Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer and President Robert Iger touted Disney’s dedication to keeping animation a priority on Friday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “Animation is as timeless an art form as it is a business creating ripple effects felt across the whole company through musicals, theme part attractions, home entertainment, and retail goods,” Iger said. “They’ve become part of our culture and that is why they create so much value,” Iger told the shareholders gathered at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. The company’s priority on animation was what led to the $7.5 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios announced in January, Iger said. John Lasseter, formerly Pixar’s executive vice president and now chief creative officer of Disney’s animation studios and principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, said the studio was filled with talented artists and that artists that had left had been brought back. As for his role at Disney Imagineering, Lasseter said when ideas are conceived for new feature films there was no reason why associated theme park rides could not be designed at the same time so that the characters can live beyond the boundaries of the film. “We’re going to make theme park rides where as soon as you get off you want to get back in that line no matter how long it is to ride again,” Lasseter said. The shareholders were shown a trailer and a clip from “Cars,” the next joint Pixar and Disney film scheduled for release in June.
