Pixar Lays Off Galyn Susman, Producer Who Saved ‘Toy Story 2’

Galyn Susman — the longtime Disney producer who’s credited with saving “Toy Story 2” — simply acquired the boot alongside a number of different Pixar staff … and followers are pissed.

The information got here down Saturday from Reuters, which reported Susman was considered one of 75 Pixar employees who not too long ago gotten the axe in mass layoffs. She was considered one of 3 key Pixar folks to be let go … the others included Michael Agulnek — Pixar’s VP of worldwide publicity — and ‘Lightyear’ director Angus MacLane, who was concerned in different Pixar flicks too.

The firings are reportedly tied to the bomb that was final yr’s ‘Lightyear’ … a film based mostly on the “actual” Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Chris Evans. It had a finances of about $200 mil, and solely made $226 mil on the worldwide field workplace … to not point out middling opinions.

Whereas the movie did not do nicely, many are saying that scapegoating — and in the end canning — the execs/producers tied to its growth is cold-blooded … particularly because it pertains to Galyn, who performed an important in preserving what was left of ‘TS2’ on the time.

It is the stuff of legends — and this story’s been repeated a number of instances by Disney execs through the years. There was some form of glitch in Disney’s computer systems that actually deleted upwards of 90% of the film again then because it was a few yr out from its imminent launch date.

The studio was scrambling to protect no matter was left, however from the appears of it … they had been going to have to begin from scratch — that’s, till Galyn got here to the rescue with a backup copy … which she fortuitously had in her possession as a result of her WFH/maternity depart.

Ultimately, Disney remade the film anyway — creating a special model from what Galyn had saved — however her further recordsdata undoubtedly saved them a variety of time/work/cash.