Michelle Smith has posted a (poorly written but fascinating) email she received that suggests Feature Animation tyrant Tom Schumacher has been fired!!! I have heard some corroborating speculation.

Anyone have more...?

http://www.JimHillMedia.com/guest/michelle2.html

I hope this rumor is true. But DTV execs David Stainton and Sharon Morrill are every bit as bad (just a different flavor), so I hope the replacement nod goes to producer Don Hahn... he's the only one of that bunch who actually chose animation as his first love and career, and has been with the studio since before the theatre-crony takeover.

Let's hope another (seriously) wicked witch has been melted and that his winged monkeys will follow!

I'm hoping some Disney cast member who are regulars here with connections to Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank, CA can confirm this! This type of news will make headlines in the Los Angeles papers, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and E! News Daily. :eek:

A studio insider confirms the rumor from a "reliable source".

...CHAMPAGNE!!!

Great news! Thanks mj!

Whether or not the animators will consider this to be good news, how will the business world react? Remember that they initially raked Disney over the coals when Paul Pressler left, saying all kinds of great things about him and how Michael Eisner can't keep high-quality talent at the top. Will this latest move (if it proves to be more than a rumor) add fuel to that fire?

Originally posted by Iceman
Whether or not the animators will consider this to be good news, how will the business world react? Remember that they initially raked Disney over the coals when Paul Pressler left, saying all kinds of great things about him and how Michael Eisner can't keep high-quality talent at the top. Will this latest move (if it proves to be more than a rumor) add fuel to that fire?

Frankly, I think it may actually be a positive for the Walt Disney Company.

The reason is simple: there has been considerable complaints from folks inside both Feature Animation and Buena Vista Theatricals about how Schumacher's personal meddling in a number of projects have caused expensive waste of resources. For example, if you're seen the Collector's Edition of Atlantis: The Lost Empire DVD you'll note on Disc 2 the massive amount of development work on this movie that was spent and how much of it was discarded. The cost of production was a very steep US$114,000,000, and the movie only made US$84,000,000 in theatrical release. Compare this against Lilo & Stitch, which cost only US$80,000,000 to make and made over US$150 million in theatrical release. And Lilo & Stitch succeeded because Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders produced the project at Disney's Florida animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios some 2,000 miles away from Schumacher's meddling.

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/newarticles/y4/y4110102.htm

At the bottom of the article, Jim retracts what was said. It all
ended up being bad info.

Disney has just announced that Thomas Schumacher is leaving the Feature Animation department at Disney.

Here is the Los Angeles Times story that confirms the change:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney2nov02,0,2991653.story

Way overdue, in my humble opinion. :mad: Now, if we can just convince Don Hahn to take over Feature Animation.... :cool: