John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

[Sotiris]

I didn't know they were going to sign on to Dreamworks. I wonder if we would've got M&C with Menken if they'd actually went over there. Maybe we still could if Musker decided to work over there, since Menken doesn't seem really tied down to WDAS. Of course, he does do TV, Broadway, and the re-makes with/for Disney, so maybe he does have a contract that restricts him?

He doesn't. He used to have an exclusive contract with Disney but it expired in 2006.

Also, how do you know Lasseter was responsible for the hillbillies? I'm not doubting you, that's just something I didn't know. I know the roadtrip thing and Randy Newman had to be down to John Lasseter at least.

It's just Lasseter's signature brand of humor. He loves redneck jokes and characters like Mater and Ray.

The thing was, I have a hard time believing TP&TF wasn't forced on them as well... Not that I don't love what they did with it, but I thought Disney decided they wanted to create a black princess and that's where TP&TF began. Do we know that M&C initiated or pitched the film themselves?

I'm not sure if a Black princess specifically was imposed on them but Lasseter did pick the fairy tale and the setting.

Q: John, how did The Princess And The Frog come about?

John Lasseter: Ed Catmull and I, the day I returned to the Walt Disney Animation Studios, said that we wanted to bring back John Musker and Ron Clements. So, once we brought them back, I empowered them to come up with their own project. I mentioned to them one idea that I had, just a nugget of an idea at Pixar. I love the story of 'The Frog Prince,' and I love New Orleans. And I thought that it would be a great place to set a story like that and that’s all I mentioned to them.

Source: https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/movies/Jo ... 56604.html

[Farerb]

And is it even true that after the failure of Treasure Planet, he was the one who brought them back from their "exile?" I was under the impression they were asked back for Fraidy Cat, before Lasseter was put in charge, and that the entire reason the film got canned was after the regime change when Lasseter came aboard and felt the film had no commercial value.

Fraidy Cat was canceled during the David Stainton era, about a year before Lasseter took over. I don't think their heart was ever in that project. It was a radical departure from their story interests and they hadn't even come up with the idea themselves like they had with their previous films. They were replacement directors. This was the pet project of Piet Kroon who had been working on it since 2002. In 2004, he was replaced by Musker and Clements (with the story pretty much remaining intact) and in 2005 it was canceled. So, they spent less than a year in development working on it. I doubt they were emotionally invested in the project. I speculate it was assigned to them by management as busy work until their contracts expired.

When Lasseter took over, he called Musker & Clements who were about to sign a contract with DreamWorks Animation and offered them their jobs back. But of course, that's not a valid reason to publicly thank someone who sexually assaulted their female colleagues. I don't understand why they feel so grateful to him in the first place. Yes, he took them back at Disney but at the cost of their artistic integrity. With The Princess and the Frog, he forced them to set the film in New Orleans, imposed Randy Newman as the songwriter and corrupted their storytelling style with the road trip formula and dumb hillbilly jokes. And he did the same thing to them with Moana. They wanted to make the film about Maui (like their other male-led films) but he forced them to make it about an Ariel knock-off. Not to mention, he didn't even let them make their last film there in 2D animation, stringing them along with promises of revolutionary hybrid techniques that never came to be.

I never heard that Lasseter was the one who forced them to change Maui to Moana. In the commentary they say they decided it after their trip. All I heard is that Lasseter wanted them to do it in CGI.

[JeanGreyForever]

I'm not sure if a Black princess specifically was imposed on them but Lasseter did pick the fairy tale and the setting.

Q: John, how did The Princess And The Frog come about?

John Lasseter: Ed Catmull and I, the day I returned to the Walt Disney Animation Studios, said that we wanted to bring back John Musker and Ron Clements. So, once we brought them back, I empowered them to come up with their own project. I mentioned to them one idea that I had, just a nugget of an idea at Pixar. I love the story of 'The Frog Prince,' and I love New Orleans. And I thought that it would be a great place to set a story like that and that’s all I mentioned to them.

Source: https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/movies/Jo ... 56604.html

Thank you for the information about Fraidy Cat.

As for a black princess, there was a transcript of a meeting where they discuss possible story ideas and I think the concept of a black princess film is brought up, namely Aida. However, Lasseter always felt Aida was a film better suited for live-action than animation. We know he loves New Orleans and always wanted to do a film there so I'm guessing he felt he could merge the two concepts into one film.

[D82]

I don't understand why they feel so grateful to him in the first place. Yes, he took them back at Disney but at the cost of their artistic integrity. With The Princess and the Frog, he forced them to set the film in New Orleans, imposed Randy Newman as the songwriter and corrupted their storytelling style with the road trip formula and dumb hillbilly jokes. And he did the same thing to them with Moana. They wanted to make the film about Maui (like their other male-led films) but he forced them to make it about an Ariel knock-off. Not to mention, he didn't even let them make their last film there in 2D animation, stringing them along with promises of revolutionary hybrid techniques that never came to be.

Well, they are not obliged to thank him like when he was the chief creative officer, in fact, it's exactly the opposite, it's not very popular to mention him now, so I think the fact that they thanked him shows that they are genuinely grateful to him. Maybe their relationship with him wasn't as bad as we think. Their films under Lasseter definitely have his influence, but we don't know if he imposed those elements on them. Maybe they reached an agreement on some of them or they followed his advice because they trusted his instinct due to the great success he had had at Pixar. Even if he forced them to accept some things (he was the chief creative officer after all and had the final say), they are probably used to that and to make compromises. Their previous bosses, like Jeffrey Katzenberg, probably imposed things on them too. Many things we think were their choice in their earlier movies maybe weren't. Perhaps it wasn't their decision to work with Alan Menken on so many films, for example, or to make most of them musicals. It could be possible that it was assigned to them because it's what was popular at the moment.

Apart from that, they seem quite proud of their latest films too. Or at least, that's the impression I get.

[Farerb]

They didn't want to do Aladdin and Hercules.

[JeanGreyForever]

Didn't they choose Aladdin out of the choices they were given or am I getting it mixed up with Hercules? Because I remember Swan Lake was one of the choices offered to them (King of the Jungle/The Lion King was another I think) but they preferred Aladdin since Swan Lake was too much like The Little Mermaid.

Hercules they've made very clear was forced on them and they only chose it because it was the closest to their action-adventure concept for Treasure Planet and what they really wanted to make was a comic-book style movie and they saw Hercules as the original Superman.

[Farerb]

They came with the idea to make Treasure Planet or The Little Mermaid, Katzenberg told them to do The Little Mermaid. After they success of The Little Mermaid, they thought they would be able to do Treasure Planet, but Katzenberg wanted them to do Aladdin (and maybe other options but definitely not Treasure Planet, which was what they really wanted to do). Katzenberg wanted Aladdin to be released before The Thief and the Cobbler. Hercules was another project that was imposed on them and only after that Disney was willing to give them their real passion project, which turned out to be a big failure and IMO their worst film.

[JeanGreyForever]

They came with the idea to make Treasure Planet or The Little Mermaid, Katzenberg told them to do The Little Mermaid. After they success of The Little Mermaid, they thought they would be able to do Treasure Planet, but Katzenberg wanted them to do Aladdin (and maybe other options but definitely not Treasure Planet, which was what they really wanted to do). Katzenberg wanted Aladdin to be released before The Thief and the Cobbler. Hercules was another project that was imposed on them and only after that Disney was willing to give them their real passion project, which turned out to be a big failure and IMO their worst film.

But from what I remember, they were given a choice of films after TLM and Aladdin was on there.

https://www.eonline.com/de/news/701126/ ... erformance

Screenwriters began developing scripts based on Ashman's treatment just as Clements and Musker were finishing The Little Mermaid. When that project wrapped, Aladdin was "one of the projects that they came to us and said, 'We want you guys to do another movie," Musker said. They passed on Swan Lake, as well as "one about a lion in Africa called King of the Jungle. We thought, 'Who the hell would want to see that?'" Clements and Musker settled on an Arabian adventure, allowing Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff to get to work on the animated film that would later be known as The Lion King. "Aladdin was third and it was based on Howard's idea, but it had moved away from it," Musker recalled.

Still, he said, "We thought it was a really appealing idea."

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/ ... story.html

After finishing "The Little Mermaid," then-chairman of Disney studios Jeffrey Katzenberg offered them three projects.

"One of them was 'Swan Lake,''' said Clements. "We sort of thought 'Swan Lake' was too close to 'Mermaid.' The other idea was called 'King of the Jungle.' That was something about lions in Africa and didn't feel like anyone really would be interested in seeing a film about lions! So we turned that down. And the third film was 'Aladdin."'

Because they were familiar with Ashman's version, "We liked the whole idea of doing 'Aladdin,''' said Clements.

[Farerb]

Yes, they were given a choice, but Treasure Planet, which was what they really wanted to do, was not an option.

[estefan]

Yeah, the events farerb and JeanGreyForever are describing are more-or-less what has long been considered the official story of how Musker and Clements got involved in those projects.

I think it's a massive assumption to make that Clements and Musker weren't actually interested in "Fraidy Cat" and that their hearts weren't in it without actually being involved in the production or knowing Clements and Musker personally. Hell, what I've long read is that the movie got better under their watch, but the executives cancelled the movie because it was deemed uncommercial. And then when Lasseter brought them back to Disney, they tried to revive "Fraidy Cat" to little avail. But, again, this is all things read on the Internet. One would have to actually ask Clements and Musker themselves to get the real story. The reality is all we really know about "Fraidy Cat" comes from concept art and character designs that made their way online, including this blog post by Andreas Deja that also mentions a few story details. Dejas also mentions in the comments that the project was cancelled "about 3 1/2 to 4 years ago." The blog post was written in 2013, so there was at least some attempt to bring back "Fraidy Cat" when Lasseter was in charge, but things didn't pan out.

If there's one thing I've learned from following animators, character designers, storyboard artists and other people who work in animation on Twitter, it's that they hate when people make assumptions about their work. John Sanford, the co-director of "Home on the Range" dislikes Doug Walker/The Nostalgia Critic, for example, because he loudly assumed there was no passion and effort put into that movie and accused the filmmakers and artists of being lazy.

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, they are not obliged to thank him like when he was the chief creative officer, in fact, it's exactly the opposite, it's not very popular to mention him now, so I think the fact that they thanked him shows that they are genuinely grateful to him. Maybe their relationship with him wasn't as bad as we think. Their films under Lasseter definitely have his influence, but we don't know if he imposed those elements on them. Maybe they reached an agreement on some of them or they followed his advice because they trusted his instinct due to the great success he had had at Pixar. Even if he forced them to accept some things (he was the chief creative officer after all and had the final say), they are probably used to that and to make compromises. Their previous bosses, like Jeffrey Katzenberg, probably imposed things on them too. Many things we think were their choice in their earlier movies maybe weren't. Perhaps it wasn't their decision to work with Alan Menken on so many films, for example, or to make most of them musicals. It could be possible that it was assigned to them because it's what was popular at the moment.

The bolded is what I think as well. They are used to compromising with the people in charge. It probably made it easier to deal with Lasseter, who's known for driving off directors because he takes over. They probably stepped back and let him make changes without arguing; Ashman did quite a lot for TLM's story/dialogue, so it likely didn't feel new to them. To me, they seem like very easy-going guys. And, like I said, Lasseter could've easily thrown them out with all the other employees, but he didn't and work is work. So I can understand why they could hold some measure of gratitude to Lasseter in certain ways.

Or they could simply be being kind. Not everyone chooses to kick someone if/when the roles are reversed and the power lines have been re-drawn.

[JeanGreyForever]

Yes, they were given a choice, but Treasure Planet, which was what they really wanted to do, was not an option.

To be fair, I can't imagine they'd be given Treasure Planet right after TLM. I do find it shocking though that even after the blockbuster success of Aladdin, they still had to prove themselves yet again.

Yeah, the events farerb and JeanGreyForever are describing are more-or-less what has long been considered the official story of how Musker and Clements got involved in those projects.

I think it's a massive assumption to make that Clements and Musker weren't actually interested in "Fraidy Cat" and that their hearts weren't in it without actually being involved in the production or knowing Clements and Musker personally. Hell, what I've long read is that the movie got better under their watch, but the executives cancelled the movie because it was deemed uncommercial. And then when Lasseter brought them back to Disney, they tried to revive "Fraidy Cat" to little avail. But, again, this is all things read on the Internet. One would have to actually ask Clements and Musker themselves to get the real story. The reality is all we really know about "Fraidy Cat" comes from concept art and character designs that made their way online, including this blog post by Andreas Deja that also mentions a few story details. Dejas also mentions in the comments that the project was cancelled "about 3 1/2 to 4 years ago." The blog post was written in 2013, so there was at least some attempt to bring back "Fraidy Cat" when Lasseter was in charge, but things didn't pan out.

If there's one thing I've learned from following animators, character designers, storyboard artists and other people who work in animation on Twitter, it's that they hate when people make assumptions about their work. John Sanford, the co-director of "Home on the Range" dislikes Doug Walker/The Nostalgia Critic, for example, because he loudly assumed there was no passion and effort put into that movie and accused the filmmakers and artists of being lazy.

Yeah, I remember reading some sort of article too about how much Clements and Muskers liked working on Fraidy Cat and even how it was described as another passion project of theirs and how TPATF was given to them as consolation when their project got cancelled.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I heard the reason Musker and Clements left Disney was because the studio changed its mind and decided not to do Fraidy Cat after all. At that point Musker and Clements had already put down a lot of work into it (just as Chris Sanders left after he lost his movie American Dog).

Treasure Planet has already been discussed elsewhere, and the opinion seems to be that the problem was the marketing and the trailers, which were not able to sell the movie, not the movie itself.

It's just Lasseter's signature brand of humor. He loves redneck jokes and characters like Mater and Ray.

When you have seen enough movies where Lasseter has been personally involved, you're starting to see a pattern and you learn to recognize his fingerprints. Which is one of the reasons why I think it would probably have been good for both Disney and Pixar to introduce some new blood, even without his attitude around women.
And as mentioned before, micromanagement was another problem, as pointed out by Brenda Chapman. She also recently had this to say:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... ck-1271540

Lasseter's high-profile departure from Pixar, which happened amid the #MeToo movement four years after Chapman left the studio, "was an interesting time," Chapman says. "I just tried not to put too much into it and just let it happen as it happens because he's no longer really a part of my wheelhouse anymore." When asked her opinion about Skydance's hiring of Lasseter, Chapman points to a scathing letter Emma Thompson wrote explaining that she was backing out of a Skydance project because of Lasseter's history of making "women at his companies feel undervalued and disrespected for decades." Says Chapman: "I was very grateful and admired very much Emma Thompson's response to all of that. I do wonder what it's like at Pixar now, just out of curiosity. But I haven't been there for a while, so I don't know."

If there's one thing I've learned from following animators, character designers, storyboard artists and other people who work in animation on Twitter, it's that they hate when people make assumptions about their work. John Sanford, the co-director of "Home on the Range" dislikes Doug Walker/The Nostalgia Critic, for example, because he loudly assumed there was no passion and effort put into that movie and accused the filmmakers and artists of being lazy.

This is the first time I have heard about it, but it doesn't surprise me that there are blogs and websites where someone who was not there pulls assumptions and claims put of thin air. Found this twitter post:
https://twitter.com/jsanford/status/1218779117081939968

[D82]

They didn't want to do Aladdin and Hercules.

Exactly. That's one example that shows that things have been imposed on them before too.

Or they could simply be being kind. Not everyone chooses to kick someone if/when the roles are reversed and the power lines have been re-drawn.

Yes, that's also possible. But maybe they're even still friends with him. Musker and Lasseter were classmates at Cal Arts and that's probably the reason why Lasseter brought him and Ron back to Disney, the same way he also brought Brad Bird (another classmate from Cal Arts) to Pixar.

I've found this video from 2012 where John Musker talks a bit about Lasseter. Of course, that was recorded when Lasseter was still at Disney, so he probably couldn't say bad things about him. But if you watch that video from the point I selected to the end, it seems he had a much more difficult time dealing with previous leaders of the studio like Jeffrey Katzenberg or Thomas Schumacher.

[JeanGreyForever]

They didn't want to do Aladdin and Hercules.

Exactly. That's one example that shows that things have been imposed on them before too.

Except they weren't forced to do Aladdin at all. It was their own choice which they hand-picked out of a variety of selections. Saying otherwise is spreading a false narrative.

I heard the reason Musker and Clements left Disney was because the studio changed its mind and decided not to do Fraidy Cat after all. At that point Musker and Clements had already put down a lot of work into it (just as Chris Sanders left after he lost his movie American Dog).

Treasure Planet has already been discussed elsewhere, and the opinion seems to be that the problem was the marketing and the trailers, which were not able to sell the movie, not the movie itself.

It's just Lasseter's signature brand of humor. He loves redneck jokes and characters like Mater and Ray.

When you have seen enough movies where Lasseter has been personally involved, you're starting to see a pattern and you learn to recognize his fingerprints. Which is one of the reasons why I think it would probably have been good for both Disney and Pixar to introduce some new blood, even without his attitude around women.
And as mentioned before, micromanagement was another problem, as pointed out by Brenda Chapman. She also recently had this to say:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... ck-1271540

Lasseter's high-profile departure from Pixar, which happened amid the #MeToo movement four years after Chapman left the studio, "was an interesting time," Chapman says. "I just tried not to put too much into it and just let it happen as it happens because he's no longer really a part of my wheelhouse anymore." When asked her opinion about Skydance's hiring of Lasseter, Chapman points to a scathing letter Emma Thompson wrote explaining that she was backing out of a Skydance project because of Lasseter's history of making "women at his companies feel undervalued and disrespected for decades." Says Chapman: "I was very grateful and admired very much Emma Thompson's response to all of that. I do wonder what it's like at Pixar now, just out of curiosity. But I haven't been there for a while, so I don't know."

If there's one thing I've learned from following animators, character designers, storyboard artists and other people who work in animation on Twitter, it's that they hate when people make assumptions about their work. John Sanford, the co-director of "Home on the Range" dislikes Doug Walker/The Nostalgia Critic, for example, because he loudly assumed there was no passion and effort put into that movie and accused the filmmakers and artists of being lazy.

This is the first time I have heard about it, but it doesn't surprise me that there are blogs and websites where someone who was not there pulls assumptions and claims put of thin air. Found this twitter post:
https://twitter.com/jsanford/status/1218779117081939968

I've never quite forgiven Lasseter for discarding Fraidy Cat and American Dog. I do vaguely remember that Musker and Clements were very upset when the project was canned which is why I don't believe this fabrication that they never had any real interest in the project and were just forced to do it.

I agree about Treasure Planet. It was the only Disney film of the era (besides Home on the Range) that I skipped and I pretty much never missed a Disney film in theaters. The film was well received on home video when it was given an actual chance with audiences.

It was nice to see Brenda Chapman speak out about the Pixar situation.

Thank you for sharing that tweet! I've never been a real fan of Home on the Range but it's nice to see that he has a lot of dedication and passion for the project and continues to stand behind the film he made.

[D82]

This video is also interesting. In it Ron Clements explains how they left the studio and how they came back and started working on The Princess and the Frog.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yes, that's also possible. But maybe they're even still friends with him. Musker and Lasseter were classmates at Cal Arts and that's probably the reason why Lasseter brought him and Ron back to Disney, the same way he also brought Brad Bird (another classmate from Cal Arts) to Pixar.

I've found this video from 2012 where John Musker talks a bit about Lasseter. Of course, that was recorded when Lasseter was still at Disney, so he probably couldn't say bad things about him. But if you watch that video from the point I selected to the end, it seems he had a much more difficult time dealing with previous leaders of the studio like Jeffrey Katzenberg or Thomas Schumacher.

Oh, wow. That is definitely new to me, thank you for posting about that. I did know that Lasseter had worked at Disney before he tried to start PIXAR or was it try to get Disney to fund a 3D film? It was something, but I forget the details now. I always assumed that he held resentment towards the company looking back at how everything happened when he took over WDAS. Finding out Lasseter and Musker were classmates once upon a time is very surprising.

I definitely don't agree with Walker if he thinks the artists were being lazy with HOTR. I personally love the animation for that film, whatever I think of the characters/story. I think that film has such a zany quality to it; I can't imagine the artists not having fun drawing cows being mesmerized via yodeling.

[D82]

Oh, wow. That is definitely new to me, thank you for posting about that. I did know that Lasseter had worked at Disney before he tried to start PIXAR or was it try to get Disney to fund a 3D film? It was something, but I forget the details now. I always assumed that he held resentment towards the company looking back at how everything happened when he took over WDAS. Finding out Lasseter and Musker were classmates once upon a time is very surprising.

You're welcome. Yes, Lasseter worked at Disney before and was fired. I learned that Musker and him studied animation together in the documentary about Pixar, The Pixar Story and I also found it surprising. Other of their classmates were Brad Bird, Tim Burton, Henry Selick and Chris Buck. What a class, right?

[Farerb]

Exactly. That's one example that shows that things have been imposed on them before too.

Except they weren't forced to do Aladdin at all. It was their own choice which they hand-picked out of a variety of selections. Saying otherwise is spreading a false narrative.

I don't get why is it so unbelievable that they wanted to do Treasure Planet, a film they pitched back in the 80's alongside The Little Mermaid, instead of Aladdin. It doesn't mean they were unhappy doing Aladdin, but it is known that Treasure Planet was their passion project, Aladdin was not even if we like Aladdin better than Treasure Planet.

[Farerb]

But amid all the hoopla, Clements and Musker kept their focus and began sketching out their other idea, now called “Treasure Planet.” Once again, they were drafted to write and direct another Disney priority, “Aladdin,” which would become an even bigger draw in 1992.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html