Is John Lassetter trying to tank Walt Disney Feature Animation??

[BuenaVista28]

What is going on with Walt Disney Animation Studios? Last year John Lassetter tries to sabotage the opening of Tangled with coming out to the media saying fairy tales are not creative and are essentially dead,(fortunately his efforts to tank the film did fail). Then we go and find out today that Pixar has announced 2 more films! one about Dinos and one about the Mind, on top of the Monsters Inc sequel and Brave. While ONE movie is announced for Walt Disney Animation, a movie about a 8-bit video game character, something that sounds like it belongs on Robot Chicken not from the studio that all but invented animation.

So that leads me to my point, do you guys feel that John Lassetter is purposely trying to tank WDAS so he can stroke his own ego and put Pixar up on a pedestool while phasing classic Disney animation out of the scene? seems like something strange is going on because there are a TON of Pixar films in the pipeline but not so much for Disney Animation.

[goldenstate5]

Well... to be fair, Pixar has oddly yet to announce its future slate beyond MI2. Remember when they announced a five year slate back in 2008?

[BuenaVista28]

Well... to be fair, Pixar has oddly yet to announce its future slate beyond MI2. Remember when they announced a five year slate back in 2008?

Ok, but right now we know of 4 Pixar movies in the pipeline, Monsters University, Dinosaur movie, Mind movie, and Brave. They have only announced Wreck it Ralph for Disney Animation, and the film sounds like something from Robot Chicken or Adult Swim.

Dont you find that a little strange? and dont you also find it interesting that Lassetter decides to put this cheesy video game movie for Disney Animation while giving Pixar all the interesting/creative films? and all of this comes on the heels of Lassetter personally trying to tank Tangled before it was released by bad-mouthing fairy tales. In my opinion it seems like Lassetter has an agenda here.

[mickeyfan42]

I think you're reading to much in to this. He was the one that asked the animators if they wanted to do cg or hand drawn, they voted hand drawn. and from what I have heard, the animators actually like the concepts for Wreck-it-Ralph. And they still have the King of Elves, also, they cancelled 2 projects, and it takes time for a good pitch to come out for Disney. If the fairy tales hadn't been cancelled they could have been talking about 3+ movies: Wreck it Ralph, King of Elves, Snow Queen (Alan Menken musical), and Jack and the Beanstalk. The only shocking thing is that Disney would stop doing the fairy tale musicals after PatF and Tangled were both critically acclaimed, but it was because PatF didn't do all that well in the box office. Funny enough, I think I saw that Tangled did better in the box office both domestically and worldwide then Tron Legacy did.

I don't think JL is trying to ruin WDAS, I think he is trying to get them to think outside the box like Pixar does.

[Melonballer]

Remember when people said Tangled looked dumb and cheesy? I say give Wreck-It Ralph a chance

[ALIASd]

There are a number of features and shorts in various stages of development currently ongoing at WDAS including 'King of the Elves' under writer/director Chris Williams & art director Paul Felix and a rumored 'Tangled' short. John Lasseter (and the WDAS & Pixar senior creative teams as well) is of course heavily involved in their progress, just like up in E-ville. His name is on all of the films so a ridiculously-hinted at secret agenda is sad. Announcing them today wasn't necessary and not nearly as important as allowing the artists to keep working away at them until they're ready for the next stage.

[mousterpiece]

Yeah, I don't see Lasseter as trying to destroy WDAS. He and Ed Catmull were fairly instrumental in reinvigorating the hand-drawn animation that fell by the wayside once movies like Chicken Little and Home on the Range were being released.

[disneylandfan95]

What an absolute insult to John Lasseter and the majority of the Animation Studios team.

Having personally met and talked to John on a number of occasions, you can tell that he is absolutely passionate about animation, both hand-drawn and CG. Had you seen the Studios presentation today at the Expo, you would know that they spent just as much time talking about Disney Animation as they did Pixar. John did nothing but say how Tangled and Winnie the Pooh are 2 of the best animated features ever made.

And that rumor about "no more fairy tales" needs to end. It was published and a few days after Ed Catmull said something along the lines of, "It's just a rumor and nothing more. There are many fairy tales well into production here at Disney."

If there is 1 person that I would want running the animation studios, it would be Lasseter. I hope that he doesn't see or hear about this thread because he would be heart-broken to know that some of Disney's most loyal fans are questioning his integrity and passion for feature animation.

[mickeyfan42]

What an absolute insult to John Lasseter and the majority of the Animation Studios team.

Having personally met and talked to John on a number of occasions, you can tell that he is absolutely passionate about animation, both hand-drawn and CG. Had you seen the Studios presentation today at the Expo, you would know that they spent just as much time talking about Disney Animation as they did Pixar. John did nothing but say how Tangled and Winnie the Pooh are 2 of the best animated features ever made.

And that rumor about "no more fairy tales" needs to end. It was published and a few days after Ed Catmull said something along the lines of, "It's just a rumor and nothing more. There are many fairy tales well into production here at Disney."

If there is 1 person that I would want running the animation studios, it would be Lasseter. I hope that he doesn't see or hear about this thread because he would be heart-broken to know that some of Disney's most loyal fans are questioning his integrity and passion for feature animation.

Do you know if Snow Queen is still in the works, to me anything with Alan Menken's music is a worth-while movie and I always get excited for his work, but not the ones that aren't musicals lol.

[mickdaddy]

Lasseter has done more to save the studio then anyone and as mentioned before was a major reason the studio has gone back to hand drawn features! I think his agenda is far from destroying the studio! IMO

[Hathaway Browne]

I doubt he's trying to de-rail WDAS. I think that it was stated when he took the reigns that while Pixar could and would continue on a yearly release format, WDAS could move to a bi-annual release enabling them to work on better films.

[k_peek_2000]

No because that would put him out of one of his jobs. While I am sure he might have a grudge against Disney animation for firing him in the 80s. I doubt he would try to tank it.

[ALIASd]

And that rumor about "no more fairy tales" needs to end. It was published and a few days after Ed Catmull said something along the lines of, "It's just a rumor and nothing more. There are many fairy tales well into production here at Disney."

Yet again, from November 2010:

A headline in today’s LA Times erroneously reported that the Disney fairy tale is a thing of the past, but I feel it is important to set the record straight that they are alive and well at Disney and continue this week with Tangled, a contemporary retelling of a much loved story. We have a number of projects in development with new twists that audiences will be able to enjoy for many years to come. - Ed Catmull

http://micechat.com/forums/news/1467...iry-tales.html

Talking one-on-one with John Lasseter and Ed Catmull is inspiring, educational and thoroughly entertaining. The same goes for the directors and amazing artists of WDAS such as John Musker, Ron Clements, Stephen Anderson, Chris Williams, Byron Howard, Nathan Greno and the Animation, Story and Visual Development departments. Support their work at the box office if not on the internet at very least.

[BuenaVista28]

Yet again, from November 2010:


http://micechat.com/forums/news/1467...iry-tales.html

Talking one-on-one with John Lasseter and Ed Catmull is inspiring, educational and thoroughly entertaining. The same goes for the directors and amazing artists of WDAS such as John Musker, Ron Clements, Stephen Anderson, Chris Williams, Byron Howard, Nathan Greno and the Animation, Story and Visual Development departments. Support their work at the box office if not on the internet at very least.

John and Ed claimed that fairy tales were very much 'alive' at Disney only after the fan community was outraged at their original comments regarding fairy tales. The retraction/correction to 'set the record straight' was clearly made to 'save face", the original comment about fairy tales not being 'creative' and how they have no plans to do another one in the fore-seeable future is probably the truth. The fluff piece they said after regarding fairy tales being 'very much alive at Disney" was done to cover their butts and is probably not so truthful. In short, it was just damage control.

These are quotes from Ed Catmull.. there is no other way to interpret what he is saying, the LA Times didnt twist or manipulate anything here. He CLEARLY states that fairy tales have 'run thier course".

"Films and genres do run a course," said Pixar Animation Studios chief Ed Catmull, who along with director John Lasseter oversees Disney Animation. "They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it … but we don't have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up." Indeed, Catmull and Lasseter killed two other fairy tale movies that had been in development, "The Snow Queen" and "Jack and the Beanstalk."

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/21/entertainment/la-et-1121-tangled-20101121

"If you say to somebody, 'You should be doing fairy tales,' it's like saying, 'Don't be risky,'" Catmull said. "We're saying, 'Tell us what's driving you.'"

Regarding the quote above, so basically fairy tales are not risky or creative, yet this is coming from the guy who has put out 3 Toy Story films (with rumors of a 4th), a 2nd Monsters Inc on its way, 2 Cars movies etc...so let me get this straight, fairy tales are not risky or creative, yet sequels are risky and creative??

Look, I have nothing against Lassetter, but his bias is very transparent, he puts his heart and soul into anything Pixar and does not offer that same level of passion with the Disney product. Whether he does it intentionally or not, its still pretty obvious and its very evident.

[ALIASd]

Or it's the truth. There is alot of different work being done everyday on ealot of different projects at WDAS, formerly Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Your talents look to be wasted here, reading the minds of others should become your full-time focus. Those are two of the last guys in entertainment that are in the position to have to cover their butts.