So it's out and official. Disney bought Pixar at the bargain price of $7.4 billion and Jobs nabbed himself 7% of the Walt Disney Company and a seat on the board of directors. Stock brokers are doing tap dances up and down wall street and the internet is awash with rupturous blogs on all sides of the argument. If you want to hear some folks kissing Iger's ass and heralding him the new hero of the world, you can head over to Laughing Place, and if you want a dose of doom and gloom, Jim Hill always has your back. I'm not going to do either.
And simply everyone is sharing hopeful wishes about Lasseter reopening classic feature animation at WDFA. There are all kinds of pretty pictures being painted about the doors being triumphantly swung open and the old animators that Disney previously dismissed flying back home. The boys are back in town. Hey, I'd love to see it happen as much as the next Disney nerd, and it's a lovely vision...but I'm not going to go and hold my breath on this one. The official press release says nothing of any of this.
Honestly, I'm more concerned about Pixar's future than Disney's, as far as this little marriage goes. Pixar is one of the few feature animation producers that has managed to maintain real quality story telling and artistry over the past few years, probably because they have more animators than suits. In the empire that is Disney, this isn't so. I hope their luck holds out. I hope a whole bunch of wonderfully creative people on both sides don't get laid off. I hope Steve Jobs didn't do all this just so the Apple Music Store could sell some Disney cartoons.
Still, Steve Jobs' fans and critics alike will have to admit that both Apple and Pixar have managed to maintain quality of product and extremely successful business strategies. (I'm listening to the Finding Nemo soundtrack on my iPod - how's that for proof?) And Steve Jobs will be a force to be reckoned with on the Disney board of directors - as I understand it, he will own more stock than any other single person and he's reputed to be a real pain in the ass when he wants to get something done. Maybe he can evoke some positive change and bring about a new creative renaissance for Mickey and his friends. Somehow, I doubt that's what's on his mind, but who knows? Stranger things have happened.
Just a pipe dream really.
But a dream is wish your heart makes, or so I've been told.
Addendum
Looks like Lasseter is already making some positive changes. Within 24 hours of taking office, he official squashed the Toy Story III sequel that Disney had been pushing forward on despite Pixar's wishes to contrary. The Independant has an article about that here.
And it looks like Jim Hill is singing a slightly more upbeat tune today. The first bit of this article has some good info about how Lasseter is pushing for a return to creative theme park attractions for Disneyland and its cousins.
As an aside, I do want to say that I don't mean to trash Jim Hill at all. I enjoy his site very much and read it avidly... but I don't always have to agree with him. :-)