Originally Posted By maniac_disney Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO of Pixar, has indicated that he might be willing to sell the company for the right price. The 50% owner stated in a published report that he was willing to consider selling to "two people with knowledge of the talks" to extend the studio's current relationship with distributing giant Disney. According to CNNMoney, Jobs is looking for a strong return on the sale and would also be open to an offer from Disney. Any sell of Pixar however would be based on the best deal for the company and not Jobs' new found working alliance with Disney's new CEO Bob Iger, with whom his other company Apple Computer recently signed a deal to distribute some of its shows on iPods. This news comes just days before the November 4th release of Chicken Little, Disney's first solo, all CGI production that analysts expect will give leverage in the negotiations to either Disney if the film is a hit or Pixar if the movie flops. Either way, experts anticipate daily talks between the two companies should resume in mid-November and could be wrapped up by the first of the year.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA At some point, Pixar is going to release a movie that isn't a blockbuster. A movie that doesn't capture audience attention, and that doesn't generate $500 billion worldwide, and that isn't inspiring enough to create a theme park ride and cuddly stuffed animals and kid's toys and pajamas. [*cough*-cars-*cough] Watch when that happens, and Pixar goes from a Wall Street darling to a dude with a 'Will Animate For Food' sign around its neck. It's just like when Disney was on their renaissance roll -- 'Little Mermaid' 'Beauty and the Beast' 'Aladdin' peaked with 'The Lion King' -- and then, the popularity of these movies started to slide. In the not so distant future, CGI animation will become just another medium for audiences. And a movie will have to be good to get people to fork over their $10.00 to see it.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Disney ought to be hoping Lucas doesn't want the company he sold for $7M ( including all the new technology back) - to play with now that SW is over...... And if there is a functioning brain cell left in upper Disney Management - this purchase accomplishes two things -- the majority of the market in CGI , as well as returning a lot of talent that left the Mouse for PIXAR.....especially the story telling talent that is sooooo lacking at Disney right now- regardless of medium And while it is inevitable that PIXAR will put out a low box office returner one of these days -- I don;t see teh vultures circling yet. As for CARS -- remember the buzz on Nemo was not very good either ( and not just from Eisner) - the thought of it all being filmed under water etc...how did that turn out ? It's all in the story telling.
Originally Posted By basil fan Oooh, bad example. I thought Nemo was, well, to put it gently, not so good. Lots of poor storytelling in that film. IMO. The Not-Your-Average Disney Trivia Quiz <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/dquiz.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ disney/dquiz.html</a>
Originally Posted By JeffG >> "Oooh, bad example. I thought Nemo was, well, to put it gently, not so good. Lots of poor storytelling in that film. IMO." << That is a reasonable opinion, of course, but it isn't really relevant to the point that was being made, which was that despite the mixed early buzz on the film, "Finding Nemo" ended up being an enormous financial and critical success. -Jeff
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <I thought Nemo was, well, to put it gently, not so good. Lots of poor storytelling in that film. IMO.> Well, see? Pixar is already sliding...
Originally Posted By cstephens vbdad55 wrote: > Disney ought to be hoping Lucas doesn't want the company he sold for $7M ( including all the new technology back) - to play with now that SW is over...... Wasn't it recently announced that Lucasfilm has opened a digital animation company overseas? /cs
Originally Posted By Imagineer This If Disney does ever buy Pixar won't the Disney accountants slash the budgets in half and fire half of the animators and make movies that are less than half as good as Toy Story, Nemo and the Incredibles? Is that the deal that Steve Jobs is hoping for? Less creative control and a decimation of Pixar? (
Originally Posted By paulyahoo Jobs is a businessman, so it's very wise to sell Pixar while it's on top.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Hate to mention it, but gearing up a CGI animatinon division is just as expensive as a hand-drawn animation division. You need workstations, animators, story people, et al. So perhaps the plan was to get rid of the Feature Animation division, and then just replace it with Pixar. Move all the Pixar personnel to the Burbank ANIMATION building. Emeryville is a bit of hole anyway.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Then, when GGI movies lose their popularity, say late 2006 or so, they can retrain all the Pixar animators to do hand-drawn.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Nemo a bad example ? Domestic: $339,714,978 39.3% + Overseas: $524,911,000 60.7% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = Worldwide: $864,625,978 I'll take that for any future release coming up, the question was not did one like the film, that is personal choice and surely allowed, but how did the movie fare ? <Then, when GGI movies lose their popularity, say late 2006 or so, they can retrain all the Pixar animators to do hand-drawn.< even if it did come that quickly, which I don;t think it will ( remember Snow White was thought to be a fad in it's day also) - what they get by acquiring PIXAR is a lot of good story tellers abcks also, something that appears to be lacking today at Disney as they let so many talented people go.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper All my kid talks about is Nemo...and he is three and hasn't sat through the whole movie yet. I think Nemo held it's own.
Originally Posted By basil fan >It's all in the story telling. This is what I was referring to when I said "bad example." Not box office results. Doanld Duck's Family Tree <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/donald.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ disney/donald.html</a>
Originally Posted By vbdad55 The box office results were posted because I think they were indicative of how many people viewed the story telling in Nemo. The animation was nothing new, it was the story that attracted audiences....
Originally Posted By basil fan Could you define what you mean by "story?" I know what "storytelling" is, but no one seems able to define story for me.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 A cohesive theme that carries through the movie, has something that starts the flow -- a series of actions to support it-- then a conclusion -- to me that is a story. Along the way, many side bars - characters that actually hold ones' interest and that we as an audience cares about
Originally Posted By thenurmis "Then, when GGI movies lose their popularity, say late 2006 or so, they can retrain all the Pixar animators to do hand-drawn." Yeah, and when those dam "Talkies" loose their attraction, we can get the foley guys to draw out the words.... oh the past is a wonderfull thing, to bad it's gone eh?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Many times the past comes back and does well in entertainment...( Look at all the top grossing concert tours and the age of the performers ) - I think it is too early to throw the dirt on the coffin of 2D animation just yet - as I think with the right story and work up- there easily coul dbe more hits out there... the difference is hand drawn used to be the only game in town...it will never be again and in fact will have to win back fans...but it happens all the time CGI will lose it's edginess after a while - then it will be just who tells the best story.... The biggest issue I see for 2D animation is that much of the story telling talent is working in CGI these days....and that talent is more important than the format.
Originally Posted By itsme Say what you want about Nemo, I keep salt water aquaria, corals and fish. Because of the few fish that i have that were in Nemo, adults as much as kids go nuts over it more now then before the movie came out. Adults that would have just looked and said thats cool, they now watch the inhabitants in the tank.
