I’ve always had very conflicting feelings about Disney’s former Cheif Creative Officer John Lasseter. This was even before the frequent sexual harassment claims, which led him to take a six-month sabbatical last year before announcing that he would leave Disney at the end of 2018. In a year that has been full of Disney cracking the whip on any potential controversies, usually for moronic reasons, this resignation flew by under the radar, mostly due to how Lasseter will remain as a consultant at Disney until the end of the year. In other words, he was led out to pasture for his actions. While researching the accusations against Lasseter, I found out that there were hired “minders” who reigned in Lasseter’s more physical impulses with employees, like hugging them or kissing them on the mouth after having a few too many drinks. So… that’s a thing I guess.
But that’s not why I’m happy that Lasseter is leaving Disney and Pixar, though I can’t deny that isn’t a part of it. My excitement comes from the fact that we no longer have to adhere to Lasseter’s iron rule of storytelling. For the past decade, Lasseter has had an executive producer role in nearly all of Disney’s animated projects, meaning that he usually had final say about what stories were told and how they were told. Because of this, one very particular type of story was told constantly at Disney. His removal allows for some variety to finally pop up in their animated movies again.
Now let me get this point right off the bat; I don’t hate the movies that Lasseter either directed or executive produced. The man’s been with Pixar form the very beginning, directing Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2 and executive producing every Pixar movie in the company’s history. You can look at my ungodly Pixar Retrospective from the summer and how I gush over his work to know that I like his movies. But when you watch a director’s work one right after the other, you begin to notice all of their little quirks and ticks. With Lasseter, his quirks were always with his narratives, and that’s where my issue with him lies and why I won’t miss his creative presence at Disney.
Source: Destructoid I’m happy John Lasseter is leaving Disney