“John Lasseter, the creative chief of Pixar Animation Studios, has wasted no time asserting who is boss after Pixar’s takeover by Walt Disney – by stopping production of Toy Story 3, the controversial sequel to the two wildly successful animated films,” Jason Nissé reports for The Independent.
“The original Toy Story, completed in 1995, was the first major collaboration between Pixar and Disney. The highly lucrative partnership went on to produce the hits Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles,” Nissé reports. Disney’s desired to keep the Toy Story franchise running with a third and forth movie, without Pixar’s input, as the deal between Disney and Pixar allowed. “Mr Lasseter was deeply opposed to the idea but Disney went ahead, as it owns the intellectual property, putting 100 scriptwriters, animators and other creative staff to work on Toy Story 3 at its own Walt Disney Studios animation complex in Burbank, California… [the new] Disney-Pixar deal gives Mr Lasseter creative control over all of the two studios’ animated film output, while still maintaining Pixar’s independence.”
“On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Mr Jobs and Disney’s new chief executive, Bob Iger, unveiled the merger, Mr Lasseter went to Burbank with Pixar’s president, Ed Catmull. He announced that Toy Story 3 would now be scrapped, without a word about the fate of the animation team,” Nissé reports.
Full article here.
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Related article:
It’s official: Disney acquires Pixar for $7.4 billion, Steve Jobs joins Disney Board of Directors – January 24, 2006
Who’s in charge now
Pixar holds the cards again. Checkmate!
Geez, I hope he at least took a look at the work done thus far (script, animation quality, storyline, etc.). That seems a bit harsh if he didn’t.
thank god!
Beloved movies should be remembered, not killed with incessant and increasingly worse sequels.
hahahaha…..
regardless of whether i like the decision or not….
hhahahhaha
We all know disney as of late years has/had nothing going for it but sequels… hopefully this was a worthy break off into the world of “originality”.
good. anyone who actually watches toy story 1 & 2 with common sense, sees that there is nowhere else for the story to go. Now … the incredibles is another story…..could get a coupla great sequels out that one…
OFF WITH YER HEADS!!! – John Lasseter
Third one is always a flop anyway
So much for business as usual at Disney! Just when those lazy bastards thought they would just repack and get rich, good ol’ Lasseter drops the fly in their ointment® (so to speak).
Rock on JL!
Saucers with milk all around, and let the bitch-slapping begin. Oh, and watch Hoodwinked. Not prime animation, but funnier than TS. Pixney should start to worry about competition from those who can deliver a fun story.
Link to Disneyland Memorial Orgy
Bambi 2
Lion King 2
Lion King 1 1/2
Pocahantas 2
Cinderella 2
The Emperor’s New Groove 2
Thank you Lasseter, for putting a stop to this, be sure to kill anything else that equates to this straight to Disney DVD crap, I’m pretty sure Chicken Little 2 was on the horizon.
Bend over baby,
I’m driving.
Translation
Who’s Yo Daddy?
I’m thinking about doing a sequel:
Dirty Harry 5: The Animator
Director walks into the sequal factory and says:
“Felling lucky punk? Make my day…”
Good for him. Buzz and Woody are his babies.
While I hate the idea that people are getting laid off and all, I have to say good show to Lasseter. It was a pretty sad idea.
At the very least, consider that Toy Story came out in 1995. Toy Story 2 came out in 1999. So it’s been 7 years since we last heard from Buzz and Woody. Those kids who watched Toy Story when they were kids are now teenagers and have little interest in seeing the third installment.
Heck, if they insist on doing straight-to-video releases, that sounds like a job for ‘The Incredibles’. Lots of pretty standard superhero stories there that Disney could milk.
Now with lassiter in control maybe disney can just concentrate on creating original stories and not milking the sequels till they blled dry.
Disney-pixar should be about original ideas.
Come one guys, create something new that hasnt been seen in kids cartoons before – then maybe you can win an oscar or two!
Disney is not wrong for trying to exploit the sequal regime as many production studios know that sequals, prequals and additions to a film franchinse simply bring in ‘easy profit’. The reason we are swamped with sequals and additional content to movie franchises is because Hollywood (including Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, etc) learned a long time ago its relatively cheaper to market and promote a franchise because even if the second or third movie are not as great, up to 80% of the origninal viewers of the first hit will view the second movie in the lineup and up to 70% of that 80% will watch a third installment. Why do you think we have the Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Star Wars Episodes 1,2,3,4,5, & 6, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Spiderman, X-Men, Batman, Super Man, Hell Raiser, Miss Congeniality, Big Mammas House, Under World, etc… Hollywood learned about 20 years ago that sequals and re-makes were simply easy money. The cost of production is usually the same or even less, but the cost to market and distribute decreases significatnly because they already have a strong viewer base, an established brand, established distribution channels, etc., and assuming 80% of the original viewers will go see part 2 or 3, they can very easily tie in apparel, accessories, etc, not to mention some movies going directly to video and being licenced by BlockBuster and other large Video Houses with those video houses paying royalties. It’s really easy money. Disney wants to keep its shareholders happy and make easy money so they will opt for sequals. The new boss at the Pixar-Disney marriage is opting for innovation and he has good reason to do that, he wants to keeep in the tradition of Steve Jobs by doing things new, special, cool, that don’t suck! I agree with cutting off Toy Story 3. I believe very few movies warrant a second or third episode and if you ask me, Shrek (Not a Disney, nor Pixar Creation, but from DreamWorks Studios), though a wild success, should not have had a part 2. I loved the first one and the second one was great, but they could have taken that talent and put it into something innovative to keep us attentive in the long run. I think that’s what Lasseter is doing. Keep the innovation high and the long term notariety fresh instead of killing us with sequals. Isn’t that how Disney got so great so long ago, by creating new characters, exploring vision and innovation and producing things that people actually enjoyed without beating them in the head with the same old franchise or insulting their intelligence with B grade entertainment?
Let’s see what Lass wants to really do…
What Disney/Eisner did with Pocahontas II, The Little Mermaid II, Cinderella II, Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Bambi II, and most of all, Lion King II was a crime!!! Taking quality legends and trashing them with cheap, under budgeted, turn it out tomorrow, made for video TV quality movies so next month’s spread sheet would look good is what gave Disney the reputation-al black eye it deserved.
Job’s and Co. (this includes John Lasseter) is coming to save Disney’s butt just in time!
According to stories as far back as early 2004, Eisner/Disney had SEVERAL Pixar sequels in the works that were not being produced by Pixar.
Jobs was then quoted saying “We feel sick about Disney doing sequels because if you look at the quality of their sequels… it’s been pretty embarrassing.”
There’s nothing wrong with sequels. Pixar’s Toy Story II was better than the first one because they took the time, energy, and money to a quality job.
Go Lasseter!
And so the inverse takeover of Disney beings…
Magic Word:
Peace
I wouldn’t worry about the people working on that project folks. I’m sure Pixar have brought in a number of new characters and ideas that need developing. In three years time, I reckon we’re going to see some fantastic stuff coming from Disney.
The best thing for Bob Iger to do is let them get on with it, and bearing in mind that Pixar agreed this takeover in the first place, I reckon he will.
Chris,
“Beloved movies should be remembered, not killed with incessant and increasingly worse sequels.”
I agree, although many would say that Toy Story 2 was beter than Toy Story 1
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“”Beloved movies should be remembered, not killed with incessant and increasingly worse sequels.”
I agree, although many would say that Toy Story 2 was beter than Toy Story 1 “
Very true, but we’re not talking about TS 2 here, we’re talking about Bambi, Cinderella and the Little Mermaid.