Walt Disney Animation Studios, in a significant leadership shift, on Thursday named Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jared Bush as its new chief creative officer, effective immediately.Bush, the creative force behind movie hits such as "Encanto,

Frozen II was the last big hit that Disney Animation had. The pandemic would follow shortly after its release. Raya and the Last Dragon was released while many theaters were still closed. Encanto, Strange World, and Wish were all disappointments at the box office, though Encanto would find new life on Disney+.

Director-writer Jared Bush is replacing Jennifer Lee as chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios as Lee returns to filmmaking full time at the company and stewards the Frozen franchise, Disney announced Thursday. He’ll report to Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman, effective immediately.

Lee is writing and directing “Frozen 3” and writing “Frozen 4” with Marc Smith — the sequels to Disney Animation’s 2013 “Snow Queen”-inspired cultural hit “Frozen,” for which she served as writer/director. The movie made $1.3 billion worldwide and earned two Oscars, for best animated feature and for earworm song “Let It Go.”

As Disney readies the sequels to its uber-grossing $1.75 billion Frozen franchise, Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee is segueing from her position to direct and write Frozen 3 and pen Frozen 4 with Marc Smith.