It seems that even straight-to-dvd releases can have problems.

In a story from Variety, Sharon Morrill, the "long-time head of its DisneyToons direct-to-DVD operations," was recently fired from that position due to problems with a direct-to-DVD Tinkerbell movie.

It seems that the budget for this release had reached almost $50 million. In addition to that, this film "has seen close to two dozen versions of the script and a dozen different directors."

Morrill, "who had headed DisneyToons since its inception in 1994, has repeatedly clashed with Pixar Animation toppers John Lasseter and Ed Catmull over creative differences on Tinkerbell following Disney's purchase of Pixar early last year."

The way the deal worked out was that "Lasseter and Catmull were put on top of Walt Disney Animation." They didn't run DisneyToons, however "they are said to have gotten increasingly involved in the unit's operations."

Brittany Murphy was to be the voice of the Tinkerbell character. "Other voices cast include Kristin Chenoweth, Cameron Bowen, Emma Hunton, Zach Shada and America Young."

Morill is still at Disney but she will now be dealing with "special projects."

According to IMDB, the status of the Tinkerbell movie appears to be dubious as both Lasseter and Pixar Executive Steve Jobs feel that the straight-to-dvd sequels, "undercut the value of the original features."