Pixar Eaten by Mickey Mouse 409
The rumors went flying this weekend, but
Dekortage writes "It is official: Pixar has been sold to Disney. Steve Jobs will join the Disney board, and John Lasseter is now Disney's Chief Creative Officer. So, dear Slashdot, does this mean that Disney's movies will improve, or that Pixar's will become worse?" Also the price of Pixar was $7.4 billion with a b dollars.
Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)
TWW
My Guess: (Score:3, Insightful)
My Guess: both.
We shall see.
More Like Pixar Took Over Disney (Score:4, Insightful)
iTunes (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't it the other way around? (Score:1, Insightful)
Either which way (Score:3, Insightful)
With that in mind, allow me to say: WOHOO! all the backlog of (quality) disney movies on my ipod!
Not hard to see why.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Pixar
Disney
Can you guys spot the trend too?
(Data from Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]/www.boxofficemojo.com [boxofficemojo.com])
Toy Story 3 and history of Pixar (Score:4, Insightful)
Disney owned all the sequel rights to Pixar movies, so a few months back Disney was saying they were going to do Toy Story 3 without Pixar. If that'd happened it would've produced a better Disney movie, but a worse Pixar movie -- if you follow me.
Despite popular fanboy and media opinion, John Lasseter is the mind behind the success of Pixar's movies. Steve Jobs is the owner, distribution negotiator, but Lasseter is the talent.
BTW, there's a great chapter in THE SECOND COMING OF STEVE JOBS [amazon.com] about the history of Pixar. Check it out.
boxlight
"Eaten" a bit extreme. (Score:3, Insightful)
Who ate whom here? (Score:3, Insightful)
I keep hearing this, but the details strike me as an entirely different story...
Disney "bought" Pixar for stock. Steve Jobs owned Pixar. Steve Jobs now owns more Disney stock than anyone else. This would seem to mean that Steve Jobs now "owns" Disney, no?
I mean, the rest of the stockholders could outvote him collectively, but in general Jobs now more-or-less controls the future of Disney.
So, considering that, would it sound more accurate to say "Apple has Borgified both Disney and Pixar"?
Re:Plan for Profit! (Score:1, Insightful)
- entire Slashdot readership en masse
Hi! I am an animator. I am a millionaire. (Score:5, Insightful)
IP and equipment didn't make Pixar great. The people made Pixar great. If Disney fucks it up, everyone just ups, leaves, and forms a new company leaving Disney with nothing but a name. Disney shelled out a few billion for the SHOT at using Pixar to do something good. If they blow it, the real 'assets' of Pixar can simply leave and go make another few million each.
I saw good for Pixar. Way to make yourself horrifically rich and still leave a dozen escape hatches to bail from Disney. Those people deserved a big steaming pile of money. I hope they go out and enjoy it.
Re:Now is the time (Score:4, Insightful)
This happens almost before every Pixar feature. Examples.
Finding Nemo? A story about fish? WTF can't they animate stuff with legs anymore, this is going to be so lame, omg Pixar is ruined. Results: critical acclaim and great box office, awards, great public perception.
Incredibles? Omg those are so stylised, nothing creative about it, some story with CG humans. It looks so lame, omg Pixar is ruined. Results: critical acclaim and great box office, awards, great public perception.
Now it's happening to cars. But all those who are trolling on the teaser trailer will be in for a surprise. Pixar isn't randomly greenlighting movie screenplays based on explosion/boob ratio.
I'm sure it's gonna be a great movie and I'm looking forward to it.
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)
Kinda reminds of Michael Dell saying (about Apple) "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders" [com.com]
I think if anyone can turn around disney, then Lasseter with Steve Jobs backing will be the ones to do it.
What I think we should be more worried about is the creation of the most vertically integrated entertainment duopoly since paramount case of 1948 [cobbles.com] broke up the old vertical monopolists.
I mean we're going to have one guy (Jobs) essentially controlling two companies that will between them produce the content, the distribution network, the playback codec and the playback device.
The potential for abuse is frightening
Re:Who ate whom here? (Score:3, Insightful)
Though Steve Jobs has definitely done this to bolster iTunes and the iPod , at least in part
Disney has no influence over Pixar? (Score:1, Insightful)
It just goes to show you how the mythology of Steve Jobs continues, however unfounded it is.
Disney makes about 8 billion in sales, A QUARTER! They make nearly a Billion in net profit A QUARTER.
So yeah, Disney is going to have an effect on Pixar movies. Look, when Pixar finished their 6.5 movie contract with Disney, Disney simply went ahead and created a new computer animation division. The fact that the movie created sucked big time pales in comparison to the fact that Disney could setup an animation studio at the drop of a hat and have a movie out in 2 years, and still earn a billions in profit.
While Pixar may have more creativity in its little finger compared to the whole Disney Empire, Disney still has final say on whether a movie gets release or not. If Toy Story didn't conform to Disney's values, it would have been redone or not released, period. Steve Jobs isn't going to have a say in it (but Steve Jobs has no creative input at Pixar at all, he is just a figure head).
The fact is, Pixar could easily make movies that don't simply target children and the adults that take their kids to the movies. Pixar could become the leading computer special effects studio in Hollywood, or make movies that target an older audience, this will never happen under Disney's umbrella. As long as Disney is at the wheel, Pixar will churn out cutesy kids movie that may have some appeal to adults, but will never reach their full potential. Also expect Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo Again, Monsters Inc 2, A Newts Life, The Incredibles Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I mean, Disney will milk the creativity out of Pixar and leave them a dried up husk of their former selves.
I do agree that its the people that make Pixar shine, and if Disney decides to suck the life out of this company, those people will up and leave and form a new company (unless Disney imposes some contract conditions on them, then they are stuck). However, Steve Jobs will be the figurehead for a company that he ruined by whoring itself to Disney. His motiviation are based purely on profit. 7 billion from the sale of Pixar will go into Apple. Apple will become the provider of computer technology for the Disney Empire ensuring billions in sales.
In the end, while there may be a few excellent movies that will come out of this partnership, once the Disney marketing engine kicks in, and Disney's and Steve Jobs greed overwhelms Pixar, Disney will ruin another great animation house.
Pixar 1986 - 2006. You made us laugh, and then you made us cry out why! RIP.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
How does it work? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Isn't it the other way around? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think Jobs would have agreed to this if he wasn't sure the talent were also coming along. He did the same with Apple - he brought Avie and gave Ive the carte blanche he required. If Jobs cares about Pixar, and my understanding is, he does, then there's little to worry about. Lasseter is the creative force behind Pixar, and not only will he be in charge of Disney's animation vision, but they're putting him in charge of theme parks, consumer goods and even their broadway stuff. That's a massive shift in power, and it's long overdue.
Good for Pixar, Good for Disney (Score:5, Insightful)
John Lasseter is now Disney's Chief Creative Officer, working with the animators at Disney and Pixar as well as leading the Imagineers in designing and revamping attractions for the theme parks. Also, the current President of Pixar, Ed Catmull, is now the head of all Disney Animation.
All the news reports I've seen have said that Iger and Jobs main concern was keeping Pixar as intact and independent as possible. Lasseter is under contract until 2011, and is well respected in the animation field for his passion for storytelling and perfection. When asked about whether traditional 2D animation would be restored, John didn't rule it out.
Read the LA Times article about John [latimes.com] for more insight.
With Ed and John running all animation at Disney, and Jobs sitting on the board to help them from the top, where's the possible downside?
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:iTunes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Now is the time (Score:2, Insightful)
I personally rate Bug's Life as the least good Pixar movie. Which is still head-and-shoulders above every non-Pixar non-Shrek CG movie.
Re:How does it work? (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if you go with $200m, you're still forgetting a few things:
(a) you're talking about US box office numbers, not international [see the box office breakdown here [the-numbers.com]]. International BO numbers will bring that figure way up.
(b) DVD sales, licensed merchandise (plush, books, lunchboxes, tshirts, etc), and theme park attractions will all contribute to the bottom line on top of the BO numbers.
(c) Pixar was sitting on $1b in cash [msn.com] themselves, so the stock swap actually netted Disney a little bit of cash, making the quoted $7.4b number a bit of a misnomer.
re:Pixar Eaten by Mickey Mouse (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you talking about Sony?
Dan East
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:4, Insightful)
The usual way to word that around here is that NeXT bought Apple for $-400 million. Alas, I didn't come up with that, but it's very apt.
It'll sort itself out. (Score:3, Insightful)
But what made them great? The folks that worked at Pixar, the directors, the animators, and the producers.
So what will happen if Disney starts forcing their particular outlook on things? Well, aside from the fact that they've already been doing that for every Pixar flick ever made, there will essentially be a choice for the Pixar folks. Do it Disney's way, or walk.
If they can't do quality stuff for Disney, I think the folks at Pixar will walk and form their own, new Pixar-ish company. Sure, the Pixar brand name will be gone, but the name isn't what's important, it's the folks making the movies.
So give it a movie or two. There may be kinks, but I think things will smooth out over time. With or without Disney, we'll still eventually get the movies we love again.
Re:Nice deal (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hi! I am an animator. I am a millionaire. (Score:4, Insightful)
Pixar stock did go up a double digit percentage over the past few months on speculation that this would happen, but that's still not going to make anyone rich unless they were already.
Re:Nice deal (Score:5, Insightful)
So on one end they should protect their interests... And on the other, according to their own views of copyright, they stole it all.
Go figure...
--
Krazy Kat [ignatzmouse.net]
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean we're going to have one guy (Jobs) essentially controlling two companies that will between them produce the content, the distribution network, the playback codec and the playback device.
The only playback codecs Apple make that are somewhat relevant to this is Pixlet and Apple Lossless, and both are high-quality codecs that might make sense inside the studios but will never be used to encode any content distributed by the network to the playback device.
The FairPlay DRM, however, is proprietary, but that's not a codec. And both H.264 and AAC are supported parts of the independent MPEG-4 standard. Nice try though.
(And again, like someone else said, "You mean, like Sony?")
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:1, Insightful)
What content does Disney have? Hundreds of movies in every genre imaginable (except possibly porn), countless shorts and several tv shows.
If I was to try to start a new video distribution channel I know who's content portfolio I would want to start with. If Jobs can get even a few % of Disney content portfolio onto ITMS it will totaly change the value and viability of it.
Re:Nice deal (Score:2, Insightful)
Trojan Horse (Score:3, Insightful)
This is actually a sneaky move by Steve to put the iTMS in a solid position to distribute content.
Let's not also forget that Disney distributes and produces under other brand names as well:
-Buena Vista
-Touchstone
-Dimension
-Miramax
So what kind of hook-up do you think "The Steve" is going to have for adding content to the iTMS?
Oh, also (if you, too, have read the wiki entry for Disney [wikipedia.org]) Disney owns the rights to lots of music, too. Buena Vista Music Group--Disney Records, Mammoth, Lyric Street, and Hollywood.
Oh, and what else? Oh, let's see:
Disney's Media Networks:
-ABC
-Disney Channel
-ABC Family
-Toon Disney
-ESPN
-SOAPNet
-Holdings in A&E, Lifetime and E!
I think Steve was doing a sacrifice fly on this one....
Coming Attractions... (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's not forget Brad Bird (Score:2, Insightful)
That is, if he isn't as big of a dick as he comes off as in some of the "behind the scenes" clips.
cheers.
"Preserving the Pixar culture" is most important.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Get that? The big sticking point in negotiations wasn't how much money would change hands, but how much control Pixar would have over it's future operations within Disney. It's going to be NeXT and Apple all over again, with any luck. Jobs, Iger, and probably at least Roy Disney all see eye-to-eye here, so they'll run the board while Lasseter and the other Pixar folks whip creative operations into shape.
I'm going to guess it's a scary time for Pixar and an exciting time for Disney. Or is it the other way around ?
NNNOOO! (Score:2, Insightful)