DVDizzy Forum

No, I agree, she probably wouldn't have got the job without Lasseter's MeToo story pushing them that direction for PR. I don't think she's unqualified because of that, but I agree she was lucky in that way. Brenda Chapman was probably off the table. Even though Lasseter was done, he still had enormous pull at Disney, which is why it took so long for it to be confirmed (they were seeing if they could wait the controversy out for everyone to just forget about it). Since Chapman had bad blood with Lasseter, I doubt they would've ever considered her even if she'd still been working at Disney then.

Yes, that's also very true.

I feel so confused. I find myself sort of agreeing with all three of you.

I think what Redadoodles wrote is spot on. He pretty much said what I wrote earlier, but better.

However, like Redadoodles, Divinity and estefan - I am also somewhat optimistic. While Lee certainly was boosted by the Lasseter debacle, and on paper I am certain there were more promising candidates for the job at WDAS, we don't really know what stuff the woman is made of yet. She may turn out to be a great leader in the end and more than earn her position.

Best wishes to Ms Lee!

I think the true testament of her abilities as a leader and a storyteller will be Carlos Lopez Estrada's film. It will most likely be the first feature released that was greenlighted by her. Frozen II, Raya, and Encanto were all greenlighted by Lasseter and spent years in development under him. Personally, I'm not sure if she's the right person to lead the studio. While I do believe WDAS has become a healthier place to work, I don't approve of the creative direction the studio is heading and a lot of the decisions she has made since she took this position. It seems to me she doesn't understand, respect or appreciate the history and legacy of the studio. Bringing in outside talent from the live-action industry to direct features, making co-productions with other studios, exploiting the Disney library with TV series, moving away from the Disney house style etc. are all negative developments in my book. She also doesn't seem to care about 2D animation (and why would she? her big break came with a CG film) as all of the shorts released under her time as CCO, both theatrical and Short Circuit ones, have been CG.

I'm not sure what's the definition of healthy environment, but what I've seen in Into the Unknown doesn't look healthy to me: people working late, people starting early, even weekends sometimes. I remember one person said he was going home in the evening to be with his kids and after they were off to bed he returned to do more work, and the environment seems so stressful, like when they had the test screening, everyone back at the studio already knew they were going to redo everything. That doesn't seem healthy. But to be fair that was always the situation at Disney since Eisner took over, I remember listening to one episode of the Bancroft Brothers podcast and one of them said he had to work too much that eventually he had to be hospitalized, IDK I get that releasing one-two films a year is the industry's standard, but I think I would have preferred one really great film once in two years, and maybe the animators won't have to be in so much pressure all the time, their health and home-work balance are important too.

I will say though that after watching Inside Pixar, it does seem that they have better terms and the environment there has improved.

What I like most about Jennifer is that she doesn’t appear to be a narcissist with an incessant need to put herself in the middle of every project and movie. Both her and Pete Docter stay relatively in the background. As they should when running such a big studio.

I think the coming years will show us what type of movies will be made by WDAS. So far I still see a lot of Lasseter’s influence. So for that reason I personally do not mind when she brings in outside directors to take things in a different direction. Anything to get rid of Lasseter’s fingerprints at this point.

Sotiris wrote:I think the true testament of her abilities as a leader and a storyteller will be Carlos Lopez Estrada's film. It will most likely be the first feature released that was greenlighted by her. Frozen II, Raya, and Encanto were all greenlighted by Lasseter and spent years in development under him. Personally, I'm not sure if she's the right person to lead the studio. While I do believe WDAS has become a healthier place to work, I don't approve of the creative direction the studio is heading and a lot of the decisions she has made since she took this position. It seems to me she doesn't understand, respect or appreciate the history and legacy of the studio. Bringing in outside talent from the live-action industry to direct features, making co-productions with other studios, exploiting the Disney library with TV series, moving away from the Disney house style etc. are all negative developments in my book. She also doesn't seem to care about 2D animation (and why would she? her big break came with a CG film) as all of the shorts released under her time as CCO, both theatrical and Short Circuit ones, have been CG.

Red: I actually think this is fine. It can help bring in new blood, new storytelling styles, and can be a breath of fresh air even for veteran artists at the studio.

Green: I am not sure this could have been avoided. What with the Covid pandemic and the push for Disney+, I think WDAS was bound to go into TV sooner or later. This would only bother me if the added workload will mean less theatrical features. (I still don't know how they will get around this ... are they hiring new people? As far as I know there was no word of the WDAS series having outsourced animation. I got the impression every episode will be animated in-house at the Burbank studio.)

Blue: I love that development! I like variety! Just because they move away from their house style doesn't mean they're abandoning it entirely. In my perfect world for every six new WDAS features we'd have four with innovative styles, art direction and production design, and two in the traditional, old-school style of design. That way you have the best of both worlds.

Patrick! Yaaay! wrote:What I like most about Jennifer is that she doesn’t appear to be a narcissist with an incessant need to put herself in the middle of every project and movie. Both her and Pete Docter stay relatively in the background. As they should when running such a big studio.

I should have mentioned this. While none of us can really know what Jennifer Lee is like in real life - as presumably not one of us has met her, much less knows her on a deeper level - she looks like a likeable and pleasant person. If she is truly likeable and pleasant (maybe even a lovely lady!) I guess that's a already a step-up for the staff at WDAS! It's always better to work for a boss you like!

I disagree that Jennifer Lee doesn't respect and understand the legacy of Disney Animation. She has repeatedly said in interviews that "Cinderella" is one of her biggest filmmaking influences and her New York Times profile a few years ago even mentioned she hangs original pencil drawings from the film behind her desk.

I agree, the Disney+ projects were inevitable. I'm sure Disney wanted them to make things for their streaming service, that was probably non-negotiable. I agree with Sotiris about most of those other things being bad developments though. Live-action talent rarely understand animation, but the company seems to want their films to work like live-action films anyway. I think that was always the goal with going into 3D, Disney and everyone there couldn't care less about "animation" itself, much less their history with hand-drawn animation. They just want profit, and it's easier to get that when everything looks practically live-action a lot of the time. And, no, the characters looking like Nickelodeon or Dreamworks wouldn't be a positive development at all to me.

I wish I could be more optimistic about WDAS future like the rest of you. Ever since Raya and the Last Dragon, I've become depressed about anything regarding WDAS and their recent films or upcoming films, I only have a slight interest in Encanto because of Byron Howard (and even that it's because I hope that it's at least going to be somewhat enjoyable cause Howard is fine, his films are fine, but he's not like M&C you know?!), and after that what? A space racing non musical film by Don Hall?! (Though it will be nice to get a break from the Princesses for a while... a decade maybe...). I don't know, maybe it's just another fatigue, or maybe I've come to an age where I simply don't care anymore?! It happens I guess.

In addition, Disney (the corporation) doesn't seem to care about animation anymore, it's just another screw in their money making machine, and they seem to be more focused on the remakes and Disney +.

I know it's a little bit negative and it comes after people said they got tired of it and I'm sorry about that, but this is how I feel at the moment.

farerb wrote:A space racing non musical film by Don Hall

That's the first I'd heard about that. Hm. I guess it's another one like Encanto with the magical family where on its face the premise doesn't sound too exciting, but we'll see how they turn out, I guess.

The space racing movie titled Cosmic 3000 was to be directed by Dean Wellins and it was canceled a long time ago.

Weird... I remembered a much more recent rumor... so his film remains a secret I guess.

Sotiris wrote:The space racing movie titled Cosmic 3000 was to be directed by Dean Wellins and it was canceled a long time ago.

Oh, thank God.

estefan wrote:I disagree that Jennifer Lee doesn't respect and understand the legacy of Disney Animation. She has repeatedly said in interviews that "Cinderella" is one of her biggest filmmaking influences and her New York Times profile a few years ago even mentioned she hangs original pencil drawings from the film behind her desk.

I read that too which is sweet but there's more to the Disney legacy than the Disney princesses with traditional animation being at the top of the list. You would think they could at least approve of at least one 2D film every four or five years with the all the cash they earn from Disney plus, the animated films, Pixar, Marvel, merchandising, live action remakes etc..

I hope Anderson enjoys whatever follows for him

As for Lee - I have no doubt that she was chosen to cleanse the Lasseter situation but it’s a little soon to judge her plans and it doesn’t seem that she’s a micromanager

I don't want to be hard on Jennifer Lee, I think she's a nice and good person, and I do believe that there should be more women working in higher positions, but looking at the things she was heavily involved in: Wreck-It Ralph, A Wrinkle in Time and Frozen II. None of them are really good or amazing, Frozen seems to be the exception, and if Frozen fans on Tumblr are to be believed, they seem to credit Lasseter about it based on interviews from back when. Honestly if that's the case then it would explain why Elsa is barely a character in the first film, and just a shell for people with issues and anxieties to insert themselves into, she was far more interesting in the second film, it's just a shame that Anna and Kristoff were completely wasted.
I think that right now, Byron Howard is probably the most talented man working there and I wish he was the CCO (it could have been great to have a gay man at the top too). Oh well... I do hope she gets better and better in the future and I wish her and the studio well.

farerb wrote:I don't want to be hard on Jennifer Lee, I think she's a nice and good person, and I do believe that there should be more women working in higher positions, but looking at the things she was heavily involved in: Wreck-It Ralph, A Wrinkle in Time and Frozen II. None of them are really good or amazing, Frozen seems to be the exception, and if Frozen fans on Tumblr are to be believed, they seem to credit Lasseter about it based on interviews from back when. Honestly if that's the case then it would explain why Elsa is barely a character in the first film, and just a shell for people with issues and anxieties to insert themselves into, she was far more interesting in the second film, it's just a shame that Anna and Kristoff were completely wasted.
I think that right now, Byron Howard is probably the most talented man working there and I wish he was the CCO (it could have been great to have a gay man at the top too). Oh well... I do hope she gets better and better in the future and I wish her and the studio well.

Byron Howard is gay!!?

Jules wrote:Byron Howard is gay!!?

Yes. Did you not know that? I thought it was known.

farerb wrote:

Jules wrote:Byron Howard is gay!!?

Yes. Did you not know that? I thought it was known.

No! I really had no idea.

Admittedly my gaydar is completely broken, but whenever I saw Howard in video clips I always got "100% straight" vibes from him!