Pixar and Disney

If you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m a total Pixar fanboy. So to wake up this morning and find their latest press release about them splitting from Disney was a little bit of a shock.

How on earth can Disney allow this? If I held shares in Disney, I’d be extremely annoyed that Michael Eisner (Disney Chairman & CEO) and his executive team has allowed this to happen. Dreamworks must be salivating at the prospect of being able to distribute some top-quality animated features.

If I had money to invest, I’d buy Pixar shares right now. Why? Well, buried away in Pixar’s statement is the assertion that “Pixar intends to retain full ownership of its future productions.” It will also continue to earn from its profit share in the current Disney deal “in perpetuity.” Given that the other distributors will basically now get into a bidding war (I’m guessing), this is only going to be good for Pixar. [Disclaimer: do your own research before buying shares!]

Some people have said Pixar and Steve Jobs must be crazy to walk away from Disney, but I disagree. For only the second time in Hollywood history, a studio has actually been able to establish the beginnings of a real brand, which people have come to rely on as a mark of quality on the movies. Sure, Disney can now schedule their movies for release at the same time as Pixar’s, but Disney no longer have the creative talent to compete with Pixar.

Also, Pixar have posted a snippet from their new short, Boundin’. Looks like they’re reusing some of the sets from A Bug’s Life in this one.