“Permission to hug?”
The Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan had spoken the line six different ways. Soft. Bright. With a bit more hiss — he was voicing a character called Gary De’Snake in “Zootopia 2,” after all.
Alas, a seventh attempt was needed. “Maybe try one, like, out of the corner of your mouth,” a disembodied voice suggested.
Mr. Quan mopped sweat from the back of his neck with a towel and did his best.
“Oh, man, sounds so good!” the voice said. “Can we get one more with the slightest, slightest smile on the whole thing?”
The person putting Mr. Quan through his recording booth paces that July morning was Jared Bush, who wrote “Zootopia 2” and directed it with Byron Howard. In some ways, Mr. Bush’s push to get every syllable just right was standard filmmaker fastidiousness. But he also had a much bigger reason to strive for perfection.
Last year, Disney turned to Mr. Bush to solve a problem at its 102-year-old animation studio. After more than a decade of uninterrupted success, Disney Animation had thrown a gear, serving up two humiliating clunkers in a row. “Strange World,” an adventure about a gay teenage boy and his three-legged dog, cost at least $220 million to make and market and took in $74 million worldwide. “Wish,” a poorly reviewed musical fantasy about an Afro-Latina teenager, cost an estimated $300 million and collected $255 million. (Disney splits ticket sales with theaters.)
So Disney took action, removing Jennifer Lee as the division’s chief creative officer and replacing her with Mr. Bush, whose Disney Animation credits include writing or co-writing “Moana” (2016), “Zootopia” (2016) and “Encanto” (2021). “Zootopia” and “Encanto” won Oscars.
Mr. Bush, who is 51 and looks 30, got his start in Hollywood by writing for live-action sitcoms like “All of Us.” He joined Disney Animation in 2012. At the time, John Lasseter, the animation virtuoso who preceded Ms. Lee as C.C.O., was starting to turn the studio around after an earlier languishing period.
Mr. Bush’s mandate? Rekindle creativity and restore confidence. Prioritize clear, mass-appeal storytelling that has humor and heart. Replenish the company’s trove of intellectual property by finding new original hits.
In other words, make Disney Animation sizzle like it did under Mr. Lasseter, who resigned from the studio in 2018 after some employees complained about unwanted workplace touching. (Mr. Lasseter ran both Disney Animation and the separate Pixar Animation; Pete Docter succeeded him at Pixar, which has lately encountered its own creative troubles.)
“Our job is to make movies that will stand the test of time,” Mr. Bush said in a recent interview. “I want everyone here to be thinking about that constantly.”
Last fall, Disney Animation released “Moana 2.” It received weak reviews, but pent-up demand pushed global ticket sales to $1.1 billion. “Zootopia 2,” which has received raves, arrives in theaters on Wednesday and hopes to pull off the same trick.
Then comes a real test for Mr. Bush. Next fall, Disney Animation will release “Hexed,” an original film about an awkward teenager who discovers that he’s a wizard. “He’s pulled into a world of magic and realizes, oh, these are his people,” Mr. Bush said.
“Spoiler,” he added. “Mom, who’s also trying to figure herself out, is tied to him. So it’s a mother-son buddy comedy.”
In 2027, Disney Animation will roll out “Frozen III,” with Ms. Lee writing and directing. In 2028, the studio plans to release another original. Mr. Bush wouldn’t divulge the title or plot, saying only: “It’s not a human world. It’s a very different style than we usually do.” (Perhaps anime-inspired, like “KPop Demon Hunters,” the Netflix smash hit? Mr. Bush wouldn’t say, although he did allow that he thinks about “evolution” in art styles “a lot — a lot.”)
Original animated hits are crucial for Disney because they keep the company relevant with families and strengthen the company’s famed “flywheel.” That term refers to the ways in which Disney monetizes its characters on an endless loop — from movies to consumer products to streaming services to theme parks.
In a text message, Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, called Mr. Bush “a man of boundless energy, optimism and ideas.” Mr. Bergman added, “He has an astute sense of what excites moviegoers and of the heart and humor that are so essential to Disney Animation storytelling.”
In person, Mr. Bush exhibits a zany playfulness. At one point during an interview at Disney Animation headquarters in Burbank, Calif., he insisted that a reporter try out a toy gun that sprayed fake $100 bills. Someone had bought it for a “Zootopia 2” brainstorming session and left it behind.
“I love the kid in him,” Mr. Quan said.
Mr. Bush’s emotions sometimes run close to the surface, a quality for which Mr. Lasseter was also known. Mr. Bush started to tear up, for instance, while talking about the social justice subtext in “Zootopia 2.” Like the first film, the sequel is a fable about bigotry disguised as a comedic adventure.
But Mr. Bush can also be guarded when it suits him, perhaps reflecting a family trait: His father and grandfather worked at the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Bush, for example, did not seem particularly eager to talk about his personal life. (He’s married to his college sweetheart and has three sons.)
In partnership with Clark Spencer, Disney Animation’s president, Mr. Bush has changed the feedback process for unfinished films, holding regular studiowide screenings and asking everyone to use an online tool called Noteworthy to give frank assessments. The findings are compiled and presented to the whole studio, usually the next week.
“It creates a very different level of trust and engagement,” Mr. Bush said. “People started to say: ‘Oh, you actually care what we think. It’s not lip service.’”
Before Mr. Quan started his recording session in July, Mr. Bush and other senior members of the “Zootopia 2” creative team spent an hour in a more granular feedback session. One by one, nine animators presented a “packet,” a tiny snippet of the film that had been assigned to them to render.
First up was Jesse Cnockaert, who joined the meeting by video from a Disney Animation facility in Vancouver, British Columbia. His five-second sequence involved a karate-style kick by Judy Hopps, a bunny cop. After watching what Mr. Cnockaert had come up with, Mr. Bush and Mr. Howard gave fast notes.
Lose the bear in the background — too cluttery. What about having the buffalo do something funny with his hoof? Hopps should have a slightly sillier smile.
“Any questions?” Mr. Bush asked.
Mr. Cnockaert had one. Should Hopps wince after her kick? After all, hadn’t she hurt her leg in a prior scene?
The room fell quiet.
“You know what?” Mr. Bush said. “I think the adrenaline has made it not hurt anymore.”
Everyone laughed.
Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal.
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