The path of decline is almost always the same in movie terms. Young, fresh, hungry, creatively brilliant at the breakthrough. Then a wobble. Reaching for sequels. Prequels, and then eventually the death spiral is confirmed by the last, desperate, roll of the dice – the reboot.
This is where Pixar now appears to be. A new report via Bloomberg claims the once mighty animation house is looking at rebooting some of its most successful titles. Two are specifically mentioned – The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.
Leaving aside the fact they haven’t been able to buy a hit since John Lasseter was #MeeToo’d out the door, the current President of Pixar Jim Morris said Inside Out 2 gives them confidence, but acknowledges the bumpy road the company has been on:
“With a sequel, if you put something out there that doesn’t have the goods, then you will be punished for it. Having had the doldrums we did, it will certainly be a good test with ‘Inside Out 2’ for us to see: Does this stuff still work, or does it not?”
Inside Out was possibly their last great movie, leaving mothers in floods of tears in movie theaters everywhere. The trailer for the second movie pulled in big numbers of eyeballs.
Pixar started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division. It was known as The Graphics Group before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who became its majority shareholder. Disney announced its acquisition of Pixar in January 2006 and completed it in May 2006.
Inside Out 2 lands next month, while no announcements have been made on potential reboots.
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