On Thursday, the Walt Disney Co. reported quarterly earnings of $379 million, down 26% from last year at this time. While solid gains have been made at its television and theme parks divisions, the company lost $313 million, thanks to the disappointing results of a string of films, from several Miramax pictures to such DTV fare as Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch and Tarzan II. In the meantime, Disney CEO Robert Iger continues to send signals of the studio’s reteaming with Pixar. “Let’s not forget that Pixar’s average in U.S. box office is something like $270 million,” Iger said. “Even though Chicken Little is doing quite well, we’re not predicting we’ll get anywhere close to that level.” Nonetheless, Iger continued to stress the importance of animation at Disney, commenting, “Animation is and will be at the heart and soul of Disney. Developing high-quality Disney animated films is our No. 1 creative pursuit, thus investing in this business is essential.” Reuters, via Yahoo! News, has more on this news. Concurrently, Ultimate Disney points to where the hour-long conference call may be heard online.