Elemental | Disney/Pixar | June 16, 2023 | What if elements have feelings?????? 😱😱😱😱 | Surprise sleeper hit with the biggest 2023 premiere on Disney+

[dudalb]

53 minutes ago, cannastop said:

I think Pixar (and WDAS) will always make originals. Just depends on the frequency.

I thnk they will look into ways they can get the cost of their films down also.

[Boxx93]

12 hours ago, dudalb said:

I think they will look into ways they can get the cost of their films down also.

Overseas labor usually helps get the costs down so Disney would have to open satellite studios overseas (France, Japan, Canada, Australia, etc.) to do that. They already did it in the 90s and it worked for them.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Boxx93

[cannastop]

2 minutes ago, Boxx93 said:

Overseas labor usually helps get the costs down so Disney would have to open satellite studios overseas (France, Japan, Canada, Australia, etc.) to do that. They already did it in the 90s and it worked for them.

Eh there's a reason those shut down.

 

Also I think the main reason why WDAS had a satellite studio in France in the latter half of the 90s was because the amount of work they wanted to produce was so great they needed more artists, not to cut costs.

 

Disney Australia did direct to video stuff. So did Disney Japan. Don't know about any Disney stuff in Canada though.... referring to the failed Pixar venture there?

[Boxx93]

13 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Eh there's a reason those shut down.

 

Also I think the main reason why WDAS had a satellite studio in France in the latter half of the 90s was because the amount of work they wanted to produce was so great they needed more artists, not to cut costs.

 

Disney Australia did direct to video stuff. So did Disney Japan. Don't know about any Disney stuff in Canada though.... referring to the failed Pixar venture there?

I meant they just have to open one satellite studio in one country and do the animation there while the whole pre and post production gets done in California, like Illumination does. I was just spitballing ideas of where they could open one.

 

I didn't knew Australia was doing the direct to video stuff though.

[cannastop]

4 minutes ago, Boxx93 said:

I meant they just have to open one satellite studio in one country and do the animation there while the whole pre and post production gets done in California, like Illumination does. I was just spitballing ideas of where they could open one.

 

I didn't knew Australia was doing the direct to video stuff though.

that would be absolutely fatal to the quality of the movies, to have all the animation offshored.

[Boxx93]

8 minutes ago, cannastop said:

that would be absolutely fatal to the quality of the movies, to have all the animation offshored.

Mario was fully animated at Illumination Studios Paris in France and that looked really good and cost half of Elemental's budget.

[cannastop]

1 minute ago, Boxx93 said:

Mario was fully animated at Illumination Studios Paris in France and that looked really good and cost half of Elemental's budget.

looks more workmanlike to me

[Boxx93]

32 minutes ago, cannastop said:

looks more workmanlike to me

I mean sure, you are going to loose some the innovations that made Pixar the studio that is today. It's like going from the beautiful artistry of Sleeping Beauty to the Xerox rough lines in 101 Dalmatians to cut cost, but it's a necessary evil to keep the lights on for a little longer.

 

But who knows, maybe they will keep doing what they're doing in California, hope for the best and cut cost just for the live action stuff, because Disney in general cannot keep spending money like a drunken sailor and expect a billion dollar hit every time.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Boxx93

[AniNate]

I don't think it's a necessary evil yet, if Elemental had in fact flopped maybe it would've been.

[cannastop]

8 minutes ago, AniNate said:

I don't think it's a necessary evil yet, if Elemental had in fact flopped maybe it would've been.

Completely shutting down the animation departments at WDAS and Pixar would be too drastic yet. Though it would be something that I guess could happen after some more flops, but not at this point.

[cannastop]

19 minutes ago, Boxx93 said:

I mean sure, you are going to loose some the innovations that made Pixar the studio that is today. It's like going from the beautiful artistry of Sleeping Beauty to the Xerox rough lines in 101 Dalmatians to cut cost, but it's a necessary evil to keep the lights on for a little longer.

 

But who knows, maybe they will keep doing what they're doing in California, hope for the best and cut cost just for the live action stuff, because Disney in general cannot keep spending money like a drunken sailor and expect a billion dollar hit every time.

I definitely think there could be some austerity measures done for WDAS and Pixar. Don't know what they are because I'm not there and I'm not an expert.

 

But I definitely also think that part of the appeal of these movies is the luscious animation. Get rid of that and then you lose part of the audience.

[IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son]

Improving the technology behind the animation is an expensive endeavour. Last time Disney did it with Tangled in 2010 it initially seemed like a poor investment (Tangled made only $583m off of a $260m budget), but it then became profitable on home entertainment and it then spawned the Frozen movies, both of which cleared a billion and made multiple times more than that in ancillaries and merchandise. 

[cannastop]

Just now, IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son said:

Improving the technology behind the animation is an expensive endeavour. Last time Disney did it with Tangled in 2010 it initially seemed like a poor investment (Tangled made only $583m off of a $260m budget), but it then became profitable on home entertainment and it then spawned the Frozen movies, both of which cleared a billion and made multiple times more than that in ancillaries and merchandise. 

I was under the impression that Tangled had an astronomical budget because of turmoil behind the scenes and director changes.

 

Tangled really is an outlier even for Disney. $260 million... phew. But if it's true that it lead to Frozen movies then it does seem perhaps worth it.

[JWR]

I think Coco was the last Pixar film (to get a full theatrical run) that cost under $200M ($175M).

[cannastop]

Just now, JWR said:

I think Coco was the last Pixar film (to get a full theatrical run) that cost under $200M ($175M).

even that... has an estimated range of $175–225 million according to wikipedia.

 

Onward had a similar range but of course interrupted by pandemic.

[InVy]

1 minute ago, JWR said:

I think Coco was the last Pixar film (to get a full theatrical run) that cost under $200M ($175M).

and it made barely 200m in USA even before Disney+ even though now many people are loving it & it's super popular. 

[ZeroHour]

34 minutes ago, cannastop said:

I was under the impression that Tangled had an astronomical budget because of turmoil behind the scenes and director changes.

 

Tangled really is an outlier even for Disney. $260 million... phew. But if it's true that it lead to Frozen movies then it does seem perhaps worth it.

Yeah Tangled had years of failed development costs rolled into its budget (I think Frozen did too, Disney tried for a long time to get a take of the The Snow Queen off the ground), but I think there was also new stuff that had to be created to animate Rapunzel's hair, in particular.

[ZeroHour]

There's something very depressing about people nonchalantly talking about Pixar firing most of its animators and shipping their jobs overseas. There are other avenues for cutting costs, including having a different mix of more and less ambitious (from an animation perspective) titles. Soul, Luca, and Turning Red could've all been money makers if they had gone to theaters and it's not Pixar's fault that they didn't (Luca and Turning Red, in particular, continue to perform on streaming). If anything, Elemental shows that Pixar can still successfully launch an animated original film and that Disney should focus its energy on protecting the theatrical window for these films and making the case to families that these are worth seeing in theaters. It makes sense for them to try and cut costs, but way more of that energy should be focused on reigning in Lucasfilm if we're being honest.

[AniNate]

I naively hoped that Elemental's comeback would maybe put that discourse on the backburner. I don't think they need to cut anything as long as their movies still make money.

[PatrickvD]

PIXAR and WDAS just need to focus on making movies that stand out. 
 

The biggest mistake they made was reducing their films to Disney+ exclusives when they need to be experienced on the big screen. Elemental is the rebound that was needed to make their output feel like events again.

 

Budget cuts should not be made.