Should Disney Merge Their Animation Studios?

Should Disney Merge Their Animation Studios?

  • Total voters
    32
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
TsWade2 said:
I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean.
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You were suppose to say, "Never tell me the odds."
iu
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I’m not sure Elemental will be a flop. I don’t think it’ll be huge but I think it’ll do OK. It looks family friendly (have to do my research after Strange World/ Lightyear on Disney movies now before taking the kids) and kids just got out of school for summer vacation. I feel like my family is a decent barometer for some of these things. If we’re going to see a movie it’s probably going to do Ok.
 
Tha Realest

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
mickEblu said:
I’m not sure Elemental will be a flop. I don’t think it’ll be huge but I think it’ll do OK. It looks family friendly (have to do my research after Strange World/ Lightyear on Disney movies now before taking the kids) and kids just got out of school for summer vacation. I feel like my family is a decent barometer for some of these things. If we’re going to see a movie it’s probably going to do Ok.
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If Elemental opens in the $30M’s as predicted it will almost certainly be a flop by any definable metric given its production and marketing costs
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
If Elemental opens in the $30M’s as predicted it will almost certainly be a flop by any definable metric given its production and marketing costs
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Well then I guess that would be the first time we went to the movies to see a flop but times are changing fast and Disney certainly aren’t doing themselves any favors.
 
BlakeW39

BlakeW39

Well-Known Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
If Elemental opens in the $30M’s as predicted it will almost certainly be a flop by any definable metric given its production and marketing costs
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I'd be surprised if Elemental doesn't flop

Disney is about to find out how much 'brand loyalty' is fundamental to their business strategies.
 
Farerb

Farerb

Well-Known Member
As time goes on, I notice that more and more people can't differentiate between the two. People still confuse Zootopia as a Pixar film while there are those who think Coco is Disney's. So at this point it really doesn't matter if there are two studios or one in my opinion.
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Farerb said:
As time goes on, I notice that more and more people can't differentiate between the two. People still confuse Zootopia as a Pixar film while there are those who think Coco is Disney's. So at this point it really doesn't matter if there are two studios or one in my opinion.
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I don't think there is much different anymore. Everything is very generic now especially the character designs.
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Phroobar said:
So did your family go see Elemental?
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Yeah, we thought it was pretty good. I have a brief review somewhere around here…

@Phroobar Here is my in depth and riveting review.

Just saw it. I thought it was solid. Visually pleasing. Really nice world building and story was better than I thought it would be. The design on fire girl (Ember) is captivating. Soundtrack was pretty good with some nice Indian and Far East influences. Also had some heart. Almost got a tear out of me at the end.
 
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Indy_UK

Indy_UK

Well-Known Member
I don’t want Pixar to be dissolved into DAS but I don’t know either how they could turn it around.

What’s apparent to me is that the DAS movies are more fun while Pixar has more of a meaning behind their movies which people are not feeling anymore.

Could Pixar maybe take on a couple of IP under DAS and make their own? I know a reboot but something maybe like Basil: Great Mouse detective or Robin Hood?
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
If Elemental opens in the $30M’s as predicted it will almost certainly be a flop by any definable metric given its production and marketing costs
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Just for the record, including the Thursday night previews Elemental's opening 4-day weekend box office haul was $29,602,429.

So, it didn't hit 30, much less "in the $30M's as predicted".

www.the-numbers.com

Elemental (2023) - Financial Information

Financial analysis of Elemental (2023) including budget, domestic and international box office gross, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports, total earnings and profitability.
www.the-numbers.com www.the-numbers.com
 
Tha Realest

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Just for the record, including the Thursday night previews Elemental's opening 4-day weekend box office haul was $29,602,429.

So, it didn't hit 30, much less "in the $30M's as predicted".

www.the-numbers.com

Elemental (2023) - Financial Information

Financial analysis of Elemental (2023) including budget, domestic and international box office gross, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports, total earnings and profitability.
www.the-numbers.com www.the-numbers.com
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But see, the daily box office performance looks not unlike an EEG for a comatose patient, so that shows it has legs! It’s not all doom and gloom!
 
T

TsWade2

Well-Known Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
But see, the daily box office performance looks not unlike an EEG for a comatose patient, so that shows it has legs! It’s not all doom and gloom!
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I agree. Elemental may have a bad start, but I think it’s building up legs. Besides, it’s going to stay in theaters until Labor Day.
 
Farerb

Farerb

Well-Known Member
Beyond Disney+, there are two huge factors impacting Pixar right now. One is Docter’s management of the studio. Instead of making one movie every couple of years, the studio is now cranking out at least one movie a year, sometimes two, plus all of the additional supplemental content for Disney+, including “Win or Lose,” a full-fledged animated series coming later this year. The workload has never been greater and those at Pixar have never been stretched so thin, according to those we spoke with.

Those who have worked for both creative leaders describe Docter’s style as more cerebral than Lasseter’s, with Docter putting a premium on the filmmaker’s personal experiences over movies with more outward scope and commercial appeal. Those interviewed by TheWrap, all of whom admire Docter, noted that his style is in stark contrast to Lasseter’s, who would throw out constricting frameworks and force filmmakers to rise to the challenge to make them great. (He famously had a rule about never allowing nonhuman and human characters to verbally communicate.) But some have suggested the importance Docter puts on personal stories has robbed the studio of some of its ambition and appeal, which is a problem when the movies cost so much.

Can Pixar sustain $200 million personal stories that double as therapy sessions for their very talented directors? Sohn admitted, when we spoke to him a few weeks ago, that there were times when he felt too close to the story of “Elemental.” In contrast, those earlier, more successful Pixar movies often hinged around simple, ingenious concepts that were childlike in their fantasy: What if toys came to life when you weren’t looking? What if there really were monsters in your closet? What if humans left Earth but forgot to turn off the last robot?

The other problem is that the institutional knowledge of the company has eroded over time. “It has always been my goal to create a culture at Pixar that will outlast its founders,” wrote Ed Catmull, one of Pixar’s co-founders, in his book “Creativity, Inc.” Catmull left the company in 2018 and stayed on as an advisor until the end of 2019. It’s hard to know if Catmull has achieved that goal. He and Lasseter are gone. (Towards the end of his tenure, Disney paid out $100 million to settle accusations that Catmull had orchestrated a wage-fixing scheme to cap animators’ salaries.)

Docter is now running the company. Stanton is away making a live-action feature for Searchlight and also directed episodes of Netflix’s upcoming “3 Body Problem.” Unkrich is mostly gone but occasionally consults. Bird is at Skydance Animation, reunited with Lasseter. MacLane, longtime producer Galyn Susman — the one who saved “Toy Story 2” — and director Steve Purcell (co-director of “Brave”) have all been forced out during a recent round of layoffs.

There are a new crop of filmmakers currently making movies at Pixar and the group is both younger and more diverse. According to the studio’s slate, there are movies scheduled through at least 2026. As an animation historian who recently co-wrote a two-volume book about Imagineer and animator Marc Davis, Docter realized how badly Disney Animation suffered when the Nine Old Men, Walt’s original group of animators, outstayed their welcome and lost their touch.

Some have already been elevated to leadership positions, like “Turning Red” producer Lindsey Collins, now senior vice president of development, and Shi and Sohn, who are creative vice presidents. The tight working relationship between Shi and Collins is rare these days, but it speaks to the effectiveness of the partnership that it produced one of the greatest Pixar movies ever in “Turning Red.” Collins, who also worked on “Wall-E,” is a 26-year veteran of the company. But some insiders worry that many of Pixar’s younger, more inexperienced filmmakers don’t have the necessary guidance and leadership. Instead of close-knit teams working throughout a single production, the sheer volume of content that Pixar is now responsible for and the highly competitive environment mean that key creative people will usually not stay on a project all the way through completion. Instead, they’ll hop onto the next thing, leaving that original project to suffer and the filmmakers in charge of the projects even more adrift.

“Win or Lose,” the new longform Pixar series, is set to debut in December on Disney+. We’ve seen some of it and it feels like one of the bolder things the studio has produced in years. It’s using a lower budget and simplified designs to its advantage without losing any of the trademark Pixar emotionality. It is striking. And it was conceived and directed by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, two talented young storyboard artists from “Toy Story 4” who represent the younger, more diverse new crop of talented filmmakers at the studio. But the creative success of the show is not an indication that the relationship between Disney+ and Pixar has gotten any easier. A follow-up series from Pixar has been quietly canceled. It might get reworked as a feature film later.
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Source: https://www.thewrap.com/pixar-existential-crisis-elemental-lightyear/

Rival studios believe that Disney’s animated efforts have become too twee and lack the more populist edge of “Mario” or Paramount’s upcoming “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reboot. “Pixar is becoming an anemic brand,” notes Verna. “It’s fallen so far from the days in in which anything it released would blow the doors off.”
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Source: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/...s-indiana-jones-elemental-ant-man-1235660409/
 

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