Disneytoon Studios
In a 2003-1 reorganization of Disney, Disney MovieToons/Disney Video Premieres was transferred from Walt Disney Television Animation to Walt Disney Feature Animation and renamed Disneytoon Studios (DTS) in June. Morrill continued to lead the division as executive vice president.[7] With the split, both Disneytoon and Disney Television Animation were issuing direct to video features.[5]
Disney closed Disney Animation Japan, one of the two remaining internal overseas studios Disneytoon worked with, in June 2004, with Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005) as its final DTS work.[12][13][14] By 2005-3, Morrill was promoted to president of Disneytoon.[5] On 2005-7-25, Disney announced that it was closing Disneytoon Studios Australia in October 2006 after 17 years of existence, with its final feature being Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007).[15]
In the early 2000s, Disneytoon joined Disney Consumer Products (DCP) as their internal video partner within the Disney conglomerate in developing the new Disney franchises, which then only consisted of Disney Princess and Disney Fairies. While DCP eyed other potential franchises, DTS looked into the Seven Dwarfs for a male-centric franchise to counterbalance the female-centric Fairies by 2005.[16]
John Lasseter joined Disney with the purchase of Pixar in 2006, and made it known that he disliked Disneytoon's sequels and prequels, as he felt that they were undercutting the value of the original feature films. Following complications relating to the production of Tinker Bell (2008), the debut film of DCP's Fairies franchise, it led to discussions over the focus of the division. Thus, Morrill, president of the studio, moved to a new position in the company. On June 22, 2007, management of Disneytoon Studios was turned over to the control of Alan Bergman, president of Walt Disney Studios, with input from Ed Catmull and Lasseter. As chief creative officer, Lasseter called for the cancellation of all future films in production or development at Disneytoon Studios. As a result, planned or in-progress sequels to Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), The Aristocats (1970), Chicken Little (2005), and Meet the Robinsons (2007) were all cancelled, among other projects. Tinker Bell's animation was scrapped and was restarted while two projects that DCP formed as franchise projects were canceled, which were "Disney's Dwarfs" and the Disney Princess Enchanted Tales line after the latter's first DVD. The release of The Little Mermaid 3 was put on hold.[17][18] Disney Studios president Alan Bergman went to oversee day-to-day operations of DTS.[18] Thus DTS halted production of sequels and prequels when it originally indicated that the division would shift to support various
Meredith Roberts transferred from Walt Disney Television Animation to senior vice president and general manager of Disneytoon Studios in 2008-1.[19] At the April unveiling of Disney's animated feature lineup, it was announced that Disneytoon Studios would no longer produce future sequels to Disney animated films, but will instead focus on spin-offs. Also, the division was under the banner of the renamed Walt Disney Feature Animation studio, now called Walt Disney Animation Studios, led by Catmull and Lasseter.[20]
In November 2017, Lasseter announced that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging what he called "missteps" in his behavior with employees in a memo addressed to the staff of Disneytoon Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Pixar.[21] According to The Hollywood Reporter and The Washington Post, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees.[22][23][24] On June 8, 2018, it was announced that Lasseter would leave Disney Animation and Pixar at the end of the year, but would take on a consulting role until then.[25]
Disneytoon Studios closed on June 28, 2018, resulting in a layoff of 75 animators and staff.[26] As a result, the studio's third Planes film about the future of aviation in outer space was removed from both Disney's film release date schedule of April 12, 2019 and from development.[27]
Since 2019, the studio building has been used as a third building for new productions for Disney Television Animation with Roberts being promoted new CEO at Disney Television Animation after the departure of long-time CEO Eric Coleman in 2019.[28][29][30][31][32]
