John Lasseter the New Walt Disney?

[Uncle Bob]

Cohete,

In some ways I agree with you but I think you're giving John too much credit in a way that's making you actually give him less credit in the end. I really don't think John has had a big influence on any of those decisions and blaming him for all of that is not fair. People above him are pushing the use of his movies, he may get to put his two cents in, but I don't think he really made most of the decisions related to those examples you gave. In the end this is why he can't be Walt, he has a lot of influence, but little real power within the realm of the parks. Disney could fire him tomorrow and we'd still be getting plenty of Pixar attractions.

[Coheteboy]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Cohete,

In some ways I agree with you but I think you're giving John too much credit in a way that's making you actually give him less credit in the end. I really don't think John has had a big influence on any of those decisions and blaming him for all of that is not fair. People above him are pushing the use of his movies, he may get to put his two cents in, but I don't think he really made most of the decisions related to those examples you gave. In the end this is why he can't be Walt, he has a lot of influence, but little real power within the realm of the parks. Disney could fire him tomorrow and we'd still be getting plenty of Pixar attractions.

Yah, you're probably right.

[Mr Wiggins]

Originally Posted by hollywood1939

Well whatever he is.

Exactly the question that folks at WDI have been asking.

[Angie_Duke]

Originally Posted by Ghostbuster626

I don't think Lasseter is the new Walt Disney. Lasseter has shown he doesn't care about the Orlando parks and will continue to let them fall apart, he seems to be anti-original ideas (only cartoon tie-ins it seems), and on top of that he seems to promote whatevers on the agenda for Disney regardless fo quality. Examples include:

- He went on camera and promoted the Tinker Bell movie saying it was wonderful and fantastic and all this bs

- He said the same thing about Meet the robinsons and the movie was extremly mediocre some if it didnt even make sense.

- Doing the same for BOLT which im pretty sure will end up just like robinsons.

- When Iger started hyping up blu-ray he immediatly started saying in interviews how wonderful Blu-ray is and how the only way to PROPERLY see the movie is to go out and buy the overpriced blu-ray disc of that movie. Ditto for Disney Digital 3D. If he loves 3D so much how come he wasnt championing for it before it became a big promotional thing for Disney?

I'm not saying Lasseter is a bad guy but it just seems to me he is becoming more of a company Yes Man and not the "man of the people" we all hoped he would be. Otherwise he would be championing for at least some orginal attractions in the parks, improved maintenance, cancelling projects like Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, releasing song of the south on dvd or bluray, talking to Bob Iger about giving power back to the Imagineers instead of leaving it in the hands of Jay Rasolu and the marketing team, etc.

IMO his first true test will be Princess & The Frog but I have become less enthusastic about it since he & his team caved into media hysteria that the movie was not "politcally correct" and had to tone down the story, change charecter names and the name of the movie (originally The Frong Princess), and probably made changes to the story to soften it up. I fear that what could have been the next Aladdin or Lion King will now become the next fox & the hound.

I'

Of all the comments in this thread, this is the one I like most.

Walt had the amazing ability to not only oversee all areas of the company, but have enthusiasm in each of them. Genuine enthusiasm at that. One look at the Pressler like state of WDW (especially MK, it's a little harder to argue that AK is in such a state) shows that he doesn't care about ALL the Disney Parks, just the one he worked at. If there's anyone who can convince Phil Holmes to go ahead with the SM refurb, it's him, but unfortunately he doesn't feel the need to right now, which is a horrible shame.

Regarding DTV movies. It was John himself who was very much against them (and is the reason why we don't have The Aristocats 2), and he himself scraped the first draft of the Tinker Belle movie, rendering the idiotic and pointless sub-par Platinum DVD that was released early to promote it useless. It seems that although he is forced to say obviously untrue things like praise for this film, he does know that i could have been worse (just to pint out my opinion, I thought Cinderella 3 was very good and the best of the DTV works. that's one unnecessary sequel you can actually be proud of)

As for Blu-ray, I agree with him 100% press release readings or not. If you don't agree with me, get a blu-ray player. however, Disney Digital 3-D still can't compare to IMAX 3-D or even something like Muppet Vision 3-D.

I also agree about the Princess and the Frog and the lack of care he's shown so far towards WDSHE (ignore his commentary on Sleeping Beauty). Forget Song of the South, remember the fact that Disney is still getting away with sub-par "Disney Movie Club" exclusive releases of older live action titles, no care for Disney TV series on DVD (except Hanna Montanna) and a generally lackluster release slate including pointless re-issues of older animated titles (including false advertising about Aristocats and Tarzan getting 2-Disc re-releases). As for Princess and the Frog all the PC interfering with storytelling, his personal preference for Randy Newman to write songs instead of Alan Menken make me wish we would have just left this film alone to Ron and John who have a great track record for movies already. For me, this new movie will just follow the dull 90s Disney animated movie formula that made Mulan, Tarzan, Lion King etc such "meh" films, instead of being something new and creative while mixing old Disney film values (including at least some attempt to be scary).

[Coheteboy]

I actually have higher expectations for Bolt than any of the previous Disney CG movies. This one the commercials actually have scenes that I would like to see play out. Meet the Robinsons was mediocre and Chicken Little was plain bad.

Although it won't win, Disney is already working on pushing Bolt (along with Wall-E) for best animated feature of the year.