The D-Files: Part 5 — Disney’s Death Wish Featured, Features Film Threat
Disney Animation's Decline To Obscurity
This blog section is about a movie called Wish in the D-Files. The author attended an early screening and realized it was the worst animated feature in Disney's 100-year history. Ironically, it was meant to celebrate the milestone. After publishing a review about it, many current and former Disney artists and animators shared their stories with Film Threat about what has been happening behind the scenes at Disney for the past decade. They explained that not only was Wish bad, but it was intentionally misguided from the start.
In my previous blog post titled "D-Files: Part 1," I detailed the series of occurrences that resulted in the tragic Wish mishap. The events started with John Lasseter being terminated from his job and being publicly shamed over allegations pertaining to the #MeToo movement. As a result, there was a demand for a woman to be placed in charge of the company, and Jennifer Lee was chosen to fulfill that role.
In the previous sections (Part 2 and Part 3) of the blog post, it was revealed that Jennifer Lee had subtly introduced her fresh ideas for Disney Animation and staff. With the #MeToo Lasseter scandal leading to his removal and the support of Women in Animation, Lee aimed for equal representation between male and female Disney artists. However, it was discovered that her plan was not simply to level the playing field. Instead, Lee replaced experienced male artists with inexperienced women from Tumblr. According to sources, these new recruits were used to systematically create a hostile work environment, where everything the Old White Guys did or said was scrutinized. They faced unwarranted complaints, humiliating re-education sessions, and a constant fear of losing their jobs if they resisted Lee's new vision. Eventually, the Old White Guys who didn't comply were forced to leave.
Did you observe the shortage of focus on different objects in this picture? © 2023 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
At the end of the day, you were classified as either a supporter or opponent of Lee from her perspective.
In the fourth part, there were some new instructions given to create stories at Walt Disney Animation, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel. Lee's debut movie with her full authorization was Strange World. The film was inclined towards an allegory that highlighted environmentalism and a love story about a gay teenager. Unfortunately, people did not go to watch it, and the film was a financial failure. Despite this, Lee said that the "message" of the film was relevant and they would keep going. That is why they continued, and now we have Wish.
Passive Aggression's Queen
Lee had assembled a team of animators, artists, writers, and musicians through Wish. Failure was no longer an option! Meanwhile, Jennifer Lee's management style has garnered attention from ex-Disney artists. Her approach to team building is a topic of conversation, especially following her replacement of John Lasseter. Some thought Lee aimed to clear out the loyalists of Lasseter. Moreover, Lee developed a dichotomy of being on her team or being against her team.
When you spoke to her, it was clear if she was fond of you or not. If she was fond of you, she would pay attention to what you had to say and would assign you the best scenes. However, her preferences were mainly for female artists and men who agreed with her. If you were on her bad side (or were a man), you were given less important tasks, which usually involved animating the environment or small sections of scenes. Your time spent with the company or previous work experience did not matter; it all came down to her opinion of you, Jennifer Lee.
