New Creative Managers to Shake Up Disney-Pixar Animation

Jennifer Lee and Pete Docter have been announced to replace John Lasseter as the creative heads of Disney-Pixar Animation Studios. This follows Lasseter’s allegations of physical and sexual harassment, forcing him to end his career as the creative head of both animation studios.
Jennifer Lee will run as Disney’s chief creative officer. She joined Disney in 2011 as a writer on Wreck-It Ralph, but she is best known as the co-director and writer for Frozen. Currently she is co-directing Frozen 2 and the executive producer for Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2.
Pete Docter will run as Pixar’s chief creative officer. His 28-year career at Pixar began a day after his college graduation in 1990. He has been an essential part of some of Pixar’s most influential and successful works including Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.
In the announcement, Disney stated that Docter and Lee will report directly to Alan Horn (the Walt Disney Studios Chairman) and “have creative oversight of all films and associated projects of their respective studios”.
In a statement, Horn says: “Jennifer Lee and Pete Docter are two of the most gifted filmmakers and storytellers I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with”.
Optimistically this could mean that the two studios could return to feeling like separate entities (as the line between Disney and Pixar has been blurring these past few years) and go in new interesting directions.
> Charlotte Lenihan