A Pixar Backlash In the Works at Disney?

Last week Disney animation saw a significant reorganization, with Pixar vets John Lasseter and Ed Catmull taking over DisneyToon and former direct-to-DVD division president Sharon Morrill being reassigned. According to Variety, she had clashed with the Pixar guys over creative issues, and the restructuring represents a major shift in Disney's homevid strategy. The studio has long made a mint on straight-to-DVD titles such as Cinderella III and Lion King 1 1/2, but many saw this DTV product, while extremely profitable, as lacking in quality. Since their arrival, the Pixar guys had been wanting to focus more on higher caliber (and more expensive) spinoffs, like the upcoming Tinker Bell movie, than lower-budget sequels. These kind of internal tensions from the co-mingling of corporate cultures, as well as the the claim that the new Pixar flick Ratatouille, out this weekend, could actually underwhelm at the box office, has Jim Hill Media wondering if there isn't a Pixar backlash in the works at the Disney lot.

So let's review here ... We have Mickey's own employees chaffing at all of the changes that have occurred at the Disney corporation over the past 15 months. With resentment building toward Pixar staffers, given the obvious favoritism that Disney management has been showing toward its Emeryville-based employees. We also have reports that "Ratatouille" is expected to earn far less than "Cars" did last year. Which is why the Mouse's PR staff is now aggressively trying to spin this situation, trying to downplay the importance of this new Brad Bird film having to earn any real money during its initial domestic release. So that Wall Street types won't then start asking inopportune questions like "Did the Walt Disney Company really over-pay when it spent $7.4 billion to acquire Pixar Animation Studios?"