Disney watcher Jim Hill’s blog post can easily be read as thinly veiled collusion with an attempt to torpedo industry perception of Pixar’s leadership at Disney by pre-painting Friday’s release of Ratatouille as a “dissapointment.”

To give Hill the benefit of the doubt, maybe he’s just reporting the facts as he sees them, even if the only real fact is that some Disney executive feels threatened by the incoming Pixar regime. And Hill really wants us to know how realistic he is and just how well he grasps the business of Hollywood. Well, I don’t claim to be an expert in business, but I smell a….you know.

Anyhow, I was contemplating writing a screed about how half-baked the article’s conclusions are, how it seems to be carrying water for people who don’t deserve a drop, and perhaps also covering the poorly concealed hatred too many showbiz watchers have for creative people (”creeping Nikki Finkism” I call it!!) — but then Hill’s posters pretty much took the words from my fingers:

Curmudgeon:

We understand there are jealous people working in Hollywood, but hoping that successful people fail, so that executives with “decades of working experience” can maintain their expense accounts - that’s just sad.

Rufus 3695:

Quote: “Many of us here feel that Disney’s own executives (Who in some cases have decades of working experience) are needlessly being forced to take a backseat to the crew from Emeryville.”

Yay! Yay! Whooopeee! (sound effect: tap dancing feet)

If these are the same creative executives who helped undermine Disney 2d animation while helping to cripple the Disney brand in the process, I say “More please”.

Tomoyo:

I think the real issue is the stock market- an inescapable reality of the business and one that’s worth fans being aware of. I’d say that quality productions, even if they don’t keep topping their predecessors at the BO, are an asset that will ultimately turn a profit. Whereas cheapquels only serve for quick cash and erosion of the company’s chief asset…

(Tomoyo brings up an excellent point. Companies these days seem more concerned with keeping their stock price high than with actually selling their product, which seems like a perversion of capitalism to me…but then I’m no economist.)

And finally Bryant Burnette:

My sense here is that somebody has an agenda. This article is not news reporting, it’s rumor-mongering gussied up as news. There are almost no facts in the whole thing, and the ones that are there — like the inclusion of “Lilo & Stitch” and “Chicken Little” as evidence that Disney CAN still produce hits on its own (though they were both smaller hits even than “Ratatouille” is being PROJECTED to be) and the marked lack of any mention of the company’s numerous recent disappointments — fail to tell a terribly persuasive story.

Like they all said — and there are plenty more interesting comments on the thread, including some actually supporting Jim Hill.

Here’s what I’d suggest: go see Ratatouille this weekend. Bring the kids for sure, but also make sure to buy tickets for any unborn children in attendance…zygotes and embroyonic stem cells in petri dishes included. (James Hobsen says they’re people, and people need tickets.) And what about your kids’ imaginary friends? Consider buying one ticket for Elijah and another for Walt’s frozen head. Prove to the schadenfreude crowd that occasionally quality has some connection with how well a movie does. based on what I’m reading, you’ll have a great time doing it.

UPDATE: Terry Gross interviews Brad Bird and Patton Oswalt. Hilarity and interesting info ensues.