They, and investors, also know that until the Comcast bid surfaced last month, Disney’s stock was trading at the same level as six years ago ­ severely underperforming the rest of the market. “Our mission has all along been [as] the bringers of joy,” declared Mr Disney, whose appearance at the microphone prompted a third of the hall to rise to its feet. Yet, when he gave the microphone to his foes, Messrs Gold and Disney, he visibly winced as the room broke out into significantly louder applause, and some whistles and cheers The pair had been given 15 minutes to put their case. They took rather longer, but no one was going to complain, except for Mr Eisner.”I believe,” a testy Mr Eisner responded after they had spoken, “you have just heard rhetoric from our critics, that frankly replaces reason.” What they had just stated, he added, was “fundamentally wrong”.Their grouses are many, however. Since launching their SaveDisney campaign three months ago, the two men have accused Mr Eisner of stacking the company board with cronies, failing to nurture creative talent at Disney, refusing to listen to any of his critics, and squeezing profits by cutting budgets instead of increasing and improving content and output. And we are all passionate about the output of this company.” His speech was met with polite applause from the front rows of the hall. He seemed unable to silence one notorious shareholder, Evelyn Davis, who repeatedly seized the floor to make often incomprehensible points.

It was another shareholder who screamed, “Sit down and shut up!”Mr Eisner, 61, did his best to stress what was going well with Disney now, not least a 60 per cent surge in its share price since last year’s annual meeting “The magic is real, as it always has been,” he said “I love this company The board loves this company. Please be aware of all building exits.” She was not addressing Mr Eisner directly, but perhaps she should have been. She was followed by the Mary Poppins number “A Spoonful of Sugar” (helps the medicine go down).At times Mr Eisner struggled to keep the proceedings under control. It was an unusual shareholders’ revolt that surprised the company, which until the meeting began had been suggesting that the vote against Mr Eisner would surely not surpass the 30 per cent mark.By contrast, Stanley Gold and the late Walt Disney’s nephew Roy Disney, who together led the Mickey Mouse mutiny, were celebrating.

Both resigned from the board last November.The omens seemed bad from the moment the shareholders crammed into the Philadelphia Convention Centre early in the morning A disembodied female voice told the crowd: “Attention Attention. Of the votes cast, 43 per cent were in favour of forcing him from his job.The Disney board, forced to bow to shareholder pressure, sacked Mr Eisner as chairman and replaced him with George Mitchell, a former US senator who brokered the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland Mr Eisner remains chief executive. The management of the Walt Disney Company was reeling after a raucous annual meeting in Philadelphia that saw a substantial and angry minority of shareholders voting to oust Michael Eisner as chairman and chief executive.
After a five-hour session, attended by 3,000 shareholders, officials revealed that a resolution to reappoint Mr Eisner, the head of Disney for the past 20 years, had scraped through. Residents said that some were killing others in personal disputes unrelated to the conflict, knowing either pro- or anti-Aristide forces would be blamed.. US Marines are guarding the home of Mr Aristide’s prime minister, Yvon Neptune, after 300 supporters of the rebels heeded a call by Mr Philippe to march there.Marine officers said they would try to protect all Haitians after a spate of reprisal executions. The rebels are increasingly at risk of being drawn into a gun battle. Mr Philippe later said his forces would lay down their arms.Some rebel officers have threatened to execute former Aristide supporters.