Mousekingdom Blog

OK - the Disney community is known for its lightning fast spreading of rumors and news … but unless I have been asleep for several months, this time something fell through the cracks. At least I can’t explain otherwise, that as far as I can see, noone is talking about the story that DailyBulletin.com released already on April 28.

It starts out rather uninteresting for most Disney/Pixar-fans with some general talk about the upcoming summer-feature “Ratatouille” and why it is different from all the other talking critters CG-movies. Then it gets more interesting when it says ”Bird was planning to follow “The Incredibles” with a live-action film.” But this had been a topic among Disney-fans already before. Where it really gets interesting is at the very end of the story, where it says: “As for that live-action film (possibly an entry from the “John Carter of Mars” series?), Bird says it’s next, and it will be for Pixar. ‘The company is evolving into a place where all kinds of movies, not just animated ones, can come out,’ Bird says.”

Now that - to me - is news. Pixar going to enter live-action movie making?? I had the impression that The Walt Disney Company was currently trying to differentiate its brands more strongly by concentrating on certain mediums, say CG-movies at Pixar, classic 2-D-animation (in the future once again) at Walt Disney (Feature) Animation etc. In fact weren’t they planning to actually get rid of some of their studio labels for live-action material?? And now this?!

Pixar at no time needed classical movie studios, prop and custome departments etc. Are they really going to enter into this now? Or are they going to produce the movie providing creative input through its personnel but rely on The Walt Disney Studio for they necessary backbone before adding its label to the finished movie in the end??

Also one needs to wonder whether John Lasseter as chief creative officer for Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation and also as Principal Creative Advisor  for Imagineering isn’t putting a bit too much on its plate here. Not only is he going to get onto the turf of the traditional Walt Disney Picture studio bosses here, but also this is going to take extra time for him to oversee - at times where first fans of WDW already start whispering whether he isn’t concentrating his Imagineering involvement too much on Disneyland Anaheim and neglecting WDW. And I am not even mentioning DLRP regarding which not a single word has come out, that he involved himself, even so the expansion and (as I personally like to call it) re-imagineering of the Walt Disney Studios Parks needs every creative input and support it can get.

Anyway it should interesting to follow how Pixar enters the live-action movie market and how John Lasseter deals with his responsibilities (especially regarding Imagineering OUTSIDE Disneyland Anaheim). But what do you think about this?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Disney Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.