Question: What’s a sure fire way of generating traffic to your movie website?
Answer: Write a story about Pixar.
I guess we would know. After all, this entire site is devoted to Pixar fandom and the servers haven’t been able to keep up with the amount of visits lately. We thank you for your time/apologize for that.
But this phenomenon certainly isn’t exclusive to the internet. Discovery Channel was able to get quite a lot of hype for their TV special, Reign of the Dinosaurs, with misleading reports about Pixar’s (non) involvement — until they had to correct themselves.
My point is simple — rumors about Pixar come and go. Sometimes they turn out to be true, and other times they just fizzle away into the internet’s abyss. Like… nevermind. This brings us to the main event.
Before you begin to think that I was completely oblivious to the ‘Planes" reports making the rounds lately, I’d like to set things straight. I realize that posting about the subject just fuels the flames of the rumor, but I honestly have no reason to believe that Pixar is making a direct-to-video spin-off of Cars. The original source, Movieline, only claims to have "heard" (from who? Lasseter; the studio; an anonymous Pixarian?) about such a project.
As Pixar Talk noted, all of this sounds like a bad April Fool’s joke. It’s almost like one of our annual Upcoming Pixar pranks has begun to run wild.
Now, you might be asking, "How are you so sure that Planes isn’t a real project?" I’m not here to claim that it is or isn’t — I don’t actually know for sure. All I’m saying is, don’t be alarmed. This kind of thing happens all the time…
Update: Just as I privately suspected, the Animation Guild blog reports that Planes is being produced at DisneyToon Studios — not Pixar. Think Buzz Lightyear of Star Command; no story details have been revealed.
Your thoughts?
Last modified: July 17, 2010
There’s some guy on youtube who flamed me for saying that PIXAR wasn’t going to become a full-fledged sequel machine, and just said the Cars and Monsters,Inc sequels were just the start, claiming I was an ignorant idiot for not realizing that Disney was already changing PIXAR in a bad way.
I figure the ‘Planes’ stuff he’d also throw in my face.
I just want to point out there’s a very reliable source now reporting this: Steve Hulett, who runs the Animation Guild blog.
He started teasing about a direct-to-video series of “cousins to other Disney empire characters” June 2009.
He now says he’s been looking at art for the project for over a year.
He saying he’s seen art for it makes it 100% real, he is a great source for all the animation news as he is the animation union’s business representative.
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/planes-disney.html
The movie is being made at Disney Toons Studio.
Made by Disney Toons Studio? That isn’t Pixar, so how do we know it’s going to even be related to Cars?
Anonymous — I made it very clear in my post that I don’t believe Pixar is producing it. As for it being real or not, I let you decide. Thanks for linking to the AG source, I should check it more often.
uruseiranma — I’m sorry about the flamers. Best way to ward them off, ignore them. 🙂
Think TINKERBELL, not Star Command. Being written, designed, produced, directed entirely in Los Angeles at Disney Toons, and belng made here in India. Pixar has zero involvment other than John Lassiter being the head of all animation.
Last Anonymous — I was trying to relate the production to Disney’s last direct-to-video attempt using a Pixar property, but if you want to get technical…
Not sure how I feel about the whole Planes thing, but if it is real, and if it is Pixar, I’m sure it will be good. They know what’s right for the studio and as long as the characters and story are good, that’s all that really matters, right?
—Leirin
Leirin — The thing is, if it’s real (as it seems to be), it’s not Pixar. :/
Besides, PIXAR has a Disney short to reference: Pedro, the mail plane, made all those years ago.
Apparently Disney is once again making an unsuccessful attempt to make money by taking off from Pixar’s films. Of course they will fail. Nobody can possible enjoy a cheap take-off, so nobody will buy it.