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Pixar Drops Disney To Find a New Studio Partner
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Thu Jan 29, 2004 08:08 PM
from the parting-ways dept.
from the parting-ways dept.
da_anarchist writes "After much speculation, Pixar has announced that it will end its distribution agreement with Disney. This comes after much bitterness at Pixar over the terms of their current deal with Disney, where Disney took a sizable (and some would say unfair) portion of the $2.5 billion in revenue generated by Pixar's films. Pixar is best known as the studio behind the Toy Story series and the more recent movie Finding Nemo."
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Steve Jobs runs Pixar? (Score:4, Funny)
Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
Disney may have been good, long ago, but after the success of Toy Story I don't think Pixar needed Disney for distribution. Worse, I've felt, is a Disney influence on characters in the films, certain attitudes and stereotypes which are pretty tired and one reason Disney's animated offerings don't impress.
Sadly, this will also mean any sequels to the Disney-associated films will be done by Disney, which as I've said, employs some pretty tired ideas about character development. Hopefully the well at Pixar is far from dry and fresh new ideas continue to emerge.
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
How to respond to competition. Disney used ot be the only game in town when it came to animated features, and that just isn't the case anymore. They're definitely hurting.
It's gotta be bad there for Roy Disney to just pack up his bags and leave.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Informative)
Back in 1903, you mean? That's when the Pepsi-Cola name was trademarked.
Or are you referring to their big "Nickel Nickel" radio ad campaign of 1940?
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
But thats a whole nother' thread...
Anyways, I'm sure one could easily argue that sometimes people benafit from pirating. I'm sure if college kids didn't rampantly pirate MS Office and Windows, Microsoft wouldn't have the market share that it currently does, and these same kids wouldn't be "locked" into Office and other such software as adults.
Heck, in college I had a cracked version of Warcraft II that I played all the time. I loved that game so much what did I do later on? I bought StarCraft and WarCraft III.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Interesting)
But will they be able to say From the makers of Toy Story and Finding Nemo or does Disney have a clause stating they don't have the rights to those title?
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Informative)
It's the title of a movie, you can't control how people refer to your products. George Lucas has a trademark on everything from Alderaan to wookie but he still can't sue Kevin Smith for having his characters talk about Star Wars.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like "Atlantis" or "Emperors New Groove" or "Dinosaur" or "Treasure Planet" (biggest flop of the last 10 years). Lilo & Stitch was a moderate success, and the first real one they've had in 10 years.
Disney was must-see 50 years ago (their hayday) or 15 years ago (Lion King, Beauty & The Beast etc). Now they are only producing steaming piles of shite and don't have a new idea among them.
I mean - Cinderella2? PeterPan2 LionKing2 Aladdin2&3.
For christs sakes.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Informative)
I did bring my kids to see Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch. L&S was great because it was supposed to be a low budget summer release that would tide us over until Treasure Planet, yet ended up being a really well done movie, whereas Treasure Planet was a butchered classic that they tried to soupe up with expensive CG. It wasn't *bad*, it just wasn't particularly notable.
Lilo and Stitch has become a Disney classic, at least to us, and must have been a pretty good success seeing as how it got a spin off series and a lot more merchandising than Treasure Planet.
And you missed another flop, though - Brother Bear, not to mention some of the stupid live action films they've done (like "Country Bear").
I don't know what the hell they're thinking with all the sequels, though, it really is pathetic.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Informative)
The rest of the stuff they're putting out does seem pretty dumb though. Atlantis was OK. Treasure Planet blew.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Interesting)
This was something of a bastard stepchild at the Disney studios. It started out following the standard Disney formula but took a different turn somewhere along the road and became something extremely enjoyable. I think it flopped because Disney plumb didn't know what to do with it, and they were already pouring all their resources into promoting Treasure Planet (ugh) which came out around the same time.
Think an hour-and-a-half of classic Loony Toons, and that's pretty much The Emperor's New Groove.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Funny)
> It started out following the standard Disney formula but took a different turn somewhere along the road
You mean they didn't kill off any parents?
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
Now they are trying to write their own damn stories, with some failures and some success. Give them a break, at least they are being creative now!
As for Pixar, they have done a wonderful job, and if Disney didn't give them fat bonuses, I'd be leaving too. I wouldn't be suprised if Pixar just did movies on a 1-movie contract basis now, so they can work with anybody. The thing is though, the animated movie maker pool is small, so they will probably still work with disney, just not "partner" with them...
Parent
Re: Adios, Disney (Score:5, Funny)
> I mean - Cinderella2? PeterPan2 LionKing2 Aladdin2&3.
If you think those are bad, wait until they start making prequels!
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Funny)
The Lion King 1 1/2
Yep! One and a half. 1.5.
What's next, Sleeping Beauty 1.666666666... ? How about The Little Mermaid 2 + (3pi * x^2)y + 1 ?
Or maybe they can start numbering them like Linux kernels...
"Hey, wanna go see Mulan 2.4.24? I heard they fixed some of the animation bugs..."
But I digress. }:)
-Z
Parent
Re: Emperor's new groove (Score:5, Funny)
> It had a very good message about the pointlessness of materialism
So, Disney won't complain if people download it without paying?
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Funny)
'From the people who brought you Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo comes a story about [insert heartfelt adjectives] in the [big/distant/unknown] [insert populace reference]. Pixar in conjunction with [insert pushover distro company] brings you [insert title; three words max; prefer two].'
Throw in the merchandising that was setup nine months before the first press release...and you're good to go!
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
You let her be exposed to Disney so she will buy their crap, but you don't let he watch a show that helps her learn.
Great parenting!!! Start saving now for her bail.
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm (reasonably) sure he doesn't know the name, but my three-year-old certainly recognizes Luxor Jr. hopping out during the credits, and has made the connection between Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo as a result. So yeah, I'd expect kids old enough to read probably know the name.
(Then again, my son's the offspring of two geeks, so he may have gotten the reading-the-credits gene a little stronger than the average...)
Parent
Re:Adios, Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it sadly ironic that Disney was one of the studios pushing congress to extend copyright protection ("The Mickey Mouse Protection Act") while nearly all of their films used material plundered from the public domain. Hans Christian Anderson, Bros. Grimm., Dafoe, etc....
Toy Story and Finding Nemo are among the very few Disney offerings that aren't blatant rip-offs of off-copyright "classics". And Disney didn't produce them.
Parent
Them as can, do. Them as can't... (Score:4, Funny)
So where does this leave Disney? (Score:5, Interesting)
Either way, go Pixar!
Licensing! (Score:5, Funny)
It will use its last bit of influence to convince Congress to make image piracy punishable by death or five years janatorial duties in the Disney[world|land] Outlet Malls.
Stefan
Parent
Re:So where does this leave Disney? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pirates of the Caribbean was made by Pixar? huh. Learn something new every day.
I think people tend to forget Disney has it's fingers in a helluva lot more than animation. Pixar is a great asset, but they won't be dead without it (unfortunately).
Parent
They won't have a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
They have to do something to pay for Eisners new Bel Air Home thats just down the street from his current one.
Re:They won't have a problem (Score:5, Informative)
Roy is Walt's nephew. Walt didn't have any sons.
Parent
Re:Disney's next move.... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Save Disney (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Save Disney (Score:5, Interesting)
What principle? Exploiting the workers? What's little-known is that in the "golden age" of 1940's and 1950's hand-drawn animation, the overwhelming majority of the work was done by Walt (and his managers) slave-driving minimum-wage immigrants, largely post-WWII European displaced persons, who were lucky just to have a job and a roof. If Walt were alive today, he'd fill the studios with Guatemalans and pay them just as little as legally possible.
Parent
Re:Save Disney (Score:5, Informative)
Nah, he'd just subcontract the inbetween work to cheaper studios in Korea and China. That's what most of the Japanese studios have been doing for the past 10 years or so. Just take a look at the credits for any recent theatrical Anime and you'll see a lot of non-Japanese names and studios listed in the credits.
Parent
Re:Save Disney (Score:5, Informative)
Animation is a tough career to pursue.
Parent
A Round Of Applause Is Needed Methinks? (Score:5, Interesting)
...and fsck Disney!
Being Steve Jobs (Score:5, Interesting)
I know, I know...too flaky, mod away. =)
Been Waitin' Fer This! (Score:5, Insightful)
Disney, meanwhile, decided to scrap all 2D animation recently. They did this because, apparently, they think Pixar's success is because they work in 3D. While this may have had a lot to do with the buzz behind TS1, it just ain't the case. The reason Pixar movies make mad money is because they are good movies. Finding Nemo could have been made with a dull pencil on notebook paper, and those guys still would have made something worth seeing!
Re:Been Waitin' Fer This! (Score:5, Interesting)
This is BS. The Toy story porject was floundering after three years in production and not getting any closer to a decent product. The problem was that pixar focused on the animation and ignored the script.
Disney sent a bunch of professionals who threw away well over half of the rendered images and rewrote the script.
Parent
Blame Eisner! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blame Eisner! (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
A good thing for all involved (and us too!) (Score:5, Insightful)
With _Nemo_, the bar got raised too high for Disney again (although you could argue that Disney didn't do much in the way of making it.) Now that Disney isn't hooked up with Pixar, I hope that the bar is set appropriately for future Disney animation.
Not that I didn't like _Nemo_, I thought it was great, wonderful, funny, my kids loved it and I loved it too. But that's a once-in-a-generation thing; it's great it happened, but we shouldn't let _Nemo_'s success stop us from appreciating good work. If Disney had stuck with Pixar, they'd be afraid to release anything that wasn't going to gross more than _Nemo_; now that they've broken up I hope we can look forward to seeing three or four good animated features a year, with some of them being really original.
Disney's fault (Score:5, Informative)
From the article:
Roy Disney and ally Stanley Gold, who both resigned from the Disney board late last year and called for Chief Executive and Chairman Michael Eisner to step down, placed the blame on Eisner.
"More than a year ago, we warned the Disney board that we believed Michael Eisner was mismanaging the Pixar partnership and expressed our concern that the relationship was in jeopardy," they said.
Roy Disney was right! (Score:5, Insightful)
Eisner and the other souless robots on the board countered by justifying Pixar and digital animation shopped out to other studios as the future.
Guess what? Pixar is gone, at best, Disney can only do cheesy straight-to-video sequels from now on. They have no decent feature animation left to speak of. It's all regurtitation of old ideas from here on out.
Roy will be back in about a year, when Disney's stock drops by $5. That should be enough to bring Roy back just like last time he did this. Eisner is a dead man walking. Perhaps Disney will be able to right the ship after he's gone. No more Mighty Ducks, Haunted Mansion, or Miracle movies unless they actually release actual animated flicks.
Hooray for Pixar! Disney went one step too far... (Score:5, Interesting)
A few quotes from other film distributors... (Score:5, Funny)
mine Mine mine MINE mine Mine
It made sense at the time. (Score:5, Interesting)
The idea that Pixar would crank out five consecutive blockbusters was simply not on the table in 1995. Pixar's output up to that date consisted of a couple of award-winning animated shorts; suggesting that Pixar would outshine Disney Animation by 2000 (with Disney releasing The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Lion King in the five years prior) would have gotten you laughed out of the studio.
But then Jeff Katzenberg decided he'd had enough of Michael Eisner, and went off to Dreamworks to make Antz (and Shrek). Lion King turned out to be the high-water mark for Disney's 2D animation unit; their best effort since was Tarzan, which grossed $435 million worldwide -- a little more than half of Finding Nemo's leviathan take, which is currently at $844 million.
So, Pixar has ended up paying Disney about 10-20 times what Disney's contribution to the process is worth. Eisner was probably using these lucrative terms as the starting point in his negotiations, while Steve Jobs (who already has Sony and Warner on speed-dial) was starting from the idea that Pixar could snap its fingers and have five studios vying for the honor.
Eisner is unquestionably an idiot for failing to recognize this, because he desperately needs Pixar to feed quality product into the gaping maw of his marketing, distribution and merchandising empire -- he's not going to make as healthy of a living selling Brother Bear plush toys and video sequels, that's for sure. Pixar just needs a distributor, though, and they're big enough now that they can get one for the asking.
Disney needs the competition (Score:5, Insightful)
1. The comedic relief
2. The love interest
3. The complacent good natured affable hero
4. The easily-identifiable bad guy (always in black and smoking something)
4. The up-beat music song
5. The slow-dance music song
6. The Billboard song
7. The humorous evil sidekicks.
Put 'em all in a bag, add some celebrity voices, and presto-chango, we've got ourselves another cliche by-the-book Disney flick.
Now take a Pixar movie, not quite such an easy formula? AND NO STUPID SONGS. I hope they mop the flour with Disney.
PS. I must say though The Gummi Bears cartoon series was awesome.
Disney a victim of their own greed (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone hear about how Disney dropped out of Peter Pan because they didn't want to donate any money to a London children's hospital? The author of Peter Pan left the copyright to the hospital in his will. When the most recent movie was made, Disney believed it should be exempt from making any payment to the hospital from the sale of spin-off books, board games, soft toys and computer games, which are expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in their own right.
Read the full story here [smh.com.au]
So FUCK YOU Disney! Guess how much 50% of 0 is you bozos!
Re:The sadly anonymous director of Finding Nemo. (Score:5, Insightful)
I admit I had no idea (the answer is Andrew Stanton(story) & Lee Unkrich but I had to look it up)-- but poll a crowd of people and the answer will be 'Pixar'... not the director but that answer will still win.
How many people know (and care) who the distributor for Kill Bill is?
The names Pixar and Tarantino respectively draw the audiences and get the pay dirt - so they hold the power - the rest are all become negotiable contracts.
Parent