Disney, Pixar working on how to work together

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With the recent completion of its
purchase of Pixar Animation Studios Inc, the Walt Disney Co
must now figure out how to bring together the two biggest names
in animation without diminishing either, experts say.

Pixar, famous for its computer-generated animated features
such as “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo,” is seen as the best
hope for bringing back the magic to storied Disney animation,
which made such classics as “Pinocchio” and “Aladdin” but has
not had a major animated hit in more than a decade.

“(Pixar) led the field in a way that no one has since Walt
Disney’s time,” animation industry historian Jerry Beck said.
“I think there is going to be a sense of mission here, a
renewed purpose: ‘We already conquered CG (computer generated)
films, now let’s return and restore Disney to what it was when
I was a kid’.”

That job will rest largely with Pixar Vice President John
Lasseter, the creative chief at Pixar who spent several years
as a Disney animator and revered Walt Disney. He returns to
Disney animation as its creative director as part of the merger
in a move that the animation community has lauded.

Neither Disney, which completed its purchase of Pixar last
Friday, nor Lasseter would comment on plans for the two
studios, but Disney has said that Pixar and Disney will be run
as separate studios working on different films.

Observers say Lasseter and Pixar President Ed Catmull, who
became President of Disney Feature Animation in the merger,
were busy reworking Disney films that were already in various
stages of production, and were taking pitches for new projects.

“The atmosphere is pretty good,” Steve Hulett, business
manager for The Animation Guild Local 839, which represents
workers at Disney Feature Animation, told Reuters.

“I know most people went through a whole bunch of different
stages — ebullient euphoria, then, ‘What’s going to happen,
are we going to get laid off?”‘ Hulett said. “But I know …
that the anxiety that was there two or three months ago has
eased.”

RETURN TO ROOTS

Both studios have been tight-lipped about how and if
unionized Disney animators will work with Pixar’s non-union,
and decidedly more free-wheeling, shop to turn out two animated
features a year.

Observers said no plan has been finalized but it appears
that Lasseter and Catmull are bringing aspects of Pixar’s
creative culture to Disney.

“(Lasseter) is just going in and evaluating things, moving
things this way and that,” said Sarah Baisley, editor-in-chief
of Animation World Network/Animation World Magazine.

One big question is whether Disney will continue its move
to computer animation or return to its hand-drawn roots.

In February, Catmull “told animation employees that the new
creative team planned to explore doing more hand-drawn
features. He also said that producing more (short films) would
be part of the agenda,” Hulett wrote in the Animation Guild’s
Web log.

Pixar encourages animators to innovate with short films and
has won several filmmaking awards in that category, including
“Luxo Jr,” Lasseter’s first 3D film at Pixar.

Lasseter, who left Disney to pioneer computer-generated
animation, also is well known for championing the hand-drawn
animation that used to be synonymous with the Disney brand.

“As (Lasseter) has said before, if a project is served well
by classic 2D animation, he will go ahead and OK it,” Animation
Magazine editor Ramin Zahed said. “He’s the first to champion
good storytelling techniques and memorable characters over CG
animation and technology.”

His attention to storytelling and power to “green light,”
or approve films has meant an initial slowdown in Disney’s
production schedule, as Lasseter has reworked some films,
stopped production on others, and halted the making of cheap
and quick direct-to-video sequels of features films, according
to the Animation Guild’s Web log.

“You can’t expect Disney to deliver fast, direct to DVD
sequels to classic favorites as it used to before he came on
board,” Zahed said of Lasseter.

Nor has Disney indicated whether major layoffs are being
contemplated beyond the disbanding of the Circle 7 studio that
was set up to do sequels to Pixar films.

Disney has reassigned nearly all personnel displaced by the
Circle 7 shutdown but Hulett said he expects more reorganizing.

“I suspect there will be some layoffs in the first 12
months of John’s tenure, and then there will be hires as they
figure out what’s going to be done where,” Hulett said.