The animation titan John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ who was on leave from the Disney Company since November because of what he meant as “missteps” is confirmed to officially leave the company by the end of 2018.
The “missteps” as acknowledged by John Lasseter left his employees feeling “disrespectful and uncomfortable”. According to The New York Times, Lasseter was flashed last year that he sexually harassed employees and so was on a leave of absence from the studio since November.
On Friday it was confirmed by Disney that Lasseter who has long been the creative executive of the company would take charge of a consulting role until the year-end and then permanently leave without any office in the interim.
Lasseter was one of Pixar’s first employees and primary author since its inception and drawing his earliest hits including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2. He had also directed Disney’s animation division since Disney acquired Pixar in 2006.
The Disney Animation chief, Lasseter who has been defined with great persona was known to greet anyone with long hugs. In 2011, The Wall Street Journal came out with photos saying that he had handed out at least 48 of them in one day at the office. Lasseter since November took a leave sending a lengthy apologizing email to his employees saying “to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other motion they felt crossed the line in any way, shape or form.”
The email gained a huge momentum in Hollywood and since then, he has kept a low profile in Hollywood, skipping the Academy Awards in March even when ‘Coco’ won the Oscars for best feature animation.
Disney has still kept the anonymity for their replacements, it is expected that Jennifer Lee, director of ‘Frozen’ will be promoted at Walt Disney Animation and Pete Docter, director of ‘up’, ‘Inside Out’ is also to take on greater charges of Pixar though it’s still unclear whether he’ll assume the position of chief creative officer as well.
