No more original and autobiographical stories, Pixar is all about sequels
More Toy Story and less Red Alert, Luca or Elementary? This is what studio boss Pete Docter suggests.
Asked last October about Pixar's balance sheet After the funny summer ofElementarywhich had a very bad start at the box office before finding its audience over time – a year after the disappointing reception of Buzz Lightning– the new boss of Pixar studios, Pete Doctertried to remain optimistic.
“I hope we continue to have the budget necessary for our artists to do the best work of their lives“, he replied to New York Times.
He still recognized that the decision to directly release in streaming several new productions from the firm specializing in animation (Soul, Red Alert, Luca…), had not helped to motivate the public to go to cinemas to discover a new original work:
“There's been a shake-up in viewing habits because of the pandemic, but that's also specific to Disney+. People were clearly told: 'Look ! All these films will be visible on Disney+!'”
Since then, two sequels have been confirmed by Pixar: Vice Versa 2 And Toy Story 5as well as a new film entitled Elio. But once it is released, will the company only create sequels and spin-offs? This is what a long article by Bloomberg titled “Disney is banking on sequels to help Pixar get back on track.”
Toy Story 5: Pete Docter announces “never before seen” for the new film in preparation
“We experienced an intense period of questioning, we felt that we had messed up somewhere, explains, cash, the former co-director of Monsters and co. And Vice versa, who gave up the directing job when he signed on to be the studio's creative brains. The American site then specifies that following this “questioning”Pixar will shoot “fewer autobiographical tales, unlike Lucaswhich was directly inspired by the director's youth in Italy (Enrico Casarosa, editor’s note)ofRed alertwhich returned to the relationship between the director (Domee Shi) and his own mother, and Elementary -which still worked well across the Atlantic, then online-, based on the experience of the director's immigrant family (Peter Sohn). The studio will instead develop concepts capable of attracting spectators en masse, and many will be sequels and/or spin-offs, as was already the case recently.
Pete Docteur is then once again quoted: “Our films will be less catharses for our filmmakers than a voice to tell a common experience. I don't think we can afford to give up, we must continue to offer the best possible films that everyone can enjoy. identify yourself.”
A strategy that worries, Pixar having long been synonymous with new ideas, animated films dedicated to the whole family while developing “high concepts” quality. Won’t relying solely on variations of previous successes end up tarnishing their reputation? We will already know from June 19 if Vice Versa 2 keeps all its promises, the first part having particularly shocked the public when it was released in cinemas in 2015. Here is its trailer:
Pixar reviews its strategy after the success of Elementary, which is confirmed on Disney+
