTL) only lasted a year and a half. He wasn't interested in being a figurehead and I can't imagine Katzenberg is going to be any happier with it. Katzenberg is initially going to be happy that he basically got his dream job, but within a few years he's going to be upset with Eisner breathing down his neck all the time. Katzenberg's departure may not be avoided, it may just be delayed. That itself could have some interesting impact though.

As I see it, Katzenberg staying at Disney (regardless of how long) could mean several things:

1. Katzenberg liked 3-D digital animation more than traditional 2-D animation. If he has more power at Disney, we might see some of their OTL movies (probably too late for Pocahantas, but maybe Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, or Mulan) get the 3-D treatment.

2. As you can see from his work at DreamWorks, Katzenberg puts less emphasis on music than others at Disney. It's not that he's anti-music, he just doesn't care that much about it. With that being said, the musical culture might be so ingrained at Disney that it won't make a difference. But there is the possibility that they make some non-musical cartoons under a more powerful Katzenberg.

3. At DreamWorks, Katzenberg pushed for telling new stories instead of just re-telling legends and fairy tales (even Shrek was a parody fairy tale rather than a straight-up one). In OTL, re-telling fairy tales is pretty much Disney's entire business. I can't see Disney completely abandoning what has been a very successful model, but it's possible that they may branch out a little more under Katzenberg.
Those all sound interesting.
 
Katzenberg's big into 3D; in fact, I believe he used to say it is the future of animation (I'm unsure of whether or not he still holds to that view). I don't know what his relationship with guys like Lasseter was or is like, but it's entirely possible that if he'd been given the top job, he might have tried to push Disney's non-Pixar 3D efforts (Chicken Little, Bolt, Meet the Robinsons etc), which could well have alienated Pixar, who may have ended their partnership with Disney and struck out on their own (as they planned to, before Eisner left the company).

Alternateively, Jeffrey Katzenberg might have a great relationship with Pixar, and push them even harder than Disney did without him; they might have become even more integrated into the Disney system; Tangled and Frozen could have been Pixar movies.

Either way, I'm not convinced stuff like The Princess and the Frog would have happened under his watch.
I hope it's the latter.
 
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