Ordinary Gweilo

Steve Jobs (wearing his Pixar hat) has announced that he has broken off talks about renewing his company’s deal with Disney, and according to The Economist this means that Disney will be able to make “Toy Story 3” itself.  Anyone who has compared the Pixar films with other recent releases from Disney will realise that this is not a very attractive prospect.  Pixar are perfectionists who have proved themselves highly accomplished at making movies that entertain kids and also appeal to adults, whereas Disney seem to have totally lost their way.

It is possible that if Comcast suceed in their bid for Disney, this could change the situation (allegedly the biggest problem is that Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner cannot stand each other).  Eisner has plenty of enemies, including Roy Disney, who recruited him many years ago but recently resigned from the board last month in protest at the way the company was being run.  I reckon Disney need Pixar much more than Pixar need Disney, though breaking up a long-term partnership is bound to create some problems.

I think anyone with young children will appreciate the Pixar films – it’s rare to find children’s films that are so clever, funny and well-written.  Dreamworks have a reasonable track record with computer animation – “Shrek” is funny, but a little bit too knowing, whilst “Antz” suffers from having, well, too many ants. “Ice Age” is slight, but amusing in parts, and “Chicken Run” is clever but not very engaging.  However, no-one can match Pixar’s track record.

“Toy Story 2” is highly unusual in being better than the original, though both films succeed because the toys have been give individual characters that make them interesting and engaging.  Both films have clever storylines and good jokes (even if some of the better ones are repeated in TS2), plus some moments of real pathos.  Even Randy Newman’s songs seem to work quite well. 

Presumably Pixar will eventually turn out a stinker, and they already have to contend with extremely high expectations from critics for each new release (and, to be fair, Finding Nemo did get some bad reviews), but for now the name Pixar is as close as you can get to a guarantee of quality.