Summary
- Pixar shifting focus to sequels and mass appeal risks sacrificing the unique and personal stories that made it legendary.
- Creatives' personal experiences shape Pixar's best work, but the studio now prioritizes profit over authenticity and creativity.
- By favoring safe bets over originality, Pixar may lose the magic that made its films impactful and memorable in the first place.
Pixar has had a strange couple of years. Turning Red and Luca ಌwere thrown onto Disney+ in the midst of the pandemic, Lightyear underwhelmed both critically and commercially, and the months it took for Elemental to claw back a profit was a far cry from the studio’s golden era.
, with president Jim Mo꧂rris saying it was a necessary sacrifice in order to return to its focus on feature films and abandoning its streaming tenure. Many creatives were already frustrated to see excellent films thrown away on Disney+ in order to earn a slim profit in lieu of theatrical showings, dooming certain films to be seen and forgotten in a matter of weeks, something we typically don’t associate with a studio as legendary as Pixar.
Pixar Wants Sequels And Reboots, Not Personal, Director-Driven Stories
Pixar expanded on its vision for the future once again this past week via a that emphasises how Pixar plans to remain focused on existing franchises and sequels that’ll guarantee mass audiences and embrace stories that chronicle common experience over the more specific, director-drawn stories of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Turning Red, The Incredibles, or Luca.
It turns out 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:this piece I wrote about Turning Red being the start of a new creative age for Pixar has aged ♉very badly. I meant well at the time, I promise.
Diminishing box offဣice returns saw Pixar running post-mortem workshops to figure out what went wrong and how it could guarantee greater success in the future, 🙈and it seems the main takeaway was to broaden its overall appeal and move away from autobiographical movies that draw from lived-in experiences of those responsible for them.
Turning Red took massive inspiration from director Domee Shi’s childhood as an Asian-American growing up and trying to embrace her identity in early 2000s Toronto. Shi was then promoted to a leadership role in Pixar, presumably to hel♛p facilitate similar stories to her own in films to come. Not aꦑnymore.
Creatives Deserve The Freedom And Resources To Tell Their Stories
Pixar’s logic also doesn’t make sense. Turning Red and Luca weren’t even released in the🦋atres initially, while Elemental was a slow burn that eventually turned into a success ജstory. It reeks of capitalist thinking where the only success worth entertaining is abundance, profits in the billions at the box office and a cultural presence to rival that of Frozen or Encanto.
But this is neither realistic nor fair, and it’s a line of thinking that is doomed to stifle creativity and force us to experience stories and characters we’ve seen countless times before. The Incredibles is arguably Pixar’s best film, and that draws directly from director Brad Bird’s failure to try to balance his work and home life. The end result was a superhero masterpiece that we fell in love with, and its sequel fell short because it was a cash cow that fa♉iled to stay true to any of its original messages. What Pixar claims will save it in the future has only hurt it in the past.
How… inspiring…
There’s something very disgusting about tell🐠ing directorꦺs, writers, and artists their experiences and inspirations aren’t “appealing” enough for the masses. 🙃
— Dana Terrace (@DanaTerrace)
Its best films come from very specific personal and cultural places, core reasons why movies like Turning Red and Luca were able to be made in the first place, not to mention adopt both a strong visual and emotional presence that has helped them stand the test of time. Few of us will remember The Incredibles 2 in several decades' time, but many will remember fondly the media that sought not only to represent them, but speak to their own experiences.
Pixar is now saying those films aren’t worth making, and the stories of creatives that help bring them to 𝕴life in the first place should be discarded in favour of easy wins and maximum profits. I would hate to be a young individual with a desire to work in animation suddenly being told by one of the biggest studios on the planet that my ideas aren’t worth adapting.
Its golden era wouldn&r👍squo;t have ever been possible if directors weren’t free to craft brand-new universes and characters which build intimately on their formative memories, the foundations upon which bankable franchises were built. Now Pixar has those in its grasp, its future will be defined by predictable sequels and further expansion of things we already know until thinner and thinner returns become a reason to change course yet again.
The studio will eventually hit a wall and regret throwing talented people under the bus as executives ignorantly point towards a future that will only serve to homogenise the things we consume from a medium that deep down is capable of anything, and now all we have to look forwar🌟d to is Toy Story 12 I guess.
T🐻he tragic thing is, relatable films aren’t always created with the intention of touching on very specific experiences and memories. As a creative myself, the things I write, draw, or make in any capacity subconsciously draw from who I am and what I’ve bee♏n through, whether I ever meant for them to do so or not.
When creating Nimona for the first time, ND Stevenson used it a⛎s a coping mechanism for his own struggl🌸es, and only with time did this transform into this tale that would resonate with coౠuntless people, queer or otherwise.
I have spoken to myriad people in this industry who create stories, worlds, and characters for themselves, and upon reaching a wider 𝄹audience, they take on a meaning that could never be predicted. These are the most powerful stories out there, and Pixar suddenly demanding these be abandoned in favour of what it perceives as easy wins will only set it up for failure.
