News Lasseter taking leave of absence

[donaldtoo]

I can tell you are really genuinely hurt by all this. That it's a really shocking revelation and has affected you pretty deeply.

What I'm about to say is something that a lot of people wouldn't. I certainly am not posting this because I feel a need to defend him, nor do I think I can change how you feel about this - but I do think it's important to put this in some context that may seem really foreign to someone who has grown up only in this millennium. I'm absolutely honest when I say I've never thought about the man until people started posting about this - I knew his name, but he could have walked past me on the street and I wouldn't have been any wiser.

I know that from your perspective, he has suddenly gone from being a brilliant man who inspired you, to a complete sexual predator. You feel betrayed, lied to - like he was secretly this terrible perverted creep underneath this whole time. I think it's important for you to understand that before this happened, he probably doesn't understand it any more than you do.

That may seem crazy, but he is an old man. From a much different time. To him, he was being affectionate to people. If you asked him, he would probably tell you that he respects, admires, and supports women, very much. I know that may sound ridiculous - how could he not realize what a terrible, awful person he was being?

Well, if you read the stories about this, you will see - people went to very great lengths to hide the fact from him that he made people uncomfortable. This is the opposite of someone like Harvey Weinstein (who committed actual crimes), who was clearly in charge of getting people to cover for him. Weinstein knew very well that what he was doing was wrong. The remarkable thing about this story is that you keep reading over and over how everyone whispered about it, but I have yet to hear anyone ever said anything to him.

You have to realize, that this stuff wasn't even talked until the last 25 years or so. And the stuff he is being accused of, really has only been considered "sexual harassment" for an even shorter period of time. "Sexual harassment" wasn't even a term until the 80's, and even into the 90's it was "if you sleep with me, you can keep your job". A hand on the knee wasn't considered a "violation", especially if the recipient doesn't move away or say "please don't do that". Unless more comes out and he actually forcefully assaulted someone, I honestly don't think he realized what he was doing was wrong.

Again, I know this seems absolutely crazy - how could he be alive in 2017 and not know this was considered terrible, predatory behavior? Because he has been a wealthy, sheltered man who has been hunkered down in an animation studio for pretty much the entire time that this stuff has become socially unacceptable.

I'm not telling you to feel badly for him - or not to feel betrayed. But I think it's important to know these things, to be able to put it into context - because I think most of us know what it's like to be your age and that first time we realized our heroes weren't perfect. That they were flawed people, just like everyone else. The parts of him that are in the films you love aren't necessarily less because he was an ignorant man of another generation, and that there is every chance he didn't even realize this about himself, until now.

I have ignored this thread for far too long.
Sorry, but, this is one of the most utterly ridiculous posts I've ever read here, or anywhere else. I'm 55 years old, and my soon-to-be 85-year-old pop (and my folks have been married for 57+ years) made this all clear and hipped me to it when I was a teen. Do not go into an office alone and close a door with a female employee, do not hug them, do not ask them how they feel about you, do not fish for compliments, etc., etc., etc.,

If he doesn't know by the time he's 60 that what he was doing was letcherous, he's dumber than a stump and needs to go just for that. I don't give a rats rear how "creative" he is, or what industry he's in. Just sick, sad excuses.
Bravo Sierra that turd didn't know what he was doing.

 

[Lora Baines Bradley]

I can tell you are really genuinely hurt by all this. That it's a really shocking revelation and has affected you pretty deeply.

What I'm about to say is something that a lot of people wouldn't. I certainly am not posting this because I feel a need to defend him, nor do I think I can change how you feel about this - but I do think it's important to put this in some context that may seem really foreign to someone who has grown up only in this millennium. I'm absolutely honest when I say I've never thought about the man until people started posting about this - I knew his name, but he could have walked past me on the street and I wouldn't have been any wiser.

I know that from your perspective, he has suddenly gone from being a brilliant man who inspired you, to a complete sexual predator. You feel betrayed, lied to - like he was secretly this terrible perverted creep underneath this whole time. I think it's important for you to understand that before this happened, he probably doesn't understand it any more than you do.

That may seem crazy, but he is an old man. From a much different time. To him, he was being affectionate to people. If you asked him, he would probably tell you that he respects, admires, and supports women, very much. I know that may sound ridiculous - how could he not realize what a terrible, awful person he was being?

Well, if you read the stories about this, you will see - people went to very great lengths to hide the fact from him that he made people uncomfortable. This is the opposite of someone like Harvey Weinstein (who committed actual crimes), who was clearly in charge of getting people to cover for him. Weinstein knew very well that what he was doing was wrong. The remarkable thing about this story is that you keep reading over and over how everyone whispered about it, but I have yet to hear anyone ever said anything to him.

You have to realize, that this stuff wasn't even talked until the last 25 years or so. And the stuff he is being accused of, really has only been considered "sexual harassment" for an even shorter period of time. "Sexual harassment" wasn't even a term until the 80's, and even into the 90's it was "if you sleep with me, you can keep your job". A hand on the knee wasn't considered a "violation", especially if the recipient doesn't move away or say "please don't do that". Unless more comes out and he actually forcefully assaulted someone, I honestly don't think he realized what he was doing was wrong.

Again, I know this seems absolutely crazy - how could he be alive in 2017 and not know this was considered terrible, predatory behavior? Because he has been a wealthy, sheltered man who has been hunkered down in an animation studio for pretty much the entire time that this stuff has become socially unacceptable.

I'm not telling you to feel badly for him - or not to feel betrayed. But I think it's important to know these things, to be able to put it into context - because I think most of us know what it's like to be your age and that first time we realized our heroes weren't perfect. That they were flawed people, just like everyone else. The parts of him that are in the films you love aren't necessarily less because he was an ignorant man of another generation, and that there is every chance he didn't even realize this about himself, until now.

I’m not really sure what to say. I do understand that yeah, people change. And yeah, people can sometimes normalize their behavior in their own mind. But the fact that people have said that Pixar overall is a bad environment for women makes me think that this isn’t just him. He silently condoned it, perhaps, and it spread through Pixar. I don’t think he was sitting in his lair going “how should I make these women uncomfortable?” I’m not attacking or defaming men in general, it just seems to me that when a group of mainly white middle aged to elderly males dominate a work environment, stuff like this is shoved under the rug. It’s like a gas that runs through the air vents.

I’m not used to talking about this kind of thing, especially on the internet, so pardon me if I sound offensive or uninformed, but what he did is not okay, no matter if he truly was ignorant. I find it hard to believe he was ignorant about this kind of thing- he worked for a billion dollar company and saw the world. He may have been in that animation studio a lot, but I don’t believe he was sheltered. He can’t plead ignorance. Not really. True, perhaps nobody told him, as he had an extremely high position in the company. But you would think after working with men and women of all different walks of life he would know and understand why this was wrong. Ignorance is an excuse.

I know you said you’re not excusing his behavior, and I understand where you’re coming from. I just can’t justify what he did by saying “he didn’t know.” I hope I don’t seem like I’m argumentative. I’m still in shock over this. I do appreciate your points, and I can see where you’re coming from. I know I don’t know everything, and there’s so much about life that you can only learn yourself, so maybe there’s some wisdom I’ll eventually earn that will make me see this in a new light. Thank you for sharing your opinion with me.

EDIT: after thinking about this and reading some more responses, I think it would be best if I step away from this topic, at least for a bit. I don’t want to become embroiled in or cause any sort of argument.

 

[AEfx]

You have a point that Harvey built a huge name for himself in the 1990's within the industry for producing some of the biggest movies of the decade, but you've got to keep in mind that we're both talking about the general public who only has a surface level awareness of movies both animated and live action.

Something you may not know is that until the turn of the century, movies (and television, but in a different way - TV was still looked down upon as "lesser") were pretty much the largest focus of our collective popular culture and the height of popular modern art. This was before the day of movies having a half-dozen sequels, aside from slashers, Bond, and Star Trek. People quite often decided to go to the movies, and then decided what to go see. Twice as many people watched the Oscars as do today, and he was at every one of them collecting awards himself, and in virtually every picture of most of the winners as they were often from his films.

Harvey Weinstein was a household name. Still is, except to the youngest generation who doesn't pay nearly as much attention to film aside from franchises, as the general public used to, before the Internet and all the other distractions of today. John Lasseter has never had that type of notoriety.

If I asked all my family members 6 months ago who Harvey Weinstein was, I can bet you most of them either would vaguely know the name or wouldn't know at all and that includes people who read gossip magazines in the 1990's.

Ask them.

In short, there's no denying that both of these men were massive figures in their respective ends of the entertainment industry, but there's also no denying that they weren't household names to people who aren't avid followers of their respective career paths.

Have you read any of the other people who replied to me? You should. They also were alive during this time and completely agreed with me. Sorry to play the age card, but you weren't even alive. We might know a bit more about this than you do, as we were.

 

[AEfx]

I know you said you’re not excusing his behavior, and I understand where you’re coming from. I just can’t justify what he did by saying “he didn’t know.” I hope I don’t seem like I’m argumentative. I’m still in shock over this. I do appreciate your points, and I can see where you’re coming from. I know I don’t know everything, and there’s so much about life that you can only learn yourself, so maybe there’s some wisdom I’ll eventually earn that will make me see this in a new light. Thank you for sharing your opinion with me.

EDIT: after thinking about this and reading some more responses, I think it would be best if I step away from this topic, at least for a bit. I don’t want to become embroiled in or cause any sort of argument.

I am not trying to justify it, either. I realize it may seem such, but I'm giving it context. There is a difference there. You aren't causing any argument, and I didn't post it to refute your feelings whatsoever - but you seem especially hurt by this, and I just wanted to present a different perspective for you to think about. It was reading your post that made me think about this differently, as I honestly had no idea how much some people admired him. So I thank you for that.

I know our culture today likes to be like a Disney film and paint everyone as a hero or a villain, but life isn't that simple. He's still the guy who made these movies that inspired you - he just had an aspect to his life that makes him a flawed man, like everyone else.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Ms. Jones and Mr. McCormack concluded the statement by saying: “We encourage Pixar to be leaders in bolstering, hiring and promoting more diverse and female storytellers and leaders. We hope we can encourage all those who have felt like their voices could not be heard in the past to feel empowered.”

With Coco, there was a woman Producer, and a Latino gay man co-directing and co-writing and writing most of the music. So... that's a step in the right direction.

 

[AEfx]

I have ignored this thread for far too long.

Sorry, but, this is one of the most utterly ridiculous posts I've ever read here, or anywhere else.

Well, thanks for making the focus of your pent-up emotion.

I'm 55 years old, and my soon-to-be 85-year-old pop (and my folks have been married for 57+ years) made this all clear and hipped me to it when I was a teen.

Your dad sounds like a great guy, ahead of his time, clearly.

 

[bclane]

I am not trying to justify it, either. I realize it may seem such, but I'm giving it context. There is a difference there. You aren't causing any argument, and I didn't post it to refute your feelings whatsoever - but you seem especially hurt by this, and I just wanted to present a different perspective for you to think about. It was reading your post that made me think about this differently, as I honestly had no idea how much some people admired him. So I thank you for that.

I know our culture today likes to be like a Disney film and paint everyone as a hero or a villain, but life isn't that simple. He's still the guy who made these movies that inspired you - he just had an aspect to his life that makes him a flawed man, like everyone else.

I do appreciate what I perceive to be your intent in your posts to jyn erso. I just wanted to say that I believe that a movie like Toy Story is as beautiful as it is, in part at least, because of what JL personally put into it. So for me, clearly there are some wonderful things about his character/personality and I say this because these works of art are in many ways, partial reflections of the people who create them (imo). But that is also why I think this is so hard for many people, including myself, to come to terms with what we are now learning about him. It turns my stomach to think that JL apparently had to settle at least one lawsuit for sexual misconduct and has a reputation for grabbing and kissing women on the mouth. It was so bad that the women came up with the "Lasseter maneuver" to help protect themselves.

Yes, we are all flawed somehow. I completely agree with this. Unfortunately JLs flaws reach a level that make him unfit for his previous position, imo. And while I believe in redemption, I'm not sure how he will ever fully recover from this. I don't think he is off to a very good start with his "apology" (that was more than likely written by or with the help of a team of lawyers). I genuinely hope that he comes to complete repentance for what he has done. Only God knows where his heart really is in all of this though.

 

[Hattieboxghost110]

This whole situation with Lasseter is sad and unfortunate. Though I wouldn't put JL on the same level of Weinstein and Spacey. These guys appeared to engage in rape and pedophilia, which is a whole different type of evil.

What I'm confused about is why hasn't there been any accusations of famous, female sexual predators? As someone who works for the government, I have seen with my own eyes multiple instances of women sexually harassing men. It happens for sure, even in education. For example, the teacher who hooks up with her student. Or how about women harassing other women?

 

[bclane]

This whole situation with Lasseter is sad and unfortunate. Though I wouldn't put JL on the same level of Weinstein and Spacey. These guys appeared to engage in rape and pedophilia, which is a whole different type of evil.

What I'm confused about is why hasn't there been any accusations of famous, female sexual predators? As someone who works for the government, I have seen with my own eyes multiple instances of women sexually harassing men. It happens for sure, even in education. For example, the teacher who hooks up with her student. Or how about women harassing other women?

I agree that Lasseter is not on the same level of evil as Weinstein and Spacey. I guess we have that to be thankful for?. But as far as accusations of famous female sexual predators go, I just think that #1, it is much less common, and #2 men tend to not report it when it does happen for various reasons. There does seem to be a lot of female teachers in the news these past few years though unfortunately. Regardless, I don't think people are talking about it very much right now as it would likely come across as trying to excuse the behavior of the idiots we've been talking about by pointing out that women have also done some bad things too.

 

[Donaldfan1934]

Something you may not know is that until the turn of the century, movies (and television, but in a different way - TV was still looked down upon as "lesser") were pretty much the largest focus of our collective popular culture and the height of popular modern art. This was before the day of movies having a half-dozen sequels, aside from slashers, Bond, and Star Trek. People quite often decided to go to the movies, and then decided what to go see. Twice as many people watched the Oscars as do today, and he was at every one of them collecting awards himself, and in virtually every picture of most of the winners as they were often from his films.

Harvey Weinstein was a household name. Still is, except to the youngest generation who doesn't pay nearly as much attention to film aside from franchises, as the general public used to, before the Internet and all the other distractions of today. John Lasseter has never had that type of notoriety.

I understand what you're getting at when you say there was a greater emphasis on movies as a whole rather than franchises back then, but you also mention how people used to pick what movies they saw on the fly more often. Wouldn't that imply less research into the films themselves and therefore less knowledge about them?

Ask them.

Actually, I did ask a handful to see if your points about Weinstein's fame in the 1990's were accurate. The results were in my favor.

Have you read any of the other people who replied to me? You should. They also were alive during this time and completely agreed with me. Sorry to play the age card, but you weren't even alive. We might know a bit more about this than you do, as we were.

I did see a person or two mention how they knew who Weinstein was even though they weren't necessarily familiar the inner workings Hollywood, but I think there's something we need to be more aware of when discussing the bigger picture of things. The fact is that we as hardcore fans on a Disney theme park forum simply don't represent the general public mind set in any way, shape, or form. Even if our interests outside of this website vary, I think it is safe to say that due to the nature of our shared obsession and how we typically discuss it, the vast majority of us tend to be more observant and culturally aware of the world around than than large swaths of the general population. And if you think I'm giving think I'm giving them too little credit by saying that, then you should go watch YouTube clips from shows like Billy on the Street or any segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that involves interviewing people on Hollywood Blvd. to get a sense of how much of what we would consider to be common knowledge completely goes over their heads. Sure, not everyone interviewed during those bits is a complete moron, but they should remind us of what the world can be like outside of our own relatively nerdy bubbles. And that world certainly isn't engaged enough to have much knowledge about anything beyond themselves.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

I think with JL he should be fired but the movies he helped in shouldn't be tarnished. They were a team effort. As to his creative input, clearly he was a genius (at least when it comes to creativity and movie making). Toy Story is still the same movie to me because I think there is more than one JL, and the JL that gave input to films was a different JL than the one that misbehaved.

 

[ford91exploder]

This whole situation with Lasseter is sad and unfortunate. Though I wouldn't put JL on the same level of Weinstein and Spacey. These guys appeared to engage in rape and pedophilia, which is a whole different type of evil.

What I'm confused about is why hasn't there been any accusations of famous, female sexual predators? As someone who works for the government, I have seen with my own eyes multiple instances of women sexually harassing men. It happens for sure, even in education. For example, the teacher who hooks up with her student. Or how about women harassing other women?

Oh yes in Government women committing harassment of male subordinates is absolutely rampant and its been like that for decades my first job was in government in the 80's and it was rampant then. But it does not fit 'the narrative' but its only a matter of time now before one of those situations blows up and hits the public consciousness.

 

[ford91exploder]

I think with JL he should be fired but the movies he helped in shouldn't be tarnished. They were a team effort. As to his creative input, clearly he was a genius (at least when it comes to creativity and movie making). Toy Story is still the same movie to me because I think there is more than one JL, and the JL that gave input to films was a different JL than the one that misbehaved.

In today's environment they are already irretrievably tarnished even now in my farm town the SJW's are trying to get all PIXAR related materials removed from circulation. Very Orwellian of them. JL is Double Plus Ungood down the memory hole with his works.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Add Gary Goddard to the list of folks accused of sexual molestation. This time, its a man who loves pre-teen boys. It's hitting the theme park design world now.

 

[larryz]

I just think back to the Inside Out behind-the-scenes tour clip, where Pete Docter asks if "we" can go into the story room to see what's going on with Toy Story 4. And then I'm not surprised at anything anyone says about him.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I just think back to the Inside Out behind-the-scenes tour clip, where Pete Docter asks if "we" can go into the story room to see what's going on with Toy Story 4. And then I'm not surprised at anything anyone says about him.
View attachment 246837

Can you elaborate on this? Which special feature is it, I assume it's on the Blu Ray?

 

[larryz]

Can you elaborate on this? Which special feature is it, I assume it's on the Blu Ray?

It was shown at the early-access preview, and I don't know if it's on the Blu Ray. I can't find it on YouTube anywhere...

 

[jackmosby]

Today on "things that didn't happen"

In today's environment they are already irretrievably tarnished even now in my farm town the SJW's are trying to get all PIXAR related materials removed from circulation. Very Orwellian of them. JL is Double Plus Ungood down the memory hole with his works.

 

[asianway]

I seriously doubt that Lasseter is done. What he did is undoubtedly inexcusable, but you must remember that basically all we have here is someone who was grabby and had a very misplaced idea of what affection is, clearly as he still hasn't fully defeated the habits and attitudes of the era he grew up in, much like how Walt, while not being a flaming racist or an anti-Semite as has been popularly alleged, was very un-PC and certainly had chauvinistic traits.

Disney has given every indication that they will stand by him. And why not? If this is the extent of his behavior, there is no reason to sack him for it. Lasseter has been an invaluable asset to Disney, the likes of which would be hard to replace.

He gone

 

[wm49rs]

In today's environment they are already irretrievably tarnished even now in my farm town the SJW's are trying to get all PIXAR related materials removed from circulation. Very Orwellian of them. JL is Double Plus Ungood down the memory hole with his works.

Do you speak these loads of b#ll#cks out loud before typing them here?