Former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of The Walt Disney Company Jay Rasulo, who is currently campaigning to get a seat on the company’s Board of Directors, declared that “something’s broken in the creation of creative content” at The Walt Disney Company.
Jay Rasulo via Restore the Magic on X
In a video encouraging Disney investors to vote for him and Nelson Peltz to become members of The Walt Disney Company’s Board of Directors Rasulo said, “I think something of the most important things to focus on at The Walt Disney Company are: first, and foremost creative content. Something’s broken in the creation of creative content.”
Jay Rasulo, former $DIS CFO, thinks something’s “broken” in Disney’s famed ability to transform stories into hit films, attractions, and products. Vote FOR Jay Rasulo and Nelson Peltz; WITHHOLD on Maria Elena Lagomasino, Michael B.G. Froman, and all three Blackwells Nominees.
— Restore The Magic (@RestoringMagic) February 21, 2024
He continued, “I think from the very start back in the ’30s when Walt [Disney] created the first feature animated film it started the Disney flywheel. In fact, Walt invented the Disney flywheel. That you could take something that pleased people in a movie theater, make it into consumer products, ultimately put it into Disneyland as rides and attractions.”
“Animation is so key to The Walt Disney Company, so key to the success and the running of the flywheel that to imagine that The Walt Disney Company has lost its iconic status in animation today is almost unbelievable and personally it really affects me because this is how we created success when I was at the company,” he concluded.
RULER OF ROSAS – Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Wish” is set in Rosas, a magical kingdom where wishes really do come true. The ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico, is the sole keeper of hundreds of wishes entrusted to him by people from all over the world. Featuring the voice Chris Pine as Magnifico, the all-new musical-comedy is helmed by Oscar®-winning director Chris Buck (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (“Raya and the Last Dragon”), produced by Peter Del Vecho (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (“Encanto”). “Wish” opens only in theaters on Nov. 22, 2023. © 2023 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
It’s hard to argue with Rasulo’s comments. The Walt Disney Company’s creatives have not churned out anything successful in quite some time. Looking at 2023, nearly all of the company’s films lost money including Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Marvel Studios’ The Marvels as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Pixar’s Elemental, Disney Animation Studios’ Wish, and Walt Disney Studios’ The Little Mermaid and Haunted Mansion.
The only film that performed halfway decent was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but even it performed much worse than previous entries in the franchise.
(L-R): Karen Gillan as Nebula, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, and Dave Bautista as Drax in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Photo by Jessica Miglio. © 2023 MARVEL.
In 2022, Disney animation studios also produced multiple disasters including Lightyear and Strange World.
2021 also saw a number of failures including Black Widow, Eternals, Jungle Cruise, Cruella, and Raya and the Last Dragon.
(L-R): Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Sersi (Gemma Chan), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) and Druig (Barry Keoghan) in Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Speaking specifically to the flywheel, the company has made a number of bizarre choices when it comes to turning films into rides and attractions. Instead of bringing to life the planet of Tatooine from the original and prequel trilogies in Star Wars, Disney decided to create an original land called Batuu.
They seem to have made the same mistake with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Instead of bringing to life a sequence from the film, Disney opted to create an original, sequel story.
Concept art for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
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Interestingly, it’s not just Rasulo making this claim. The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger has also admitted the company’s creative is not doing well.
Back in May 2023 during the company’s Q2 FY23 Earnings Results webcast Iger admitted that much of the company’s programming on Disney+ was not contenting with subscribers, “As we grow the business in terms of the global footprint, we realized that we made a lot of content that is not necessarily driving sub growth and we’re getting much more surgical about what it is we make.”
Bradley Cooper and Bob Iger attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood CA on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
(Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)
In an interview in July 2023 with CNBC’s David Faber, Faber asked Iger, “Is there a problem though at Disney Animation? Is the loss of John Lasseter years ago been a blow that you haven’t been able to recover from?”
Iger responded, “Well, first of all, the studio and its movie assets are number one at the global box office, so far. That said we are extremely realistic and I’m very objective about that business. There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to have performed better.”
“It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings we ended up taxing our people way beyond, in terms of their time and their focus, way beyond where they had been,” he explained.
“Marvel’s a great example of that,” he noted. “They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series.”
“And frankly, it diluted focus and attention. And I think you are seeing that is more the cause than anything else,” he stated.
(L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
What do you make of Rasulo’s comments about the state of Disney’s creative talent and production?
I have solutions to the problems that plague Lucasfilm. That doesn’t mean not listening to the goals of other investors it means addressing the content in a way that attracts the maximum amount of audience goers to Lucasfilm and competes with other studios in a way that makes moves to attract better market share. Therefore I urge Disney/ Lucasfilm to let me pitch my ideas and hire me to write stories for movies.