Tuesday, December 15, 2009

John Lasseter Champions Better-Quality Film Merchandise

As if he doesn't have enough to do, John Lasseter also does quality control on the merchandise for Disney films.

No detail seems to be too mundane for Lasseter, who after years focusing on Pixar is extending his reach to Walt Disney Co.'s merchandise juggernaut. Immersing himself in the toy-making process, he has visited a plant in Hong Kong to observe how workers applied paint to "Toy Story" Buzz Lightyear figures. The father of five boys has also spent hours in Mattel's showrooms, studying the Disney Princess line, to better understand what little girls want.

The filmmaker is bringing his taskmaster persistence to Disney consumer products, pressing for better-quality toys in a business associated with sometimes shoddy and opportunistic merchandise.


I often wonder if someone is actually doing some kind of quality control on the various Disney merchandise being sold, both at the theme parks, online, at Disney Stores, and those licensed stuff we see at Walgreens, Target, Menards, etc. Some of the stuff with a Disney label on them look rather shoddy and cheap. They certainly need a John Lasseter to halt some of the poor-quality stuff that get hawked under the Disney label.

Zz.

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