Pixar to Decide Fate of Toy Story 3

January 29th, 2006 by Mox

Back when negotiations between Disney and Pixar broke down, Disney announced that it would begin production of Toy Story 3 as it was allowed to do under the terms of their existing agreement. This was largely seen as a strong-arm tactic on Eisner’s part to force Pixar’s hand in the renegotiating of their partnership. Disney put together an animation studio (Circle 7) whose primary function was to make sequels of Pixar films and would do so to the chagrin of Pixar fans everywhere.

Cut to earlier this week. Eisner is now out of the picture and Iger has been courting Steve Jobs and Pixar so aggressively that he has managed to secure the purchase of the animation studio. One of the first things that John Lasseter and Ed Catmull did in their new roles with Disney Feature Animation was to suspend production on Toy Story 3 as reported by a post over at the Animation Nation message board:

John Lasseter and Ed Catmill announced to Feature Animation employees today that the “Toy Story 3″ production will end effectively today. They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film.

The next day a Reuter’s article confirmed this and added that Pixar itself would develop the sequel:

The Walt Disney Co. will scrap production of the latest “Toy Story” sequel and hand the project over to Pixar Animation Studios Inc. as part of its deal to acquire Pixar, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

…

“It was really important to me that the people who made the films originally … get a shot at making any films that were derivative,” Iger told analysts on a conference call earlier this week.

Disney gets a top-notch animation studio, Pixar keeps control of its creations, and fans can stop wondering how bad those sequels would have been. So it seems like a win for everyone. Except for Circle 7, that is. Their fate is unclear at this point, but it is likely that they could be absorbed into Pixar to some degree.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Disney, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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