John Lasseter Accused of Sexual Assault

[willard]

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?

[PatrickvD]

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?

Again not what I said. I said 'at least more of'. That one time a woman was allowed to direct at PIXAR she was treated like a joke.

There was a systematic way in which the white, heterosexual men were kept in complete creative control under Lasseter's leadership. While I'm not saying WDAS in the 90s was some diverse heaven, some of their most influential creative voices were LGBTQ, POC or women. Howard Ashman, Lebo M., Brenda Chapman and Andreas Deja just off the top of my head. I'm sure there were more.

Again, not saying WDAS was ever at the forefront of equality, but it was a visibly different place before Lasseter.

[willard]

And how many female directors were there then?

[Disney's Divinity]

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]

And how many female directors were there then?

There were around 453 female directors actually.

[willard]

For features? I don't think so.

[PatrickvD]

For features? I don't think so.

Sarcasm. Dumb questions get dumb answers.

[willard]

Dumb questions get dumb answers

Id say its relevent.

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.

Fair enough.

[Semaj]

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.

As we learned all too well from Disney, hot off their success from Snow White, the "utopia" claim is never true.

[Kyle]

I'm sure its a naive view, but to me me it sounds like pixar was much closer to being that utopia until roughly between Cars and ratouillie released.

[Sotiris]

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.

This new video where they got a bunch of "diverse" Pixar employees to claim that Pixar is family to them is much more egregious and discomforting.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77iZYkT15_A[/youtube]

[PatrickvD]

That’s so messed up to see when you know about the culture of fear, abuse and bullying that is the everyday reality.

Such nonsense.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

It does sound a bit like a frat club:

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.”

Brenda Chapman didn't seem to enjoy the atmosphere there:

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.

Still, it would be interesting to know what kind of philosophy that is being referred to:

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.

And it looks like someone is a little bitter:

https://i.imgur.com/Z75sEoR.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnhk ... 1_1280.jpg

If Lasseter should end up being away for a while, it can come something positive out of it, even if it could have happened under better circumstances. It probably means new blood at Pixar, which doesn't have to be bad (for one thing; possibly no more Cars sequels). He has his own opinions about how an animated movie is supposed to be, and if that includes the same basic ingredients every time, that's probably not good for the studio in the long run.

[Sotiris]

Someone made this:


Source: https://twitter.com/JesseWatersHand/sta ... 4810199042

[Disney's Divinity]

[Disney Duster]

That's freakin' hilarious.

[Sotiris]

Disney Publishing has replaced John Lasseter in an upcoming book. John Lasseter was announced to be the narrator for the book Disney Parks Presents: Jungle Cruise which is set to be released on July 03, 2018. However, it has been revealed that the narration will now be provided by TK. Lasseter's introduction for the book has also been removed.

Could this be a sign that Lasseter won't be coming back after all? Will they be removing his forewords from upcoming The Art of books too?

[Disney's Divinity]

Hopefully the next re-release of The Little Mermaid will get his name scrubbed off it, too.

[PatrickvD]

Interesting. Definitely seems like they’re trying to distance themselves from him.

Let’s hope a leadership switch will be announced soon. Preferably different ones for the two studios. So they can both go back to their roots.

[Sotiris]

Since Lasseter's harassment history dates back to the pre-Disney days of Pixar, they could have easily given him the boot then for breach of contract, if they wanted to.

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.)

Source: http://fortune.com/2017/11/30/matt-laue ... -show-nbc/