Wow! I don't think I'd heard that until now. Good for her. And I didn't know she'd been involved on Zootopia to some degree. I wouldn't be surprised if her involvement had a lot to do with the best things about that film (notably Judy in a male-dominated career...just like Lee herself.Upon its release, Frozen became a juggernaut for Disney, earning the best animated feature Oscar, spawning a stage musical and an attraction at Epcot and making Lee the highest-grossing female director of all time until the release of Wonder Woman four years later.
). Her talking about reading through scripts first thing in the morning sounds like a dream job for sure.
That seems to contradict people's go-to criticism of her that I've seen on this forum. Not surprised, since I rarely agree with those takes that have claimed Raya, Frozen II, and Encanto are half-baked. I think all three films are some of the best CGI films that have been made. And thank God she never tried to be John Lasseter. The first one's micromanaging WDAS down to a nub was bad enough as it is, we didn't need a second one.When she first wrote for Disney, Lee had wanted more time for iterating — thanks to her, writers now get four drafts before the storyboard stage, whereas before they had only one or two. “I know the part of the process I’m really good at,” Lee says. “I know the part [Lasseter’s] really good at. I know that those two have to go together, and my job is to make sure that we’re well rounded in all areas. I wasn’t trying to be John.”
While I hate that the pandemic blocked Raya and Encanto from making the box office success both films deserve*, in a way I think this moment in time actually gave Lee an easier entrance into the leadership role, giving her more time to find her footing and get used to her new role, since almost everything's going to do bad during the pandemic anyway. And I think she's pulled off the job with aplomb going by their last three films as it is. And I'm really glad she's the one that will be in charge of all these series that have materialized to fill out the streaming service. Lasseter would have putrefied those.
Btw, Sotiris, who is deciding whether the films go to theaters or to streaming (WDAS going to theaters, PIXAR to streaming-only)? I assume someone other than Lee and Docter are making those decisions.
* They both would've easily hit the $600 million benchmark at least, if not more going by "We Don't Talk About Bruno"'s success. Although on that point we'll see how much Encanto's soundtrack has sold a year from now in comparison to Moana and Frozen. My guess would be more than Moana, but less than Frozen.
That said, even as president, I doubt she has as much control as it sounds when it comes to some decisions; I definitely don't think she has the kind of power across the company that Lasseter was given. There could be someone up the chain who doesn't want M&C to return, much like I don't think she'd have the power to revive hand-drawn animation either. Someone above her would block that kind of decision.
