Toy Story 3 Scrapped

Snap E Tom writes "The Independent Online is reporting that Toy Story 3 has been scrapped. This is a strong clue that the Pixar guys are firmly in control at Disney. The ground-breaking films were being milked into almost as many movies as The Sims has expansion packs. John Lasseter, Pixar's creative head, was strongly against the idea of third and forth movies, while the old Disney regime pushed forward with it. Now with Pixar and Steve Jobs on the board, Lasseter has taken the necessary steps to prevent the franchise from being diluted."

Comments

Good for them.

[arakon]

We do not need another sequal factory. My recommendation? Disney should leave Pixar alone. They seem to be doing just fine managing their own assets and continued box office success stories. Something disney can't claim with their own movies. So let pixar do what pixar does best and let the money flow without interference. Let disney start claiming more of that success and have stock prices go up.

I fear if they start meddling with it we're going to start ending up with a lot of straight to DVD releases that no one will really want to see.

Re:Good for them.

[cowscows]

I've never really had a problem with Disney or other companies running their franchises into the ground. I just accept that Aladdin 4 or whatever is not made for me, it's made for younger kids who don't need quite the same level of quality or sophistication to be entertained. I'm not one to advocate letting the TV babysit your kids all day, but I have no doubt that my parents enjoyed the occasional periods of relaxation when a movie would keep my brother and I occupied for an hour or so. It may not be award winning cinema, but it's probably a bit more predictable than regular TV cartoons, and less likely to contain violent or inappropriate content.

These tend to go straight to video because Disney isn't trying to pass it off as a high-quality feature film. So what's the problem with that? Nobody is forcing you to watch any of it. I guess some people feel that the cheaper commercialization somehow distracts from the quality of the originals, but that's really not the case, and if that sort of thing really bothers you, you need to get some perspective on the world.

I guess the one true complaint, at least in Disney's case, is that they've seemed to be so busy milking old franchises that they haven't bothered to create any new ones. But I really don't see any reason why those two have to be linked. It seems to me that it's tied to the vision and choices of the management. Really, this is a case where they can have their cake and eat it too. Put your best minds on the high-quality stuff, and everyone else on the franchises. Hire more people if you need to. There's definitely money to be made at both ends of the spectrum.

Re:Good for them.

[Bing Tsher E]

The Disney name should stand for quality.

Agreed, but speaking as somebody who remembers watching the Walt Disney show on television on Sunday evenings, the show where Walt himself always spoke at the beginning to introduce that night's programming, it's been a LONG time since the Disney name stood for quality.

Some of us leapfrogged over the whole last two decades of film and television (too busy doing interesting things with electronics and computers to sit and watch TeeVee I guess,) and really can't understand what could possibly be sacred, or even respected, about the Disney company at this point in history.

Logical

[Saiyine]

It was too much, no film franchise could resist a fourth release without a big hit on quality. I hope this marks a trend on the industry.

I find also interesting the Cringely's take on the adquisition, as he says it's only a way for Jobs to diversify his income.

A New Era in Cartoons?

[Morosoph]

Is Disney buying Pixar or is Pixar buying out Disney with Disney's own money?

It would be very cool if Pixar were to change Disney's ethos. Disney's got such a brand name that they don't need to hang on the brand of the specific production itself.

Does this herald the rise of creativity in Disney's output? If so, it'll be a difficult one to sell to the accountants and the more conservative shareholders: re-runs are provably successful; improving the brand is more nebulous. Ultimately, you can never know the real cause for higher sales across the board.

Re:What a shame

[Ubergrendle]

I was in Futureshop here in Toronto the other day...came face to face with an advertisement for "Bambi 2"... BAMBI 2??!?!? They're making a sequel to a 50 year old movie for crying out loud...

We'll still see a Toy Story 3 one day, just not in the immediate future. Its as inevitable as the an american manufacturing job being outsourced to China...

So.. lets get this right...

[91degrees]

Disney pays 7 billion for Pixar. As a result, Pixar is calling the shots at Disney.

Who owns who?

ugh

[PollGuy]

It's probably also why "Cars" was looking to be a piece of crap - since the movie was simply being done to fulfill a contractual obligation, Pixar would phoen it in, and Disney could choke on their contract. I wouldn't be surprised if "Cars" goes into turnaround now that there's a real reason to make it.

I can't believe nonsense like this gets to be modded to +5.

John Lasseter is directing this film, personally. Doing a bad job on a film just to fulfill a contractual obligation would do incredible damage to the Pixar brand. No one with any position of authority would tolerate any trash going out under the Pixar name at all, let alone deliberately out of spite for one's business partner. And it's not like ALL the profits from the 5 (or, rather 6) films went to Disney, there was a somewhat even split, so Pixar has a lot on the line with each title.

The teaser trailer for Cars wasn't that great, sure. To get a better idea of what the film will be, check out the little-circulated international trailer.

Only make a third if it has the same quality.

[MikeFM]

Toy Story 2 surprisingly managed to be even better than Toy Story 1. If they could make a third movie that was again even better then I say go for it. The reason Toy Story is so good isn't because of it's plot or how it's rendered - it's the personalities and relationships of the characters. The movies have a plot simple enough for children to follow but a depth that will keep adults interested. It's just good movie making. We really learned to care about the characters. That is really the important part about any movie.