I've been in love with The Magic of Disney from a young age. Which only makes it more painful to see what has become of the company that helped to form me at a young age.
I'm not going to deal with this in depth, as many others have done a much better (and more thoroughly researched) job than I could, but I wanted to bring it up at least. I don't think I have to go into too much detail about how the company run today by Michael Eisner differs from the company and vision of Walt Disney so many years ago. And I'm not a complete Disney apologist, either, as even in the original vision there were certainly problematic elements, from environmental impact of a project like DisneyWorld in Orlando to the oversimplification of many issues in Disney films. But Disney represented a simplicity and love of imagination that was truly inspirational for children (and adults).
In any case, something is rotten in Orlando. With the resignation of Roy Disney (Walt's nephew) and Stanley Gold, machinations began to try to remove Eisner. The recent breakdown of talks between Disney and Pixar are adding fuel to the flames of controversy.
Here are some resources you can read for more information.
Website started by Roy Disney and Stanley Gold to begin a shareholder drive to remove Eisner and restore the company to its previous vision.
Article on Slate about the controversy and Eisner's position.
Non-Fiction
Book by Carl Hiaasen (one of my favorite fiction authors) about Disney's culture and specifically its environmental record, entitled "Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World"
Article in the Washington Post about the Disney-Pixar split. (The bad news being that under the terms of the current contract, all characters belong to Disney, which means we could see a Woody and Buzz movie without any Pixar involvement at all.)
I'd like to think that Disney could be turned around to get back to a "creativity first" company as Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have characterized the old company. But once its turned, it's hard to believe that the demon will crawl back into the box without quite a fight, or without destroying both the demon and the box.
Disney decays from within and erodes from without. Disney sold beautiful flowers. Some even had nice smell. Flowers grow in manure. Different taste in flowers, same manure. Customers see much manure, know less and less about flowers. Manure is cheap and plentiful. Sold without flowers, manure doesn't remind of the beauty or fragrance of flowers. Where did all the flowers go? B5 suffered from the trampling of sheep; still, flowers bloomed where the farmer cultivated them.