| spurgeonryan said: Wow! I knew it was something big. Because at the time I was trying to imagine Disney every making their money back from that. I actually said they are doing good now. But they have greenlit sequels galore and some of them have not been great. Cars 2 is the prime example. |
Again: It's John Lasseter - the Pixar guy, the man who basically invented modern CGI animation - who greenlit the 3 released and the 2 upcoming (Nemo 2/Monsters 2) Pixar sequels/prequels. He's the man who not only decided to make a Cars sequel but who also decided to direct Cars 2 himself. He's his own boss in that regard. He wasn't forced by Disney - the company which extremely rarely made sequels in its decades of animation history - to do sequels to his Pixar movies. On the day Disney purchased Pixar (in January 2006) Lasseter became the creative head of Disney & Pixar animation. His new role as combined Disney-Pixar animation boss was part of the acquisition deal, so if you want to blame Disney for (future) Pixar sequelitis or a lackluster recent Pixar release, you actually have to blame Mr. Pixar John Lasseter.
BTW: I know we will get more Pixar sequels/prequels in the future, but up to now we only had 3. Toy Story 2 and 3 are brilliant imo, actually two of the best movie sequels I've ever seen.
If Lasseter can be blamed for one thing imo it's the economic risks he takes, in other words: the budget vs. boxoffice ratio which is often lower than at other animation companies. Disney and Pixar movies have become damn expensive, e.g.
Brave: budget 185 mio, worldwide gross 528 mio
Cars 2: budget 200 mio, gross 515 mio
Tangled: budget 260 mio, gross 590 mio
For comparison - Blue Sky Studios (20th Century Fox):
Ice Age 3: budget 90 mio, gross 886 mio
Ice Age 4: budget 95 mio, gross 865 mio
Rio: budget 95 mio, 484 mio
