Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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D82
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

Post by D82 »

I don’t know if this is the right thread for this or not, but Ed Catmull said recently in an interview that the Disney Braintrust helped Pixar with Inside Out, seeing the film and giving feedback to them, while the Pixar Braintrust did the same with Zootopia. I don’t remember having heard both companies had started to collaborate in this way before. Was that already known?
“Initially it was Pixar teaching Disney how to do it but we only did that for a year and a half and then Disney got going,” Catmull says.

They were kept separate for years until Pixar was “a little stuck” with Inside Out. The Disney Braintrust “looked at the film and they helped pick at a problem that was in the way. As soon as we heard [their answer], we realised it was true and ‘oh, we’ve got two groups of people who like each other, they want each other to succeed, they speak the same language, they know what it means to give meaningful notes and they’re fresh eyes’.”

Later, the Pixar Braintrust found two flaws holding back Zootopia.

“Then I realised not only do we have a Braintrust, which is unique in the industry, but we have two of them,” Catmull says with a laugh. “And it gives Disney an incredible strength to have two groups, who once per film can give feedback to the other — and only once per film, because no longer are they fresh eyes.”
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/re ... 105976bbe6
Via: http://www.pixarpost.com/2016/03/pixar- ... .html#more
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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This is the first time I'm hearing of the Disney story trust helping out on a Pixar film, but I've heard Pixar helping on a WDAS film before. I specifically remember reading reports about them giving notes on Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen and Big Hero 6. It's not surprising in the least though. Ever since Lasseter took over WDAS, the studio's becoming more and more like Pixar. They consult on each other's films, they share the same software, they transfer employees from one studio to the other, they share the same creative and corporate culture, they're both micro-managed by the same people.

Even when it comes to creative output the two studio are becoming alike. From storytelling formulas and tropes (the buddy/road trip aspect, the surprise villain twist), one-word descriptive titles (Brave, Up, Tangled, Frozen), composers (Randy Newman, Michael Giacchino), good luck charm actors (Alan Tudyk, John Ratzenberger). Pixar did a 'once upon a time' movie with Brave, WDAS did 'what if' movies with Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia, and now Pixar's reportedly making a musical with Coco.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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Sotiris wrote:This is the first time I'm hearing of the Disney story trust helping out on a Pixar film, but I've heard Pixar helping on a WDAS film before. I specifically remember reading reports about them giving notes on Frozen and Big Hero 6. It's not surprising in the least though. Ever since Lasseter took over WDAS, the studio's becoming more and more like Pixar. They consult on each other's films, they share the same software, they transfer employees from one studio to the other, they share the same creative and corporate culture, they're both micro-managed by the same people
You clearly forgot that Pixar is credited as the studio who saved and helped Disney. And since Pixar is seen as the superior studio because for their "ingenious" storytelling and for being perfect by their fans, they gets the credit.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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Sotiris wrote:Even when it comes to creative output the two studio are becoming alike. From storytelling formulas and tropes (the buddy, road trip aspect, the surprise villain twist), one-word descriptive titles (Brave, Up, Tangled, Frozen), composers (Randy Newman, Michael Giacchino), good luck charm actors (Alan Tudyk, John Ratzenberger). Pixar did a 'once upon a time' movie with Brave, WDAS did 'what if' movies with Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia, and now Pixar's reportedly making a musical with Coco.
Those early comments about how the studios would remain separate at least thematically always read as BS anyway. There has been some positive effect on Pixar (more female characters), but I can't say I feel the same way about Pixar's effect on Disney.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

Post by ce1ticmoon »

Well, the studios remaining "thematically" different really made no sense in the first place... Any studio should be able to explore any theme that they want, even if they do end up developing a specialty or expertise over the course of their work. But once the same people are at the top and the studios start 'sharing' personnel and/or start collaborating with the same talent, it's kinda inevitable that the lines would start to get blurred. I think it could have been possible for them to remain separate, but in that case, Lasseter would have had to be a bit more hands-off in regards to WDAS, which he clearly hasn't been.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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ce1ticmoon wrote:Well, the studios remaining "thematically" different really made no sense in the first place...
It did when you consider they had very little in common before Disney bought Pixar.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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The Disney Essence...sounds like some of you admit there was one...is one...Pixar is trying to squash it out?
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

Post by BK »

They should have noted Cars 2, Brave, Monsters Uni and Good Dinosaur.

Especially the Good Dinosaur, given that it was released after Inside Out, which I suppose was the first one they initiated help, given that it had so many more production struggles than IO, and it never overcame them.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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John Lasseter ranked #17 in The Hollywood Reporter's Most Powerful People in Entertainment list.

Here's an excerpt from the Q&A.
Q: What's the least powerful thing about your life?

John Lasseter: Being a farmer and growing grapes. Mother Nature is always in charge.

Q: I can't get through a day without …

John Lasseter: Buying something on the Internet, my wife says.

Q: What's your hidden talent?

John Lasseter: I can be both engineer and fireman on a steam engine.
Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/ ... 100-904760
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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How come there hasnt been any big stories about how Good Dinosaur is Pixar's first ever big flop? it seems back in the day every time a Disney 2d film underperformed it was made a big deal out of. Makes me wonder just how in control of the media the Mouse is these days.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

Post by Disney's Divinity »

They've bought everything else. The media probably isn't that difficult to keep control of for a conglomeration their size.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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unprincess wrote:How come there hasnt been any big stories about how Good Dinosaur is Pixar's first ever big flop? it seems back in the day every time a Disney 2d film underperformed it was made a big deal out of. Makes me wonder just how in control of the media the Mouse is these days.
The same reasons why it actually flopped. Poor advertising leading up to the film, the fact that it only came out several months after Pixar's other 2015 film, the fact that The Good Dinosaur was surrounded by bigger films for the holiday season, and the fact that Disney would quickly move onto Star Wars a few weeks later.

All of those, and the fact that both Disney and Pixar are having a strong 2016 thus far probably gave Pixar a (very lucky) break.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

Post by ce1ticmoon »

I agree. Plus, yes it flopped, and yes, it lost money based solely on box office numbers. But it wasn't really surprising and wasn't even a truly monumental flop. It made about as much or more money than a lot of the Blue Sky, DreamWorks, and SPA films make on regular basis. So it just wasn't that newsworthy.

Alice Through The Looking Glass flopped too. It's going to make about 1/3 of what the original film did, if even that much. But people aren't really talking about it because nobody expected it to do much better, and Disney has been having an otherwise fantastic year with The Force Awakens (technically a 2015 film, but still), Zootopia, The Jungle Book, and Civil War, with Finding Dory ready to break records less than a month later.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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unprincess wrote:How come there hasnt been any big stories about how Good Dinosaur is Pixar's first ever big flop? it seems back in the day every time a Disney 2d film underperformed it was made a big deal out of. Makes me wonder just how in control of the media the Mouse is these days.
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter did write stories about it being Pixar's first flop, but the reaction to this news was surprisingly met with a shrug. I guess the box-office and awards success of Inside Out seemed to have overshadowed The Good Dinosaur in every way. And also because they just had Inside Out and had Finding Dory around the corner, there was a general sense of "eh, they'll bounce back."
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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I agree. Plus, yes it flopped, and yes, it lost money based solely on box office numbers. But it wasn't really surprising and wasn't even a truly monumental flop. It made about as much or more money than a lot of the Blue Sky, DreamWorks, and SPA films make on regular basis. So it just wasn't that newsworthy.
that reminds me, I also remember Dreamworks getting lots of flack for Rise of the Guardians being a flop. It was practically their "Treasure Planet". Shame cuz that was the one DW movie that really didnt deserve to be a flop(same with TP.)
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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estefan wrote:Variety and The Hollywood Reporter did write stories about it being Pixar's first flop, but the reaction to this news was surprisingly met with a shrug. I guess the box-office and awards success of Inside Out seemed to have overshadowed The Good Dinosaur in every way. And also because they just had Inside Out and had Finding Dory around the corner, there was a general sense of "eh, they'll bounce back."
Unfortunately the same thing didn't happen in 2002 with hand drawn animation.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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unprincess wrote:
I agree. Plus, yes it flopped, and yes, it lost money based solely on box office numbers. But it wasn't really surprising and wasn't even a truly monumental flop. It made about as much or more money than a lot of the Blue Sky, DreamWorks, and SPA films make on regular basis. So it just wasn't that newsworthy.
DreamWorks was also criticized for the underperformance of Mr. Peabody and Sherman. I thought it was one of their best movies, going as far as honoring its source material. Yet all thru 2014, they were crying about the financial problems they were having. :-/

that reminds me, I also remember Dreamworks getting lots of flack for Rise of the Guardians being a flop. It was practically their "Treasure Planet". Shame cuz that was the one DW movie that really didnt deserve to be a flop(same with TP.)
DreamWorks was also criticized for the underperformance of Mr. Peabody and Sherman. It was actually one of their best movies, going as far as honoring its source material. Yet all thru 2014, they were crying about the financial problems they were having. :-/
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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Another interview where Pixar is heralded as Disney's savior. The part where Catmull says that before Pixar's acquisition, Disney hadn't had a successful animated movie in 17 years is such a ludicrous lie. :roll:
Meanwhile, both Catmull and Lasseter have taken on leading roles at Disney animation — Catmull as president and Lasseter as chief creative officer, roles they also play at Pixar — and Catmull noted that it was no easy task to improve the quality of films being produced at the bigger studio. “They’d been failing for 17 years,” Catmull said. “We got together to form a brain trust. It took two years to get that group to function well. We had to change the way of protecting front-end creative and we had to overcome the mindset of production, which is to have a perfect process. The goal was to have a well-oiled machine that could make mistakes. It took four years for the whole thing to come together.”
Source: http://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/pixar- ... 201803724/


None of that is true. :lol:
Still, he said that Pixar and Disney continue to respect a separation of church and state. “We want different personalities, different technologies, different stories,” he said. “The two groups like each other, we share information. We just don’t bail each other out when we get in trouble, which is every film.”
Source: http://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/pixar- ... 201803724/
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

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I can’t remember, when were they officially acquired? Around 2008? There was Lilo & Stitch and then Tarzan in 1998 back to Mermaid in 1989…. If those films were failures, why does Lasseter keep trying to get his name onto those films to re-write history as if he had been a part of them? (Like his name on TLM restoration—YUCK.) I’m not surprised when they say blatant lies like this because they’ve been justifying so many things the past few years with lies anyway, they probably don’t remember the truth anymore.

That "different personalities, different stories" quote is such a particularly rank piece of manure. Everything coming out of Disney or Pixar is the same formula headed by the same people. And it’s clear Lasseter doesn’t get along with people considering how many directors he’s usurped over the years.
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Re: Lasseter takeover--good or bad?

Post by DisneyFan09 »

Sotiris wrote:Another interview where Pixar is heralded as Disney's savior. The part where Catmull says that before Pixar's acquisition, Disney hadn't had a successful animated movie in 17 years is such a ludicrous lie. :roll:
Oh my God. :smack: Not this again! I thought they were over this long ago

Disney's Divinity; Lasseter had his tenth year anniversary as executive last year.
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