PIXAR: The Recession

The title may seem a little sensationalist, but i promise you that this blog is not about to turn into a tabloid, i make an attempt to steer clear of gossip on this site, however it is no surprise to anyone that Pixar is a little stuck at the moment, they haven't released a film this year, only the second year since their inception that they haven't released a film.

Pixar was supposed to release a film in 2014, The Good Dinosaur, however this film was pushed back to the end of next year, after Inside out will have been released, next summer. The film has been completely restructured, and its director has been replaced. For a while Pixar looked unsinkable, they had a string of critical successes which broke abruptly with the release of Cars 2. It was a very abrupt turning point for the company, and while box office returns are still up, they haven't had an acclaimed critical hit since 2010's Toy Story 3.

In this time they have also released a prequel and a sequel, the first franchises for the company outside of the Toy Story series. The first sequel was Cars 2, a sequel to the 2006 film. The film was badly received, almost gleefully so, and ended the studios streak of critical successes. Cars itself was not a particularly well reviewed film, while it wasn't reviewed as badly as Cars 2, nonetheless it was seen to be one of the inferior Pixar films, and the move to make a sequel and to turn it into a franchise was generally seen as one influenced by the copious amounts of merchandise the film sold, which generated over a billion dollars in it's first year.

The second film, which they released a prequel to was Monsters Inc, again, whilst Monsters Inc is a charming film, it's not their greatest film, and it doesn't have the best sequel potential, and while making a sequel to Cars seemed like a good move from a financial point of view, Monsters University was a perplexing choice both commercially and financially. The film didn't generate a huge amount of interest when the first was released in 2001, and the prequel slightly underperformed at the box-office. In choosing these films to mold franchises around, Pixar made bad choices critically, neither of these films were Pixar's best, and specifically Monsters Inc didn't have a huge amount of franchise potential.

The first film that one would think of producing a sequel to would be The Incredibles, the film is a light parody of superhero films and comic book adaptations, this type of storytelling is episodic by nature, and many Hollywood franchises are now based around superheros. This film was perfect for a franchise, and disney finally announced a sequel to this film, which, in my opinion, is long overdue. The other sequel which has been announced is Finding Dory, a sequel to Finding Nemo. While Finding Nemo doesn't appear to have a huge amount of franchise potential, and while the film seems to wrap itself up pretty neatly at the end of Finding Nemo, the films breakout character was Dory, the forgetful fish played by Ellen DeGeneres, and the director has made the smart choice to base the next film around her.

This is a good choice from a narrative standpoint and commercially, the character of Dory was by far the most interesting and funny part of the original film, and it makes sense to base the film around her, it also takes into account the bankability of Ellen DeGeneres, since 2003 Ellen has become a huge star, and although her ability to become bankable at the box office has never really become tested, she has a huge fanbase, is popular with families and her talk show is the most successful daytime show in the US. The future seems brighter for Pixar, despite the impending release of Cars 3, with three original films being released, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Dia De Los Muertos (based around the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico), and the release of two promising sequels, Pixar looks to be back on the right track, at least for now.