You do make an excellent point. It supplies them with an outlet. I wasn’t really aware that Marvel needed that, but I suppose it helps. I’m just shaky about it. I’m not completely against or for it. I heard that Disney doesn’t intend to infringe on their property, which is a relief. Still, it’s a bummer to see that Disney has become such a darkly lit corporation when they were an absolute gold mine for creativity before. That’s my biggest problem with them, it’s not what they are now, but what they’ve become in comparison to what they were.
Wow… I’ve been wondering why this old thread of Lou rooting for the ‘enemy’ is getting so much attention lately, and reading the latest posts, now I know. 
I’m very upset with the ‘voice’ of one of my favourite Pixar characters (not to mention an amazing animator and all-round Pixarian) being so bitter towards his ‘superiors’, but at the same time I can see where he’s coming from. Although… isn’t Disney cleaning up their act lately? What with PtaF and less direct-to-DVD sequels out now (although they still suck in the live-action division, stupid teenybopper movies. No offense to Cyrus or Jonas bros fans).? I don’t see what’s the big deal about the Marvel acquisition? If anything, it should be for the best, or at least, the status quo will be retained. I’m pretty sure Pixar and Marvel will be given free-rein for creative decisions, unlike coughDreamworkscough.
Alright, you know what? I don’t ‘get’ Romano’s inflammatory comic. I don’t think it’s so much a ‘rage against the establishment’ stand as more of a personal employer/colleague issue. Has he given any official reason for his leave? And forgive my ignorance (cos’ I was under the impression he was still under employment), but when did he leave the company?
I believe it was somewhere in 2005, or 2006, (maybe 07, not sure how the process works) somewhat early in development for Up. He ended up doing the color keys for the storyboards for Up and some other artwork, but after that, I think he left Pixar. He’s been away from them for a while, he migrated to a different studio (who’s name I constantly forget).
To add a bit to what wallefanatic and thedriveintheatre said, I also don’t really get the criticism over the Disney/Marvel deal. I too think Disney has really been “cleaning up their act lately” So far, I trust Bob Iger. His Pixar deal was genius. Not only did he acquire an awesome studio, be brought over two of the head guys, and put them in charge of Disney Animation. Some of the smartest people to probably ever work in animation, are now running the Disney animation studio. That’s a smart move.The Marvel deal will I think almost definitely be the same. Yeah, Disney will own them, but why mess with what Marvel is doing? Though to be honest, Marvel actually needs some quality control over their comics. Captain America anyone?
Although, I can’t be sure, I would bet this move also has to do with Disney trying to find a boy audience. Let’s be honest, the Disney Channel is pretty much a girl channel. I’ll admit, they’re doing more with it: Wizards of Waverly seems to appeal to both boys and girls, i suppose one could argue that Zack and Cody appeals to boys, and I think Phineas and Ferb does. Still, I would primarily say the Disney Channel is a girl channel. Now, they’re trying to get boys with Disney XD. They’ve been showing Marvel shows on Toon Disney for a decent time, and now Disney XD is the only channel in the US to watch The Spectacular Spider-Man. They’re also showing X-Me Evolution now. Adding more Marvel shows would probably help get more boys watching the channel, as long as the shows are good. Now, I believe Nicktoons Network will be showing three Marvel shows. I believe they are supposed to be staying their for now, but you never know. I would bet they get moved, or at least shown on Disney XD at some point, which isn’t really a big deal, though it may cause the show to loose some audience. Really, though TV will be fine, and may even get better.
The films are supposed to be OK, at least for the ones in production I believe. Iger said that he would like to see them move under the Disney label at some point, but I believe he was also quoted saying, “If it ain’t broke…”. For example, Spiderman 4 will be coming out as planned under Sony. Alot of the key players, including Tobey McGuire, and Sam Raimi, have said that they might be leaving the series, multiple times. If they’re going to continue making Spidey films with new people, I’d rather see a reboot, and I think a reboot would be better under a new studio, so I actually see that as a good thing. Will Disney interfere with the actually making of the films? We’ll have to see, but have most of them really been that good anyways?
Last, I think Marvel can actually really benefit if this deal goes well. Disney is a huge company. Yeah, we all know about the dark side of Disney. It’s been like that for years. I know they are a business, but I find it easy to look at what material they put out, and what they are supposed to stand for. I just don’t worry about the business stuff, and I really try not to pay it too much mind, with a few exceptions. But becasue Disney is so huge, they can do a lot of Marvel. Steve Jobs talked about all the Disney assets, like the theme parks, that really help Pixar. The same thing can be true of Marvel. They can get into the theme parks, they can take advantage of Disney’s marketing and distribution services. As wallefanatic said, maybe Disney can help financially and we can get some more, and hopefully way better stuff from Marvel. I like what I’ve seen form Bob Iger’s Disney so far, and I want to see what the do with it.
Pretty long I know.
On-topic: I think Lou went too far. Yeah, he made some OK points, but it’s really nothing new, and some of his points didn’t seem that legit. Pixar and the Muppets seem fine too me. Well, Pixar anyway. I don’t really blame Disney for the Muppets though. I know some people here really like/liked Lou, but I really don’t care about what he has to say anymore. I don’t agree with the stuff he says, and to be frank, I’m not real fond of him. He might still be a nice guy, I might still like him if I met him, but I feel I have the grounds to pretty much dismiss anything he says now.
I guess I’m the only one who found this funny, heh.
“KA-CHOW”
Oh Mickey, you sly mouse.
Like I said before, I think my biggest problem is that Disney’s not making their own material anymore, at least in animation, and it’s a huge bummer. I want to see more Disney merchandise, sure, but not Disney merchandise that’s Marvel and Pixar characters, I miss seeing Disney come up with their own great characters and stories. It’s like turning Pixar into a gift shop. Disney fell from the creative side of business, and now all they do is distribute and peddle merchandise.
I’m sure (well, hoping) that the Marvel deal will blow over, I mean Marvel’s not stupid, by any means. I’m just worried that something may happen down the road that is gonna get me upset.
You do make a lot of great points Doc, although, the current lineup of Nick and Disney is what made me stop watching TV, I can’t stand television anymore.
True, Disney wasn’t doing a whole lot with their own stuff. But this isn’t the same Disney. I think we are now looking at a Disney that is trying to rebuild itself. Bolt was good. It wasn’t great, but it was a solid film. We have Princess and the Frog coming out this winter. Rapunzel sounds pretty good. I’d say they’re making an effort, and I’m not going ot write them off for their past mistakes. The people in charge seem like good people. We have to give them a chance, at least. I have big hopes for the new Disney, and I think there’s a good chance we are all gonna witness a good turn around in the company’s history. The Disney Renaissance has happened before. It can happen again.
Kid’s TV isn’t all that bad. I think nostalgia often blinds us, because we had are fair share of the same stuff on now. I will admit, kids of the 90’s were spoiled in animation. We had the awesome Disney films going in theaters, and on TV we had a killer line-up with Cartoon Cartoons, Nicktoons, and The Disney Afternoon. Overall, cartoons on TV aren’t as good as they were, but there is still some quality stuff out there. Flapjack is actually pretty good. It feels like spiritual successor to the Cartoon Cartoons, but I also think it applies really well to older kids, and maybe even adults. I don’t watch The Secret Saturdays or Ben 10: Alien Force really, but I am glad there are these action/adventure shows out their kids. Secret Saturdays seems OK, though I wouldn’t say it can apply to that much of an older audience. Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars: The Clone Wars are very good though. Avatar had awesome writing, especially when you consider the target audience, and had quite possibly the best TV animation ever. The Clone Wars hasn’t reached Avatar of Batman level writing, yet. Yet. There were some really awesome episodes in the first season, and it got progressively better. The action is amazing, and it’s really like watching the films.
There are some gems in live-action as well. Drake and josh was pretty good. Wizards of Waverly Place is THE best live-action show to EVER be on the Disney Channel. It’s actually very well written, at least for a kid’s show, and it is genuinely hilarious. Now, Hannah Montana? Suite Life? Sonny with a Chance? Yeah, they’re not that great. I’'ll admit, some of them have their moments, but overall I’d say they’re not good shows. I do think Hannah Montana is genuinely bad. But let’s be honest. Disney hasn’t ever really had great live-action shows. Lizzie McGuire? Jett Jackson? So Weird? They were ok, but they really weren’t all that great, though So Weird, I think was pretty good, I just didn’t get into it. Even Stevens was probably the best show during that era, and I would say Wizards is better. Even Stevens had some classic stuff, but I’d say Wizards tops it pretty much all around. Nick, I would admit has fallen. I’ve listened to one episode of True Jackson, VP while I was doing something else, and iCarly is not good, except for the brother. No, there’s no All That, or Kenan and Kel or anything like that. But I have to wonder if it’s simply nostalgia that makes me like the old shows. I’d say they’re probably OK for the kids watching them, and that is who they are intended for. DuckTales rocked as a kid’s show, but I don’t think could appeal to older audiences. I’m glad I has it as a kid, and I think there are shows out there that do what DuckTales did for me, for a new generation. But like I said, there are still some good shows out there, you just gotta fidn the good ones, and leave the bad ones alone.
I wouldn’t give up TV in general. There’s good stuff. The Office, Psych, Monk, the Food Network is pretty good, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Clone Wars.
I just found this topic. This does make me sad.
I was just about to write a fan letter to Lou Romano, I love his artwork in the “art of Incredibles/Ratatouille” books, but also his voice performance as Linguini is great. But now I feel kinda weird about doing that.
I’ve read through the whole topic, but I’m still confused about what happened. First off, it is weird for him to publicly pick KFP over Wall-e, but hey, everyone his own opinion, right? But that was definitely a sing that things are amiss. Then the comic, I think this is hurting. If anyone outside of Pixar- or at least not such a big name as him would have done this, then I would think it’s funny.
It really makes me feel uncomfortable about the studio as a whole, what is going on over there? Are there a lot of conflicts within the studio? Is the creative freedom in jeopardy? I hope this isn’t the case.
What I think may have happened (this is pure speculation from my side):
Lou comes across as a strong character to me, so I can imagine him getting in some conflict in the studio. Maybe he felt he couldn’t do what he wanted over there at the moment? You know, with all the (rumoured) sequels in the works. He might have wanted to work on a new idea himself but couldn’t get it to take off at Pixar, due to whatever reason. I imagine he got a nice offer for a good position at LAIKA, so he took that. Remember this is just speculation 
.
I do hope he can work out his problems with Pixar and return someday 
! In any case I do wish him the best at his new job.
Pfew, glad I got that of my chest! Sorry to bring up such an old topic again . I’m not sure what I should do with my idea for the fan letter though… I can’t send it to Pixar anymore, but if I send him one at LAIKA only talking about his work at Pixar, that would be odd…