News Lasseter taking leave of absence

Phil12

Phil12

Well-Known Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
Per Phil12's usual nonsense, it has once again devolved into the same crap he always pulls- blatant trolling. He used a serious conversation about sexual harassment as an opportunity to derail it into his usual bait of "Walt Disney was a horrible person". I encourage others not to enable or feed this behavior. Whatever opinion you have of the Lasseter situation.

With that blatant attempt to derail and troll for attention cleared up, considering bringing Lasseter back is a mistake. Normally I take a stance of innocent until proven guilty. But the way Disney took such swift action against Lasseter (and him not denying his actions or fighting back) makes it obvious that there are much more serious things going on behind the scenes than we realize. This is not just a case of "unwanted hugs" (hugging alone is nowhere near enough to ruin his reputation and get him fired).

There are some people who feel he deserves another chance because they feel he would still have value for the company. Even if you are willing to forgive him, I believe Lasseter's creativity is highly overrated by fam. Some of Pixar's best movies in recent years have been largely devoid of his influence. His greatest asset was the power and influence he had over the higher executives. But even if he came back, he would no longer command authority anymore due to his scandals. So that benefit is nullified.
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Walt's brother Roy kept Walt from total self destruction. Unfortunately Lasseter didn't have that sort of guardian to protect and rehabilitate him.
 
Magenta Panther

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
Lasseter's behavior is consistent with a few other males involved in animation - John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy) and Chris Savino (The Loud House) among them. I wonder if the cause involves a certain mindset that if a man succeeds, women are part of the spoils?

Sickening.

I respect Lasseter's success, but I don't think he can ever be the spokesman for Pixar ever again. And he should have been reined in a long time ago (apparently, Iger knew all about his behavior, but did nothing, believing the behavior was part of Lasseter's free-spirited, childlike creativity or some crap. Iger, of course, will suffer no consequences for his inaction. Too bad).
 
rael ramone

rael ramone

Well-Known Member
Hatbox Ghostbuster

Hatbox Ghostbuster

Well-Known Member
BasiltheBatLord said:
They named one of the drinks "Red Tube?" Is that real?
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Sped2424

Sped2424

Well-Known Member
He's not coming back I would be shocked if he did. I think that leaked report of him coming back in a limited role was PR testing the waters to see how that would be received and given the backlash it wasn't received well LOL
 
Phineas

Phineas

Well-Known Member
Cmdr_Crimson said:
it must be really awkward now when seeing the pre-show at the Disney Pixar film festival in Epcot when they get to the Pixar segment and Lassiter is on the screen talking about the origins of the company.
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Ugh, it's so disgustingly frustrating. I looked up to him, and used to say that he was the closest thing to a Modern (American) Walt Disney. And then all this came to light.

I even feel skeevy watching my Toy Story Blu-Ray and having the director intro with him grinning at me.
 
Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
Phineas said:
Ugh, it's so disgustingly frustrating. I looked up to him, and used to say that he was the closest thing to a Modern (American) Walt Disney. And then all this came to light.

I even feel skeevy watching my Toy Story Blu-Ray and having the director intro with him grinning at me.
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This is part of the reason I can't see any scenario that Disney would bring him back. Disney have been very lucky that they managed to quietly send him off on sabbatical during the MeToo storm without many people noticing or it damaging their Pixar brand to any great extent. They even managed to release a new Pixar film a few days after without the scandal having any noticeable impact. The easiest way to change all that would be to now bring Lasseter back and risk that this time the allegations do get wide media coverage. The stories write themselves both in the wake of Roseanne's firing by Disney and in the context of other men accused of sexual misconduct trying to make comebacks over the coming months.

Imagine all the newspaper stories and television pieces with images of Buzz and Woody attached to these stories as Disney tries to promote the newly-opened Toy Storyland at WDW and work toward the release of Toy Story 4...
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
Imagine all the newspaper stories and television pieces with images of Buzz and Woody attached to these stories as Disney tries to promote the newly-opened Toy Storyland at WDW and work toward the release of Toy Story 4...
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Within the next 30 days Disney is releasing The Incredibles 2 to theatres, opening Pixar Pier on June 23 and then Toy Story Land on June 30th.

Risking bad press to bring him back now would be really bad timing.
 
AEfx

AEfx

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
This is part of the reason I can't see any scenario that Disney would bring him back. Disney have been very lucky that they managed to quietly send him off on sabbatical during the MeToo storm without many people noticing or it damaging their Pixar brand to any great extent. They even managed to release a new Pixar film a few days after without the scandal having any noticeable impact.
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That is exactly why very few are going to care if he comes back or not.

I guess people need to be reminded, but there isn't even an "accuser" in this case. No crime has been alleged. It has been six months+ and no new "revelations" have been made. The worst thing that was said at the time was "someone who's knee he touched was afraid he would move his hand up" - which wasn't even directly from the person, but hearsay from someone else, and no one has come forward (anonymously or not) to confirm even that.

There is also no one debating the fact that he was never told to stop. In fact, the largest part of the narrative over this is that "people did everything they could not to tell him that it was a problem". A corner stone of sexual harassment is that the accused harasser needs to be told to stop. You can argue "he shouldn't have needed to be told!" but that's not how it works. In order to legally qualify, the person needs to be told "this is making someone uncomfortable". There is no indication that he was ever told that, and again, the opposite has been said many times.

The truth is - since nothing new has even been alleged after all this - it really was just "unwanted hugs and knee touching" from a guy who apparently had a severe drinking problem. THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT RIGHT, but it also does not justify erasing him from existence. He has now been made fully aware. I'm sure that behavior will not continue.

I have no horse in this race, I could not personally care less if he goes back or not, but I do find it really telling that the only people that are calling for him to be ostracized from the business completely and forever are those that love his work the most. When I read people talk about this, it sounds like they are just hurt because he didn't turn out of to be perfect, and just want to punish him for their feelings - not for what actually happened. That is why it wouldn't be a big deal if he came back - because no one else really seemed to care that much about this story because of the facts presented.

On the scale of what has been alleged during this "me too" campaign, this was arguably the most mild case that any action was taken of. Again THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT RIGHT, but I think people are just out for revenge because of their personal feelings on this, not actually considering the actual actions. Some of these people are going to come back to work, folks. This "all must be destroyed and never heard from again" mentality that seems to be taking over is just not realistic.
 

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