Rumor: Pixar “At War With Disney And Bob Chapek” Over Decision To Release ‘Turning Red’ Direct To Disney Plus
A coming-of-age story centered around Meilin “Mei” Lee, a young Chinese-Canadian girl who finds herself turning into a giant red panda anytime she finds herself overwhelmed with emotion, Turning Red was originally slated for a theatrical release on March 11th, 2022.
Then, on January 7th, Disney abruptly announced that though it would keep its initial release date, Pixar’s latest film would instead be released directly to Disney Plus — save for international markets where the company’s streaming service has not yet been established, where it will still make its debut in theaters.
This decision reportedly did not sit well with the studio, as just a few days later, a number of anonymous Pixar staff reportedly voiced their displeasure to Variety.
Disney threw ‘Onward’ onto Disney+, since it came out just before the lockdowns hit. ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’ were also sent straight to Disney+, instead of getting their originally planned theatrical release
However, according to a new report from Small Screen, Pixar team members are more outraged over this decision than the anonymous staffers initially let on.
“Pixar is furious,” a supposed insider allegedly told the outlet. “They’re not impressed with Disney, the execs and Bob Chapek.”
“They wanted Turning Red to be released theatrically, not on Disney Plus,” they continued. “This has made the whole company upset and basically at war with Disney and Bob Chapek.”
But here’s the kicker
The alleged insider also noted that they had heard rumblings that Pixar “wants out of Disney.”
“They have been having internal strategy and crisis control meetings at Pixar as they see this as a huge problem,” they added. “And it’s just getting worse.”
I don’t think Pixar can just leave Disney. Like, can they declare independence, as if they’re a country or something?
But in all seriousness, this (along with many other things) goes to show the poor management of Disney under Chapek. We saw something similar to this when Scarlett Johansson filed her lawsuit, after Disney allegedly violated their contract with her by dual releasing ‘Black Widow’ in theaters and Disney+. It should be interesting to see what happens with Chapek, and whether the board of directors will try to get him out. I’m not super familiar with Disney’s financials, but if the company’s doing well, than he’ll probably be around for a while
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