Wow, how did I miss this thread???
I’ll admit, I am disapointed. I mean, I really like Chapman, and Prince of Egypt. Also I’m a big femanist, so a woman director too me was inspirational, and a talented one at that.
However, I trust that Pixar did this for a good reason. Every choice that the Brain Trust makes is what’s best for the movie, so I’m sure there is a logical reason to her leaving the movie. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Exactly! Any true fan would be unafraid to poke holes in the films or studio they love, if it’s well-meaning and with good intentions. The fact that we show care and concern demonstrates that we want the best for Pixar.
That depends if you want to leave the decisions to a small group of people or decide on a more democratic, populous consensus. I’m a Liberal as much as you, but I agree there are some areas best left to the individual’s choice than the government (or in this case, the Brain Trust).
Personally, I’m disappointed Brenda had made a decision to leave Brave, but it may work out all for the better. It’ll be at least interesting to see how the development of Brave will turn out with a director change.
I agree with your statment on the importance of the individual’s choice in the government and society.Trust me, I am very, very firm supporter in small government and rights for the people.
But I’m just saying I have trust in the Brain Trust. I mean, it’s composed of the Founding Fathers of Pixar, the greatest artists, businessmen, and story tellers there.
On a different note, remember, they replaced directors in Ratatouille, and it turned out for the best. Of course, we’ll never fully know what the Jan’s version of Ratatouille would of been, but Brad’s was fantastic.
I’m dissapointed because this was a very personal movie for Brenda. Raising her daughter was part of the inspiration for the movie. And her love of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm fairytales was another inspiration. I was so looking forward to it! I love their fairytales to! And it would have been interesting to see a women directing a Pixar film. What would she have brought to the table? That…“womens touch.” I wouldn’t be suprised if that was the problem. After PatF Disney is so much about getting the boys! So the title of Rapunzel changed, BatB changed to Brave, all of these superhero shows. It makes me wonder if Pixar was to afraid that it was becoming to much a “girly” movie. While I will see the movie opening day, I can’t help but feel dissapointed that such a personal movie to Brenda was given to somebody else. I still love Pixar, but not as much as I use to. Little things that I’ve read hear and there this year has me looking at them a little differently. It’s not quite the utopia I thought it was.
Edit: Does anybody know if Brad and Andrew are still apart of the Brain Trust? Isn’t Brad currently shooting MI:4 and isn’t Andrew in another country looking at locations for Carter?
Good question, I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure that both are still involved, or at least their opinions have influence.
Actually, I follow an animator who works at Pixar on twitter, and a couple months ago she mentioned that she bumped into Andrew Stanton. So, they still are somewhat involved in something going on there.
theoutsider: I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still part of the Brains Trust. I mean, they are key Pixarians, so I don’t think membership into the trust is nessesarily derived from currently participating in Pixar projects, but still remain a part of Pixar in some way.
The thing is, I’m concerned that this might become a ‘dynasty’ that doesn’t welcome flesh blood into the system (I might draw parallels with the Singapore government, but I won’t go there, just google it and you’ll see what I mean).
They took a great step with Lee Unkrich and Peter Sohn, but if you look back over their entire canon, almost all their features are directed by the ‘Four Kings’. It’s been almost fifteen years and eleven movies, isn’t it time for them to ‘step down’ and hand the wheel to a new generation of leaders?
I mean, look at their rivals. Dreamworks already has its second female director for Kung Fu Panda 2 (0:45 of this video). Blue Sky has had a Brazilian director for most of their films. Sadly, Studio Ghibli seems to be the exception with one man and his son directing most, if not, all the films (I’m not sure if it’s the latter, so correct me if I’m wrong).
The point is, for its surprisingly progressive films, Pixar is entrenched in a rather outdated system of auteurship with little diversity in its decision-makers. I’m sure any farmer or agricultural student can tell you that tilling the soil on a regular basis ensures a good harvest of crops. The same goes for leadership roles in an organisation.
Again, I would like to stress I’m not ‘hatin’ or ‘bashing’ on Pixar. I love this studio with all my heart, and it’s because of this that I’m pointing out its flaws and what areas it can improve on. I believe this event has ‘opened our eyes’ to its imperfections in a way, and that it alright to express our concern and comment on their production process.
I totally agree with this! When they first announced the new directors I got really excited that there would be “fresh blood” in the director’s chair. Although now it seems that both Brenda Chapman and Brad Lewis have been removed from the spot. That means Lee Unkrich is the only new director, although I don’t know if he really counts since he was already part of the braintrust kinda and all 
. I just hope that whenever they announce the director of Monsters 2 it’s somebody new. When does Bob Peterson get his directing gig? 
This is what makes me the most nervous. For a “director-driven” studio, it seems like the there’s only a couple of directors, who rule over everybody else. I think that I agree with the fact that they’re probably afraid of change. I would be too if I hadn’t made a bad movie in the studio’s history- but I think they just need to chill. Look at Disney- they’re still respected as a movie studio, yet not ALL of their films are absolutely amazing. just saying…
I know that you don’t have to have anything going on at the studio in order to be apart of the Brain Trust. But I was wondering if they were currentley involved seeing how I’m sure their busy with their own movies. I was wondering if Andrew and Brad had to clear space on their hectic schedules for their movies, to come back to Pixar and see what was going on, then take a plane and go back to their flims. But ellie answered my question. I wonder how does John find the time to direct a movie and take care of all of the other stuff he has to do. I wonder how often does his wife and kids get to see him.
I agree with you woody. They need to relax and let some fresh blood in. I know they want to keep up the winning streak, but they aren’t getting any younger. One day somebody else will need to take over. I remember reading an interview with John, I think earlier this year, and he talked about setting up a culture where they can pass it on to people, and hopefully they continue to make great movies. He basically said that what he was doing would not guarantee that the movies would be good, but basically he was creating a template for futue artist and directors to follow. But it doesn’t seem like that’s what’s going on. Do they all have to retire before new people are allowed to direct movies?
Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro only directed one Ghibli film (Tales of Earthsea). The worst one and most likely his last one, I might add.
He is not even remotely as talented as his father.
The two main directors for Studio Ghibli have always been Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
There are a couple of Ghibli films directed by others, though.
For example, The Cat Returns, Ocean Waves and the excellent Whisper of the Heart, the only film directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondo.
I think his death was a monumental loss to the studio and the animation world in general.
Also, the latest Ghibli film Karigurashi no Arietty / The Borrowers is directed by another first-time director from the Ghibli staff: Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this evolves. Hayao Miyazaki hinted in an interview that Studio Ghibli could even face being reduced to a mere copyright management entity if they are not successful with their latest film (and I guess future non-Miyazaki/Takahata films as well).
Pixar’s just another studio. I love their work, but deifying their directors (what a ridiculous name…“four kings” is silly. There are no “geniuses” at Pixar. Just a lot of hard work. Brenda had as much if not more experience than anyone at Pixar. Who knows what happened? But with her, Doug Sweetland, and Gary Rydstrom gone from the studio, and that lewis guy bumped out of the directors chair, it will be interesting to see who will be next.
That “ridiculous name” was a sarcastic one I cooked up for them to illustrate a point (and to reference a great Gulf War flick starring George Clooney). Yes, I agree with you that nobody is a lone genius at Pixar, and that it is their collective hive thinking that is the true ‘genius’, which is why I’m against this form of composite monarchies in favour of one of democracy. They’ve already made their films, now it’s time to put their faith in a new generation of filmmakers and ‘let go’.
Disney and Dreamworks Animation have a huge menagerie of talent that they frequently rotate. While I object to the ‘moneybags producers’ pulling the financial strings, at least most of the artistic direction is left to the directors and their team. Of the two, I think Dreamworks has the most diverse list of directors, as Disney still calls in some of their ‘old greats’ to direct their newer releases like PATF and Tangled. As totoro has pointed out, Ghibil is mostly a one-man team, and Blue Sky needs to hire someone else besides Mr Saldanha for their next outing.
There needs to be a fine balance between ‘quality control’ by the pros, and letting some of the newbies take the driver’s seat. Otherwise, that blood’s gonna get stale and then you’re gonna get a massive tumour (to use a medical analogy).
I don’t understand what all the ‘they are only letting males direct’ nonsense is all about. If there’s any company in the world I trust not to be sexist, it’s Pixar, so there’s probably good reason for that.
If for all their films a male director has been the best choice, then so be it! Why should I care if Dreamworks already had 2 female directors, or any other company that’s had female directors. The movies they release have been amazing, every single one of them! THAT’s what matters.
And NO, I’m not saying male directors are better, I’m just saying Pixar probably had their reasons for choosing the directors they’ve had in the past.
Just curious Czarine, but where have you heard/read this? I assume comments on the original article?
I understand that gender is not the only issue here (although it is one among the many factors such as talent, organizational bureaucracy, etc.), but what I’m trying to get at is that there’s an ‘inertia’ in the company of changing leadership roles. And really, we have to address the observation that it’s only had male directors since its inception. If we were to assume that there are just as many talented women in the studio, why haven’t any of them stepped up to the plate yet? Not even for an animated short, to my knowledge. The only notable female figure to my knowledge is Darla Anderson, and even then she is merely a producer with little artistic influence over her movies, compared to the director.
Again, I’m pretty sure Pixar is not being sexist on purpose, but they’re really missing out on fully using their talent here. There has got to be at least one capable female in their entire fifteen years of operation.
If none of the potential female directors over at Pixar stand up with a fantastic movie idea, you’re bound to have no female directors either.
Just hiring females just because there’s a lack of females is… well, stupid. The other way around as well, by the way. It would just be a poor and also hypocritical attempt at being politically correct. Statistically speaking, there are far less women with illustration/animation career aspirations than there are men with similar aspirations.
And honestly, a lack of women (nor the other way around) doesn’t mean a lack of talent.
Believe me, I am NOT being sexist here. We had a similar discussion in our country about a year ago. There weren’t as many female police corpse chiefs as there were males, so they decided sacking some of the males and hiring females to even it out. Which infuriated a lot of people, because the way they were chosen before that was based on their devotion and capacities. If less women in that profession meet these requirements, why bother replacing people that do meet these requirements? Again, in this case, statistically speaking there were a LOT less women actually working for the police than there were men, so the proportions between male and female chiefs were even representative. Not that that should matter in the first place, but it defeats the purpose of their decision nonetheless.
^ I agree entirely with you.
(This is further notice.)
To make myself a bit more clear: I don’t really care about who directs a Pixar movie. The employees at Pixar are so generally skilled that the work seems to go by itself. I think it’s safe to say that any movie that Pixar releases is an instant classic. I will like them. Not solely because it’s Pixar, but with all the movies they’ve released so far neither of them turned me down and I don’t see them going downhill so for me there’s no reason to not trust in their ability to make fantastic movies, whether they’re directed by one of the ‘Four Kings’ or not.
The quality of the movies they release is what matters, not who’s in the director’s seat. Pixar is a generally open-minded studio, so I don’t think they will turn into the hierarchy Disney used to be.
The general mood of employees and the working environment reflect on the end result. The latest movie was filled with emotion, heart, humor and epicness, and I trust that’s exactly how things are going over at Pixar right now. 
You make good points, Czarine.
While I personally wasn’t too hot on TS3, I see no reason for me not to see or enjoy Cars 2 or Brave. I think Pixar can continue making amazing movies perfectly well.
You have a point there, Czarine. I suppose ‘affirmative action’ policies (Google that term, I believe that sums up the system you just described) aren’t that much better from minority-discriminatory ones.
As long as the quality of films is consistent (and good), I’ll be satisfied. I’m just advocating for a change of leadership (as much as I respect the ‘Four Kings’ as a massive fan). As I’ve said, it’s great that they’re taking tentative steps with Lee Unkrich and Peter Sohn, so now they’ve got to take it to the next level.