Pixar & Disney, Friends Again?

It looks like the sale of Pixar Animation Studios to Disney made Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios friends again.

In the original partnership agreement started in 1995 with the release of “Toy Story“, and was to end with the upcoming release of “Cars“. There were talks that Pixar was seeking a new partner for its future full length animations, after Disney openly announce their desire to discontinue the partnership, while still under the lead of former CEO, Michael Eisner. All this was before Steve Jobs sold Pixar Animation Studios to Disney (January 25, 2006), became the largest share holder, the former President of Pixar became the President of the combined Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, and the former Executive Vice President of Pixar became the Chief Creative Officer of the combined Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, which also give him the responsibility of “Principal Creative Adviser” at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Now Pixar had released a new trailer for its upcoming full length animation, “Ratatouille” (Rat-a-too-ee), to be released by Disney Pictures.

I hope that this is a sign that this successful partnership will continue for years to come. Since I believe the quality of humor from Pixar is far better than those from Dreamworks or Sony Pictures.

Disney Taking Over Pixar

Today Disney board members announced and approved the purchase of Pixar in a 7.4 billion deal.

The majority owner of Pixar, Steve Jobs, will become a board member of Disney, plus he will be the largest share holder of Disney.

For those who do not know, Pixar and Disney had a 7 movies deal started with “Toy Story” in 1995 that was about to expire with the upcoming movie “Cars”. Which had already grossed more than USD3.2 billion worldwide and yet to flop. Where as both Disney and Dreamworks have not met the epectations for their respective movies at the box office.

So who is taking over who here. With John Lasseter, Creative Director of Pixar, becoming the Creative Officer for both companies animation studios and overseeing design for new attractions at Disney theme parks, and Steve Jobs being the largest share holder of Disney. Is Pixar taking over Disney from within?

Will Steve Jobs now have a conflict of interest, being the person in charge of a media distribution channel, iTunes Music Store, and influencer of Disney?

Will the Mouse company start to use more Macintosh at its theme parks?

BTW: did I mention that the Macintosh was realeased on this day 22 years ago? Plus I was born on this day.