We never considered when the Disney Institute opened - that it would close.

In 1996 and the beginning of 1997, the Disney Institute was featured prominently on TV, in the press and in the Disney Company reports. There is even an article about the Institute in the 25^th anniversary book of Disney World.

Most of the time, it was a great place to work. There was ALWAYS something going on. You could be teaching a studio class and Roy Disney would walk in the door. We had presentations at the theater, at the Performance Center – both located on property at the Institute. Our animation guests included: Faith and Emily Hubley, John Canemaker, Bill Plympton, Ward Kimball, Marc Davis, James Earl Jones, Jim Jenkins (creator of Doug)…the list goes on and on.

The non-animation guests were just as impressive: The Alvin Ailey Dancers, Charlie Rose, Bill Walton (a night of basketball stories and his first public piano recital- the man has guts), Gladys Knight, Andy Garcia, Tricia Yearwood…it was amazing!

Amid the connection with guests and the classes, Squash McStretch was thriving. As with all Disney characters Squash even had the honor of having a conference room named after him. Our offices had moved to a back area into a huge trailer-like complex. Along with the conference room, the new office numbers were Squash McStretch figures with numbers inside. (I wish I would have gotten one of those for a keepsake).

At one point, our marketing department asked us for a special presentation for a group. The Institute was beginning to focus more on “heads in beds” than “bums in seats”. Jim Korkis came up with an animator at the desk (me) and a presenter (Jim) on stage and a live talk about what Walt Disney use to call the “Plausible Impossible”. Jim is an excellent writer, presenter, actor and historian. We created some Squash McStretch animation as a lead into part of the presentation. We worked it out so that I would make drawings of Jim as he spoke (usually he was a chicken or a sheep). I had a camera over my shoulder so the results were projected for the audience. At some point, I would draw Squash and then he would come to life with the preproduced animation. It was a crazy, wonderful kind of animation vaudeville event that only someone like Jim could create. I just went along for the ride!

A framed Squash

Our limited edition Squash pin

During the summer of 1997, the powers that be decided the Institute needed to reduce the number of offerings from almost 40 disciplines down to about 10 or 11. Fewer offerings meant layoffs Animation, Culinary, and Gardening stayed intact- our attendance numbers were good.

Animation wasn’t touched until the three round of layoffs . I had to attend Disney HR classes so that I could learn the fine art of how to let folks go. I also had to give input into who to keep. I did not sleep for weeks! I even volunteered myself as a potential “layoff” candidate.

By 1998, the changes kept coming. The best distraction we had, besides our normal pargo races on the golf course trails…well, mostly on the trails, was the upcoming animation event based on the Orlando studio produced animated film, MULAN. By then, we were into our third series of Squash McStretch cells. A special Squash Mulan was created especially for the event. We kept trying to expand our offerings of Squash products but by then we were on the radar of Disney Merchandising who politely asked us to stop or else.

Two Mulan events were held on consecutive weekends in September. They were the first and the best (in my opinion). I was able host a friend, June Foray, for the second weekend. June was voice of Grandma Fau. The Institute animation staff worked their butts off - from 6:00 am in the morning until 2:00 am. We had such a great time with the guests no one wanted to go to bed. Afterward, we were told that Michael Eisner received dozens of letters about the event - all of them congratulatory.

A front page from a MULAN book

On October 28^th, I was lead into a room where a press release was given to me that stated, “Larry Lauria was leaving the Disney Company to pursue other interests” So that was it, my stint with Disney was over. The Company did treat me really well – with my own little golden parachute. Later, from the grapevine, I heard the MULAN event had been so successful – it probably bought me another month.

After I left Disney, Squash faded quickly from the stable of Disney characters. We had our fun. There is still Squash merchandise out there. The pins, cells and maquettes still pop-up from time to time on EBay or collector’s sites- so in a way Squash still lives.

My Institute Animation jacket

Close up of our animation jackets (100,000 stitches in each jacket)

The Disney Institute hung on in various forms for a while longer – closing quietly on February 8^th 2002. The beautiful new Disney Saratoga Springs resort is now located on the Institute site. The computer animation studio is now a guest laundry. The 2D animation studio is now an Art Center for guests. When I visited last June, I left them with the image of a bulbous nosed Irish-American cartoon character drawn on an easel.

Since then, I have taught 3 or 4 students (now animators) whose first exposure to animation was at the Disney Institute.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 2:18 pm and is filed under animation stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.