Pixar to Disney: Drop Dead

From the man who brought you NeXT.

Tom, mail me at the below address. I can't find your email address in the archives.

Disney and Pixar: undrop dead. Though then there's this:

IN a subtle but important shift, Pixar has matured, allowing its strategic thinking to evolve inside a sprawling corporation. For instance, some of the studio’s executives once resisted sequels and direct-to-DVD efforts, arguing that quality and the brand could suffer. While sequels were not out of the question, they said Pixar’s hot streak hinged on pushing boundaries with original material.

But at Mr. Lasseter’s presentation in April, Disney’s first such event in 10 years, he announced “Cars 2,” a 2012 sequel that will take Lightning McQueen and his pals on a tour of foreign countries. Also in the works are four direct-to-DVD movies built around Tinker Bell.

“We are definitely planning on doing more sequels, just as we are more originals,” Mr. Lasseter said in an interview. “We talk with Bob Iger about which ones make sense to do from a business perspective. But each movie has to be absolutely great or you will snuff out a franchise.”

And the Pixar team, which also has oversight of Walt Disney Animation Studios and the DVD-focused DisneyToon Studios, decided that it was O.K. to outsource some direct-to-DVD animation to an Indian company, a departure from its rigid stance that outside animators could not deliver the necessary quality. (Mr. Lasseter will still closely monitor the efforts, however.)

Also:

In Disney’s case, Pixar was assigned the difficult task of turning around a storied animation department that had fallen into disrepair as it struggled to find its footing in a new world of computer-generated pictures. At a low point, the 2002 film “Treasure Planet” flopped so badly that Disney was forced to take a $98 million write-down.

A window into how the rebuilding effort is going will come on Nov. 26, with the release of “Bolt,” the tale of a Hollywood dog star who becomes lost in New York and has to make his way back to California. Mr. Lasseter and his team have heavily reworked the project, including playing up a wickedly funny side character, a hamster.

including playing up a wickedly funny side character, a hamster.

played by Jack Black, I suppose.

nope, but it does have miley cyrus and john travolta in it

I'm more of a Wallace and Grommit man.

speaking of jack black... "skidoosh!"

I love pixar but I couldn't make it past the first 10 minutes of Cars...

i got high hopes for wall-e.

Why did they decide to make a sequel out of one of their poorer efforts? I mean, it is not like they don't have enough amazing movies that you really wish there was more of.

I'm guessing it's for the money.

has anyone read the pixar touch? is it good?

http://www.amazon.com/Pixar-Touch-Vintage-David-Price/dp/0307278298/

So I guess Pixar's hand was forced to do sequels, but surely they could have come up with something more inspired than Monsters U.

Pretty long article here
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/big-hero-6/
Thing I had to notice was that chart comparing Pixar to Disney film grosses - notice how Pixar's have gone down while Disney's have increased. Not coincidentally since Pixar has been doing lackluster sequels...

Didn't know about this:

But it wasn't all bad: While at Disney, Lasseter saw an early computer-animation test for Tron and it blew him away. “It was very simplistic, but a door opened up in my head and there was this incredible world beyond it,” he says. “I kept thinking, ‘This was what Walt was waiting for.’” Lasseter started an animation test—hand-drawn characters in computer-generated backgrounds—and began developing an idea for a computer-animated feature about forgotten appliances at a summer cabin waiting for their owner to return. Lasseter pitched the idea to the top brass. It was rejected. “The only reason we'd do computer animation,” Lasseter was told, “is if it was cheaper or faster.” Immediately after the meeting, he was summoned to the office of the manager of the animation department and told he was out of a job.

Lasseter was mortified. “My entire self-identity, even as a little kid, was based on this dream of working at Disney,” he says. “It just was so crushing to be fired from the place of your dreams.” He didn't tell anyone that he'd been let go—not even his wife, Nancy. Instead, he said that he'd quit to pursue computer animation. (It wasn't until Disney bought Pixar, more than 20 years later, that Lasseter finally admitted the truth.)

With Lasseter in charge of the entire animation division now, it seems like there's been a slow transformation of the main studio into the new Pixar.

Exactly - this article's the first time I'm hearing it explictly

assumed this was about this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29947502

Toy Story 4 is a go....if they do it well I suppose that's fine (and I have a hard time believing Lasseter would let anyone fuck this particular franchise up) but still.

but still what?

I wish all film series would replicate the Toy Story formula re: increasing qualitative returns.

Haha, nice scare quotes - 'exciting' new film
man, maybe Pixar is just getting stretched too thin - Lasseter actually directing TS4 himself too

TS 2 was poor though.

Discounting TS3, Pixar's last great film was Ratatouille, 2007.

This run of Cars 2, Brave, Monsters U and Nemo 2 has been terrible in comparison to Disney's very good run of Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen.

...nobody take the bait there

I liked Finding Nemo 2, myself. The characters were much more thoroughly developed this time around and, although I thought all of the hardcore fucking was going to put me off, it really worked in context.

This run of Cars 2, Brave, Monsters U and Nemo 2 has been terrible in comparison to Disney's very good run of Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen.

I actually agree! Ralph and Tangles are great, seeing the new one tonight. I still think Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and Toy Story 2 were peaks. Rest sort of a scramble, save Nemo 2, which was amazing and surprisingly hot, for fish.

Anyway, it's not a coincidence that as soon as Lasseter ported over from Pixar to Disney proper, Disney movies starting getting better and Pixar started getting shaky. It's telling that Pixar postponed a bunch of stuff; I believe we are in the middle of the longest gap with no Pixar films.

What is Brad Bird up to?

his neck in lawsuits

(j/k)

a reboot of a disney theme park area starring george clooney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(film)

In November 2013, scenes of the film were also shot at New Smyrna Beach, and the Carousel of Progress attraction at Walt Disney World in Florida.

On February 5, 2014, additional filming took place at the It's a Small World attraction at Disneyland in California.

it was originally named 1952 but why promote something you don't already own

"This run of Cars 2, Brave, Monsters U and Nemo 2 has been terrible"

Nemo 2 isn't even out yet!

Brave is good and I liked Monsters U fine.

Monsters U was so lazy. Hey, it's a slobs vs snobs comedy! For kids!

Premise

Frank (George Clooney) and Casey (Britt Robertson) travel to a place somewhere in time and space only known as Tomorrowland where their actions directly affect the world and themselves.

Imagine, if you will, a land where your actions directly affect the world and yourself. Did I blow your mind?

Did I mention that this land is somewhere in both time and space? Yeah. Wrap your head around that one.

i want that exact description to be the standard form for all wiki "plot" sections for films w unconfirmed plots

Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) travel to a place somewhere in time and space only known as Captain America: Civil War where their actions directly affect the world and themselves.

wistful lol btw @ ned upthread calling the unreleased incredibles "the closest we'll ever get to a watchmen-style film"

the grim thing i guess is the idea of an escapist fantasy about your actions affecting the world

Clickhole is fast these days: http://www.clickhole.com/article/toy-story-coming-back-and-time-andy-toy-1374