Pixar and Disney

If you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m a total Pixar fanboy. So to wake up this morning and find their latest press release about them splitting from Disney was a little bit of a shock.

How on earth can Disney allow this? If I held shares in Disney, I’d be extremely annoyed that Michael Eisner (Disney Chairman & CEO) and his executive team has allowed this to happen. Dreamworks must be salivating at the prospect of being able to distribute some top-quality animated features.

If I had money to invest, I’d buy Pixar shares right now. Why? Well, buried away in Pixar’s statement is the assertion that “Pixar intends to retain full ownership of its future productions.” It will also continue to earn from its profit share in the current Disney deal “in perpetuity.” Given that the other distributors will basically now get into a bidding war (I’m guessing), this is only going to be good for Pixar. [Disclaimer: do your own research before buying shares!]

Some people have said Pixar and Steve Jobs must be crazy to walk away from Disney, but I disagree. For only the second time in Hollywood history, a studio has actually been able to establish the beginnings of a real brand, which people have come to rely on as a mark of quality on the movies. Sure, Disney can now schedule their movies for release at the same time as Pixar’s, but Disney no longer have the creative talent to compete with Pixar.

Also, Pixar have posted a snippet from their new short, Boundin’. Looks like they’re reusing some of the sets from A Bug’s Life in this one.

The Fanimatrix and Duality

Via Gadgetopia, I discovered these two fan movies, one set in the world of The Matrix, and the other set in the Star Wars universe.

You can grab them from their respective sites: The Fanimatrix and Duality.

All I can say is, those boys know kung fu…

A Mighty Wind

I saw this last week when I was in the US as well, the new movie from Christopher Guest and co (Spinal Tap, Best In Show).

It’s mostly an improv comedy, apart from the songs, and it is absolutely superb. I would recommend you don’t watch the trailer, as I would say it might spoil some of the great moments in the film. If you can’t avoid the trailer, however, then you should still go and see it. I enjoyed it much more than Matrix Reloaded, although they aren’t really comparable film styles.

The Matrix Reloaded

Yes, I did see it while I was abroad. PvP sums up my feelings exactly.

Mini-Movies

This story is quite interesting.

There was never any way that anyone in their right mind was going to watch a full-blown movie on their mobile devices (or even a 23 minute TV programme). Sports highlights and short narratives like this make a lot more sense, however.

Of course, one of the potential problems is that people might get greedy and charge more than £1.50 per item for access to these things, which would stop everything in its tracks.