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How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

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Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#31

Post by axod »

jedsmith wrote: post #16
topherjaynes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Story outline for cars might seem "terrible," but think about every Pixar movie's outline before you actually saw it? A movie about Toys? A Movie entirely about Rats--whose going to watch that? A Robot who doesn't talk, for how long? And yet, each and everyone of those movies were astounding, at least in my opinion, but critics and box office receipts prove my point too. Yes, sequels have a tendency to be purely…

> before you even see a trailer for them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFTfAdauCOo

Thanks. Looks good to me, but I like kids movies.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#32

Post by geuis »

axod wrote: post #27
vl wrote: post #7

I'm worried about future of Pixar, they always valued original and insightful stories. All of their early and recent productions were delightful to watch. Understandably, this approach left not so many space for sequels. They recently committed to making of Monsters 2 and Cars 2. Story outline for Cars 2 is just terrible. It seems that financial concerns under Disney leadership are prevailing and bits of integrity ar…

I really worried they'd lost the plot after Wall-e and Up! (The 2 worst releases imho). So Toy Story 3 was great to see. Story outlines usually sound rubbish IMHO. So I'll give cars 2 the benefit of the doubt. Glad there's a new movie with characters my kids love in it. Wall-e and Up! catered mainly to parents/intellectuals so it's nice to see some good fun movies in the pipeline.

There are a significant number of people without children, such as myself. The entire world doesn't revolve around kids and its nice to see movies and other entertainment options that cater to adults. Besides, we're the ones that have money to spend, not the little wee ones.

Both Wall-e and Up! were excellent movies. In particular, Up! was one of the few movies in many years that actually emotionally moved me in serious ways. Wall-e was also a great movie that deserves the many accolades it received.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#33

Post by axod »

geuis wrote: post #32
axod wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really worried they'd lost the plot after Wall-e and Up! (The 2 worst releases imho). So Toy Story 3 was great to see. Story outlines usually sound rubbish IMHO. So I'll give cars 2 the benefit of the doubt. Glad there's a new movie with characters my kids love in it. Wall-e and Up! catered mainly to parents/intellectuals so it's nice to see some good fun movies in the pipeline.

There are a significant number of people without children, such as myself. The entire world doesn't revolve around kids and its nice to see movies and other entertainment options that cater to adults. Besides, we're the ones that have money to spend, not the little wee ones. Both Wall-e and Up! were excellent movies. In particular, Up! was one of the few movies in many years that actually emotionally moved me in seri…

Fair point, there's a market for adult animated movies. But I think it's small.

The scene in Up! which showed the old couples life story was well done, but I doubt any child would really remember it or rate it. It was for sentimental adults and critical acclaim from adults.

Again, the scenes in Wall-E where the robot does boring things for ages without saying anything seemed to be there for adults, and to get oscar nominations, rather than to entertain children.

Just my opinion, but I'm really glad to see them revisiting Cars and Monsters Inc which are favorites with my kids, whilst Up! and Wall-E barely registered with them.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#34

Post by jerf »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #26
topherjaynes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Story outline for cars might seem "terrible," but think about every Pixar movie's outline before you actually saw it? A movie about Toys? A Movie entirely about Rats--whose going to watch that? A Robot who doesn't talk, for how long? And yet, each and everyone of those movies were astounding, at least in my opinion, but critics and box office receipts prove my point too. Yes, sequels have a tendency to be purely…

For me, aside from some interesting landscape rendering, Cars isn't in the same league as the other Pixar films. It felt like a pure kids movie + merchandising extravaganza. > and box office receipts prove my point too This isn't saying much. The cost-structure of CGI and effects-heavy films is such that you have to essentially make something that will appeal to kids and/or teens, otherwise you're hosed financially.…

Cars is my least favorite Pixar movie. Far too much of the payload was nostalgia for the era of Route 66. An era that my parents could have caught the tail end of. I suppose also my personal philosophy is that the past is important but that trying to lock the past in is not a way to commemorate or honor it, but a way of being imprisoned by it, and the central story just falls flat for me. YMWV, of course.

(My next least favorite is Finding Nemo, because Nemo's dad is my mother-in-law, on film. Only she hasn't had the epiphany about needing to let go of worry at some point. Again, YMWV.)

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#35

Post by Swizec »

axod wrote: post #33
geuis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a significant number of people without children, such as myself. The entire world doesn't revolve around kids and its nice to see movies and other entertainment options that cater to adults. Besides, we're the ones that have money to spend, not the little wee ones. Both Wall-e and Up! were excellent movies. In particular, Up! was one of the few movies in many years that actually emotionally moved me in seri…

Fair point, there's a market for adult animated movies. But I think it's small. The scene in Up! which showed the old couples life story was well done, but I doubt any child would really remember it or rate it. It was for sentimental adults and critical acclaim from adults. Again, the scenes in Wall-E where the robot does boring things for ages without saying anything seemed to be there for adults, and to get oscar n…

I think the point is that Wall-E and Up! weren't movies targeted at kids. Any entertainment value kids can derive from such a movie is purely coincidental. Any entertainment value the target market of such a movie can derive from such a movie is brilliant success.

Once again, they were not kids movies. Stop criticizing them for not being fun for kids.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#36

Post by mitjak »

cookiecaper wrote: post #18
vl wrote: post #7

I'm worried about future of Pixar, they always valued original and insightful stories. All of their early and recent productions were delightful to watch. Understandably, this approach left not so many space for sequels. They recently committed to making of Monsters 2 and Cars 2. Story outline for Cars 2 is just terrible. It seems that financial concerns under Disney leadership are prevailing and bits of integrity ar…

I didn't like Cars 1 and it doesn't look like I'll like Cars 2. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the studio is losing integrity. As another commenter pointed out, Pixar rarely pumps out sloppy sequels -- while the motivation to make Toy Story 2 or 3 may be money initially, they make sure that the sequels have legitimate stories and are generally enjoyable. If they didn't, they would quickly become just-ano…

>Pixar doesn't do the straight-to-DVD sequel gig.

As much as I love Pixar, that is incorrect. Toy Story 2 was going to be straight-to-video: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-122205888/sequels...

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#37

Post by saturdayplace »

mitjak wrote: post #36
cookiecaper wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't like Cars 1 and it doesn't look like I'll like Cars 2. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the studio is losing integrity. As another commenter pointed out, Pixar rarely pumps out sloppy sequels -- while the motivation to make Toy Story 2 or 3 may be money initially, they make sure that the sequels have legitimate stories and are generally enjoyable. If they didn't, they would quickly become just-ano…

>Pixar doesn't do the straight-to-DVD sequel gig. As much as I love Pixar, that is incorrect. Toy Story 2 was going to be straight-to-video: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-122205888/sequels...

...yes... but they didn't do that. In fact, they scrapped the whole straight-to-video story line 9 months before the release date, and started from scratch.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#38

Post by knowledgesale »

pchristensen wrote: post #20
vl wrote: post #7

I'm worried about future of Pixar, they always valued original and insightful stories. All of their early and recent productions were delightful to watch. Understandably, this approach left not so many space for sequels. They recently committed to making of Monsters 2 and Cars 2. Story outline for Cars 2 is just terrible. It seems that financial concerns under Disney leadership are prevailing and bits of integrity ar…

I remember being in the theater when I saw the trailer for Cars 2. First was the Pixar splash. I gripped the armrests and sucked in my breath with anticipation. Then I watched the trailer and was a little disgusted. My reaction afterwards was "I didn't like the look of that trailer one bit. If it was anyone but Pixar, I would have covered my kids' eyes so they wouldn't know it existed. Since it's Pixar, I'll see it o…

Will you people please stop trusting companies and politicians.

It's a company and the only goal of it is to make profits for its investors and its employees. If you believe that making artistic movies and maintaining a company's good reputation is a good way to run their business, let it happen with starting up your company and risking your own money or career.

My point is that commenting on how some company's business decisions didn't justify your expectations is tad garish.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#40

Post by jonhendry »

far33d wrote: post #8
julian37 wrote: post #4

According to this article, Pixar doesn't treat its employees as nicely these days: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/lucasfilm-and-pi...

Actually, Pixar is probably one of the best places on the planet to work. The no-cold-call policy did not mean that employees were off limits completely. We hired lots of people from ILM, Lucasfilm, Dreamworks, etc, but they came to us. The "evil" of this particular case is pretty overstated. I was there at the time, and basically understood it was happening, and it didn't bother me in the slightest. All those other…

I can kinda see a practical rationale to a no-cold-call policy: It's pretty well-known when a movie is in production, so one company could throw a monkey wrench into a competitor's film by poaching a key person at a bad time just by throwing a bunch of money.

I suppose that's mostly the case anywhere, but film releases are, I think, on somewhat tight schedules to hit release windows. Cause a three month delay in the release of a Pixar movie and you might remove a potentially huge summer competitor from the field.

As long as unhappy employees are able to look elsewhere on their own initiative, it doesn't seem that bad.

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