Dear Amber-chan,

Sigh, yeah the commercialism aspect of Disney
films actual can be traced back to Walt's first
feature, "Steamboat Willy" -_-!  Walt always
wanted to push the artistic boundary and produce
the highest quality cartoons.  However, because of
that, he was always broke ;_;, and needed to rely
on brother Roy's finances.  The 2 struggled with
this issue for most of Walt's career for almost
every film Walt produced -_- (Walt would produce a
very extravagant film and become broke, and Roy
bailed him out but wanted to make sure he would
be able to recover the loan.).

After Walt Disney's death, Roy's side of the
family basically took control over most of the
Disney empire.  Also, with the retirement of
Walt's 9 old men, Disney films began floundering
;_; (basically films after Jungle Book but before
Oliver and Company which I still love though ;)!).
It wasn't until Michael Eisner, Roy E. Disney
(Roy Disney's son), and Jeffrey Katzenberg came
along that Disney started the commercial art
machine O_O.

I still think though that Disney does still push
the artistic boundaries in animation, but there is
a cost -_-.  I'm not sure if Disney's animation
team PURPOSELY puts in cute fuzzy animals to be
exploited commercially though, but who knows?  My
sister's theory is that films with NO cute fuzzy
animals aren't as memorable, but that's just her
opinion O~O (She loves her stuffed Meeko, but
can't understand why anyone wants a cuddly plush
cloth doll of Quasimoto, Mulan, or Tarzan =/.
She judges Disney movies on the plush factor ;).).


Sincerely,

Sonia