The Disney-owned Pixar just fired 14% of its workforce. Disney was also responsible for four out of the five biggest box-office bombs of 2023, with “The Marvels” at the top of the heap having lost close to $237 million.
John Musker, who worked at Disney for many decades, and contributed to the likes of “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Moana,” left the company six years ago, part of an exodus that coincided with the company’s new DEI initiatives.
The animator spoke to El Pais, and he’s still bitter about the decision to let him go, giving his own two cents about why he believes Disney has been mightily struggling these last few years. He has some advice for his former bosses.
For starters, Musker says Disney should let story and characters lead the way, not any of the political messaging that might have infiltrated the mouse house in recent years:
The classic Disney films didn’t start out trying to have a message. They wanted you to get involved in the characters and the story and the world, and I think that’s still the heart of it […] You have to first create characters who you sympathize with and who are compelling. I think they need to do a course correction a bit in terms of putting the message secondary, behind entertainment and compelling story and engaging characters.
Musker’s comments align perfectly with what Disney CEO Bob Iger had stated last November. Iger plainly stated that, going forward, Disney would focus on “entertaining” first and not “Messages” in their films — further promising to avoid “Culture War” battles in the future.
Iger blamed the creators at Disney for losing sight of what their jobs should be — he explained that it got worse when he left as CEO/Chairman. In his own words, Iger mentioned that stories infused with “positive messages for the world” can be great, but that it shouldn’t be forced upon an audience.
This comes after a recent report that claimed mouse house streamer, Disney+, recently lost close to $4 billion. Are we watching the collapse of an empire in real time? Not so fast. Disney is currently on a course-correction, which might take a few years to pay dividends, but there’s no doubting that panic has been instilled into the company.