The Disney Thread | Happy 90th to Donald Duck!

[Mojoguy]

Now we know Bob Iger doesn't fuck around, if you keep putting out flop after flop you are GONE.

 

Under Lee, Raya did bad but I blamed covid.

 

Encanto was a sleeper hit that they really should have delayed the D+ release date for.

 

SW and Wish were massive flops that straight up tarnished the WDAS brand.

 

Lee is lucky she still has Frozen, she is still going to get paid for those, but getting kicked downstairs still sucks for her.

Edited 5 hours ago by Mojoguy

[BadOlCatSylvester]

This was definitely a much needed shakeup. If anything, I'm surprised Lee wasn't fired the moment Wish bombed, and that she lasted as long as she did. Mainline Disney animations have been getting messier and less stable with each passing year. Evidently she wasn't a good fit as a grand overseer. Hopefully she properly assesses the criticism Frozen 2 got before heading into the third movie.

 

Here's to hoping Marvel is soon too, because that studio needs new blood, and badly.

Edited 5 hours ago by BadOlCatSylvester

[AniNate]

They probably wanted to wait until after D23 before making anything official. Didn't want any awkward media narratives being drummed up with both her and Jared Bush presenting there.

[WorkingonaName]

2 hours ago, Mojoguy said:

Now we know Bob Iger doesn't fuck around, if you keep putting out flop after flop you are GONE.

 

Unless you work at Lucasfilm. 

[wattage]

I said this in the Moana thread but I'm happy that Lee is out, hopeful that Jared can handle it, still extremely annoyed that Disney is again putting directors with one hit under their name in positions like this instead of directors with multiple projects they have run by themselves smoothly from start to finish. That's how we got Lee where she was. Lassester was a creep but he had many projects under his belt not just as a co-director or writer, but manning the entire ship. Sometimes as both the director and writer. Pete Doctor had 3 films, multiple shorts and a lot of story credits before being put in charge. 

[wattage]

9 minutes ago, WorkingonaName said:

Unless you work at Lucasfilm. 

I've fully given up on them, there have been so many points of failure that I doubt anything can get leadership to change over there. The insane Star Wars fans who were railing against leadership over nothing for... obvious reasons...I think has made it harder to remove who needs to be removed after more obvious leadership failures. And just in general the long track record of both her and now Filoni. 

[Reddroast]

13 minutes ago, WorkingonaName said:

Unless you work at Lucasfilm. 

Difference here is the majority of Lee's flops were films Kennedy's were mostly streaming shows.

[wattage]

4 hours ago, AniNate said:

The Frozen sequels are the reason she didn't completely resign I imagine. That's the thing she has historically been successful with.

I think that's where she should stay, she did very good with the first Frozen despite the overhauling of the story and all the big changes during production. The second Frozen we all know what a mess that was on production but her change in position during that couldn't have helped so no need to get into it again. As a director with oversight she can be fairly solid, if she takes feedback from 2 then I think 3/4 can turn out extremely well. 

[AniNate]

10 minutes ago, wattage said:

I said this in the Moana thread but I'm happy that Lee is out, hopeful that Jared can handle it, still extremely annoyed that Disney is again putting directors with one hit under their name in positions like this instead of directors with multiple projects they have run by themselves smoothly from start to finish. That's how we got Lee where she was. Lassester was a creep but he had many projects under his belt not just as a co-director or writer, but manning the entire ship. Sometimes as both the director and writer. Pete Doctor had 3 films, multiple shorts and a lot of story credits before being put in charge. 

 

He's been involved in a lot of their more successful projects recently in some capacity; writer/co-director on Zootopia and writer on Moana 1

[ZeroHour]

10 minutes ago, wattage said:

I said this in the Moana thread but I'm happy that Lee is out, hopeful that Jared can handle it, still extremely annoyed that Disney is again putting directors with one hit under their name in positions like this instead of directors with multiple projects they have run by themselves smoothly from start to finish. That's how we got Lee where she was. Lassester was a creep but he had many projects under his belt not just as a co-director or writer, but manning the entire ship. Sometimes as both the director and writer. Pete Doctor had 3 films, multiple shorts and a lot of story credits before being put in charge. 

I mean who's even over there at this point who has more experience than Jared Bush? I doubt anyone would advocate for Chris Buck after Frozen 2 and Wish. Byron Howard maybe? Is he still there? Otherwise you're looking at pulling in someone from the outside, which isn't the worst idea, but who has the experience and would actually want it?

[wattage]

8 minutes ago, Reddroast said:

Difference here is the majority of Lee's flops were films Kennedy's were mostly streaming shows.

Indiana Jones happened just last year though. It's not like she's had a lot of huge recent hits at LF to counter the bad bad and more bad recently both theatrically and on streaming. 

[Reddroast]

Just now, wattage said:

Indiana Jones happened just last year though. It's not like she's had a lot of huge recent hits at LF to counter the bad bad and more bad recently both theatrically and on streaming. 

That's fair but at the same time animation has long been the crown jewel of Disney. wasn't KK ok'd by GL before he sold? 

[wattage]

8 minutes ago, ZeroHour said:

I mean who's even over there at this point who has more experience than Jared Bush? I doubt anyone would advocate for Chris Buck after Frozen 2 and Wish. Byron Howard maybe? Is he still there? Otherwise you're looking at pulling in someone from the outside, which isn't the worst idea, but who has the experience and would actually want it?

I would recommend looking outside the company I think they badly need new blood in house but you're right in that who would actually want that position right now and who's also qualified. Did they even look? I don't know. I also don't have a name I can pull within Disney Animation for sure, anyone I would want to pull is over at Pixar and they have their own stuff to deal with right now. Which is why I'm annoyed but still crossing my fingers and toes that it works out. 

Edited 2 hours ago by wattage

[Mojoguy]

This interview was from Aug 20, just a month ago. Lee must have already known knew she was demoted and no longer the WDAS CCO. Crazy.

 

 

[wattage]

3 minutes ago, Reddroast said:

That's fair but at the same time animation has long been the crown jewel of Disney. wasn't KK ok'd by GL before he sold? 

She was but I highly doubt that's the reason they're keeping her. It's not like he can contest their ownership, it's already sold. Animation is far more important to them but they paid out billions for the studio and it's been a mess over there for years and years at this point. If a megabomb like Indiana Jones doesn't get them to move them I doubt anything will. 

 

Only other turning point would be Acolyte being a disaster so I guess we keep an eye out for news in the coming months but if that didn't move the needle then *shrug* 

[wattage]

17 minutes ago, AniNate said:

 

He's been involved in a lot of their more successful projects recently in some capacity; writer/co-director on Zootopia and writer on Moana 1

I'm looking at sole director credits specifically and being able to manage an entire team and production which he has 1 under his belt that we've seen with Encanto (kind of but I'll count it even with Byron also directing because that's how they chose to credit it) and 1 to come next year with Zootopia 2. Co-directors tend to have to defer a lot to the main director(s). The co-director of KFP4 had a really interesting podcast about the position and what it entails. 

 

They know more about the production of Zootopia 2 than I do obviously, we don't have any stories or anything so I have to assume it's going smoothly. So let's call it 2 productions. But like Zero Hour said, who else do we really have at WDA who can do it. Of the directors I know they have there's not really anyone else. 

 

With Lee imo the problem very much became that she wasn't managing the ship very well despite being a fairly good director and writer on the few projects she worked on. Being able to consistently manage a tight ship multiple times and see what's working and what isn't is gonna help a lot. So I can see a scenario where we get the exact same thing as Lee again. But his story credits are better than hers imo and much less documented issues on his production(s). So I'm annoyed, but it has a lot of potential still. And hopefully we get more staff with a lot of directors experience in WDA who can do this in the future if needed.

[Eric Prime]

I mean Michael Eisner publicly admitted he never watched a Disney film in his life before taking his CEO job. Jeffrey Katzenberg had no clue how animation worked, and he became in charge of two hugely successful animation divisions. Getting outside help isn't an inherently bad idea. Of course that was at a time when Disney was at literal rock bottom and on the verge of a hostile takeover, so I don't think getting an outsider to help WDAS is that crucial or necessary. But I think you get my point.

[dudalb]

27 minutes ago, wattage said:

I would recommend looking outside the company I think they badly need new blood in house but you're right in that who would actually want that position right now and who's also qualified. Did they even look? I don't know. I also don't have a name I can pull within Disney Animation for sure, anyone I would want to pull is over at Pixar and they have their own stuff to deal with right now. Which is why I'm annoyed but still crossing my fingers and toes that it works out. 

Disney corporate culture has always been to "grow their own" to promote from within the organization. That was the way that Walt ran it, and his sucessor followed that tactic. Problme was they were not Walt Disneys, and they brough Disney to the verge of bankruptcy before the decision was made to bring Eisner on board. That made huge headlines in the trades at the time because that was so contrary to  Disney policy.

 

[dudalb]

8 minutes ago, Eric Prime said:

I mean Michael Eisner publicly admitted he never watched a Disney film in his life before taking his CEO job. Jeffrey Katzenberg had no clue how animation worked, and he became in charge of two hugely successful animation divisions. Getting outside help isn't an inherently bad idea. Of course that was at a time when Disney was at literal rock bottom and on the verge of a hostile takeover, so I don't think getting an outsider to help WDAS is that crucial or necessary. But I think you get my point.

You beat me to it. They only brough a outsider in to run Disney when Disney was on the verge of being taking over by a corpporate raider who made it clear he intended to break up the company and sell off it' individual parts. Ans after bringing eisner on baord, they had to pay him a substanil amount of "Greenmail" to buy his shares of Disney from him.

The documentary "Awakening Sleepy Beauty" ..it is on Disney plus..goes into detail on this.

Interestinly enough, the huge advocate on the Disney BOard of bringing in new blood was the only Disney family member on the board: Roy Disney.

[Eric Prime]

Speaking of CEOs and leadership, we got more Iger succession tea from Variety. Dana Walden reportedly still has the edge, though Josh D'Amaro is still a strong contender. Alan Bergman is also a potential dark horse. Oh the drama!

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/bob-iger-replacement-disney-ceo-search-1236150806/