DVDizzy Forum

Considering the fact that an openly gay man was the creative drive behind the renaissance made it at least more of a diverse place than PIXAR

willard wrote:

Considering the fact that an openly gay man was the creative drive behind the renaissance made it at least more of a diverse place than PIXAR

Not necessarily. Certain individuals succeeding is of no reflection that a place is more diverse or open. One of Vince Mcmahon's right hand men was a gay man, does not mean the WWF and wrestling was a great environment for LGTQ?

willard wrote:And how many female directors were there then?

willard wrote:For features? I don't think so.

Dumb questions get dumb answers

You're comparing Disney in the '80s/'90s to Pixar in the late 2010's. Disney in the didn't act like they were this great director-driven studio or scream from the rooftops about their first female-driven movie only to publicly shame/deride their first female director and run her out of the studio.

PatrickvD wrote:Either way I agree that the boy’s club mentality has been a historical problem. What irked me is that they went out of their way to create this video pretending PIXAR is some kind of utopia with ultimate freedom of expression.

PatrickvD wrote:Anyone remember this little piece of propaganda?

https://youtu.be/4a4MR8oI_B8

At the time when this came out I remember feeling a sense of discomfort watching this and knowing that these people were working in a boy’s club workplace environment. I never had the idea that minorities and women had an equal voice. And we now know for a fact that they don’t.

Phil Shoebottom can offer some homegrown perspective. Originally from Wakefield in Yorkshire, the 31-year-old lighting technical director has been working for Pixar for three years. “I remember when I started thinking it was the strangest place I’d ever seen,” he says. “One morning there was a half naked guy which stood on a table in the cafeteria, playing the saxophone. Or you’d leave to go to your car in the evening, and there’d be a ballroom dancing class in the atrium. At the start you feel British about it, but you can’t help but get sucked in.”

Paul Oakley had a similar experience. Originally from Essex, the 38-year-old, also a lighting technical director, worked in several London production houses before joining Pixar four years ago. “There’s something different every day,” he says. “When we started working on Monsters University, everyone had to join a fraternity. My hazing process involved me dressing up as Mrs Doubtfire for the day. I had to go to a director review in full makeup. But someone else was dressed as Tinky Winky from Teletubbies, so that was ok.”

Could you ever return to Pixar?

That door is closed. I made the right decision to leave and firmly closed that door. I have no desire to go back there. The atmosphere and the leadership doesn’t fit well with me.

We did not leave Pixar because of unwanted advances. That is untrue. That said, we are happy to see people speaking out about behavior that made them uncomfortable. We parted ways because of creative and, more importantly, philosophical differences.

Employees at the Emeryville-based company on Tuesday were reeling from the news, trading gossip, and coming to the realization that the culture has been toxic for several years, the employee said.

Filmmaker John Lasseter had a 10-year employment contract with Pixar before the company was acquired by Disney. Under the contract, Pixar could not terminate Lasseter without notice except for “gross negligence,” conviction of a crime, or breach of his employment contract. (The terms of Lasseter’s current contract with Disney are not publicly available.)