New Round of Layoffs at Disney Animation and Circle 7
March 15, 2006
Last week Disney CEO Bob Iger, responding to a shareholders question about there being a problem with too many middle managers at Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA), said he didnt believe Disney had a problem with middle managers. Nevertheless, o-meon.com has confirmed that even as Disney management was preparing for last Fridays annual meeting the company was continuing the reorganization of its animation division by laying off an unspecified number of creative and development executives.
A source close to Disney animation said that layoffs began last week. The names and number of executives cleaning out their offices, according to this source, wasnt known. However, he went on to say,
but it's true, the purge has begun.
An individual from within the Disney Company, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, Layoffs will be announced next week, not only of certain WDFA executives but also of some artists and technicians at the Circle 7 facility.
Under previous CEO Michael Eisner, Disney created Circle 7 Animation for the sole purpose of producing sequels to the extremely successful series of computer graphic (CG) animated films it released from production partner Pixar Animation Studios.
In January, Iger and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs announced that the Emeryville animation studio had agreed, in principal, to be acquired by Disney. As part of the deal, Disney and Pixars animation operations would be rolled into one, new Disney-Pixar studio. Pixar President Ed Catmull will head the new studio, and Pixars creative genius John Lasseter will be its chief creative officer.
Following the announcement, both Catmull and Lasseter paid a visit to WDFA in Burbank. While there, Lasseter informed staffers that Toy Story 3, then in development at Circle 7, would not be done in Southern California, if at all. Questions then arose about the eventual fate of Circle 7 and its creative and management staff.
The restructuring of WDFA began almost as soon as the deal between Disney and Pixar was announced. Less than 24 hours after the announcement, David Stainton announced that he was stepping down from his post as President of WDFA.
Stainton, who rose through the ranks of Disneys much disdained Strategic Planning Division, is regarded by fans of Disney animation as the man who killed traditional hand-drawn animation at Disney. He also oversaw the closure of several Disney animation facilities around the world and was responsible for laying off hundreds of animators, artists, and staffers at those facilities, as well as at WDFA headquarters in Burbank.
Even as the studio famous for creating the genre of hand-drawn feature animation was laying off artists of every description, the ranks of executives within WDFA continued to grow. Former Disney animators reported that there were animation Vice Presidents whose entire department consisted only of that
VP.
Until the deal to acquire Pixar closes, and Catmull and Lasseter can officially assume their new duties, longtime Disney producer Don Hahn has been named by Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook to oversee WDFA on an interim basis.
Within in days of Cooks announcement of Hahns appointment as interim president of WDFA, Mitchell Leib, President of music and soundtracks for Walt Disney Pictures & Television/Buena Vista Music Group, announced that eight-time Academy Award winning composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) had signed a nonexclusive, multipicture deal with Disney to score nonanimated films and compose for live-action projects.
At the same time, it was also learned that the highly regarded feature animation writing and directing team of John Musker and Ron Clements, who also worked on The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, would return to the Mouse House. Musker and Clements left WDFA last fall when Stainton refused to put their most recent project Fraidy Cat into production.
During last weeks shareholders meeting, Disney CFO Tom Staggs said the Disney- Pixar deal could close as early as April or May.
That news was as eagerly greeted by Disneys shareholders as the announcement by John Lasseter at the meeting that, I promise you, we will make films that will entertain you from the time the lights go off in the theater.
Iger also drew enthusiastic applause when he said, To truly live up to our legacy, animation must be great. We must create animated films that raise the standard of the art and become true classics for countless generations.
Actions speak louder than words, a Pixar shareholder anxiously awaiting the arrival of his shares in the Walt Disney Company told o-meon.com. I think hes (Bob Iger) on the right track. Hes openly acknowledged that Disney lost its way over the past ten years, and hes cutting the deadweight out of Disney animation. Im really excited by all of this.
The Walt Disney Company did not respond to repeated requests for information regarding restructuring in its animation division.
