For the past nine years, Pixar has been mostly delighting, sometimes disappointing, moviegoers with a fresh film each year, from their much vaunted braintrust. Exemplifying the high ideals of letting creative people do their work and getting out of the way (for the most part), Pixar has lived up to that mantra both critically and commercially. As such, they’ve become a seemingly unstoppable box office machine, even if internally, some projects went through some painful birthing processes (see “Brave“). However, it looks like Pixar are facing some issues with their latest movie and have found a way to jump that hurdle, or at least push it off for a bit.
As you might recall, “The Good Dinosaur” lost director Bob Peterson at the end of August, and there still hasn’t been a replacement named, likely leading to the bump of the movie from May 30, 2014 to November 25, 2015. Oh, but wasn’t that the date of sequel “Finding Dory“? Yep, but it’s now arriving on June 17, 2016. Damn.
But don’t worry too hard for parent company Disney, because they still have a fuckload of moneymakers to release. 2014 alone has “Maleficent” (moved up to May 30th), “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Muppets Most Wanted,” “Planes: Fire And Rescue” (good lord), and most exciting for animation nerds, Marvel adaptation “Big Hero 6.”
So take a knee, Pixar. You guys have been working at a ridiculous pace. But when you come back, you better bring it.
2014 isn't exactly all Pixar-free. The Monsters University spin-off short 'Party Central' will be released in front of Maleficent on May 30, 2014.
Don't be so quick to knock it;
John Lasseter has stated that Planes: Fire and Rescue is a tribute to the firefighters that risk their lives to rescue strangers.
My daugher was born two weeks before Finding Nemo came out. (It was the first movie my wife and I saw in theaters after she was born – and that was leaving her home with Grandma! We are huge Pixar nerds.) She will have just turned 13 when the sequel arrives. That's a LONG time between movies.
Hmm, I wonder what movie Finding Dory bumped off their 6/17/16 release slot – it was always an untitled movie – and where that one's going now.
Will this mean we will miss out on another BRILLIANT analysis from Drew Taylor in 2014? Because that would be, like, the REAL TRAGEDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This might be a good thing. They haven't been hitting the homers they used to the past couple years, so this might be a good break to take stock and assess things.