Former Disney Chief Says Company Is “Broken,” Blames Bob Iger

In a brutal new video, former Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo called the company creatively “broken” and blamed its leadership, namely CEO Bob Iger.

Currently, Jay Rasulo is attempting to gain a seat on the Walt Disney Company Board of Directors, with the explicit goal of ousting Bob Iger and maximizing shareholder profits. He is a key part of a campaign dubbed Restore the Magic that, alongside Trian Fund Management founder and billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, thinks that Disney is basically circling the drain and only their leadership can save it (and again, shareholder profits.)

Restore the Magic has been very blunt in its appraisal of Bob Iger’s job performance in the last two years, calling his recent claims of a financial resurgence a “distraction” to shareholders and describing the multi-billion dollar plans to expand Disney Parks as “throwing spaghetti at the wall.”

Related: Disney Announces New President as Bob Iger Struggles

In short, Jay Rasulo and Nelson Peltz (who are backed by former Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter) aren’t pulling their punches, and a new video posted on Twitter is much of the same.

Jay Rasulo, former $DIS CFO, thinks something’s “broken” in Disney’s famed ability to transform stories into hit films, attractions, and products. Vote FOR Jay Rasulo and Nelson Peltz; WITHHOLD on Maria Elena Lagomasino, Michael B.G. Froman, and all three Blackwells Nominees.

— Restore The Magic (@RestoringMagic) February 21, 2024

In the video, Jay Rasulo says, “I think some of the most important things to focus on at The Walt Disney Company are: first, and foremost, creative content. Something’s broken in the creation of creative content.”

It is difficult to argue that Disney is not in something of a creative slump. Its centennial anniversary movie, Wish (2023), was largely dismissed by critics and audiences, and Pixar, usually the awards-bait arm of the company, has even admitted that it needed to go back to basics for its storytelling. The less said about the diminishing returns of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Indiana Jones series, and Star Wars, the better.

The former Disney CFO went on, “I think from the very start back in the ’30s when Walt [Disney] created the first feature animated film, it started the Disney flywheel. In fact, Walt invented the Disney flywheel. That you could take something that pleased people in a movie theater, make it into consumer products, ultimately put it into Disneyland as rides and attractions.”

By flywheel, Jay Rasulo is referencing a business concept that boils down to the idea that “small wins build up to organic growth.” As such, he seems to be saying that Disney has abandoned the approach of making a creative work of art like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), turning it into toys that can be sold, and then building theme park attractions around them. While this has been historically successful for Disney, it doesn’t exactly jive with his support of “creative content” except as a means to immediately monetize.

Rasulo finished up by saying, “Animation is so key to The Walt Disney Company, so key to the success and the running of the flywheel that to imagine that The Walt Disney Company has lost its iconic status in animation today is almost unbelievable and personally it really affects me because this is how we created success when I was at the company.”

Related: Bob Iger Makes Announcement, Disney Will Change Forever in 2026

It should be reiterated that Jay Rasulo is currently campaigning to remove Bob Iger from leadership and have himself installed in a position of authority, which explains his not-subtle implication that the company was most successful when he was Disney CFO.

Shareholders will vote on a new Board of Directors in April, and we will see whether they decide to stick with Bob Iger, whose direction of the company has many legitimate criticisms, or go with Jay Rasulo and Nelson Peltz, whose main goal seems to be to get him out of there. This video might not be the tipping point, but it does show what Restore the Magic is about.

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