Dear Pete Docter: Please stay in animation

Pete (may I call you Pete?) I loved “INSIDE OUT.” Everybody loved “INSIDE OUT.” It’s got something like 100% approval rating. People are wondering what you’re going to do next.

I beg of you: let it be animated. Stay the hëll away from live action.

Now I have no idea if you are even considering live action, but if you are, don’t.

Andrew Stanton. Huge Pixar success story. Director of “WALL-E” and “FINDING NEMO.” Both huge hits.

He went live action. Directed “JOHN CARTER.” I loved it, but people didn’t bother to come see it. Lost millions.

Brad Bird. “THe IRON GIANT.” Moved to Pixar and gave us “THE INCREDIBLES.” His name was associated with quality.

He went live action. Directed “TOMORROWLAND.” I loved it, but people didn’t bother to come see it. Lost millions.

Don’t be strike three, Pete.

PAD

20 comments on “Dear Pete Docter: Please stay in animation

  1. Brad Bird also did the 4th Mission: Impossible movie, which was a huge success (for which Bird got his share of credit).

    1. Nothing against Bird, but I could have directed it and it would have been a huge success.

      PAD

      1. It seems to me you’d want him to make a live-action movie, since you seem to love live-action movies made by Pixar directors. If it bombs, so what, that’s Disney’s problem. It’s not like they couldn’t afford it anyway.

  2. To be fair, Brad Bird also directed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. And Iron Giant wasn’t successful at release.

  3. Bird also worked with the Simpsons, and did one of my favorite animated pieces of all time: The Family Dog on the anthology show Amazing Stories.
    In general, I agree with PAD. Though there are reports that Bird is going back for an Incredibles sequel. (Fingers crossed)

    1. Only if E will be back. National daily paper in Canada had a poll where readers got to select the favourite Pixar character. Unfortunately, the lamp wasn’t one of the characters in the poll. Bet it would have won. As it was, the finalists were Buzz Lightyear and Edna Mode. The feisty fashionista won handily. If the Minions can get their own film, I wonder if she could? I’d pay to see that.

  4. Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird and Peter Doctor are all talented story tellers. The honest peer review at PIXAR simply amplifies that talent and ensures that their films have a compelling and coherent storyline. John Carter was faithful to the original Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series. However, the film lacked a tight narrative that made it difficult for anyone unfamiliar with the Barsoom series to follow the film. Disney’s marketing department clearly did not understand the film and did a poor job of promoting this John Carter. Tomorrowland also suffered from poor marketing.

    1. I had not read a single one of the John Carter books when I saw the movie and love it, (it made me go out and read the books). The idea that someone unfamiliar with the source material couldn’t follow it is simply false.

      1. No question. Group I went with all loved it in spite of at least three never having read the books, one of them not even having heard of John Carter. Of course, all of them had more than two active brain cells, which probably helped.

    2. A big problem with John Carter was the title. At least three people I mentioned the movie to thought it was another Terminator sequel because they confused “John Carter” with “John Conner”. But Disney wanted to keep “of Mars” out of the title because their film Mars Needs Moms tanked (I’d argue that it was all the words other than “Mars” in that title that were awful).

      1. To be honest, I at first John Carter was about John Conner. It’s just a terribly boring name: John Carter. A boring title. I never saw a trailer, and if you aren’t going to have a highly visible trailer, and gripping title is a MUST.

  5. Look on the bright side. If he left animation and made a live action film, the same pattern that you’re worried about indicates that you’d enjoy the film…

  6. I still think John Carter would have done better if they’d just called it John Carter of Mars. Hearing the title they gave it just makes the uninitiated ask “Who the hëll is John Carter? And why should I care?”

    Anyhow, in general, I agree. I’ve heard where Bird has said his next project (after the Incredibles sequel) will likely be animated as well. Possibly 2D animated.

    1. Well, after the massive box office failure of Mars Needs Moms, the Disney execs decreed that the word Mars was verboten in their movie titles. Oh, and Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was the best of the series. I’m not sure if that would’ve been the case if just anyone had directed it.

  7. I think that we have to put the blame on Disney itself for the “failure” of John Carter of Mars. The promotion of the film was spotty and half-hearted at best, and completely uninspired and aimless at it’s worst. They really, really didn’t know what to do with JCM.

    1. Actually, this is pretty much the way it is with almost any Disney project more aimed toward boys than girls (I know that’s stereotyping, but that’s how Hollywood sees these things). They didn’t know what to do with Power Rangers when they had it, either. That’s why they bought Marvel and Lucasfilm. They wanted action-adventure properties that would practically sell themselves.

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