Iger rumored to extend his term as CEO

[Earl Sweatpants]

Swap Pixar with Lucas or Marvel and it sums up the Iger era. There was a time when Disney actually had creativity to build IPs and didn't have to buy them to survive.

That is my singular biggest concern/complaint with Iger. Has he brought the company to new heights of financial gain? Yes. But he has done it at the expense of original creativity. We are in a place now where we have to look at Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar stuff and just immediately identify them as Disney. I just can't do that. Meanwhile, the last truly successful thing Disney created on its own was the first Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003. Thanks Iger.

 

[RobbinsDad]

That is my singular biggest concern/complaint with Iger. Has he brought the company to new heights of financial gain? Yes. But he has done it at the expense of original creativity. We are in a place now where we have to look at Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar stuff and just immediately identify them as Disney. I just can't do that. Meanwhile, the last truly successful thing Disney created on its own was the first Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003. Thanks Iger.

Disney Animation has done some very creative things in this decade - WIR, Zootopia and others - but that's it. Again, that's a great reason to invest heavily in original ideas through Imagineering. Easy transfer to other media.

 

[RobidaFlats]

That is my singular biggest concern/complaint with Iger. Has he brought the company to new heights of financial gain? Yes. But he has done it at the expense of original creativity. We are in a place now where we have to look at Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar stuff and just immediately identify them as Disney. I just can't do that. Meanwhile, the last truly successful thing Disney created on its own was the first Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003. Thanks Iger.

I'm certainly no pixie-duster, but c'mon, that last bit is an absurd piece of hyperbole.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

Disney Animation has done some very creative things in this decade - WIR, Zootopia and others - but that's it. Again, that's a great reason to invest heavily in original ideas through Imagineering. Easy transfer to other media.

And all those animated successes have come under the Iger-bought leadership of John Lasseter and not home-grown through Disney's ranks. Point remains, Iger didn't have enough faith in people at Feature Animation to be great on their own, and felt they needed an outside companies help to get them back on track.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

I'm certainly no pixie-duster, but c'mon, that last bit is an absurd piece of hyperbole.

Based purely on dollars, the Pirates franchise is the most successful thing Disney has going for its film division that doesn't include the names Marvel or Lucasfilm. Whats hyperbole about that?

 

[RobidaFlats]

This is hyperbole: "the last truly successful thing Disney created on its own was the first Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003"

There have been quite a few successful movies in the past decade. In particular, there was some movie about cold or freezing that seems to have been a rather successful in-house creation.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

This is hyperbole: "the last truly successful thing Disney created on its own was the first Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003"

There have been quite a few successful movies in the past decade. In particular, there was some movie about cold or freezing that seems to have been a rather successful in-house creation.

I wasn't including animation (concerns with which I've already touched on in above posts).

 

[RobidaFlats]

And all those animated successes have come under the Iger-bought leadership of John Lasseter and not home-grown through Disney's ranks. Point remains, Iger didn't have enough faith in people at Feature Animation to be great on their own, and felt they needed an outside companies help to get them back on track.

That's ridiculous. They don't count as home-grown because John worked somewhere else first?

By that logic Mickey isn't Disney because he was created and drawn by guys who worked somewhere else first.

 

[RobidaFlats]

I wasn't including animation (concerns with which I've already touched on in above posts).

I just addressed your animation claims above.

As far as live action, there have been successful films since then. Not on the level of Pirates, sure, but certainly successful. Enchanted springs to mind (only because I happened to re-watch it the other day). But I'm sure if you pulled the financials, there have been at least a few successful live action movies. They weren't all John Carter.

 

[Filby61]

Unlike Eisner, he doesn't antagonize talent.

Correct. He hires guys like Chappie to do that.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

That's ridiculous. They don't count as home-grown because John worked somewhere else first?

By that logic Mickey isn't Disney because he was created and drawn by guys who worked somewhere else first.

Let's assume Steve Jobs was still president of Apple. Then Apple was acquired by Samsung and Steve was put in charge of their phone division also. Then all of a sudden Samsung starts making good phones again. Would you be inclined to say, "Wow, I didn't realize Samsung had it in themselves to make good phones again." No, you'd credit Steve's influence as a driving factor behind their success. And I think you have to do that with Lasseter and Disney animation. The overall point is, Disney animation needed outside help in order to be good again.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

I just addressed your animation claims above.

As far as live action, there have been successful films since then. Not on the level of Pirates, sure, but certainly successful. Enchanted springs to mind (only because I happened to re-watch it the other day). But I'm sure if you pulled the financials, there have been at least a few successful live action movies. They weren't all John Carter.

Surely not all John Carter. Enchanted is fantastic and should have performed much better than it did.

 

[RobidaFlats]

Surely not all John Carter. Enchanted is fantastic and should have performed much better than it did.

But it was still successful. Hence my assertion of hyperbole.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

But it was still successful. Hence my assertion of hyperbole.

Just for fun, Enchanted ranks lower than Honey I Shrunk the Kids on Buena Vistas all time movie rankings

 

[RobidaFlats]

Let's assume Steve Jobs was still president of Apple. Then Apple was acquired by Samsung and Steve was put in charge of their phone division also. Then all of a sudden Samsung starts making good phones again. Would you be inclined to say, "Wow, I didn't realize Samsung had it in themselves to make good phones again." No, you'd credit Steve's influence as a driving factor behind their success. And I think you have to do that with Lasseter and Disney animation. The overall point is, Disney animation needed outside help in order to be good again.

That doesn't logically follow at all. Disney animation has always needed "outside help". Since day 1 animators got hired from other places after they showed their talent.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

That doesn't logically follow at all. Disney animation has always needed "outside help". Since day 1 animators got hired from other places after they showed their talent.

But we're not talking about individual animators, we're talking about overall leadership.

Look, I'll make my final point. Iger could have put someone already at Disney in charge of animation if he had any faith that they would actually be good. He didn't.

 

[RobidaFlats]

Just for fun, Enchanted ranks lower than Honey I Shrunk the Kids on Buena Vistas all time movie rankings

And the 2016 Jungle Book beats all but one of the Pirates movies on that list, so what? The point stands that there have been successes since 2003. Just admit that it was hyperbole, it's not a big deal. But clinging to your claim despite facts to the contrary makes you sound like another of our beloved posters.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

And the 2016 Jungle Book beats all but one of the Pirates movies on that list, so what? The point stands that there have been successes since 2003. Just admit that it was hyperbole, it's not a big deal. But clinging to your claim despite facts to the contrary makes you sound like another of our beloved posters.

It wasn't intended to be hyperbole, but I can see now that it was. I'm not unreasonable

 

[RobidaFlats]

But we're not talking about individual animators, we're talking about overall leadership.

Look, I'll make my final point. Iger could have put someone already at Disney in charge of animation if he had any faith that they would actually be good. He didn't.

For what it's worth, John is creative director, not president, so he's not exactly the overall leader.

I cannot fathom the problem here. Iger actually did something right (in placing Lasseter where he did) but because John proved himself somewhere else first, it doesn't count as Disney anymore?

I'll keep that in mind the next time a quarterback acquired from another team throws a touchdown to a receiver who was drafted on day one. Those points won't be put on the scoreboard for his current team.

 

[RobidaFlats]

It wasn't intended to be hyperbole, but I can see now that it was. I'm not unreasonable

Fair enough. That's the point of discussion after all.