NEWS: Dear Disney, Stop Releasing So Much Crap. Love, Pixar.

CULTURE: Dear Disney, Stop Releasing So Much Crap. Love, Pixar.

If movie studios love anything, it’s a sequel.

But what’s a movie studio to do with all of their potential movie franchises that might not be the next Spider-Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean or Harry Potter? Well, they make sequels to them anyway. But what about those movies that are just aching to be sequelized but might not have the same box office draw of Daddy Day Care, Hostel or National Treasure?

That’s where the “direct to DVD” sequel comes to the rescue. By skipping over the hassle and expense of an actual theatrical release (not to mention the hassle and expense of paying to bring back the original cast or director), movie studios have been able to summon forth a nearly endless deluge of sequels to movies you probably forgot even existed in the first place.

Have you been prowling the aisles of your local video store, clenching your teeth and muttering “Damn, I fucking loved Road House, but I really dislike Patrick Swayze”? They made a sequel just for you. Have you been writing fan-fiction based on Behind Enemy Lines only without Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson or a decent special effects budget? Your movie studio pals have made your dreams a reality.

One of the biggest proponents of the direct to DVD sequel has been Disney. Disney’s never been shy about cranking out a sequel, as anyone who’s had to sit through Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo or The Shaggy D.A. will tell you. But until the home video era Disney mostly shied away from making sequels to their animated feature movies, with The Rescuers Down Under being the (rather obscure) exception. That changed in 1994, when the combination of raging consumer demand for all things Aladdin and the quite understandable yearning to tell Robin Williams to go fuck himself led Disney to have their TV animation division whip up the Williams-free direct-to-VHS sequel The Return Of Jafar. Despite the shoddy low-budget animation, The Return Of Jafar sold over 10 million copies on VHS and made Disney enough cash to relegate anyone making any “art vs. commerce” complaints to the same dusty cryogenic storage container where Disney executives keep Walt Disney’s frozen head. Um, allegedly keep Walt Disney’s frozen head. Disney even created a new animation division, DisneyToon, to handle future direct to video animated titles.

Over the next 13 years, DisneyToon churned out what can only be described as an avalanche of cheap to make yet oh-so-profitable direct-to-video (and later direct-to-DVD) animated titles, over 30 of which were sequels to Disney’s theatrical animated movies. Hey, kids, did you love The Lion King? Then you’ll probably pester your parents into buying The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride and The Lion King 1½! Why watch Cinderella again when you can buy Cinderella II: Dreams Come True or Cinderella III: A Twist In Time? Who hasn’t been yearning for Bambi II?

In a further cost-cutting movie, some of DisneyToon’s “sequels”, such as Hercules: Zero To Hero and Kronk’s New Groove were actually 2-3 episodes of the spin-off animated TV series edited together, slapped on to a DVD, and then sold for $29.95. Then there’s the flood of ”Disney Princesses” DVDs.

Hey, when you’re saving up money to release theatrical blockbusters like Treasure Planet, you need all the help you can get.

Of course, animation purists complained that this endless torrent of cheaply made animated sequels was “pretty embarrassing”, but who listens to animation nerds anyway?

Well, when the animation nerds in question are Steve Jobs and John Lasseter of Pixar the answer is “when Disney buys your company for over $7 billion and puts you in charge of their entire animation division”.

Those animation nerds recently took their revenge upon DisneyToon. Shortly after taking over, they handed down a mandate: once production wrapped on The Little Mermaid III, DisneyToon had to stop making sequels based on previous Disney animated movies in favor of focusing on original titles. Production on other planned animated sequels was halted, so you may want to cancel your preorders for The Aristocats 2, Chicken Little 2: The Ugly Duckling Story or Meet The Robinsons 2: First Date.

So artistic concerns finally triumph over crass commercialism in the Magic Kingdom?

Well, sort-of. There might be some additional, less altruistic motives behind the slapdown of the Disney sequel factory.

Additional motive #1 could be spite. Pixar and Disney have a very rocky past when it comes to sequels, dating back to the days when Michael Eisner was Disney’s CEO and treated Pixar with the level of respect traditionally reserved for crackwhores. Toy Story 2 was originally intended to be a cheap, non-Pixar direct-to-video sequel. Unable to talk Disney out of the idea since Disney owned the rights to the Toy Story characters, Pixar took over the production, turning it into a theatrical release. After Toy Story 2 earned over $240 million at the box office, Eisner then claimed that since it was originally conceived as a sequel, that it didn’t count as one of the five films Pixar was contractually obligated to produce as part of their distribution deal. Oddly enough, that didn’t endear Disney to Pixar, and relations between the two companies soon got to the level of fuckoffitude where Eisner was calling Pixar’s movies artistically “pretty pathetic”. Eisner went as far as to announce the creation of a new Disney animation studio, Circle 7, that would focus on making CGI animated sequels to previous Pixar titles, starting with Toy Story 3. To nobody’s surprise, the first decision made by John Lasseter after Pixar was bought by the post-Eisner Disney was to shut down production of Toy Story 3 and nuke Circle 7 from orbit.

Additional motive #2 seems to be good old-fashioned clashing egos. What may have sparked the decision to reign in DisneyToon’s sequelmania was when a rough cut of DisneyToon’s upcoming CGI-animated movie Tinkerbell was shown to the new Pixar overlords and John Lasseter declared it to be “unwatchable”. Since Tinkerbell was supposed to be the start of a planned four-movie series and a new “Disney Fairies” franchise, this wasn’t good news. Upon receiving copious notes and suggestions from Lasseter, it’s reported that Sharon Morrill, the president of DisneyToon, instructed DisneyToon animators to make two separate versions of Tinkerbell. One was pretty much a fake version based on Lasseter’s suggestions, intended to distract him while DisneyToon simultaneously cranked out four Tinkerbell movies based on the original script. This ruse was discovered during later screenings, sending Tinkerbell literally back to the drawing board. Guess who’s not running DisneyToon anymore?

Oh, for all of you who’re saying “Hey, wait, wouldn’t a Tinkerbell movie count as a sequel, being based on Peter Pan and all?”, the reason it’s not being cancelled is because it won’t feature Peter Pan or Captain Hook, thus making it technically not a sequel. The fact that Disney stands to make a shit-ton of money off of it compared to the declining sales figures for most direct-to-DVD product has nothing to do with anything.

Really.

they say the chriogenically frozen head of walt disney haunts the studio

who makes the Land Before Time series?

because they need to die.

i mean, i enjoyed the shit out of the movie back when i was young (dinosaurs+childhood=win), but i don't enjoy having to stock or even deal with Land Before Time 12. and realize i'm not arbitrarily putting on a large number to gain hilarious sarcasm points, either. there really is a Land Before Time 12. look it up. then murder the people making it.

My soul aches and my inner child and childhood memories die a little more.

I used to love Disney. And I still love all the classics, and even some of the new awesomeness... The Incredibles is in my top 5 favorite movies, but seriously. My head wants to explode now. wtf

yeah, Disney started to suck when they stopped doing cartoons and started to focus more on CGI.

road house= the best movie EVER. seriously. i couldn't even concentrate on the rest of the article because i couldn't stop thinking about road house.

wow, great article. i knew most of this, but the gall of making artists produce a fake edition soley to fool one man is pretty funny, and horrific.

But Toy Story and the Incredibles are good movies. I kinda even like Finding Nemo. They can make some good CGI movies. If they hadn't given up on cartoon animation though they'd still rock. I think Emperor's New Groove was the last decent cartoon they came out with.

Oh, and additionally:

Dear Disney,
Stop releasing so many goddamn fucking Video Game spin offs of movies.
Love, The World

long before that. any good movies after lion king? what was that, 94?

dear juggernautchild:

please get your pixar movies seperate from your disney movies. up until the buy, disney only released the pixar movies. they were a seperate company.

Yeah, that was for about five minutes, before Lasseter took over and reinstated the 2D department.

Furthermore, Disney started to suck loooong before that.

Yo attn ho, I think you're the only other one in this thread that's actually seen "The Thief and The Cobbler".

Am I right?

when i worked at Disney i accidently sent Michael Eisner the LoveBug virus

Despite everything I've ever said about Reagan and Bush, regime change can be a beautiful, beautiful thing.

It's incredibly ironic that while it was Disney that bought Pixar the aftermath seems to be Pixar taking the role of the artsiest horde of vikings the Earth has ever seen.

I think I can probably speak for the majority of animation geeks in the world when I say this is a fucking great article that captures all the appropriate furor and grounding in actual logic.

um, er no. not yet. im gonna buy it eventually, but im waiting to find someone who has the original williams rough cut.

Sadly I've only seen clips of it on YouTube and such.

Dude.

Don't buy it. That version is garbage.

I got one of the best versions, with the most of the known remaining original material.

I'll totally hook you up man.

You too Gonzo Chaote.

Send me a message.

see, this is what i was waiting for.

I'm not one to fuck around, man.

I put that in my top 5 most memorable childhood movies. I only watch a few of them still and The Rescuers Down Under is damn well one of them.

Dear attn ho:

Please learn to capitalize properly.

Just kidding, but wow, jeez, don't get your nuts in a twist. This shit can get confusing.

Confusing or not, it's best to give credit where credit's due. A good rule of thumb is to know what you're talking about before attempting to engage in a discussion.

that'd be Don Bluth, who also made The Secret of NIMH and An American Tail (whose sequel wasn't all that bad)

Uhh, yeah. About that.

I'm pretty sure he has minimal to do with those sequels (LBT) other than collecting royalty checks.

Also, American Tale is more Speilburg's story than anything else. Bluth and his crew just did the animation.

Furthermore, the man hasn't done anything new in over a decade. It's kinda sad to see such talent fizzle out like that.