I think Lasseter’s hands are somewhat tied, too, as there’s still power that be above him. IMO he did a good job at halting the sequel machine at Disney that gave us the Lion King 1½s and Cinderella 3s of the world. That doesn’t mean that his mission is to completely eradicate Disney’s or Pixar’s popular franchises off of the face of the Earth, especially given how other studios are making billions with their marketable names (Ice Age, Despicable Me, etc. eurggg).

Anyway, in Pixar I trust, as always.

The fact that Disney wants a Nemo sequel, and is allowing Pixar to work on it at their own pace is the best news for this project. That, and the fact that Stanton is back in the directors chair. He knows that world and it’s characters inside and out. I’ll be the first to say that out of all the Pixar films, Nemo is my favorite, and the last one I ever wanted to see “sequelized!” But I trust Pixar, and more so Stanton to hit an absolute grand slam with this film.

Well the animated series is kind of a blend between that new Disney Princess show and the Tinker Bell DVDs. The show premise concerned Dot’s Blueberry scouts. So it may have not been that terrible. At the time it was to be 2D television animation.

Ya, that’s why I was curious concerning the sequel ordeal…since I feel like there’s a pretty good chance Pixar would have done it eventually.

As a side note – I’m glad the Bug’s Life animated series sequel never happened. Not that I didn’t like Bug’s Life…it’s just not my favorite or really anything spectacular in my eyes. I did enjoy that Buzz Lightyear show though. haha

Of course, Disney owned all the rights to the Pixar character prior to the purchase of Pixar. With or without Pixar, Disney’s properties have lives beyond a feature film. Toy Story 3 began it’s life at Circle 7 a Disney Studio without Pixar. If there weren’t Finding Nemo 2 & 3 dicussions at Pixar and Disney prior to Finding Dory I would be shocked.

Believe it or not there was a Bug’s Life animated series sequel in the works, around the time the Buzz Lightyear show was on. Disney has been doing this for decades now.

Like it or not, corporations have an obligation to it’s shareholders to make more money. Sequels are how Hollywood works these days. It’s not just in animation. There is obviously a balance here between revenue and art. As a shareholder, I want the company to make more money. At the same time I want art. It’s tough, but to believe Pixar would have ignored the lure of sequalmania is a stretch.

I think it’s just interesting that Stanton openly admitted this. I’m sure Disney isn’t happy about that.

The four films I’m disappointed with are Up, Cars 2, Brave, and Monsters University. TS3 was amazing. Up did have a brilliant opening, but I felt it really tapered off into an underwhelming conclusion. Monsters University was similar, though the opening wasn’t nearly as strong as that of Up.

I realize I’m in a minority on Up, but I just don’t have the same desire to rewatch it as other Pixar.