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Pixar Eaten by Mickey Mouse
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jan 25, 2006 08:27 AM
from the i'm-so-confused dept.
from the i'm-so-confused dept.
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.
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Pixar Eaten by Mickey Mouse
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Price (Score:5, Informative)
Thats a lot but it may have been interesting to say it was in Disney stock.
Re:Price (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://novasearch.net/)
Nice deal (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.vanderlee.com/)
Re:Nice deal (Score:5, Funny)
I guess I could google for the evilness of Disney, but you should never trust the Internet so I'd rather read about it here on peer-reviewed slashdot.
Re:Nice deal (Score:5, Informative)
That they're one of the key corporations behind the ever increasing extensions of copyright duration would be the biggie for me.
Granted, if it weren't them, someone else would do it, but they did do it. So meh.
Re:Nice deal (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://nerds.palmdrive.net/)
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:Nice deal (Score:5, Informative)
Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)
TWW
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/~tpgp)
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:Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://dexplor.com/)
Are you talking about Sony?
Dan East
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/~tpgp)
Are you talking about Sony?
Sorry, I meant to say:
I mean we're going to have one guy (Jobs) essentially controlling two companies that will between them produce content we like, the distribution network, the playback codec and the playback device.
See - sony no longer fits the description
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:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday November 12, @02:31PM)
Now, that said, there are differences, chief among them being that neither Jobs nor Lasseter is a former CEO of Disney, and as such are not necessarily as familiar with the culture and market as Jobs was with Apple.
Disney, like Apple in the mid-nineties, has lost its way. For the past 30 years, it's not really had any significant direction, and has concentrated largely on media takeovers and lobbying for copyright extentions to protect Mickey Mouse, arguably a brand that has fizzled out anyway over the last decade. There's still a lot of good coming out of it, clearly there are good people in parts that are trying to find good things and pump Disney money into them, whether it's Pixar or Miramax (Pulp Fiction.) While I'm not necessarily going to argue that Jobs or Lasseter are the right people for the job, it certainly needs a fresh approach, and Jobs and Lasseter may, ultimately, be the right people to do that.
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.livejournal.com/users/pstscrpt)
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.
Re:Don't kid yourselves (Score:5, Interesting)
Disney's new CEO, Robert Iger, has impressed Steve Jobs enough to make this deal possible. Jobs is the type of person who wants to make [insanely] great things, and he wouldn't send one of his greatest creations into the maws of mediocrity. If you recall, it was recent that Jobs was ready to leave Disney in a very public row between Jobs and Eisner.
I fully expect the Pixar acquisition will make Disney better far more than it will make Pixar worse. I also suspect that under Iger, Disney will be vastly different from the Disney your post describes. How Disney's new CEO fares has yet to be decided, but the prognosis is positive, especially if Steve is willing to trust one of his three greatest creations to him.
My Guess: (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday January 14 2004, @10:31PM)
My Guess: both.
We shall see.
More Like Pixar Took Over Disney (Score:4, Insightful)
iTunes (Score:4, 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.
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!
In the best of all worlds, (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.aliassketchbookpro.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday September 04 2005, @10:37AM)
With any luck, Jobs, Lasseter, and other senior Pixar people will wind up running Disney. It would be a substantial improvement.
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])
Re:You are underestimating the NASCAR crowd. (Score:4, Funny)
(http://seegras.discordia.ch/)
Re:Not hard to see why.... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.cowlark.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 18 2005, @05:12AM)
Damn. There's no justice. That film is great, and completely blows away most of their other recent films for sheer style, verve and originality --- I reckon it's better than The Lion King, which suffered rather from the Disney over-earnestness.
Treasure Planet (2002) $38
That one's a real pity. Everything about it was so good --- the animation, the concept, the style, the characterisation, the acting --- except for the actual plot. If only they'd stuck to the original Stephenson novel instead of going off into la-la land with space portals and huge explosions and crap like that, this could have been good. The first half --- up until whatshisname gets pushed overboard by Silver --- is well worth watching.
Home on the Range (2004) $50
I've never even heard of this one. That's how much Disney's impacted me recently...
Now is the time (Score:3, Interesting)
-aiabx
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.
Plan for Profit! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://unugunu.blogspot.com/)
2. Build it into a great animation studio
3. Sell yourself to the devil (Mickey Mouse [anomalies-unlimited.com])
4. Personal profit of $3.5 million!
Great work, Steve Jobs! See, this time I didn't even need to include the mysterious "..." step. Amazing!
Re:Plan for Profit! (Score:4, Informative)
(http://itsbeenconfirmed.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday May 04 2003, @02:33AM)
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
does this mean we'll see Pixar's TRON 2? (Score:4, Interesting)
Cool!
boxlight
"Eaten" a bit extreme. (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://syberghost.livejournal.com/)
Who ate whom here? (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday April 03 2006, @07:23PM)
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"?
Itchy & Scratchy infringement (Score:3, Funny)
Is this an indication that companies are getting so desperate that they are starting to copy the collected works of Itchy & Scratchy? [mit.edu]
Apple computer on the phone for you Mr. Jobs. (Score:5, Informative)
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: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.
The way I saw it (Score:3, Interesting)
It's about time.. (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.mnmlnoise.com/)
Re:Disney has no influence over Pixar? (Score:5, Interesting)
Disney makes most of that money in marketing and licensing. NOT from box office.
in this case Disney has final say like a hen-pecked husband has final say in his house... "Yes dear, whatever you say." The fact that Jobs has no creative input is moot, what he does have is a seat on the board and controlling interest. As such if Lasseter and Catmull call him up and say they need his backing on an issue, he will do it. He is very aware of what makes Pixar great.
You seem to think that Disney just snapped their fingers and created a CG division. Actually what they did was consolidate their assets from several location (Orlando, LA, New York). Remember there were at the very least 400 animators/modelers/TDs working on "Dinosaur" and many of them remained or were hired back over the years. 2 years is about right for a studio to produce a CG feature. Pixar has that number cut down and Animal Logic are trying to do it in 9 months for "Happy Feet", but the idea is the same. The pipelines have been in place for a while so this is no great feat.
Will we see more marketing of Pixar movies (toys, games, etc.)... sure. That is one of Disney's strengths right now. That doesn't make them bad. THey are just leveraging their content in the only way they know. That will even out over time as the Pixar mentality spreads to the right people at Disney.
Lasseter is in charge of story, so don't expect a slew of sequels. DO watch for a live action feature written and directed by Brad Bird. And ya know what... it will kick ass!
Does this mean... (Score:5, Funny)
How does it work? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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?
It'll sort itself out. (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.google.com/ig | Last Journal: Wednesday April 11 2007, @09:55AM)
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.
Cross Marketing (Score:3, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Sunday October 02 2005, @03:43AM)
MickeyMac (Score:3, Funny)
(http://news.google.com/)
It's case will be red and black with Mickey Mouse ears, similar to the TV/DVD combo you can find at Target.
Released at the same time will be the entire Disney animated feature catalog on iTunes Movie Store. I call first dibs on "Aristocats"!
What happens after the merger? (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.conversal.co.uk/)
Then it buys Sun, and becomes Snapple-Dapple.
It's a turning into a long afternoon.
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....
Yay Lasseter!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Remember, this is the guy who brought Hayao Miyazaki [nausicaa.net] back to the US market.
Read the Hollywood Reporter article (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.animats.com)
Ed Catmull will head up the combined animation studio. Lassiter is higher up, responsible for not just the studio side but Imagineering (theme park rides), among other things.
"It wasn't clear Tuesday what role Walt Disney Feature Animation president David Stainton will play." Or, he's out, but may have a contract that gives him exit money anyway. Stainton was previously in charge of Disney's TV animation unit, DisneyToons, the unit that produced bad sequels (The Lion King 1 1/2, Lilo and Stitch 2), The Heffalump Movie, Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas).
Several films in the Disney pipeline ("American Dog," "Meet the Robinsons" and "Rapunzel Unbraided.") will probably be killed. Disney Animation, in beautiful downtown Burbank (once called "Mauschwitz" in the industry) will live on. Probably as a CGI shop, though; they'd already moved away from 2D animation.
Technically, one big question is whether Disney Animation will go with the Pixar "all Renderman, all the time" procedural texture approach. Pixar's house style, 100% procedural textures, is what gives that "Pixar look". Everybody else uses pictures of real objects as textures, at least some of the time.
"Preserving the Pixar culture" is most important.. (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday January 23 2006, @12:19PM)
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 ?