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No. 4939: Tonight the role of Bob Chapek will be played by Jonathan Q. Arbuckle

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Tonight the role of Bob Chapek will be played by Jonathan Q. Arbuckle

First | Previous | 2022-11-26 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=4939

Strip by: Trevor

{Bob Chapek, played this week by Jon Arbuckle, is on the phone, and his pet cat Garfield is listening}
Chapek: I always say that when our fans and our audiences put their kids to bed at night after watching Pinocchio or Dumbo or Little Mermaid...
Chapek: ...they're probably not going to tune into another animated movie. They want something for them.
{Oh hai Creator! Also, Chapek gets a response from the person he's calling, said response becoming obvious in this next panel}
Chapek: YOU love animation?! You're an adult!
Garfield: Go easy on her, she's really hurting
{You tell 'im, Garfield. Here, have a nice, hearty tray of Italian lasagna. And Chapek, go [censored] yourself}

The author writes:

... a.k.a. how Chapek lost what little respect I had for him at this point.

After Bob Chapek's recent comments on animation (which I used in this strip), as somebody who's adored animation my entire life (I even had Bugs Bunny's catchphrase inscribed inside my class ring) and actually sees it as a medium (not a genre as Chapek seems to see it), I figured I'd vent my anger by doing a follow-up to my "Take That!" at David Zaslav [not yet published -Ed]. Seriously, at least Michael Eisner and Bob Iger didn't have the gall to claim adults don't watch animated movies. That right there, to me, is Chapek admitting what so many execs think of animation, not just himself (or Zaslav, for that matter), as well as how they see their own audiences.

What makes this especially bad is that Disney was built on animation in the first place. As a longtime employee Chapek should know that. But that'd be asking too much from execs at this point.

Here's a little quote from Uncle Walt that Chapek should've heeded: "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up anyway."

[The author added, after this strip became unexpectedly topical:] This strip was made before Bob Chapek's re-replacement with Bob Iger. Yup, imagine being so inept at your job they have to lure the guy you replaced out of retirement. That's what I call the CEO equivalent to New Coke.

Original strip: 2005-10-05.