John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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I admire Emma Thompson for her classy courage :clap:

As for the Skydance job itself (which I did read about when it was announced) What an outrageous decision! :evil: Lasseter's new job is arguably his fourth chance in wide release animation. He could have retired as a sexual harasser who notheless captured chaste bonds like few before yet he's forcing Women to give up work or be around him. How many of the Women who won't have it will get more chances in animation? :angry:
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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John Lasseter Resistance Grows As Lightbox Expo Nixes Skydance Sponsorship
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-righ ... 70563.html
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

Post by blackcauldron85 »

Lasseter wasn't the only Pixar employee harrassing others...did he see John doing it and follow suit? How many others acted like this that had worked there? I'm not sure if he harrassed at Pixar or "just" at Paramount.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-fil ... 71399.html
Back in January 2018, when the project was still titled Amusement Park, Paramount fired its director Dylan Brown following an investigation over complaints of “inappropriate and unwanted conduct.” According to reports at the time, the former Pixar animator’s behavior included touching and caressing female co-workers.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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Lasseter's behavior definitely emboldened predators at Pixar and created a workplace culture where that behavior was normalized. When the boss is doing it and everyone's letting it slide, others will follow suit too.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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John Lasseter, Nathan Greno and other Skydance employees at Dodger Stadium.

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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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Could you imagine going to work with him everyday? It really must be surreal. But even Weinstein looks like he’s going to get away with it all, too; coincidentally the recent news with him happened the same day of the Jim Cummings thread when posters here decided to make a litany of excuses not to take the story seriously. I guess that's the best example of why the monsters will always get away with it.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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I notice he is wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirts again. Makes sense really; what's the point of having more than thousand shirts in the closet if you're not going to use them.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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Sotiris wrote:John Lasseter, Nathan Greno and other Skydance employees at Dodger Stadium.

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It'd been almost 4 years since WDAS infamously announced Gigantic. Since it's cancellation, nothing original has been announced. Let that be a lesson to all WDAS Directors/Animators, come up with an original feature, you'll be off the lot, just like Greno.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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DisneyEra wrote: It'd been almost 4 years since WDAS infamously announced Gigantic. Since it's cancellation, nothing original has been announced. Let that be a lesson to all WDAS Directors/Animators, come up with an original feature, you'll be off the lot, just like Greno.
Lol, I love your posts about Gigantic and how you manage to insert it into almost any conversation. I still think we're better off without that film. It sounded awful, especially the bits of the music we heard.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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JeanGreyForever wrote:
DisneyEra wrote: It'd been almost 4 years since WDAS infamously announced Gigantic. Since it's cancellation, nothing original has been announced. Let that be a lesson to all WDAS Directors/Animators, come up with an original feature, you'll be off the lot, just like Greno.
Lol, I love your posts about Gigantic and how you manage to insert it into almost any conversation. I still think we're better off without that film. It sounded awful, especially the bits of the music we heard.
I would clearly take this over Ralph Breaks the Internet anytime. And who knows, maybe Gigantic could of struck a cord, original music, male lead, I mean, no one was doing backflips when Tangled/Frozen were first announced. Both those features had terrible marketing leading up to they're release. As for Gigantic, I'll stop posting about it when WDAS announces an original feature :P
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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DisneyEra wrote:
I would clearly take this over Ralph Breaks the Internet anytime. And who knows, maybe Gigantic could of struck a cord, original music, male lead, I mean, no one was doing backflips when Tangled/Frozen were first announced. Both those features had terrible marketing leading up to they're release.
That's true. WIR2 was absolutely terrible and I'm still amazed it got as good reviews as it did. As little as I've liked of what I've seen of Gigantic, I would take it anyday over WIR2. It might have butchered the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk but it wouldn't have poked fun of Disney's entire library and legacy.

The one advantage of Gigantic is that we would have had a male-led musical since all the previous ones (Tangled, Frozen, Moana) have centered on female characters and that sets a disturbing pattern that Disney films, particularly musicals, aren't applicable for males. The 90s were much more diverse with films with both male AND female protagonists who sang.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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JeanGreyForever wrote:
DisneyEra wrote:
I would clearly take this over Ralph Breaks the Internet anytime. And who knows, maybe Gigantic could of struck a cord, original music, male lead, I mean, no one was doing backflips when Tangled/Frozen were first announced. Both those features had terrible marketing leading up to they're release.
That's true. WIR2 was absolutely terrible and I'm still amazed it got as good reviews as it did. As little as I've liked of what I've seen of Gigantic, I would take it anyday over WIR2. It might have butchered the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk but it wouldn't have poked fun of Disney's entire library and legacy.

The one advantage of Gigantic is that we would have had a male-led musical since all the previous ones (Tangled, Frozen, Moana) have centered on female characters and that sets a disturbing pattern that Disney films, particularly musicals, aren't applicable for males. The 90s were much more diverse with films with both male AND female protagonists who sang.
Ralph breaks the Internet wasn't even a true sequel, Disney just used it to promote they're vast properties, i.e. the Princesses. With Gigantic, it was pretty much like most of the other Revival features: you weren't expecting much, but went in with an open mind. I remember Boxoffice Mojo predicting that Frozen would do less than Tangled because of it's marketing. Or Bob Igar's remark that Zootopia could be a Sleeper Hit.

In the 90s, we had Aladdin/Hunchback & Hercules, since then no male lead musical feature. Was very curious to see what Jack would of sounded like singing. Also, would have loved to have seen what Spain would of looked like :(
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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DisneyEra wrote: Ralph breaks the Internet wasn't even a true sequel, Disney just used it to promote they're vast properties, i.e. the Princesses. With Gigantic, it was pretty much like most of the other Revival features: you weren't expecting much, but went in with an open mind. I remember Boxoffice Mojo predicting that Frozen would do less than Tangled because of it's marketing. Or Bob Igar's remark that Zootopia could be a Sleeper Hit.

In the 90s, we had Aladdin/Hunchback & Hercules, since then no male lead musical feature. Was very curious to see what Jack would of sounded like singing. Also, would have loved to have seen what Spain would of looked like :(
That's absolutely true. No one expected Frozen or Zootopia to become mammoth blockbusters and similarly, people assumed Moana would be a bigger hit than it actually was. I think it was actually outgrossed by Sing! in countries like the UK.

Besides Aladdin, Hunchback, and Hercules (I suppose Tarzan doesn't really count) there was also The Lion King. From concept art, Jack seemed to resemble Flynn Rider too much for my taste so I don't really miss him. I hope the setting of Spain could be used for a future film (that is, if we get more original content from Disney) because I felt it was wasted in Gigantic anyway. Especially since they would want to contrast it with the more fantastical land of the giants up in the sky so it probably wouldn't be as appealing as it should be.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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Jennifer Lee talks about Lasseter. She praises him and tries to excuse him by passing off his actions as him being "affectionate". She's evasive and never addresses or codemns what he did. Her attitude is disappointing but not surprising. It's Lasseter after all who promoted her to director on Frozen. I noticed that a lot of women in the industry talk a big talk and claim to support other women but when it gets personal, when the accused predator is their father, brother, son, husband, friend, mentor, colleague, they turn their backs on them and start parroting the same misogynistic drivel men do. That's why I'm pessimistic about a real, long-lasting change.
When we talked four years ago, Ms. Lee praised Mr. Lasseter, who was then the animation boss, and talked about the importance of men supporting women as well as women supporting women. I asked how his resignation for “missteps,” unwanted touching and kissing, had affected her.

Did he ever ask her to help save him?

“No," she says. Referring to the period where he was already on a “sabbatical” and being investigated by the mouse house, she added: “John was very supportive when we were opening ‘Frozen’ on Broadway. He sent us all texts congratulating us. He has not asked anything of any of us. He was a great mentor to me and it was purely a working relationship, and I 100 percent knew that he believed in my talent. I was certainly in groups where we would all be in a room and he’d hug us all. Men too. ‘John was affectionate.’ That’s what we’d say. He had talked to both Pete and I about succession, so we knew we had his support. There were moments it was scary, because I think he only saw one screening of ‘Frozen 2’ and he had been a real partner on the first film.” Sometimes, she said, the operating ethos after his departure was “What would John say?” [...]

In January, there was a backlash when Mr. Lasseter got the top job at Skydance Animation. I wondered if she thought he should have that job.

“I don’t think it’s fair to ask me,” she says. “Because for those of us who work very closely, we all have very different relationships. So for me, I didn’t comment on it.” She says that, like many people, she wrestles with questions about whether there is a way back for some people, and who deserves another chance.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/styl ... rozen.html
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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I don't really blame her exactly; I'm not sure she meant to excuse him with the "affectionate" label or that was her just trying to straddle the divide between executives and consumers. I'm sure the executives who control her job don't want her to say anything pointed about him or that would rock the boat. After all, the higher ups were trying to save Lasseter when the story first broke and wait out the outrage until they realized the blowback wasn't going to die down. Nobody can forget that.

Anyway, I had a bigger reaction to this:
There were moments it was scary, because I think he only saw one screening of ‘Frozen 2’ and he had been a real partner on the first film.” Sometimes, she said, the operating ethos after his departure was “What would John say?” [...]
So the Waltification of this man continues. What wouldWaltLasseter do? *puke*
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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Wow, I had a lot of esteem for Jennifer Lee but all of that has dissipated in an instant. She's no better than Lindsay Lohan here when Lohan claimed that Harvey Weinstein had never abused her so he must be innocent. Women really are sometimes worse to other women than even men are and powerful men like Lasseter and Weinstein exploit this to the fullest.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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JeanGreyForever wrote:Wow, I had a lot of esteem for Jennifer Lee but all of that has dissipated in an instant. She's no better than Lindsay Lohan here when Lohan claimed that Harvey Weinstein had never abused her so he must be innocent. Women really are sometimes worse to other women than even men are and powerful men like Lasseter and Weinstein exploit this to the fullest.
I totally agree :up: Thought the same and couldn’t have said it better.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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TBH I used to like her back then before interviews about Frozen II came where she acted as if Frozen is the greatest thing to happen to Disney. This is just another thing that adds to that. (And they had Musker and Clements right there and they didn't promote them).
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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farerb wrote:TBH I used to like her back then before interviews about Frozen II came where she acted as if Frozen is the greatest thing to happen to Disney. This is just another thing that adds to that. (And they had Musker and Clements right there and they didn't promote them).
Yeah, her teasing a subliminal message in Frozen but refusing to explain it came across as trolling, especially when she mentions that this makes it funny for her.
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Re: John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

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^ Lee's comment reminded me of James Gunn for years saying there's an Easter Egg in GotG but didn't say what it was... I guess it's a "thing" for directors...
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