The first of many tributes to Roy Disney

Not even the magical Disneyland could make it through the holiday season a step ahead of the grim, grinning Celebrity Reaper of 2009 who has taken far too many influential, beloved and important pop culture figures and given us too much fodder from which to choose for our Death of The Day column. This morning, Roy Disney has passed onto another magic kingdom, and already the tributes are pouring in through the Tabloid Baby transom: This one from leading Disneyana expert, Los Angeles historian and Hollywood Thoughts blogger LA Dodger Jon:

Many like to tell the story about how Roy Disney’s Uncle Walt once referred to him as his “idiot nephew.” This writer prefers to remember Roy Disney, Jr as a savior for the body of work that his uncle – and father – built over a half century.

In 1984 it looked all but certain that the Walt Disney Studios was headed towards a hostile takeover. The studio, its library and the beloved theme parks would have all been dismantled, split apart and/or spun off. It’s because of Roy that you’re not passing through the gates of the Anaheim M&M’s Magical Kingdom… or a Disney World that’s been snapped-up by a giant Beatrice-like mega corp…


Thanks to Roy Disney’s efforts, Frank Wells and Michael Eisner were hired and the Disney company averted disaster and thrived.

While it’s not wholly wrong to view the Disney outfit itself as a mega corporation these days, it’s hard to argue about the contribution they’ve made to art… and a whole lot of childhood memories.

I’m happy to take the hit for sounding schmaltzy, but I’m also a dad that’s pleased he has family fare to watch in the theatre with his son… or still gets excited packing the family in the car for a fun ride at the theme park.

Thanks, Roy.

ROY DISNEY DEAD

Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney and a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company (which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his Uncle Walt founded) has died at age 79. A consultant for the company, Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors and a thorn in the side of many successors, he helped revive the animation department but is perhaps best known for organizing the ousting of two top Disney executives: Ron Miller (Walt's son-in-law) in 1984 and Michael Eisner in 2005. Roy began working with the company in 1954 and was the last member of the Disney family to be actively involved with the company.

Roy died this morning. He had been battling cancer.

EO? Uh-oh! Jacko returning to Disneyland

Now that he's safely dead and can't possibly touch any children, Michael Jackson is being brought back to Disneyland. The Walt Disney Company confirmed, after months of denials, that they're jumping on the Dead Jacko bandwagon jump-started by the This Is It movie and will bring the 23-year-old Captain EO 3D mini-movie to Tomorrowland in February.

The 17-minute Captain EO cost about $30 million, was executive produced by George Lucas, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featured Anjelica Huston as the evil Supreme Leader-- and Jacko in the title role. It featuring lasers, smoke and stars that extend over the seat in front of you. We saw it at Tokyo Disneyland and recall it as being pretty impressive. But that was 20 years ago. The attraction was close din 1998, around the time Jacko was better known as a freak than pop star.

They say it will be a limited engagement. We'll see.

Coincidence that the announcement comes two days after the death of traditionalist Roy E. Disney? We'll see.