Pixar-Disney feud

[Catman]

You gotta love this feud

Here is the latest:

Pixar Smells a Rat -- In Disney's Marketing Department

Although Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille crossed the $200-million mark at the domestic box office over the weekend, some Pixar executives are blaming Disney's marketing staff for failing to create a promotional campaign for the movie that would have pushed it into the top-five for the year, as Toy Story was in 1995 (No. 1); A Bug's Life was in 1998 (No. 4); Toy Story 2 was in 1999 (No. 3); Monsters, Inc. was in 2001 (No. 4); Finding Nemo was in 2003 (No. 2); The Incredibles was in 2004 (No. 5); and Cars was in 2006 (No. 3). According to Disney watcher Jim Hill, Ratatouille currently ranks eighth at the domestic box office and might wind up out of the top ten entirely by the end of the year. As a result, he says, Pixar execs are now overseeing the marketing campaign for the upcoming WALL-E, something that has apparently infuriated the Disney marketing staff. Hill quotes one unnamed studio insider as saying that Ratatouille "was a very difficult picture to sell during an incredibly competitive summer. ... They're now being complete bastards about the WALL-E trailer, insisting that only they know the proper way to promote their next picture. ... But that's okay. Let them call the shots on WALL-E's marketing campaign. Next year, they'll be the ones who'll be taking the fall when that Andrew Stanton film doesn't measure up to expectations."

 

[Nivek]

Disney ad exec's better pray that Pixar fails, or they'll be working for Faux News corp soon. Honestly, it does look like Disney dropped the ball on Ratatouille marketing.

 

[Darth Rockwell]

Ratatouille was a really good movie. I was suprissed when I saw it. I'm waiting for it to hit DVD. It would have been better if there had been more promotion.

 

[bullets]

good for pixar

 

[DorkyFresh]

Ratatouille's marketing definitely sucked. Pixar's been having problems with Disney since before Finding Nemo...

...i wish Pixar would've seperated from Disney when they were close to leaving. now they're stuck with Disney. Disney's definitely lost it's magic.

 

[Erzengel]

Pixar never ceases to amaze. I haven't seen a movie yet that I thought wasn't good. That's like Toy Story 1 & 2, Bug's Life, Monster's Inc, Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille? 8 movies solid. That's better than Disney's animated track record.

Disney should stick with National Treasure, Pirates, fluff movies, and their High School Musical and leave animation up to Pixar.

 

[DocHoliday]

There is a portion of Disney who are resentful of Steve Jobs and Pixar. It is good when the rivalry causes both sodes to produce great products but when it is harming the success of th eother that is not good.

 

[Apollo]

heheheh "being complete bastards" hehehehe

 

[danoyse]

And the original article came from Jim Hill Media, which tends to be very anti-Pixar. A few posters in the comments section were taking his numbers apart in the comments section on the site.

Here's the full article (longest. link. ever.):
http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_h...ng-problems-for-disney-s-marketing-staff.aspx

It's a tough call. Lasseter and crew came in with the intention upping the quality of the animation department and the theme parks. For example, the straight-to-video sequels. I can't stand them, I'm not sorry to see them go. But they sell really well, so that's a big source of revenue that Disney would loses by stopping them. So you can see why they'd be at odds for each other.

The discontent is among the longtime Disneyana fans too. Many of the classic rides at the parks are being revamped into Pixar-themed rides, Nemo in particular. Again, I don't think it's a terrible thing--the Pixar characters are great. But when it starts cutting into classics, it's going to make people mad.

And Ratatouille is a tough movie to market. I loved the movie, but there were a few scenes when all of the rats were in the kitchen they had me cringing. My car-crazy little cousins love playing with Lightning McQueen toys, but don't have much interest in rat toys.

Ultimately, I think it will work out....but the initial growing pains are going to be rough for a while until they really learn to work with each other.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

That movie was awsome but in hindsight I don't think that it would have been uber huge no matter how much Disney advertized for it.

 

[Erzengel]

Ratatouille is probably one of the better quality movies of this Summer.

 

[Addendum]

I'll catch Ratatouille on DVD. I just didn't think any movie this summer was worth going outside with high in the hundreds, and high humidity

 

[DorkyFresh]

Pixar never ceases to disappoint. I haven't seen a movie yet that I thought wasn't good. That's like Toy Story 1 & 2, Bug's Life, Monster's Inc, Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille? 8 movies solid. That's better than Disney's animated track record.

wouldn't that be "Pixar never ceases to amaze"?

 

[Erzengel]

Yes, thank you. Ugh.

 

[spiderfreek182]

looks like pixar is being a real *****e. I love pixar movies, ratatoowhatever was a really good film but disney is right. its a tough sell, i always said rats, cooking, paris are each boring and doesnt really have that broad an appeal, put them all together and u've got mega-crap. pixar pulled it off, and i tip my hat to them, but they gotta understand the only way to know it was good was thru reviews and actually watching it, cause theres no other way to get people to watch it other than saying "hey, forget about the fact that theyre cooking rats, its from the guys that brought u toy story and finding nemo!!!"

 

[DorkyFresh]

Yes, thank you. Ugh.

lol, s'all good. stay off the green stuff

 

[Penismightier]

This film is an example of how marketing is often poorly done. No one wanted to see a movie about a rat cooking food, they said. This goes to show that with good promotion, a movie that is accessible to anyone (as in a rating that prohibits certain people from seeing it) and is of a high quality will make money.

 

[Erzengel]

Well Ratatouille only made 60 million less worldwide than Cars.

And $200 million in a summer of top heavy movies is pretty good.

 

[GhostPoet]

Or maybe people are just sick of talking animal movies? Seriously....we have freakin' enough of them! SAY NO TO TALKING ANIMALS!

At least the new Pixar movie looks good...the last pixar movie I went to see at the theaters was the Incredibles (their best movie IMO) The others that came out after it looked like crap.

I swear...I will go homicidal if I see one more talking animal.

 

[Erzengel]

Out of the 8 Pixar movies.

Toy Story 1 & 2 were talking toys and humans.
Monster's Inc was talking monsters and humans.
Bug's Life was talking bugs.
Incredibles were humans.
Cars were talking cars.
Finding Nemo was talking fish, amphibians, birds and humans.
Ratatouille is only the second Pixar movie with really talking animals.

 

[GhostPoet]

Maybe I shouldn't have said animals then. Maybe I should just say anything other than human or robot.

We don't need talking cars...we've had enough talking animals and bugs.

 

[Catman]

Whats with all the rat hate? Hasn't cinema/television provided us with some classic rats? Mickey Mouse, Jerry, Speedy Gonzales, Mighty Mouse, Pinky & the Brain, etc.

So...I don't get the whole "hey marketing was tough cause no one wants to see rats cooking". People love rats!

 

[spiderfreek182]

the thing is all those mice to mention (or atleast the majority) make up for their crappy selves with what they do: pinky and the brain trying to take over the world, MIGHTY mouse.
wow... rats cooking... sounds entertaining as hell

 

[Kaiser]

the sunk their ship when they chose patten oswald for the voice of the main character

 

[Catman]

the sunk their ship when they chose patten oswald for the voice of the main character

Patten Oswald did a great job!