John Lasseter: A Predator in Disguise

Pixar is one of the most recognizable animation companies on the planet. Ever since Toy Story was released in 1995, the studio has made critical and commercial hit after another. They helped shape millions of people's childhoods with some of the most daring and smartly written movies of the past century.

But all of their success wouldn't be possible without the help of the studio's original Brain Trust, which consisted of Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and Joe Ranft. But the most famous and well-known member of the Brain Trust for a long time was former Disney animator and CalArts student John Lasseter.

Though not one of the studio's founders, he was brought on after initially being fired from Disney. At the time, they were initially known as the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group to do some freelance work on their 3D animated short, "The Adventures of Andre and Wally B." After the short's success, John Lasseter was officially hired as an executive and subsequently directed the studio's shorts: "Luxo Jr.," "Red's Dream," "Tin Toy," "Knick Knack," and "Light & Heavy." This would be followed by his directorial efforts on their first feature film, "Toy Story." He also went on to direct its sequel, as well as the studio's second feature film, "A Bug's Life," and the first two films of the "Cars" franchise.

After Disney bought Pixar in 2006, he was hired as the Chief Creative Officer for Pixar, as well as Walt Disney Animation. During his tenure at both studios, he was revered as the genius behind both studios' success stories and from the movies he worked on that happened to be great.

But all of that goodwill he had came crumbling down several years ago. In November of 2017, in the midst of the Weinstein Effect, where dozens of Hollywood employees had been ousted for sexual misconduct, Lasseter was one of them. And as a result, he publicly stated he would be taking a leave of absence from both studios regarding "missteps" and his behavior towards his employees.

Though the allegations toward him point to unwanted hugs and kisses, they are far from the whole story. Far, far from it. While researching for this video, I found that Lasseter was responsible for numerous instances of sexist, reckless, abusive, and predatory behavior towards the people working under him. Many of these stories ranged from decades ago to this day. So why did it take so long for us to find out about them? Is it true that Disney knew about these allegations and was hiding it from the public eye to protect their image? The answer is yes.

So here's the full story on John Lasseter, a predator in disguise. Before we begin, I want to give a shout-out to my friend Animated Antic for helping with a ton of research for this video. We dug through a ton of behind-the-scenes videos, podcasts, and articles together, and I wouldn't have access to the following information here if it weren't for him. He has his own YouTube channel where he reviews animated movies and other stuff, so definitely go check him out.

Ed Catmull, one of the founders of Pixar, wrote a book on his history and experiences at the renowned studio called "Creativity, Inc." One of the chapters details an event in 2013 that Pixar executives hosted called "Notes Day," which was meant for artists and workers at the studio to provide higher-ups feedback and criticism on how they can improve the company. Catmull admitted that notes and feedback in regards to John Lasseter were up to 2 and a half pages long, even though he claimed most of these comments were stating how much people had missed him since he was busy working at Walt Disney Animation Studios at the time. It's hard for this assertion to not come off as deceitful. Why would all these notes from employees pile up to 2 and a half pages long if the only consensus was they missed him around the office? Keep in mind this book was written in 2014, a few years before the man was ousted.

After Catmull broke the news to Lasseter about all the notes that he'd received targeted at him, John was so furious that he didn't talk to him for over a week. The first of many negative impulses coming from him. If you look back at a ton of photos and videos of Lasseter years before 2017, he had a tendency of being a little too close to his female employees, even going all the way back to the "Toy Story 2" wrap party. You can see plenty of images of him getting pretty touchy with those around him. You might be thinking, maybe he just likes giving people hugs and comfort, but even if that was true, it's hard not to acknowledge how uncomfortable some of the people in these pictures look.

In March of 2010, days after the studio won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for "Up," Lasseter was the subject of a tense meeting over the phone with several Disney and Pixar executives. After French kissing and fondling a Disney executive during an Oscar party, one Disney executive said, "Jesus Christ, what are we going to do about John Lasseter? He's a crazy horny 13-year-old who you have to keep in check all the time." Variety confirmed there was a whisper network of about Lasseter amongst Disney employees on his behavior towards younger women. She said her manager kept her out of meetings where Lasseter would be present, telling her it would be best for her not to attend the intimate weekly reviews because "John has a hard time controlling himself around young pretty girls." She would sometimes see Lasseter in the hallways and felt uncomfortable when it appeared he was looking her up and down.

Female employees further described discomfort with his affection by claiming that he would not only give them uncomfortable hugs but kissed them on the lips if they didn't turn their face in time. Some even described a move they called "the Lasseter" to prevent their boss from putting his hands on their legs. At a recording session, one Pixar alumni described an encounter from him that claimed he leaned into my monitor and whispered into my ear, "You look so beautiful. That light in your eye. It was the way a lover would talk to you." I remember him touching my back or leg or knee, just feeling... He'd even go as far as ask what kind of underwear his female employees were wearing: "Wearing boxers or briefs?"

These distasteful and gross habits only continued in trips outside of the studio. He had an obsession with two of his co-workers dressing up as fairies from the Tinkerbell franchise and took them on a trip to a New York event at his insistence, with one studio executive as his escort to make sure he didn't do anything disturbing to them. "He was inappropriate with the fairies. Someone had to make sure he wasn't alone with them." During another trip to New York, this time for a toy fair, he and a few other Disney executives went out for a nightcap where Lasseter was caught pulling a female executive tightly to him, moving his hands around her body. "I didn't know my job was being groped by John Lasseter," she later said. Though she tried to laugh off the encounter, an insider said, "You could tell she was pissed," and this woman subsequently resigned from the Disney Company.

Lasseter even had a tendency to cross boundaries with male employees, with one even mentioning that during a trip to a film festival, he'd been brought to a strip club. "He'd get dances and point at me to pay for it. I was to entertain him. It was so uncomfortable. He liked to have a good time. He liked his wine." Lasseter had a reputation among those who knew him well of being a massive drunk during parties and even at the studio workplace. There's an article all the way back in 2011 during the release of "Cars 2" that encapsulates his behavior: "The father is getting drunk and so are his children. It is the end of the day and they are celebrating. The children are bringing their work to their father for his approval. When he approves, they drink. They are very talented children. He is a very encouraging father. They drink often."

There's even a recording of the last G23 event he attended as an announcer, and there's something off about the way he spoke: "What is really awesome about that... that is that we got the actual actresses who played the princesses in the original film, so come back and voice their iconic characters for that scene. Isn't that great?" You can tell that there's no sugarcoating it. He has a massive drinking problem, made even worse by the fact that he drank heavily in front of his employees for many years, predating the Weinstein Effect.

In 2017, Pixar had a reputation as predominantly a boys' club within the animation industry, with a lot less female voices getting respect or the same treatment as their male co-workers. Former Disney employee Cassandra Smolik wrote an extensive article about her time at Pixar and the sexism and harassment she faced while she was there. The article covers a ton of ground, which would be way too much for me to go into detail for this video, so for all intents and purposes, I'm going to share some of the highlights of it. I'll provide the link to the whole essay in the description.

She claims Lasseter's sexist behavior extended to his male peers and co-workers to the point where one director compared their film to "a big-titted blonde who is difficult to nail down." There was even a whisper network among the men who referred to the female employees as "bitches." Even female leads of the company were given far less power and were made responsible for cleaning up the messes of their male superiors, and all of this was to not risk losing their jobs at one of the most prestigious animation studios in the country. Allegedly, one female lead requested her male bosses to lend her a team to help her with an ambitious project for the studio, and they still rejected her multiple times. After recovering from the overwhelming stress from a breakdown she faced working on said projects, her male replacement was given a team of half a dozen artists to complete the same task. As a result of the studio's toxic workplace towards women, Cassandra left Pixar after 5 years. She once considered working at Pixar to be her dream job, excited at the opportunity to work at the same company who made some of the most acclaimed animated movies of all time, only for the arrogant male higher-ups to break her heart.

Pixar's "Brave," announced as "The Bear and the Bow" in 2008, was conceived by Pixar's first female feature director, Brenda Chapman, who was the head of story on "The Lion King," a story artist on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and a co-director on "The Prince of Egypt." However, 2 years into production, Lasseter fired Chapman over creative differences and replaced her with Mark Andrews, who rewrote most of the script. She wrote in a 2012 essay in The New York Times that it was "truly distressing to be replaced by a man on a film that came from a very personal place as a woman and a mother." Though Chapman has said in retrospect that she's proud of how the film turned out, this move on Lasseter's part could be seen as a huge piece of evidence of his huge male bias. Having your first female director on a movie, only to screw her over and hire a man to do her job instead. Ironically, the center of the movie is about a princess and her mother who don't see eye to eye, and them trying to put aside their differences – a story that feels a lot more personal for a female storyteller rather than just some guy.

"Until Joe Ranft died, it was it was such a pleasure. It was so much fun to work there, and I just loved every day I went in. But after he passed, it just changed for me completely. And um, when Disney bought the place, it also changed the feel of the place, and it just never was the same for me after that." So also, speaking of the article I mentioned before, there's a line in it that I think is very revealing regarding John's misogyny: "He likes children, especially boys."

Speaking of screwing over directors on movies, we have plenty more where that came from. You might remember a certain Disney animated release from 2008 called "Bolt." The film was initially helmed by "Lilo & Stitch" co-director Chris Sanders and was going to be titled "American Dog." The original premise of the movie centered on a famous TV dog named Henry who found himself stranded in the Nevada desert, where he meets a testy one-eyed cat and a radioactive rabbit. "Out in the world for the first time, Henry's tidy life of scripted triumph has come to an end, and his 2,000-mile trek through the real world is just beginning." Sanders was removed from the project in December 2006 after resisting notes and changes to the story, which Lasseter found too weird and quirky. Sander's original vision also involved a radioactive cookie-selling Girl Scout zombie serial killer, which sounds really absurd, but honestly, a lot of fun. Lasseter didn't think so, which is why he was booted off, replaced by Chris Williams, a story artist on movies like "Mulan" and "The Emperor's New Groove." Sanders left the Walt Disney Company as a whole and went on to work for DreamWorks, where he co-directed "How to Train Your Dragon" and solo directed "The Wild Robot." I guess you could say Disney's loss became DreamWorks' gain. It's also reported that Lasseter himself wasn't a fan of Sanders' work beforehand, including the esteemed "Lilo & Stitch." Why? I don't know. Maybe he's just jealous he couldn't make a movie as good as that without the help of others. Sanders reportedly doesn't mind the final film, as it is so detached from his original vision that it might as well have never been his film to begin with.

Then we have another interesting story for a film that never saw the light of day. Heading back over to Pixar, the acclaimed stop-motion director Henry Selick, responsible for helming "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline," landed his next project at Pixar called "The Shadow King," which was still going to be stop-motion, a first for a Pixar production. However, Lasseter kept clashing with Selick during the development stage stages of the film. "They ripped things apart, they rebuild, ripped things apart, rebuild. Lasseter really couldn't support my vision. He thought he could make things better, and so we kept changing and changing and changing." These proposed changes inflated the budget so much that Disney decided to scrap the film. The experience was so horrible for Selick that he considered quitting filmmaking altogether. However, he eventually pulled through and collaborated with Key and Peele on "Wendell & Wild," which was released in 2022, 13 years after his previous film, "Coraline." Even despite getting his groove back, Selick still took pride in throwing shade at Lasseter for the "shit" he had to go through.

"Being in business with Huggy Bear... which is John. That's what we all call John. Why'd you call him Huggy Bear? Well, he's known for hugging a little too long. Yeah, yeah. He's an equal-opportunity hugger. He'll hug you, he'll hug a pretty woman, an old lady, but he'll hold on like he owns you for a long time."

Then we have the most infamous production that Lasseter got his dirty hands on: "The Good Dinosaur." Originally helmed by "Up" co-director Bob Peterson, who had a fascination with dinosaurs at a young age, Pixar executives liked his pitch for the project about what if the asteroid didn't hit the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. And despite not having an idea for a third act, the studio gave him the go-ahead on the project. Peterson's original version involved a teenage Arlo with five different kinds of dinosaurs living on a farm harmoniously, and each one of them would use their own Jurassic characteristics as a means of farming. A Triceratops would use its horns to plow the fields, a Stegosaurus would use its spikes to mow the grass and weeds, and Arlo was an insect killer trying to protect his family's farm. Afterwards, he meets a human boy dressed as a bug named Spot, who he believes to be an insect, and they both embark on an adventure together. The problem was the team never found an emotionally satisfying story they liked, which led the original producer John Walker to leave the project to join Brad Bird's "Tomorrowland." Peterson was fired in mid-2013 and replaced by Peter Sohn, who directed the Pixar short "Partly Cloudy." He decided to change Arlo to a child rather than a teenage dinosaur to make the movie more of a coming-of-age story and to erase the agrarian dinosaur society that Peterson had originally envisioned. Even most of the voice cast, like Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, Lucas Neff, Judy Greer, and John Lithgow, ended up being cut out of the movie. The movie ended up missing two of its release dates in November 2013 and May 2014, only for it to be delayed by two whole years to November of 2015. The movie was Pixar's first financial failure, only grossing $333 million worldwide off of a $175 million budget, which was the studio's lowest-grossing release at the time, with estimated losses of $85 million for Disney. One of the movie's biggest criticisms was how the cartoony designs of the dinosaurs in the film clashed with the photorealistic backgrounds. This actually was because of how much realism Lasseter forced the movie's backgrounds to have. "I want you to make it look better than real," Lasseter told Sohn, which is an insanely high bar for anyone to clear. This led to one of the biggest praises for the movie while also being one of its biggest criticisms.

But this isn't the last animated project that Lasseter meddled with, because this story is possibly even worse. Walt Disney Animation Studio had planned a feature-length adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk" called "Gigantic," which was initially set for release in 2018. It was to be directed by Nathan Greno, the co-director of "Tangled," and Meg LeFauve, a co-writer on "Inside Out," and songs written by the team behind "Frozen." It all seemed like a match made in heaven. After missing its 2018 release date, accompanied by the "Wreck-It Ralph" sequel, it was pushed to 2020 and then was scrapped altogether in October of 2017. Though not much is known about what happened behind the scenes, we can assume Lasseter didn't like what they were doing, which caused a ton of creative interference, only for it to get so far into production they couldn't find replacements for the directors, and the entire project collapsed on itself. It caused a $98 million write-down for Disney, a movie that never even made it to fruition.

Not only did the debacle over "Good Dinosaur" make Disney lose $85 million and the catastrophe with "Gigantic" make them lose $98 million as well, but Selick said since that the troubled production of "The Shadow King" made Disney lose close to $50 million. So when you add those numbers up, that means under Lasseter's tenure, the Disney Company lost over $200 million, all because of its dumbass business practices.

John Lasseter's fourth feature film, "Cars," while not a critical or box office sensation, became a juggernaut in toy and merchandising sales, becoming one of Disney's most profitable franchises. Coming from Pixar, John Lasseter, the director of the first two films, is long recognized as the franchise's creator, when in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. Because the concept was not his idea. That credit goes to Jorgen Klubien, who was once good friends with John. They both attended CalArts together, took a trip to Europe, and even shared a house during their first jobs at Disney. Eventually, though, they both went their separate ways when Klubien decided to stay with Disney after Lasseter left the studio in favor of Pixar. Though Klubien eventually joined the company as a story artist and writer on "A Bug's Life," he was not given any story credit for the movie despite his contributions. This inspired him to create his own original story to pitch to Pixar: a movie about talking cars. Lasseter really liked the idea but wanted a different story than Klubien had in mind, so he worked with Joe Ranft on a new story treatment that would represent all the story elements in the final draft of the script. He retains that despite Lasseter offering notes for the screenplay, he was never involved with the day-to-day writing of it. Klubien was even there when John Lasseter pitched the idea to studio alumni Steve Jobs and then Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Klubien claims he was promised that he would be co-directing the film with Lasseter until he found out that he would be solely directing the film without his assistance, and he eventually took him off the project entirely. Klubien has been slighted by Lasseter twice in a row, and he was fired by the company after 10 years of working there. Though he was paid an amazing $50,000 for his idea, Klubien was never even invited to the movie's premiere or the opening of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.

"I was the creative genius behind this franchise. It's John's genius that he got it going. He was the master of Pixar, and if he had allowed me to be a part of it all, I would have been his biggest champion. But I find it to be an abusive thing that he got rid of me to claim sole inventorship. Also, I looked back at the writing credits, and it's very arrogant of Lasseter to put his name right above Ranft and Klubien despite having no direct involvement with the script or story, and putting the who came up with the concept for the movie at the very bottom. Seems like another passive-aggressive move on Lasseter's part."

Subsequently, Lasseter would direct the movie sequel "Cars 2," which would see a huge tonal departure from the more simple story of the first to a largely spy-focused narrative for its continuation. Brad Lewis was originally the main director of the film until he was shafted by Lasseter to a co-director position with him helming main directing duties instead. After a decade of critically acclaimed and award-winning hits, "Cars 2" put the the Golden Age of Pixar dead in its tracks, being the only movie of their catalog to this day to hold a rotten aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes. Though the movie was a financial success, it was clear to see the movie was a step down from the glory days of Pixar, and the way Lasseter handled the movie's negative reception was all the more irritating.

"Well, we've had a lot of bad reviews for a lot of movies. When Toy Story came out, everybody seems to forget this, but many, many critics hated Toy Story. So we're not, you know, it's this is not the first time. The first Cars was not liked by the critics either." By claiming the original "Toy Story" got bad reviews, you are not just obviously trying to save face, but you are straight-up lying. Not only did critics love the original "Toy Story" when it came out, but it received a Special Achievement Academy Award. And even with "Cars," the movie still received generally positive reviews, even though it was liked less than the studio's previous efforts.

"Um, I'm, I'm very proud of the of Cars 2. It is one of the most fun movies I've ever made, and we're really proud of it, and it's the most beautiful film Pixar's made. It's so complex and gorgeous." The way Lasseter described it as Pixar's most beautiful film to date is not only arrogant, seeing how he's slighting his friends and co-workers who have worked on movies just as hard as he has, because while the movie does look beautiful, as expected from the studio, claiming it as the most beautiful film the studio has ever done could only be true if it was the only film the studio has ever done. Well, at least maybe since "A Bug's Life." He even describes the movie as a great follow-up to "Cars," which is extremely ironic, seeing how the movie drops almost all of the characters and arcs introduced in that original movie. Like Doc Hudson is literally mentioned but never given any proper send-off, but only reaffirms how much Lasseter really was not the vessel behind that original movie, seeing as Joe Ranft and Jorgen Klubien weren't involved in the sequel at all for completely different reasons. You can tell Lasseter didn't understand the intent or purpose behind that original movie if this is what he considers a worthy follow-up.

After 11 years of staying at both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios as Chief Creative Officer, John Lasseter stepped down in November 2017 following what he described as missteps in his behavior. He said he would return to the studio in 6 months following his absence, but in June 2018, Disney announced that he would leave both studios after his contract expired at the end of the year and would be taking on a much smaller advisory role until then. His replacement as Chief Creative Officer of Pixar would be Pete Docter, another member of the Pixar Brain Trust and the award-winning director of "Monsters, Inc.," "Up," "Inside Out," and "Soul." Walt Disney Animation Studio's new Chief Creative Officer would be Jennifer Lee, the co-director of the "Frozen" movies. John was initially the main director and co-writer of "Toy Story 4" with "Inside Out" screenwriter Josh Cooley as his co-director until he stepped down from the film in July 2017, leaving Cooley as the sole director.

Lasseter sent a message to all the employees at Disney and Pixar regarding his leave of absence, writing: "It's been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable. That was never my intent. Collectively, you mean the world to me, and I deeply apologize if I have let you down. I especially want to apologize to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture that they felt crossed the line in any way, shape or form. No matter how benign my intent, everyone has the right to set their own boundaries and have them respected. In my conversations with Disney, we are united in our commitment to always treat any concerns you have with the seriousness they deserve. We also share a desire to reinforce the vibrant, respectful culture that has been the foundation of our studio's success since the beginning. As hard as it is for me to step away from a job I am so passionate about and a team I hold in the highest regard, I know it's the best thing for all of us right now. My hope is that a 6-month sabbatical will give me the opportunity to start taking better care of myself, to recharge and be inspired, and ultimately return with the insight and perspective I need to be the leader you deserve."

From everything I had just broken down before, it's clear Lasseter knew exactly what he was doing and had no regrets about it. He clearly sent out the statement as to not stain his reputation further and make himself out to be a better person than he is. And as we all know, the bad guy always thinks they're in the right. So what caused Lasseter to take a turn for the worst? Why would he use his position of power to abuse his artists and employees? From what I can gather, plenty of employees at the company attribute his imperious behavior with the great success and power he was rewarded. Some even called him names like "King John" as a way to scoff at his unflattering arrogance. He changed drastically as success and money came. It was said by one employee during Lasseter's time there that his image of "the Walt Disney of the digital age," a childlike genius with a collection of toys and memorabilia in his office, concealed a darker reality the public didn't see. That the happy-ass guy in the Hawaiian shirt that was a well-crafted persona.

Also, after he took a leave of absence from the Disney Company, you want to know what his next move was? A vacation to Italy and New Zealand. Truly a sign that the man was really remorseful for his actions. Not.

In January 2019, the president of Skydance Dan Ellison hired John Lasseter to run the company's animation division, Skydance Animation. As a result of this, Paramount Animation, who initially struck a deal with them to co-produce their movies, announced they would no longer be working with Skydance. A smart move on their part. Also, Skydance's first animated feature in development, "Luck," had a member of its voice cast, Emma Thompson, drop out of the film entirely after hearing about Lasseter's hiring. The announcement of Lasseter joining the studio was met with a ton of scrutiny, with Time's Up stating that the hiring "endorses and perpetuates a broken system that allows powerful men to act without consequence." Skydance even hired lawyers to scrutinize the allegations against Lasseter to try to prove he didn't do anything wrong.

The original director of "Luck," Alessandro Carlone, the co-director of "Kung Fu Panda 3," had envisioned the original story's outline as a war between agents of both good and bad luck. Lasseter was jealous of how good the idea was, so he threw out the concept he had conceived and fired Carlone from the project. Yep, after all he had been through, Lasseter had learned nothing from his failures at Disney and Pixar. He instead replaced him with director Peggy Holmes, the filmmaker behind the direct-to-video Disney films "The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning" and a couple of the Tinkerbell movies. So yeah, Lasseter just brought in one of the Disney employees that worked under him at DisneyToon Studios, a studio responsible for lower-budget Disney animated movies that Lasseter also ran during his time at Disney before its closure in 2018. Lasseter also hired a ton of his other cronies he had worked with at various points when he ran Disney to work on "Luck." Also, the director Peggy Holmes was apparently a "bitch" to work with, being incredibly verbally abusive the entire way through. The original film's director, Alessandro Carlone, is said to have hated the final film, which is unsurprising.

Since his time at Skydance, Lasseter has also created a hard time for the artists and writers at the studio by being extremely controlling over the smallest of details, demanding scripts be directly read to him only for him to fall asleep and criticize flaws in the story that he misperceived. Skydance has also announced an animated TV show called "The Search for Wanda" to be supervised by Lauren Montgomery, known for her work on "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Legend of Korra," and the director of the upcoming "Avatar" animated theatrical film. She was kicked off the project and replaced with another one of Lasseter's cronies, Bob's Genaway, and his own son, Bennett Lasseter, two male animators coming from Disney. Also, all of the directors hired for Skydance Animation's announced films after "Spellbound" are all male directors who came from Disney. It seems that many of them were promised a ton of creative control for their projects by Ellison and Lasseter respectively, when in reality, there's no evidence that either of them are a man of their word based on their history as producers.

Brad Bird was set to direct his next animated film, "Ray Gunn," at Skydance Animation a few years ago, which is a project he's wanted to make for decades. However, considering the lack of progress on it since it was announced to be in development a few years ago, plus the fact that Bird will be returning to Pixar to make "Incredibles 3," the chances of "Ray Gunn" being produced by Skydance now are extremely slim. It seems Lasseter's hiring was more of a desperate attempt on Ellison's end to try to prop his animation division as the next Pixar, despite the allegations. Plus, Apple TV+, who had initially signed a deal with the studio to distribute all of their movies, scrapped their plans after "Luck" premiered on their service in 2022. They've since announced a new deal at Netflix to release their next film, "Spellbound," but only because it seemed like the only company willing to distribute their upcoming movies. I mean, have you seen the stuff Netflix allows on their platform?

It's also possible, with the lack of success coming from Skydance Animation's slate despite its promise of being the next Pixar, it could potentially dissolve or go out of business entirely. With the impending Skydance and Paramount merger coming around the corner, Skydance Animation could potentially be seen as an afterthought and see some of its staff transferred to Paramount Animation's division. Whether this happens is up in the air for now, but don't be surprised if it does.

Some people to this day still believe that Disney and Pixar are currently struggling as a result of Lasseter's departure, but trust me and others when we assert this misconception couldn't be any further from the truth. Since Pixar has gone through some bumps in the road with their box office struggles after a few of their movies were released straight to Disney+ as a result of the pandemic conditioning audiences to wait for their movies to release on streaming instead of heading to the theater, a lot of people have pointed the blame at the current heads of the company when that is completely out of their control. If you want someone to get mad at, blame former Disney CEO Bob Chapek for his abysmal business practices.

Another problem currently going on at Pixar is the crunch time many of the animators have had to go through, as well as the layoffs. But it's worth knowing this is an industry-wide problem, not just one exclusive to Pixar. Animators continue to be overworked and uncompensated everywhere in Hollywood, and it sucks, but that's a discussion worthy of its own video one day. If Lasseter was still with Pixar to this day, it would only add on to the current problems there. Not only would artists have to deal with Disney's negligence and incompetence, but the disturbing and uncompromising demeanor of Lasseter.

Disney even briefly considered bringing Lasseter back before realizing that would be an awful idea. In fact, the current and laid-off employees say they don't really have anything negative to say about the current studio head, Pete Docter. They say he knows what he's doing, and that in dire situations, they rely on him to help them get through it. Also, ever since Docter's tenure, there's been a wider variety of diverse voices at the company, especially when it comes to feature directors. Pixar had its first solo female director, Domee Shi, for its 25th feature film, "Turning Red." She was at an animation director's roundtable with several other filmmakers in 2022, and one of the things Henry Selick mentioned was her movie wouldn't be the same had Lasseter still been in charge of the studio.

One of Pixar's most well-liked movies of the decade so far, "Luca," would have originally had its story largely altered if Lasseter was still with the studio today. He apparently wanted to move away from the studio's Ghibli slice-of-life vibes that director Enrico Casarosa had in mind and even tried to change the climax from Luca and Alberto trying to win a bike race to Alberto transforming into a giant Kraken and attacking the town.

Despite the uphill battle many Disney and Pixar employees had to face under Lasseter, it makes it all the more commendable when the artists involved made a great movie despite the pressure and interference. Even though Pixar is still experiencing its ups and downs lately, it's in much better hands with a guy like Pete Docter, who allows the artists and filmmakers the necessary creative control over their movies, making some of them truly flourish. Not to mention, the guy isn't a creepy weirdo. And many of the projects Lasseter partook in owe a lot of its quality writing to many of its other writers and co-directors like Docter, Stanton, and Ranft.

Though the future is uncertain for Lasseter, the man is undoubtedly getting older, which means his time will likely be coming to an end any day now. And if that's the case, it's for the best. The less we have to deal with an "asshole" like him, the better. And if Pixar are being listed as one of the best places to work in Hollywood as of 2024 by The Hollywood Reporter themselves is anything to go by, things are already looking up for them.