Whew

[filkertom]

First good thing about Disney buying Pixar: work on Toy Story 3 has ceased.

Comments

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

....whew indeed. some sequels and threequels just need to be nipped in the bud.
didn't pixar start as an offshoot of disney when a handful of animators jumped ship and declared independence anyway? or am i a confuzzled lexi?

[dubheach.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I am impressed at the speed with which they are moving to make things right, or at least more right. So we know what they are NOT doing, let's see what they ARE doing.

Cautiously, Susan

[delayra.livejournal.com]

I know that's how Don Bluth got his/their start... and they've given us All Dogs Go to Heaven, Anastasia, and Fern Gully

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well... Anastasia. And the funny bits of An American Tail 2. And The Secret of Nimh. And those others you mentioned, along with, unfortunately, Rock-A-Doodle.

[mneme]

I suspect we'll see a real "Toy Story 3" at some point. I might or might not care (OTOH...well, "The Next Incredibles", or whatnot...)

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Okay, anyone want to clue in the tall hairy ignoramus at the back who isn't clear on why cancelling a film is that good a deal?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Only an ignoramus because of not having the information. Disney has both the marketing and the rights to create sequels to any Pixar films created under its earlier contract. Which means they could do Losing Nemo, A Bug's Death, Monsters LLC, or -- as they were actually planning -- Toy Story 3.

They were doing TS3 without the Pixar creative team.

And, bluntly, somewhere over the past ten years Disney's writing juices have dried up. The only thing TS3 would've done is... make money for Disney.

To remind you of the way Pixar works, Toy Story 2 was supposed to be direct-to-video, and not have Hanks and Allen... but they realized that the darn thing was too good not to go all out. Note also that Brad Bird has specifically said that, unless there's an amazing story for it, he would not be involved in any sequel to The Incredibles.

Compare and contrast with Cinderella 2 (and I believe 3 is upcoming), Peter Pan 2, The Little Mermaid 2 (and 3 definitely upcoming), Pocahontas 2, Mulan 2, the endless series of Pooh-based movies.... There was some interesting stuff done with the two Aladdin DTV flicks, but precious damn little since then.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Forgot about Bambi 2, Dumbo 2, and god only knows whatever else is in the queue. Heck, even Brother Bear 2.

[delayra.livejournal.com]

Well, every entertainment company produces some turds in their repertoire somewhere...

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard coming from those in the animation biz, the hope is that Jobs will somehow revamp Disney animation with the same skill he used when setting up Pixar (even if by proxy) so instead of being a micromanaged over-supervised soul-destroying hellhole that it's been for the past decade or two, creative people might actually survive there again.

As one said in an article yesterday, "Under Eisner they hired hundreds of animators and thousands of executives. Hopefully under Jobs influence this will be reversed."

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ah-yup. And the first thing they need is a fresh team of writers.

[kayshapero]

I just hope Disney can resist the overwhelming urge to tamper with Pixar's work environment. They could break it so very easily...

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

From what I hear from various sources it's not so much a case of the writers as it is the executives and committees "supervising" them. All of the sequels they've done recently were almost entirely committees instructing the writers what to write based on souless demographic surveys. Every joke, every creative scene had to be approved by MBA graduates with far more arrogance than aptitude.

Of course this probably also means that any good writers would have jumped ship by now, considering that all of this I've heard was from people who successfully escaped.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Doubt the shareholders would let them, and now that Jobs is the biggest single shareholder it's even more unlikely. Remember that one of the biggest complaints the shareholders had when they voted no confidence on Eisner was that Disney was no longer the creative powerhouse it once was, churning out more crap as Eisner got more control, and Eisner had antagonized the only creative talent they had to distribute (Pixar) while under-promoting imported movies (Studio Ghibli) because it put Disney's current offerings to shame. Word from shareholders and analysts that "get it" (i.e., that this is more than a money thing) is that everybody is hoping it's the other way around, that Pixar will tamper with, or completely control, Disney's enviroment, much like Jobs NeXT did to Apple when Apple bought them out, which will lead to a New Golden Age® (cue fanfare)

[kayshapero]

Well, here's hoping. Go Pixar!!