The D-Files: Part 5 — Disney’s Death Wish

Disney’s Animation’s Slow Descent to Obscurity

It all began with Wish…for the D-Files, that is. After I attended an early press screening of the feature, it was clear to me that Disney’s Wish was the worst animated feature in the 100 year history of the Walt Disney Company and, ironically, was the film meant to commemorate this incredible milestone. My early review opened a floodgate for current and former Disney artists and animators reaching out to Film Threat with their stories about what is happening behind the scenes at Disney and has been for the last decade. I was told that not only was Wish bad…but it was intentionally bad…or, more accurately, misguided from the start!

In the D-Files: Part 1, I recounted the events that led to this Wish disaster, beginning with John Lasseter’s firing and humiliation over alleged #MeToo accusations and the outcry to “get a woman to run this place.” That woman would be Jennifer Lee.

In Part 2 and Part 3, I showed that Jennifer Lee slowly and subversively ushered in her new vision for Disney Animation and its staff. In response to the #MeToo Lasseter ousting and with the help of the gender equity advocacy group Woman in Animation, Lee strove for 50/50 equity between male and female Disney artists. But we learned that leveling the playing field was never her intention. She replaced the “Old White Guy” veteran artists with inexperienced women from Tumblr. Sources told us that these new recruits were used to slowly and systematically remove the Old White Guys by fostering a hostile work environment where every move they made and every word they spoke was under constant scrutiny. After a steady flow of unwarranted complaints with HR, humiliating re-education sessions, and living under the constant fear of firing, the Old White Guys, who did not submit to Lee’s new vision, were finally gone.

Notice the lack of depth of field in this image? © 2023 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

“…ultimately, you were either “with Lee” or “against Lee” in her mind.”

Part 4 describes the new storytelling mandates put in place not only at Walt Disney Animation but also at Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel. Lee’s first feature film with her complete stamp of approval from start to finish was Strange World, which leaned heavily into producing an environmental allegory with a gay teen love story. Audiences stayed home for this one. Tanking at the box office, Lee responded, “This is a bummer, but the ‘message’ is important, and we will press on with it.” And press on they did, which brings us to Wish.

The Queen of Passive Aggression

With Wish, Lee’s hand-selected animators, artists, writers, and musicians were now in place. No excuses for failure! When asked about Jennifer Lee, many former Disney artists spoke about Lee’s management style, especially regarding how she formed her teams. Many felt that when she took over to replace John Lasseter, her goal was to clean house of Lasseter loyalists. They felt that, ultimately, you were either “with Lee” or “against Lee” in her mind.

When interacting with her, you knew right away if she liked you or not. If she liked you, she would listen to you and give you the best scenes to work on. Of course, her favorites mainly consisted of female artists and male Yes-persons. If you got on her bad side (or were male), you were given the crappy assignments, which rarely involved character animation and often consisted of environmental animation or quick scenelets slipped in between significant scenes. It didn’t matter how many years you had been with the company or how many features you worked on in the past; it ultimately boiled down to whether Jennifer Lee liked you or not.