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DISNEY - PIXAR TAKEOVER LEAVES DISNEY ANIMATORS DEMORALIZED, SAYS REPORT
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PIXAR TAKEOVER LEAVES DISNEY ANIMATORS DEMORALIZED, SAYS REPORT
Since Disney's acquisition of Pixar and the installation of John Lasseter and Ed Catmull as heads of Disney animation, morale at the Burbank studio has tumbled and some employees are privately hoping that the upcoming Pixar-produced Ratatouille flops, an unnamed Disney executive has told Disney watcher Jim Hill. On his website, Hill today (Monday) posted an email from the exec that says, "There are a lot of people here who are now actively hoping for a Pixar backlash. The transition has not been handled well, due mostly to the great care & attention that's being lavished on Pixar. Every attempt has been made to make sure that that animation studio's creative culture have been kept intact. Meanwhile, Disney Studio's own unique traditions & operating systems are being plowed under." Meanwhile, Disney has confirmed an earlier Jim Hill report that it will no longer produce straight-to-DVD sequels of its animated features.
25/06/2007
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screen name:
SnifflesTheMouse 
( 1)
posted on 27/06/2007 16:12
ContactMusic.com is running a report with a very biased and inaccurate
headline: "Pixar Takeover Leaves Disney Animators Demoralized, Says Report"
(re: a report on JimHillMedia.com) . This approach takes an already spinning ,
biased anti-Pixar opinion piece by Mr. Jim Hill and spins it to sound even
worse than what Jim Hill insinuated in his original report.
It is absolutely not true that Disney Animators are demoralized by the new
leadership of John Lasseter and Ed Catmull
at Disney Animation. The opinion piece that Jim Hill wrote (which was picked
up by Studio Briefing and posted on IMDB.com and now here on ContactMusic.com)
was based on some
anonymous email that Jim Hill received from a disgruntled "Disney executive" ,
not from any animator or other creative artist at Disney Animation. I can well
believe that many of the middle-management hacks who have been running Disney
Animation into the ground over the last 10 years are threatened by the new
leadership of Pixar's Ed Catmull and John Lasseter , but all the animators I
know at Disney are very happy to have Ed and John at the helm .
I think you have the editorial responsibility not to allow the spread of
gossip under the guise of "reporting" on what's going on in the animation
industry. Do some fact-checking before you run this sort of story. Jim Hill
is notorious for his rumor-mongering, but even his original article about the
dissatisfaction and sniping of some middle-management people at Disney directed
towards
John Lasseter and Ed Catmull was not as misleading as printing the misleading
headline : "Pixar Takeover Leaves Disney Animators Demoralized, Says Report".
I'll say it again: I know a
lot of animators at Disney (and former Disney artists like myself) who are very
happy to see the fresh new creative leadership of John Lasseter and Ed Catmull
at Disney Animation.
For an alternative viewpoint check out Steve Hulett's blog The Animation Guild
Blog. Steve Hulett is the business manager of the Los Angeles-based Animation
Guild which represents artists working in animation in Los Angeles County . He
is closely connected with what's happening "in the trenches" at the various
animation studios , including Disney . Steve reports that the artists at
Disney are very pleased with the new direction of the Disney Animation dept.
under the leadership of John Lasseter.
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/jmh-and-whining-execs.html
