whoot

DM2 just knocked around 33% off of MU's dailies on the first day. This is why after a great start, nobody really thought 300m was possible for MU.

Well this was needed for the "DM2 to win the summer" club to have a good chance. Should be fun to track this.

How did TS3 do on previews? Did it hit 4.7m? 4.7m sounds massive to me

How significant the critics' role was is unmeasurable at this point, but as tribe points out, critics loved those films. And every year, Disney and Pixar would include how "critically acclaimed" their movies were in marketing their films. I would say that acclaim played some role in their rise to the top.

Disagree on a couple of points though I understand what you are implying - that MU was redemption and people should be happy that Pixar has brought their quality back.For one - the "die hard" fans are the ones who care enough to know that Planes isn't a Pixar film, but a Disney one. The mom with multiple children will take their kids to see just any animated film, whereas the diehard Pixar fan parent might save their one family movie that summer for the actual Pixar offering. The critics who raved about their movies in the past are the ones who help generate this "Pixar can do no wrong" word of mouth for a generation. And the diehards who could not find each other to revel in past movies' glory finally have an outlet on the Internet to become glowing fanboys of the studio and be part of the community that includes all the fan sites dedicated to Pixar, which only adds to their legend. No other studio, except for Disney, has that.As for MU being the most perfect movie since TS3, I disagree. I liked Brave better.

Or even just witness Ed Catmull announcing recently that Pixar is gonna cut down on their sequel output. I think they've heard enough of the diehard fans complain over the past few years.

I liked it a lot. Started off slow but really picked up and ended well. I mentioned this in the Pixar club thread - I felt the movie was unnecessary, but it's a nice addition to the Pixar library. This is the movie they probably hoped Cars 2 would be. Harmless quality fun.B+

I thought MU was good, just unnecessary. Wish we had another Pixar original to watch this year.Miles better than Cars 2 though.

Because they of all the studios have won some pretty rabid fans over; not counting the legacy Disney fans of course. Reason they were able to get those fans was their attention to quality, their "pickiness" with projects; their attempts to take risks and be "original" (as original as a rated PG movie will allow anyway); and their once-strong resistance to just franchising every movie they make like other studios tend to do.So really it is fine that they make sequels as long as they're good (I'm mostly over it now though it took a while). But I do think that choosing the easy and safe path with franchising hurt their rep; mostly because they were expected to be better than the other studios and not to make the same choices other studios make.

Well I hope they don't make a sequel just because they have to fill their sequel quota. Keep making those original films.

HALLEFRICKINLUJAH

Glen Keane probably saw the writing on the wall way back, which is why he "sold out" and helped turn Rapunzel into a CGI movie, then left soon after.

She's said worse? That's actually the worst I've heard from her (which is pretty interesting... And confirms what many of us were guessing about a few years ago). And I am glad she let loose like that as well. More honest that way.

If it wasn't DWA releasing an animated film on Christmas it would have been some other animated tentpole released then. The market nowadays was going to have something cutting into Dory's legs (ha) on Christmas regardless and a massive theater loss was going to happen anyway. I think Dory is going to make a bulk of its money before then; one thing with sequels is its going to be front loaded as hell.

Finally got around to figuring this out... Turns out I've seen 47 out of 52. The ones I haven't seen: Saludos Amigos Make Mine Music Fun and Fancy Free Melody Time Fantasia 2000

Neither am I, but am intrigued with what Disney can do with them. Pixar being neighbors with LucasArts is a very interesting subplot... Remember that for WALL-E, Pixar borrowed Ben Burtt from Lucas to do the sound.

Now the Disney owns Star Wars, and LucasArts is so close to the Pixar studios, and all those artists go back and forth anyway, maybe there will be a Star Wars spinoff done by Pixar at some point? Or more likely, it will be labeled a Disney film (if Pixar sticks with its "no adaptations" pattern) but done in Emeryville borrowing a Pixar director?

Yeah, I'm excited about Scanlon just because he's a fresh voice. Never even heard of him directing a short. On twitter he sounds like a funny guy. I'm more interested to see Mark Andrews work on a film that he developed from the beginning. Just like I feel like Unkrich's new movie coming up is where I'll really get to see his true first movie. But my point was these guys directing the upcoming movies except for Scanlon (who I don't know much about his history) have been with Pixar for like a decade (even Andrews, right?). Which again, is not a bad thing... I just wouldn't place the same expectations on the studio now as if they could easily go back to the way it once was.

Easier said than done. I think part of the problem is always the same cycle that happens to most small entities that become huge institutions that make it impossible to replicate the same type of success as time goes on. Pixar's first taste of success (TS) came when they were the small underdog studio with a bunch of unknown animators working on a movie led by a Disney reject (Lasseter). They kept trying to keep the same formula for every movie later, and when things started feeling "stale," Lasseter brought in his buddy Brad Bird to shake things up. But that was pretty much the end of their ascent. They eventually formed the now famous "Brain Trust" between the most experienced of them all - made up mostly of the unknowns that started Toy Story. Now every movie coming up for Pixar is going to be created by experienced member of the brain trust that was there from the beginning like Unkrich, Docter, Petersen, Stanton... Not that that's a bad thing - but these guys aren't as fresh and hungry (and let's face it, young) as new up and comers who may be more comparable to those experienced guys when they were first starting out... Just recently Pixar has lost some of the young talent they had to other studios, while gaining some experienced talent. That's just the way it's been working out. Meaning Pixar will likely "feel" like The Establishment for some time until a big shakeup there occurs. Again, not that that's a terrible thing. Unkrich and Petersen deserve their shots and are talented directors. But it's just not going to feel as renegade as they did when they first started out.

Agreed on Cars being underrated. I love the ode to Route 66 theme, definitely holds up well. I really wish they left the story at that too... I wouldn't have even minded if they just used Mater from the first Cars without dragging Lightning mcQueen into the whole racing scene again (bothers me that the point of the first movie was just squelched for the sequel)...

Yeah, I have somewhat mixed feelings about FN2... On the one hand I hate that they are making it, and it does seem like Stanton's penance to Disney for helming that massive flop. I am skeptical that Stanton doesn't have any original ideas he'd rather explore than a sequel to FN.On the other hand, I am glad that Stanton is the one directing the sequel and am interested to see what he comes up with. He's still a great director so I have some hope it won't be a complete disaster like Cars 2.

Really no Earth Day feature? Aw. Not that I watched them but I always thought it was a good idea.

Good thread pare.I actually voted no. I just don't want them making crappy forced sequels like Cars 2, and I don't want them having too many years in a row of no original films. I think I've softened a bit on this lately because Cars 2 exists already and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle. Can't get worse than that, so now just hoping they learn from it.

Love Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, but we only own Ponyo. Go figure.