Pixar reaped a heap of anger Wednesday as the blogosphere accused Disney’s animation house of sexism -- and worse, being formulaic -- for firing Brenda Chapman, the first female director in its history, from “Brave,” a film she had written and nurtured through the development process.
For one thing, the animation industry is not known as a warm and fuzzy place for women.
And Hollywood overall? Women remain a fraction of the industry’s directors, just 7 percent according to the latest study -- the same ratio as a decade ago.
The Pixar news sent a particularly angry ripple through the blogosphere as the studio confirmed that Brenda Chapman (above) had been taken off the girl-centric film about an archer-princess.
Aggravating the situation, "Brave" will be Pixar's first film to star a female lead character, with Reese Witherspoon voicing the title role.
Mark Andrews, who earned an Oscar nomination for his Pixar short "One Man Band," was tapped to take Chapman's place.
“This is really upsetting,” wrote one commenter called Killskerry on Cartoon Brew, the animation-news site that broke the news on Monday. “It’s so discouraging to see a lack of ladies in high up positions.”
Even Chapman’s colleagues inside Pixar were reported to be angry.
Drew McWeeny on Hitfix said a friend at the studio “talked about how upset many of his colleagues are, simply because they were hoping they were going to see Brenda's film. It's a real testament to her that it seems like this is the first one of these Pixar staff changes that has really upset other animators.”
See accompanying story, "Blogosphere Blasts Pixar Over 'Brave' Director's Exit."
It's no wonder Chapman's firing has created such a flurry of protest. She was the first woman ever to direct an animated feature from a major studio -- DreamWorks Animation's "The Prince of Egypt," which she co-directed with Steve Hickner and Simon Wells in 1998.
She also worked in the story department on such animated classics as Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" and "The Lion King" and joined DreamWorks Animation when the studio opened in 1994.
"It's unfortunate because Brenda Chapman would have been the first woman to direct a Pixar feature. As a result, this story will probably get a lot of attention but it is not all that unusual for studios to replace directors," said Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. "However, I don't see this as a major event in the larger picture of women working behind-the-scenes in the film industry."
Pixar was apparently proud enough of her hiring for "Brave' that they even boasted about her at Annecy, the International Animated Film Festival.
Pixar and Disney executives did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
