Thursday, January 26, 2006

Disney Buys Pixar: A Day Of Rejoicing

Tuesday was a day of miracles; of rejoicing. Finally, Disney had done something totally different and unexpected in that it found a way to preserve the heritage of Walt Disney while acquiring another company that is so important to it's future. I'm hopeful, that ramifications of this deal will be felt in very positive ways years down the road. Having John Lasseter and Ed Catmull of Pixar head up Disney animation is like returning the spirit of Walt Disney back into the Disney company in one fell swoop. While some may see this as the death of Pixar, I don't believe that Steve Jobs or John Lasseter will allow this to happen.
Pixar has many, many dynamic creatives in it's midsts and all that John Lasseter has to do is oversee that things run smoothly and let these guys do their thing. You can't have a million people in charge of each production, because it doesn't work. Just look at Disney's films for the last ten years and you'll see the result of that kind of thinking. What Jobs, Lasseter and Catmull will do for Disney is allow the creative culture to come back to that company and in doing so, I believe there's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow to look forward to.