Article About Dave Pruiksma Commended
Letters to the Editor
July 15, 2005
I just wanted to commend Cassandra Bell on the article about Dave Pruiksma on July 7, 2005.
While I was not a well known animator like Dave or even a well known Disney cast member outside of Disney Consumer Products, I CAN DEFINITELY relate to the inside deterioration of the company and the money grubbing bottom line Managers who cheapened the company by creating junk. I was at DCP from 95-97 and at GO.com from 99-01. My childhood dream of working for Disney was such an impossible reach that I too never thought it could happen. But within 5 weeks of moving to California from Eisner's Denison University college town of Granville, Ohio at age 26 (10 years ago YESTERDAY), I was working for "The Mouse!" A dream that I planned to continue the rest of my life. My first two years there were the best job I ever experienced to this day, although I saw some of the deterioration happening.
In 1997, I had the chance to leave and work for a former colleague in Lugano, Switzerland for 2 years. After that two years, I returned to GO.com when the company was failing miserably. My first day at ESPN.com was the best and never got better through two more years of NASCARstore.com, and then Disney Online Auctions. I was eventually laid off in a massive attempt to reduce the size of the company. That lay off was a blessing in disguise!
It's great to see Roy Disney and Stanley P. Gold back in agreement with the company and the soon to be departure of Michael Eisner. However, I wonder if Disney will ever return to what it was for so many of us "kids" who grew up with it.
Thanks for the article--it was awesome! Kudos to Dave Pruiksma (who I met at least once in passing) for such an inside look at the company. I share his pain and give him credit for sticking it out, believing in Disney, and being loyal to what he believed was "right." Especially when those emerging new animation studios (and I know what one he is referring) were offering so much money to animators to leave Disney.
- Jack Fleming
While I was not a well known animator like Dave or even a well known Disney cast member outside of Disney Consumer Products, I CAN DEFINITELY relate to the inside deterioration of the company and the money grubbing bottom line Managers who cheapened the company by creating junk. I was at DCP from 95-97 and at GO.com from 99-01. My childhood dream of working for Disney was such an impossible reach that I too never thought it could happen. But within 5 weeks of moving to California from Eisner's Denison University college town of Granville, Ohio at age 26 (10 years ago YESTERDAY), I was working for "The Mouse!" A dream that I planned to continue the rest of my life. My first two years there were the best job I ever experienced to this day, although I saw some of the deterioration happening.
In 1997, I had the chance to leave and work for a former colleague in Lugano, Switzerland for 2 years. After that two years, I returned to GO.com when the company was failing miserably. My first day at ESPN.com was the best and never got better through two more years of NASCARstore.com, and then Disney Online Auctions. I was eventually laid off in a massive attempt to reduce the size of the company. That lay off was a blessing in disguise!
It's great to see Roy Disney and Stanley P. Gold back in agreement with the company and the soon to be departure of Michael Eisner. However, I wonder if Disney will ever return to what it was for so many of us "kids" who grew up with it.
Thanks for the article--it was awesome! Kudos to Dave Pruiksma (who I met at least once in passing) for such an inside look at the company. I share his pain and give him credit for sticking it out, believing in Disney, and being loyal to what he believed was "right." Especially when those emerging new animation studios (and I know what one he is referring) were offering so much money to animators to leave Disney.
- Jack Fleming