75 employees laid off at Pixar, including the director of Lightyear

[bcla]

https://www.reuters.com/business/walt-disneys-pixar-animation-eliminates-75-positions-2023-06-03/​

The cuts included "Lightyear" director Angus MacLane, a 26-year animator who was part of the senior creative team on such acclaimed films as “Toy Story 4” and “Coco.” Galyn Susman, producer of "Lightyear," also departed. Susman had been at Pixar since the release of the original “Toy Story” movie in 1995.​

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MacLane and Susman could not be reached for comment. Michael Agulnek, Pixar's vice president of worldwide publicity since 2015, was also laid off, the sources said. He did not return a call seeking comment.​

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The cuts, which took place May 23, are part of Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger’s previously announced plan to eliminate 7,000 jobs and slash $5.5 billion in costs. That restructuring combined the film and television groups into a single Disney Entertainment unit and eliminated a division charged with distribution.​

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While small compared to Pixar's employee base of about 1,200, the layoffs are notable because the studio is a creative force generating franchises and characters that drive revenue across Disney.​

 

[KayMichigan]

Apparently Galyn Susman is the person who saved Toy Story 2. Someone at Pixar accidentally deleted almost the entire movie, but Susman had a copy at home because she was on maternity leave and took a copy home to work on it while she was out of the office.

It's pretty cold that they laid her off.

 

[Narcoossee11]

Don't worry, most will get a HUGE payout... $$$$$.
Either retire or go to other animation company.

 

[bcla]

Don't worry, most will get a HUGE payout... $$$$$.
Either retire or go to other animation company.

It’s a bit tough if it’s Pixar. I’ve met a few who worked there, and it’s tough when one buys a home close enough to Emeryville. I had met someone else in computer animation, and he worked at Lucasfilm in San Francisco. I believe the highest concentration of these jobs will be around LA.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

Reading these stories make me sad. I just don't like folks losing their jobs.

 

[nancipants]

That's sad. MacLane directed the Toy Story of Terror! special, which is my favorite Toy Story. Feels like they want people to blame for Lightyear not being successful. (Which is also sad, since it wasn't a bad movie, just different, and didn't deserve all the hate IMO.)

 

[Karin1984]

Apparently Galyn Susman is the person who saved Toy Story 2. Someone at Pixar accidentally deleted almost the entire movie, but Susman had a copy at home because she was on maternity leave and took a copy home to work on it while she was out of the office.

It's pretty cold that they laid her off.

I dont know all the details of what is going on at Pixar and why some have to go. But should a company be forever grateful for something that happened 25 years ago? Regardless if that act made a lot of money.

 

[Narcoossee11]

The number one movie last week was Spider-Man by Sony.
Many other animated studios they can jump too,

 

[NotUrsula]

I always feel bad for employees when a company resorts to layoffs, but I'm not sure that someone who has been at the company for over 25 years is a typical layoff with a few weeks' severance pay. In creative fields most folks with that much seniority are bought out with early retirement packages.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

You have to produce at the end of the day. Pixar with box office flop after flop lately. I hate to see people lose their job, but if you get back to what you do well and make good wholesome movies with a great story that appeal to the masses ..........you will succeed.

 

[BrianL]

You have to produce at the end of the day. Pixar with box office flop after flop lately. I hate to see people lose their job, but if you get back to what you do well and make good wholesome movies with a great story that appeal to the masses ..........you will succeed.

Technically they have only had one Box Office flop - Lightyear. The others were all relegated to Disney+, with Onward having like a week in theaters before COVID really hit. It was the last movie I saw in theaters before the world went crazy! Before Onward it was Toy Story 4, which only made about a billion dollars.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Technically they have only had one Box Office flop - Lightyear. The others were all relegated to Disney+, with Onward having like a week in theaters before COVID really hit. It was the last movie I saw in theaters before the world went crazy! Before Onward it was Toy Story 4, which only made about a billion dollars.

Toy Story 4 was in June of 2019. 4 years ago is an eternity in the entertainment industry, you know it is a "what have you done for me lately" business.

What have Pixar done lately:
Lightyear = lost lots of money (Bad idea and even worse execution)
Turning Red = added to a streaming platform that loses money (Not a good story for the masses)
Onward = lost lots of money, then added to a streaming platform that loses money (Not a good story for the masses)
Soul = added to a streaming platform that loses money (I actually thought this one was pretty good)
Luca = added to a streaming platform that loses money (I actually thought this one was pretty good)

Elemental = predicted to flop hard at the box office, and lose money

 

[BrianL]

Toy Story 4 was in June of 2019. 4 years ago is an eternity in the entertainment industry, you know it is a "what have you done for me lately" business.

What have Pixar done lately:
Lightyear = lost lots of money (Bad idea and even worse execution)
Turning Red = added to a streaming platform that loses money (Not a good story for the masses)
Onward = lost lots of money, then added to a streaming platform that loses money (Not a good story for the masses)
Soul = added to a streaming platform that loses money (I actually thought this one was pretty good)
Luca = added to a streaming platform that loses money (I actually thought this one was pretty good)

Elemental = predicted to flop hard at the box office, and lose money

What I'm saying though is that Onward had very limited box-office before theaters closed down and Soul, Luca, Turning Red were not released to theaters at all. So saying that Pixar has had "box-office flop after flop" is disingenuous. They have had one. You can't know that the others would've been, and the Disney+ woes aren't on Pixar.

Elemental currently has 80% positive on the Tomatoes, so that's a big turn around from early reviews. We simply don't know how it's going to do.

 

[nancipants]

Turning Red = added to a streaming platform that loses money (Not a good story for the masses)
Onward = lost lots of money, then added to a streaming platform that loses money (Not a good story for the masses)

I have not seen Turning Red or Onward. Why are they not good stories for the masses?

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Here is another way to put it:

Lightyear = lost lots of money
Turning Red = lost money
Onward = lost money
Soul = lost money
Luca = lost money

Elemental = Is predicted by most to lose money (edit - really low opening weekend at the box office)

 

[Moliphino]

I have not seen Turning Red or Onward. Why are they not good stories for the masses?

Turning Red has some female puberty themes, which apparently annoyed some people. I thought it was really good, but I'm smack in the target audience for that one.
Onward, no idea.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I have not seen Turning Red or Onward. Why are they not good stories for the masses?

Turning red is about Puberty and Menstruation, not a good topic for mass appeal imho.

Onward had an openly alternatively lifestyle character, why alienate an entire subset of the population that will not support this? I have no issue with it personally, but you have to know the entire conservative portion of the country will not support this movie.

 

[Moliphino]

Turning red is about Puberty and Menstruation, not a good topic for mass appeal imho.

Onward had an openly alternatively lifestyle character, why alienate an entire subset of the population that will not support this? I have no issue with it personally, but you have to know the entire conservative portion of the country will not support this movie.

Onward had one throw away line from a minor character that referenced a same sex partner. That's it. Absolutely ridiculous to take issue with that.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Onward had one throw away line from a minor character that referenced a same sex partner. That's it. Absolutely ridiculous to take issue with that.

And that line was censored/removed in a few international versions of the movie such as Russia and I think a couple of Middle Eastern countries. People getting worked up over the 0.2 second long blink and you miss them scenes is wild to me.

 

[BrianL]

Turning Red has some female puberty themes, which apparently annoyed some people. I thought it was really good, but I'm smack in the target audience for that one.
Onward, no idea.

I thought Turning Red was the funniest Pixar movie for sure. It was very enjoyable.