Pixar are responsible for bringing to life some of the greatest film characters of all time!
For years and years now Pixar have been one of the best studios in the movie business. Pixar have been turning out perfect films over and over again since their first feature length film back in 1995; that film of course was Toy Story. Since then Pixar have continued to make perfect films, some of my favourites including Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Wall-E and that’s not even mentioning Cars, Up, A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille or The Incredibles. It is plain to see that Pixar have a knack for creating real works of art with some of the best characters to ever grace the cinema screen. They have often been thought of, especially by me, as one of the best studios making films today because of their originality, their creativity and their lust to tell a story that hasn’t been told before on the big screen in a time where plenty of the biggest studios in Hollywood are relying on sequels, reboots, fairy tale adaptations and even origin stories for famous films. In other words, studios are getting desperate but Pixar always seemed like the bright spark within the industry but are they now turning in to just another studio?
Edwin E. Catmull – Co-founder and current President of Pixar Animations.
This week Pixar have announced plans to make a sequel to 2003 hit (and one of the best and most touching stories Pixar have ever told) Finding Nemo, to be directed by Andrew Stanton, the man behind the original film and Wall-E. This follows the news that there is development for a Toy Story 4 in the pipeline and of course next year a prequel to Monsters Inc called Monsters University will be released. There are also rumours that a sequel is in development for Pixar’s very own superpowered family The Incredibles. This follows the hugely successful Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 and the film seen by many as the worst Pixar have ever made, Cars 2. Obviously, film fans everywhere will be rejoicing at the fact that plans to bring Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mike, Sulley, Nemo, Marlin and Dory all back to the big screen because they are characters that were a huge part of so many people’s childhood and there will always be a sentimental connection towards those characters in the hearts of anyone who has ever watched these films. But are these proposed sequels bad news for Pixar and film fans in general?
The Toy Story franchise is a rare example of a trilogy where every film is of the highest quality, you can debate for days and days about which one is the best and why it is better than the other two but never will everyone agree. However, with Cars 2 it is the opinion of many that Pixar got it wrong; it didn’t really need a sequel and it wasn’t as good as the first one, it’s sort of a blotch on an otherwise stainless list of films in Pixar’s history. This means that if Pixar get it wrong with another sequel/prequel it could dampen feelings towards their much beloved characters.
Pixar’s feature length films have won a combined total of 11 Oscars and earned another 30 nominations!
Since 2003 Pixar have released a single film each year and it has done well commercially no matter what because Pixar is a name that will put bums on seats in cinemas, there remains no doubt about that. But with the news of the sequels it could signal one of two things: either Pixar is trying to follow suit of several other major film companies and milk the popularity of their characters for every last penny they can get out of them (something Disney are already managing to do with most of their character history) or rather more sadly, Pixar may just be running out of ideas. However, Pixar have said, although this was many years ago, that they would not consider making a sequel to one of their films if they couldn’t tell a story that was as good as the original, this suggests that a lot of hard work and thought will go into making these films but it will be a shame if this signals a slowing down in the creativity of Pixar because their characters have staying power like no others and everyone will be missing out if Pixar does indeed become ‘just another studio’.
The Movie Universe 
Pixar has, in my opinion, always been just another studio. One that, admittedly, has had a very good run and is indeed responsible of many of the best animated movies of all time. But is it something that we should put in a pedastal? I think not. Pixar is not a “god” of animation and the mere thought of this is the source of horrible stigma against all other animation studios and even against Pixar itself when fans deem any of its films not on “Pixar” level. Such “Pixar” level shouldn’t exist. Pixar has been good, but not because it cannot make mistakes, rather because it has put a lot of heart and effort in their projects. But not even all the heart and effort can prevent a studio from making mistakes. Cars 2 was a mistake, yet people act in denial as if it was an “exception”, or panic as if it was the impeding sign that Pixar is done. Pixar is just like any other studio: it can make good movies and bad movies all the same.
Very true and you make some very valid points. Firstly, of course, thank you for reading.
I think that it was only natural for the millions of fans Pixar has to put the studio on a pedestal as they have consecutively churned out one brilliant film after another. It is only now that they have begun making mistakes, perhaps due to complacency, but before that they never made a mistake. They were a studio that had a flawless record in films, now not so much.