‘Frozen,’ ‘Zootopia,’ and ‘Toy Story’ Sequels Not Enough to Save Disney Kids and Animation Divisions

It’s a somber time at the Walt Disney Company offices. As has been covered extensively since its announcement and onset, the company has been going through major layoffs. On February 8, 2023, during the earnings call for the first quarter of the Financial Year 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the company was going to be undergoing a significant restructuring to account for 5.5 billion in cost-cutting measures; 7000 people were going to be affected by this move. Over the last two months, the layoffs have started taking shape, and April, in particular, has been particularly notable with regard to them.

Related: “There Is A Sense Of Foreboding”: Disney Layoffs to Resume Soon

Beginning in April, many higher-up executives have been let go of, and the list includes some surprising names. The layoffs have also brought their fair share of drama from some former Disney executives; entire divisions have been cut.

In the midst of this, many have also been speculating on the billions Disney will have to spend to keep ahold of the various properties it owns and the amount of money Disney currently spends on things like personal security for Disney CEO Bob Iger, calling out and highlighting the number of people losing their jobs.

But that’s not all February 8 brought with it. During the earnings call, Mr. Iger also announced that Disney had given Frozen, Toy Story, and Zootopia sequels the green light. The most recent installment of each of these three franchises was incredibly successful. Frozen II earned nearly $1.5 billion at the box office, while Toy Story 4 and Zootopia broke the billion-dollar mark.

But for any who believed that these sequels meant that perhaps some divisions other than Cast Members at Disney Parks were safe from the Disney layoffs (the Disney Animation and Kids divisions), per recent news, it’s been revealed that this is not the case.

As reported recently, Disney TV Animation’s SVP of Current Series, Khaki Jones, VP of the Kids unit, Claire McCabe, and Meghan de Boer, Executive Director of the Kids unit, have been let go as part of the company-wide initiative. Khaki Jones is leaving after 13 years with the studio; Jones supervised all series and short-form content produced for Disney branded television channels and Disney Plus (Disney+). As the Animation World Network outlined, “Both execs [in the Kids division] were promoted only a year prior to develop unscripted kids’ projects based on existing Disney IPs.”

There is currently no word on any layoffs of either execs or staff in TV or feature film animation departments of the Walt Disney Company.