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  • 2018-12-05 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Walt Disney's Will Require His Movies to Be Remade Every 10 Years? (en)
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  • A November 2018 tweet by @Samanthapaigeu went viral for appearing to explain the Walt Disney Studios' recent penchant for remaking classic Disney films. The tweet claimed that Walt Disney actually put a provision in his will required the company to remake its movies ever 10 years so that they could continually appeal to a new generation: I was today years old when i found out that Walt Disney put in his will that all Disney classics are to be remade every 10 years, so each generation gets to enjoy them: The following day @Samanthapaigeu clarified that she wasn't 100% sure if what she had posted was true. Still, this idea seemed to strike a chord with social media users, and it was shared as fact by thousands of people. The tweet, however, was not factually accurate. For one thing, such a demand would have been highly atypical of Walt Disney, who greatly favored continual innovation over retreading the same entertainment ground. After Disney's 1933 Three Little Pigs animated short grossed over ten times its production costs during its initial release, Walt reportedly rebuffed requests for more of the same by retorting, You can't top pigs with pigs. (Although Walt did relent and produce several Three Little Pigs sequels, they were only moderately successful, and the experience cemented his resolve to pursue artistic risks rather than doggedly sticking with what had previously worked.) Also, as we noted in a previous article about another unusual condition supposedly contained in Walt Disney's will, Walt did not own Walt Disney Productions at the time of his death (he was a 14% shareholder), so he had no authority to dictate what that company could or could not do. Finally, Walt Disney’s will of March 1966, which was in effect when he passed away in December of that year, contained no unusual provisions. It basically left 45% of his estate to his wife and daughters, another 45% to the Disney Foundation in a charitable trust (most of which was dedicated to CalArts), and the remaining 10% in a trust to be divided among his sister, nieces, and nephews. Even without that evidence, looking at the number of times any classic Disney film has been remade since its original release is sufficient to prove this claim false. Dumbo, for example, was originally released in 1941 and therefore already should have been re-made several times over in the half-century since Walt's passing, but Dumbo's first remake won't see the light of day until 2019. Moreover, many classic Disney films (such as 1940's Pinocchio) have never been remade. So how did this rumor originate? In general, it echoes a marketing strategy the Disney company has utilized for many decades now. Walt Disney Studios periodically re-released (not remade) classic movies such as Bambi to movie theaters every seven years or so in order to introduce them to younger generations: This 7-year-rule has evolved over the years with the introduction of television, videocassettes, DVDs, and online streaming services. The company currently keeps some of their titles in the Disney Vault and only periodically makes them available for home video purchase. In 1997, Robin Miller, the Head of Worldwide Product Development for Disney's home video division Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE), and Marcelle Abraham, the Executive Director of Public Relations for BVHE, talked to Animation World Magazine in 1997 about the inner workings of the vault: While Disney is scheduled to remake a number of their classic movies films the next few years, but this production schedule has nothing to do with a requirement set forth by Walt Disney's will. (en)
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