[Yes, while I have shifted to exclusively talking about television gradually over the past five months, I will be interluding with gems of information like this one.]
Pixar has been a studio that hasn’t taken a whole lot of risks with the subject matter of its films, even if technological and storytelling risks were certainly taken in the process. I say this because, technically, all of the films appealed to younger or established demographics. Toy Story was about toys, A Bug’s Life about cute bugs, Monsters Inc. about furry monsters, and The Incredibles about superheroes. Even Ratatouille, despite being very different story-wise from most animated films out there, remains firmly in the realm of the types of characters that can be made into furry stuffed animals if need be, or at the very least action figures.
However, news broke today that Pixar appears to be breaking out of this mold in a big way. With Disney’s own animation studio ramping up and beginning to deliver more films, and with Lasseter at the helm, Pixar is letting itself roam free…and roam ‘Up’.
From Variety:
Pixar is going a little older than its typical demo in 2009.
Toon studio revealed Monday that’s its release that year will be “Up,” about a 70-year-old man who teams up with a Wilderness ranger to fight a cadre of beasts and villains.
“Monsters Inc.” director Pete Docter is co-directing with Bob Peterson, an animation vet making his helming debut. Ronnie Del Carmen, a Pixar story supervisor, is writing the script.
This, my friends, is the best decision that Pixar has ever made. With Ratatouille I believe that the studio has its first chance at true box office disappointment, even with what looks like a fabulous film. With so many animated films flooding the market, oversaturation is going to keep Ratatouille from making as big of an impact as it might have years ago. The film will be a success, surely, but it won’t perhaps be a blockbuster. But, Pixar doesn’t need to make blockbusters, and that’s the whole point of their new development strategy.
Next year, Wall-E is a film with a lead character devoid of dialogue and who is a garbage collecting robot. And now, with Up, they’ve developed a film about a 70-year old man and a wilderness ranger teaming up to fight creatures of unknown origin. What we’re seeing is Pixar breaking free of its boundaries, free of the problems that plagued them when forced to develop Toy Story 2. While it is one of my favourite Pixar films, once can only wonder what original material they were cooking up…and now we don’t have to.
With Wall-E (Which will debut its teaser trailer in front of Ratatouille) and Up, Pixar is moving into a niche knowing that its name will carry with it some level of success. Fans of Pixar as a filmmaker, not just as a commercial enterprise, should be excited at this idea. No longer do action figure sales dictate the determined path of a film for the studio, and the result is two films that could return Pixar to its attempts to revolutionize computer animation in terms of its storytelling, its technology and perhaps even its audience. I don’t see toddlers getting a kick out of a senile old man cutting down demons…but I can’t wait.
Cultural Learnings 