So what was the real reason Pixar canceled Newt? Well, the animation company’s president Ed Catmull revealed in a recent article just why director Gary Rydstrom’s long-gestating animated feature never saw the light of day.
As part of a series of conversations with Fast Company to promote his new book Creativity Inc., Catmull said of the failed project, “Newt was another unlikely idea that wasn’t working. When we gave it to somebody new [Pete Docter, director of Up], he said, ‘I’ll do it, but I have another idea altogether, which I think is better.’ And we thought it was better too. That was the reason we didn’t continue with Newt.”
It’s sad to me that an original film was canned. Something is sure going on over at Pixar that has us all more than a little worried. But since Brad Bird is involved with The Incredibles sequel, I’m hopeful at least for that. Cars 3 makes me more than a little nervous. In fact I’d go as far as to say that the prospect of Cars 3 makes me want to gag. That is such a turn around from how I felt about any Pixar film 3 or 4 years ago that I have whiplash. For the sake of the future of Pixar I hope with all my being that they will just simply cancel Cars 3 and go make something original instead.
Part of the problem here — for me at least — is that I smell the Disney money machine behind the machinations here a mile away. They don’t have a story or a great idea, they have an edict that has come down from the Disney mountain: make another Cars film. It makes a lot of money and sells a lot of merchandise and that makes us all very happy and wealthy. This does not a good film or film franchise make.
The Incredibles on the other hand is one I can’t help but be excited for. Yes, yes I know it is indicative of the sequelitis that Pixar seems to have developed, but this is the one and only sequel I have been asking for from Pixar since the beginning. It has remained my fervent hope that Brad Bird would come back with another amazing story and make another film in this incredible (yes, yes I went there) world.
So, I’m excited and I’m worried and I’m mad all at the same time.
A million times yes to The Incredibles. A million more times NO to Cars 3.