With the news that Finding Dory is a thing that is going to happen soon (alongside the recently rumoured Toy Story 4, the impending Monsters University and the previously released Cars 2) Pixar are systematically depressing an entire generation.
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| 11/10 children know these faces better than their own parents |
The story of Pixar is a heartfelt and charming one, filled with challenges, pitfalls, successes, setbacks and a whole lot of sweating before, eventually and deservedly, unrepentant triumph. It’s also a story told with far more care and nuance elsewhere, but let’s take a speed run:
Pixar were groundbreakers. Trendsetters. John Lassetter was but a graduate, a tiny smidge on the window shield of the world of cinema, when he determinedly falcon-punched the animation industry into a whole new dimension. Before him 3D (as in CGI, not the pointy sword through the screen kind) animation was as good as unheard of, a curio, a sideshow to the dominion of the two dimensions. But did John Lasseter care? Does the new Pope look like Woody Allen? (Yes he totally does, just to clarify.)
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| Y'see. |
Getting fired, having no money or allies or any particular prospects: none of that fazed him. With a dogged determination that would in time be characteristic of his company’s beloved protagonists (and eventually the fiscal prowess of Steve Jobs behind him) he worked at the ultimate passion project, turning what was originally dismissed as a gimmick into a multi billion dollar art form.
Just under 20 years later he is the Principal Creative Advisor at Disney, the company who originally dumped him as a hopeless dreamer, after Pixar were bought for a brain melting $7.4 billion in 2006.
Every child – and adult and grandparent…and dog – can name Pixar’s back catalogue of work. Everybody now: Toy Story (1,2 & 3), A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Brave. Everybody has a favourite, think some are brilliant while others stink, but the fact of the matter remains that while revolutionising the way films are made, Pixar simultaneously transformed the art of story telling. They were a breath of fresh air in a consistently stagnating industry, ceaseless paragons of originality up against a deluge of remakes, retreads, rereleases and adaptations.
But it’s all gone seven shades of wrong since their Noughties heyday, now focusing on market trends, brand identity sequeling, gimmicky rereleases and all manner of discomforting corporate terms and tactics in the bid for a positive fiscal report.
The question to ask then is: what happened?
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| So many memories...I appear to have something in my eye... |
Business. In a word. Business happened. A general principle in business – as is being increasingly seen with the movie and video game industries – is that if you’re not growing you must therefore be shrinking. If you’re not making more money, you’re losing money, blindly ignoring any happy middle ground. It’s a shortsighted moronic approach to anything, negating accomplishments on an annual basis to make room for potential greater accomplishments in a cyclic system that can only end in defeat. It either assumes that there is no cap on gains or chooses to ignore that such a thing exists in the pursuit of short-term rewards. It is, in short, where recessions come from.
But let’s get way from the doom-and-gloom big-picture perspective for a second.
This is not to go into full-on manic alarmist mode and say that ‘this is exactly what Pixar is doing.’ Not at all. It’s merely an amateurish outline (I don’t, in any way whatsoever, claim to understand the intricacies of business) of a very real mentality, the sort of mentality that saw the CEOs of video game behemoths EA and Square-Enix lose their jobs within a week of each other due to ‘slow financial gain.’ By which it means: games that they wanted to sell 5 million+ copies only sold 3.5 million (pathetic, only 3.5 million? Really? You could only buy one country with that kind of money) evidencing flagrantly misjudged targets.
In Pixar’s case, it is further testament of a worrying trend amongst media content creators whereby putting your effort into new IPs or ideas is seen as a bad investment, with the ‘smart money’ going to sequels and that all important ‘brand-identity.’
Empty words for empty terms for empty targets; in the last few years Pixar have debased into the epitome of contemporary business: lazy, scared and money-mad.
This is not to say, however, that making money is an inherently bad thing. It is, in fact, one of the major purposes of any business in a capitalist system. It makes sense. What is condemnable however is the way in which it is done. And Pixar haven’t been particularly heroic about it, a fact which stings all the more considering that they were once the masters of such a method.
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| Dat feel after you've held one in for a while. |
Pixar are not in dire financial straights, they are one of the most profitable film studios in the world, able to make $100 million by accident. What we are currently seeing is nothing short of fear; fear that the current golden age will soon take a downward turn. It’s a rational fear considering the still fragile global economic climate, but there are far healthier ways of dealing with it. Simply because the populace are tightening their purse strings does not inherently entitle you to do whatever it takes to lock-down profits. In anticipating future difficulties, Pixar are turning their back on everything that so uniquely characterises them when in fact they should be at their most Pixar-y.
This is how they are fast developing into yet another brick in the bland wall of industry.
Indie game developers have proven that, with a dollop of smarts and genuine care for the consumer, it’s possible to not only survive but positively thrive during these turbulent times. While AAA publishers like EA and Square-Enix are collapsing under their own grandiloquent weight, small-scale Indie teams are enjoying a new era of success, utilizing online platforms and social networks to develop their industry into previously uncharted territory. It’s similar to what a certain animation studio did nearly 20 years ago…
Rather than focusing on creative ways of consolidating their position, Pixar have debased to the most mainstream of practices: sequels and rereleases. And prequels of course, as with Monsters University. Of all of Pixar’s IPs, Monsters Inc. perhaps make the least sense to prequel. The major plot twist of the original is that *SPOILERS* children’s laughter is more powerful than their screams, a revelation tainted by the fact that University will take audiences back to a world where the monsters can onlymake children scream. It’s a bizarre choice on Pixar’s behalf but one likely to pull in another billion dollars or so.
The Toy Story trilogy is frequently considered one of the greatest trilogies of all time, remaining consistently poignant and entertaining as a complete package with each installment managing to retain a unique identity, and was wrapped up in the neatest ribbon ever woven. People cried. People cheered. And it was done. Until a month ago where, completely out of the blue, a fourth film weed led nervously out of the woodwork to desperate cries of 'why!?'
Nothing has been officially confirmed by Disney or Pixar just yet (though the sudden deluge or rumour in February is suspicious) and so no comment can be made on potential narrative/characters/themes.
From the outside however, considering the story-telling perfection of the trilogy and the billion+ dollars Toy Story 3 pulled in, there would be one very clear reason for returning to Woody and the gang at some indeterminable future: safe money.
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| 'Does my new tat make me look like Mike Tyson?' |
Money also explains Pixar’s sudden obsession with 3D, the century’s favourite gimmick. Toy Story 1 & 2, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo have all gone through conversion jobs in the last three years, the point apparently being to support future projects. If the conversions were well done and implemented from the ground up then fair enough, it would be a commendable effort to bring these classic tales to a generation of new children. The simple fact remains however that they aren’t, the more recent Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. rereleases suffering from poor critical and financial reception.
Even Brave, while still undoubtedly a touching and original story, is a blatant cut from the rump of Hollywood’s current prized cash cow: fairytales. Red Riding Hood, Snow White & The Huntsman, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Jack The Giant Slayer and so on ad nauseum; even Pixar’s doses of originality are tainted by perceived corporate necessity.
The only true anomaly at the moment is Finding Dory due to the dearth of concrete information. If it’s a film about finding a missing Dory then shame on you Pixar! If it’s - more likely - a film about finding outwho Dory is then…let’s keep an open mind. While the entire point of her character in the original was to be a goofy, indefinable abnormality, an investigation into her past would be a far less disingenuous enterprise than merely retreading old steps.
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| If Rex doesn't cameo I'll slay a dingo. |
This isn’t to say that these won’t be good films however. Even Cars 2 – the bewildering sequel to Pixar’s least loved IP – while largely pointless, was widely considered a good film. But Pixar aren’t about good films. They’re about great films. Films that make children and adults alike stop and wonder for their 90 minutes or so runtime. Films that create worlds so gloriously alive and enticing that they transcend staunch generation boundaries.
Monsters University, Finding Nemo and whatever other sequels Pixar invariably have planned for the future will doubtlessly look gorgeous, be entertaining and delight audiences across the world. But will they ever be the same as the first time you saw those toys come to life? The first time you swooped through the coral reefs? Watched that little robot fly through space? See that boy and girl fall in love and grow old together?
It’s with a sad heart that I doubt it. Pixar have done little to indicate that they are looking to follow their own remarkable tradition as times become tougher. Monsters University and Finding Nemo aside, it’ll be 2014’s The Good Dinosaur that will prove where Pixar’s future plans lie.
Fingers crossed.
Smell that sweet nostalgia:
Follow on Twitter for updates, musings and failed attempts at humour in the hope of making new friends: @Smariman
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