Why So Many Pixar Sequels? Good Ideas or Creatively Bankrupt?
A couple days back we got an announcement that Pixar is developing Monsters Inc. 3. This has caused the internet to share their opinion about this movie being in development. I wanted to share my opinions, let’s get started!
My Thoughts
My thoughts on Monsters Inc 3 being in development is very frustrating. Because on the one hand, I view Monsters Inc 3 as a desperation move on Disney and Pixar’s part. You look at the films that Pixar has in development and a large percentage of them are sequels. We’re getting Toy Story 5 later this week, desperation. Coco 2 was announced last year, desperation. I don’t think Incredibles 3 is on the same level of desperation because I think a third Incredibles 3 could work. It’s a superhero story so it’s easy to see what a third Incredibles film could be. But you also know that Pixar is probably making this film because Incredibles 2 made over $1 billion. When they announced that Monsters Inc 3 is in development and is happening, they’re probably thinking this could be another $1 billion hit. Where Monsters University made almost $800 million. Monsters Inc, the original turns 25 years old this year. So it’s now a multi-generational film that kids that saw that in the theater now have kids of their own.
When they announce so many sequels it feels like a desperation play. They saw the box office results of Inside Out 2 broke multiple records in regards to the highest grossing animated movie. They saw Elio’s box office from last year and it bombed. It didn’t make $100 million domestically; it was a big flop all around. It’s very easy to look at those numbers and see how Pixar will go “ok, our sequels make over $1 billion and our original films don’t do well.” Even the Disney Animation sequels like Moana 2 and Zootopia 2, made over $1 billion. Zootopia 2 is the highest grossing domestic animated film of all time. We’re getting a new Disney animated movie this November called Hexed, I have no idea how well that one will do. If it’s a musical I think maybe it could do well, not a $1 billion but solid numbers.
I think the frustration with Disney and Pixar announcing more and more sequels with less and less original films is because of their past track records. In the 2000s, Pixar was so good at creating these odd original films that sounded totally strange on paper but ended up making great movies. They had an idea about a rat that pulls a guy’s hair in order to cook and made this great movie. They made a movie about an old man honoring his wife’s dreams of going to a waterfall so he flies his house there with balloons. That’s what Pixar’s legacy was from 1995 to 2010, creating original movies and making something great with them. The 2010s had some great original movies with Inside Out and Coco but they did more sequels with a couple of Toy Story sequels, some Cars sequels, and Incredibles 2 but they did a great job of balancing them out. In the 2020s, their original movies haven’t been very great. I liked Onward as a film, but that was at the beginning of the decade, Soul was disappointing. Luca was fine, Turning Red is bottom tier Pixar, and Elemental and Hoppers were good. But none of them are top tier Pixar that captured that magic in the way that Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo did. I think Pixar knows that so they want to give us more sequels because those connect better with audiences both with reviews and with box office numbers.
Overall, Monsters Inc 3’s announcement is very interesting because it does feel like a desperate movie and creatively bankrupt on Disney and Pixar’s part. But at the same time, I’ve been saying that a sequel to Monsters Inc could work. If they do a big time jump Boo is now 25-30 years old, maybe she has kids. But in an era where audiences want more original films and they keep on announcing sequels it’s so frustrating.
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