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Disney Animation Reorganizes For BetterBy Rafe Telsch: 2007-06-25 12:19:58
Disney fans knew the merger of Disney and Pixar could be a good thing. I don’t know if any of us thought it would be this good, however. Thanks to some clever reorganization among Disney Animation last week, former Pixar geniuses John Lasseter and Ed Catmull gained control over Disney’s animated features, most notably DisneyToon, which handles direct to video projects. Until last week, the duo were highly involved with what Disney was putting out, including nixing some projects and putting others on hold, but their involvement was strictly advisory. Now they are actually the ones calling the shots.
The first big move is a return to Walt Disney’s old saying, “You can’t follow pigs with pigs.” As Brad Bird pointed out last week when asked about an Incredibles sequel, the whole concept of sequels has never been part of the Pixar plan. Now that philosophy becomes Disney’s business model as well. The direct to video sequels to classics like Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp generated by DisneyToon will be no more. While they may have made money for the company, the popular consensus is their existence tarnished the company’s image, so Lasseter and Catmull have pulled the plug. The move away from sequels was the direction the duo had already led the company, although now it’s official. In what appears to be a compromise, DisneyToon will continue to create original content to go straight to home video. This is a tad surprising. After all, it was only last week that Disney announced its original Tinkerbell was heading back to the drawing board for a second time, as Sharon Morrill (former head of DisneyToon) was being moved on to “special projects”. That announcement came at the same time as this reorganization. The new revision for Tinkerbell is making the project quite costly and one wonders if Lasseter and Catmull won’t eventually try to pull the plug on the project. I’m not sure they’d succeed. This movie was supposed to launch a new franchise for Disney based on fairies. The characters are already out there, but without a real vessel to show them off. Moving things around and putting Lasseter and Catmull in charge of what was perceived to be a weak area for Disney Animation is a fantastic move from studio head Bob Iger. If he hadn’t already won Disney fans over following the reign of Michael Eisner, this movie certainly would do it. He’s putting his company and his faith on the shoulders of two men who have a proven track record for quality and knowing what the public wants. After all, Lasseter balked at the idea of cutting corners for Toy Story 2 - a sequel Pixar was forced into doing by Eisner. The result was a follow up film that made it into theaters and proved more successful than the original picture, but only because it was a quality story, not just a movie that the studio pushed out. Despite the end of flat out sequel production, two planned follow ups will continue. The Little Mermaid III is too far along for it to make sense to pull the plug, although that will be the last of the direct-to-DVD sequels. Additionally, plans still continue on for Toy Story 3, with the intention that it will be like Toy Story 2 and see a theatrical release.
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