Shocker: John Lasseter And Skydance Animation Ditch Apple For Netflix Deal

Skydance Animation, David Ellison’s animation studio run by the disgraced creative chief of Pixar and Disney, John Lasseter, has ended its distribution deal with Apple after releasing just one feature – the poorly-reviewed Luck. Its future output will now be released by Netflix.

There’s no official reason why Apple and Skydance parted ways so soon after signing a multi-year pact, but Variety suggested that the two companies “mutually agreed that [Skydance’s upcoming feature] Spellbound was not a fit for Apple’s expanding narrative slate, thus necessitating its move to Netflix.”

Spellbound, directed by Vicky Jenson (Shrek), will be the first Skydance film to release on Netflix, followed by Pookoo (from Tangled’s Nathan Greno), Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn, and an untitled Jack and the Beanstalk project from Zootopia director Rich Moore. Theatrical releases are not part of the deal, according to Variety.

The Skydance deal follows last week’s news that Netflix is restructuring its animation division. As part of that restructuring, Netflix plans to produce less animated features in-house and acquire more films from third-party producers, one of which we now know is Skydance.