An anonymous tipster at Disney reports that in June, Pixar will drop the "Animation" from its title and become "Pixar Studios". This is in light of the live action productions being produced at Pixar, including Brad Bird’s 1906, Andrew Stanton directing a live-action adaption of the John Carter of Mars series, and Mark Andrews is tipped to direct a live action feature as well.
This is similar to Apple’s decision to drop the "Computers" from its name and become "Apple Inc". as it stepped into more electronics apart from computers. Thoughts? Is this a good move from Pixar?
Last modified: April 1, 2008
Although it would free them up for live action projects, I’m a little skeptical about this.
Is it confirmed that John Carter will be live action?
Pixar’s real magic is in their process, and I’ve been hoping they’d apply that process to live-action films for years.
Their structure is what most of Hollywood lacks right now. Everyone who reads this blog probably understands Pixar’s success more than any big studio does: in short, Pixar will develop a script for years to make it perfect, and then the movie-making process is director-driven rather than producer-driven. This is much more expensive than what most studios do, but it also reaps much bigger (and more consistent) rewards. If they stay true to this structure, they could expand to any size they choose. Pixar could (and should!) be as big as Universal, Paramount, etc., and the quality of their films would put the other big guys to shame.
IronRoad,
I totally agree with you, but personally I worry that if they were to expand into live action they could either (A) Stray from fundamental principles or (B) Forget about quality animation and the strengths of the animation medium.
I’d rather they go after 2D animation before going into live-action. I have faith in Disney Animation, but I don’t see them doing mature Miyazaki-type films or even things on the level of The Iron Giant.
I really hope John Carter is in 2D/3D.
I think it would be a very foolish move.
For the mass audience I imagine the dropping of the word ‘Animation’ from the company name will be almost irrelevant. The name Pixar is what people know and understand. I think bennifer3000 is correct: live action movies often benefit from being made by filmmakers with a background in animation. They tend to bring a certain visual dynamism and energy to things. Just look at Terry Gilliam’s films or even a movie like An Actor’s Revenge directd by the late Kon Ichikawa who started out as an animator. Then too , of course, there’s Tim Burton. I am sure Pixar will stay with animated films alongside their emerging live action slate. What a fascinating studio to follow the course of!
>I think it would be a very foolish move.
Considering the date, I daresay “foolish” is the right word to use.
nope, i am happy with this. although hoepfullynot 3 live actions in a row. 🙂
Apple fans freaked out about Apple’s name change, too — there were dire predictions that Apple was going to stop selling Macs so they could focus on iPods, iPhones and other consumer electronics. Since then, Apple’s Mac business has boomed, and OS market share is going up, up, up.
Whether Apple or Pixar, it’s ridiculous to think that a simple (and logical) name change is going to somehow ruin an extremely successful company. It’s the same company, the same people, the same organization, with a new name that reflects their wider range of products.
Also, given that Lasseter, Bird and others at Pixar have long chafed against animation being considered a genre, the name change makes perfect sense.
Awwww, you mean they’re going to keep the same animated hopping lamp ident for their live action features? I thought it would have been cool to make and film a real luxo jr ident, either moving through stop motion or have like a set of hands moving it around. Ah well.
At the moment it does make a lot of sense for
Pixar to take this root. There Commitment to
real life acting can only be done with the help of
Independent studios. I don’t think in the
long term they will give up Computer Animation!
April fool’s?
Either way, I don’t think it makes much of a difference. Pixar will be Pixar.
Happy april fools’!
Yeah, I think this is another one of bawpcwpn’s little April Fool’s jokes 😉
If it is, then I must say that I still liked the one from last year better (that one actually got me!). But this one’s pretty good too.
haha wait… isn’t the title a dead giveaway?
or was the April Fool’s part added just now?
I just added it not long ago 🙂
This is an April Fool’s ???? I don’t understand
You know you lost like tons of people with this dumb thing, right.
^^^ Well, they couldn’t have had much of a sense of humour to abandon a website because of an April Fool’s Day joke, then…