A few weeks ago, Janet Chan quit her job as a storyboard revisionist at Disney Television Animation, and left the animation industry for good. As she explained in a Youtube video, she was sick of what she described as toxic behavior, a dull working environment, and a general failure to reward talent. On Monday, Cartoon Brew reposted her video and summarized her points.
Chan’s video — more specifically, our article — has provoked a response from Jean-Denis Haas, an animation supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic and 16-year veteran of the industry. In a video of his own, Haas agrees with Chan in many respects, but says that it’s important to add context and nuance to her points. Watch it here:
By and large, Haas has loved his career to date. He places himself at one end of a spectrum and Chan at the other, arguing that most people entering the industry will end up somewhere in between. He recognizes the validity of Chan’s complaints, but adds that they don’t represent everyone’s experience. Below, we’ve recapped Chan’s key points (in bold) and summarized Haas’s response to each one: