L.A. Times wrote:Walt Disney Studios plans to cut as much as 5% of its worldwide workforce as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter.
The movie studio would eliminate as many as 250 jobs from its staff of about 5,000 people globally, said the people, who did not want to be identified because they had not been authorized to discuss the matter. Several Disney insiders say the bulk of the cuts will be in Burbank. The reductions are expected to hit hardest in the studio's distribution operation, reflecting fundamental changes in the movie business.
Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert A. Iger has lead a restructuring of the studio to reflect these new business realities, scaling back the number of movies it produces and releases. Disney sold off its Miramax Films specialty movie label last year and consolidated the Burbank studio's marketing and distribution operations.
Since he was named to the post in 2009, Disney Studios chief Rich Ross has been reorganizing and streamlining the studio's marketing and distribution operations in response to falling DVD sales amid changing consumer habits.
Last November, he consolidated the distribution units of theatrical, home entertainment and pay television into a single group headed by Bob Chapek, the studio's former executive in charge of home entertainment.
Steve Hulett wrote:What this means exactly for Walt Disney Animation Studios, I'm not sure. But probably not that management will do a permanent expansion of the feature crew anytime soon. Lean staffing seems to be the order of the day: Hire when production on a show ramps up; lay off when production (generally in 9 to 13-month increments) comes to an end.
The Visual Effects model "works", of course. But I continue to believe that a deeper development slate would trigger a continuity of employment in the production end, and ultimately make a stronger, more cohesive crew. However, it doesn't look as if the studio is going that way.
A sign of the times I guess. Disney is still in a major transition that began when Lasseter came in and it seems like they are really making an effort to bring new talent to the forefront, like Byron Howard, Nathan Greno and Chris Williams, to build a new creative team that can lead animation at the company
"Duncan Marjoribanks and mike Srurey have left the studio and also Andreas Deja has taken a leave of absence although most people seem to think he's going to return at least sometime."
If what this poster on the blog said is true, I'm disappointed that Deja is gone. There seems to be conflicting opinions on whether he will come back and I hope he does as I think that his talent is equal to the best of the Nine Old Men. It's sad that more people seem to be losing jobs at Disney but perhaps the 'quality of films over quantity' approach that Disney are apparently adopting will continue to be successful as it has been in the cases of Princess and the Frog and Tangled. Things are perhaps not moving as quickly as some would like at Disney but I still believe that Disney animation has the best man that they could possibly get in charge and that the future will be bright for the company.
Maybe DVD sales would stop falling if they'd bother to create better movies. I love Disney but honestly, it's the only studio out of all the big ones that manages to create almost entirely forgettable movies year round and only turn out one or two hits every few years. The only real franchise Disney has going for them right now is Pirates and even that is becoming tired to the general audience. The rest of their films usually end up being piled up in the generic feel-good kiddy movies most would rather forget. It's time they expanded their horizons a bit.
"See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve." - The Joker
Disney-Fan wrote:Maybe DVD sales would stop falling if they'd bother to create better movies. I love Disney but honestly, it's the only studio out of all the big ones that manages to create almost entirely forgettable movies year round and only turn out one or two hits every few years. The only real franchise Disney has going for them right now is Pirates and even that is becoming tired to the general audience. The rest of their films usually end up being piled up in the generic feel-good kiddy movies most would rather forget. It's time they expanded their horizons a bit.
I agree mostly, and also feel (like I've said a zillion time before) that they need to open up their vault some more like Warner Bros. has with their DVD-on-Demand ventures.
I'm also of the opinion that Hollywood as a whole is slowing destroying themselves with high prices at the theaters, higher focus of necessaries (3D movies), and low focus of quality story telling. If they could marry the writing of 1930- early 1960's Hollywood with the effects of today, you'd have perfect movies.
____________________________________________________________
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
milojthatch wrote:I agree mostly, and also feel (like I've said a zillion time before) that they need to open up their vault some more like Warner Bros. has with their DVD-on-Demand ventures.
I'm also of the opinion that Hollywood as a whole is slowing destroying themselves with high prices at the theaters, higher focus of necessaries (3D movies), and low focus of quality story telling. If they could marry the writing of 1930- early 1960's Hollywood with the effects of today, you'd have perfect movies.
The only part of Disney today that is consistently of a good quality is (obviously) Pixar. Such a shame that people like the douchebag Rich Ross have so much power within the Disney Company today.
I'm looking forward to Mort however and I hope that Disney starts releasing more adult and serious movies; Walt's dream may've been to provide entertainment for people of all ages, but Eisner and co have already excreted all over his memory with shows like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I think if Walt was alive today he'd like anime and computer animation-he always wanted to look to the future.
Hate to break it to ya, but Mort was cancelled a few months back.
This apparently wasn't the fault of Disney. When it came time to sign the rights to the book over to Disney, whoever owns them decided that Disney could only have them if they agreed to buy the rights to two other Terry Pratchett novels, something Disney didn't want to do. Perhaps this isn't ture but from different blogs and websites on the internet, it seems that problems with the rights to the book were the reason that the film was cancelled.
