Andrew Stanton Returning to Pixar

Even the most glorious reign must end one day.  Disney’s legendary eighteen month long bombing run finally came to an end with Inside Out 2. After a five year drought and in a year with almost no releases; a low risk sequel to a successful kids movie that Bob Chapek greenlit, has pulled in $295 million in its opening weekend.

Inspired by his predecessor’s success, Bob Iger has announced that Andrew Stanton will be directing Toy Story 5 for 2026. Barely.  Iger was really trying to avoid saying the actual number of Toy Story movies there are at this point during the announcement.

Think about that for a second or two.  Toy Story was Pixar’s very first feature length film and it nearly didn’t get finished. Woody had some serious development issues as a character. Jeffery Katzenberg had to step into the process to salvage it. Katzenberg saw that what was really needed between Woody and Buzz was a bromance and the key to a bromance is conflict.  Once the foundation was set Pixar’s brain trust of John Lasseter, Pete Doctor, Joe Ranft, and of course Andrew Stanton could do the rest.

I’m really kind of curious about what Andrew Stanton is going to do with Toy Story 5 because this property is about as out of gas as you can get. 

Toy Story was about Woody coming to grips with no longer being Andy’s most beloved toy while ultimately helping Buzz in having to accept the role he was created for.

Toy Story 2, Woody is presented with his biggest fear of being a lost toy.  He is then offered a chance to be put under glass and loved more or less forever but never to be played with by a child again.  Ultimately, Woody finds his way back to Andy.

Toy Story 3 was the most grownup of the Toy Story movies in part because their audience had grownup.  Buzz and Woody first hit the screens in 1995.  Toy Story 3 came out fifteen years later.  Five year olds that had loved the movie as kids were off to college now.  In that movie Woody has to accept the inevitable changes that comes with age. The story ends with the gang finding a new kid.

Toy Story 4. Hoo-boy, they went lightyears off the rails here.  Sheriff Woody has a mid-life crisis, abandons all of the responsibilities that has completely defined his character up until now, and runs off to join his Ex-girlfriend being a vagrant living life as a railroad tramp.  And that was where the story ended.

Toy Story 3 had a good ending. Toy Story 4 had a terrible ending but it’s also an ending you can’t really come back from. 

I don’t know what Andrew Stanton can do with this. He is extremely talented and he made some of Pixar’s biggest hits with Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life, Wall-E, and Finding Dory.

Yet, John Carter, the only failure in this parade of major successes, destroyed his career. The guy has been directing TV episodes since 2017 and I’m not joking.

John Carter had some flaws but it was by no matter or means a bad movie.  It could have been tightened up in editing and it absolutely should have made more money than it did.  The reasons for its failure rest entirely on Bob Iger’s head.  There were so many screw ups connected with its collapse that John Carter rated it’s own chapter in my forthcoming history of Disney decline and fall. 

Here is a very quick overview. 

Bob Iger had fired the hugely successful Hollywood institution Dick Cook the head of Disney Studios, and replaced him with the more pliable head of Disney Channels world wide boss, Rich Ross. Which wasn’t just a mistake it was a cruel mistake.  Everyone in Hollywood suddenly hated this TV guy that had replaced an acknowledged mogul. Iger also fired the head of marketing and hired MT Carney whose career was built around cosmetics. That was the kind of marketing campaign Carney delivered for John Carter.  It didn’t work.

Most of the movie’s development problems could have been solved by letting John Lasssetter offer a few notes but he had to keep clear because it was live action.  It was the first time Stanton had made a film without his guidance. 

The final box office take was $283 million against a budget of $264 million. Disaster barely begins to describe it.

And now Bob Iger is offering him a broken IP as a way back in.  I can’t really blame Stanton for accepting the poison pill but he’s going to be in the horrible situation of being a white man in a position of authority at a Disney company.

How bad is that?  Well, we’ll know shortly because James O’Keefe will be dropping his Disney bombs later this month.

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