Did Disney Ruin Pixar?

Ever since its premiere, Coco has been doing what Pixar films do best — making people cry and dominating the box office. Currently, the sweet story about a young boy learning about the power of music from his ancestors holds a 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and as of December 5, it’s earned $286,355,447 worldwide. Coco is indisputably a success in a long line of Pixar successes. However, this film more than most has called into question the odd relationship between Pixar and its former partner, now parent company, Disney.

Pixar is known for showing shorts at the beginning of its films. It’s something that animation fans know to get excited about, just like how Marvel fans know to never leave the theater once the credits start. But instead of playing a heartfelt mini-saga about a struggling baby bird or the emotions of clouds, Coco started with a 21-minute “short” called “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” a Frozen spin-off that was created by Disney Animation, not Pixar. Viewers were quick to criticize the short, some even angrily pointing to it as evidence that increasingly corporate Disney was too close to the magical world of Pixar. The official explanation for the short was far less interesting than a conspiracy involving Disney Animation pushing its way into Pixar’s work. In an interview with Yahoo, Coco’s co-director Adrian Molina explained they opened Coco with the Frozen featurette because Pixar didn’t have another short ready and both “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” and Coco deal with similar themes. Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and face of the company, John Lasseter, also praised the Frozen featurette, calling it “too cinematic to not inhabit the big screen.”

This isn’t to say that Disney produces bad films or that Pixar is a blameless company. For decades now, Disney has been the company that has defined childhoods and that parents can trust, and they’ve been on a roll lately. The live action version of Beauty and the Beast was a huge success, and Moana is visually, narratively, and musically a masterpiece. Likewise, it’s not as if Pixar is unable to make bad movies. It was Pixar and Disney, not solely Disney, whose name was attached to Cars 2 and Cars 3. The latest installment in the franchise has a 68 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. Cars 2 has a shocking 39 percent.

It should also be noted that Pixar is now a company in the middle of a major sexual harassment scandal. After The Hollywood Reporter ran an article detailing an alleged pattern of sexual misconduct by Lasseter, the face of Pixar took a leave of absence. It’s unclear what, if any, future Lasseter and Pixar have together and what that means for the animation company.

But solely looking at these two companies by the quality of their work, the Coco and Frozen fiasco begs the question how has Pixar changed since it was acquired by Disney in 2006? Over a decade after that purchase, is it the same fearless, quirky, imaginative, and wildly successful brand as before? Looking at critical and box office trends can give us some insight into those questions.

Pixar Wouldn’t Be Pixar Without Disney

Lasseter originally started out as an animator for Disney, but he was fired, largely because of of his push for computer animation. After Disney, Lasseter moved to work on CGI for Lucasfilm. When the Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was later sold to Steve Jobs, that division is what eventually became Pixar. In the beginning, Pixar created shorts that Disney released, one of the first and most successful of which, “Tin Toy,” won the studio its first Oscar. However, it was Jobs’ pressuring that finally made Disney agree to create a film with the animation studio — the widely successful and adored Toy Story.

But as detailed in Walter Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs, it was a rocky relationship from the beginning. Disney and Pixar were constantly fighting over which pictures should and shouldn’t count toward Pixar’s deal with Disney, and Jobs found a professional rival worth clashing against in former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. At the height of these disagreements, Jobs publicly declared the Pixar was looking for partners other than Disney. It was a threat that seemed to work, especially since it was made during a particularly unsuccessful period of Disney’s history. It also probably helped that the company was in the middle of a period of transition. Once Eisner stepped down as CEO, Bob Iger, who was eager to add Pixar to the company, took Eisner’s place and offered the animation company a deal that would give them almost complete control over their offerings. Pixar may have saved Disney during its rocky Treasure Planet years, but Disney made Pixar a household name.

Pixar’s Ratio of Hits and Misses: The Pixar Years

From 1995 to 2006, the years that Pixar operated as an independent studio that was distributed by Disney, the company made seven movies: Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars. Technically Cars premiered in June, a month after the Disney and Pixar deal had cleared, but since it was clearly created before the merger, it feels safe adding it to the pre-Disney list.

This was a highly successful period for Pixar. Of those seven films, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 have the best critical ratings by far, both scoring 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Finding Nemo comes in at a close second, scoring an astounding 99 percent. All of the films during this time have high critical scores, ranging from a perfect 100 to an admirable 92 percent, save for one — Cars. The Owen Wilson-led mega franchise currently stands at a 74 percent. Even then, the average Rotten Tomatoes score for Pixar movies during this time was 94 percent.

It was also a financially successful time for the company. Finding Nemo was by far the most profitable movie from this era, securing over $339 million in the domestic box office and $940 million worldwide. Unsurprisingly, the films Pixar created when it was still a relatively unknown name, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, were the least profitable. Toy Story saw a domestic box office of over $191 million and a worldwide showing of $373 million, while A Bug’s Life made $162 million domestically and $363 million worldwide.

Overall, a Pixar film from this time generated an average domestic box office of $242 million a movie. That number jumps to an average of $549 million when worldwide releases are accounted for.(Note: These numbers were takes from Box Office Mojo)

Pixar’s Ratio of Hits and Misses: The Disney Acquisition

In roughly the same time period, Disney/Pixar has now released 12 films since Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006. Those 12 films are Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Brave, Monsters University, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Cars 3, and this year’s Coco. Some of these films have been wildly successful as well. Toy Story 3 currently has a 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and Up scored a 98 percent. Of those 12 films, seven of them have critical scores in the high 90s range. However, there have also been some critical misses in this period.

Whereas before only Cars stood as Pixar’s only film to fall short of the 90 percentile mark, three films currently have critical scores in the 70s — Brave, The Good Dinosaur, and Monsters University. Then there’s Cars 2’s 39 percent and Cars 3’s 68 percent. The average critical rating for a Pixar movie during this time is currently an 84 percent — a full 10 percent drop from the 1995 to 2006 years.

But financially there have been some massive hits as well. Two movies from this time period, Toy Story 3 and Finding Dory, cleared the $1 billion mark when it came to worldwide releases. Altogether, Toy Story 3 saw $415 million domestically and $1.06 billion worldwide. Finding Dory saw similar numbers, making $486 million domestically and $1.02 billion worldwide. Inside Out also brought in impressive numbers, securing $356 million domestically and $857 million worldwide.

Overall, a modern Disney/Pixar movie can be expected to make an average of $268 million domestically. That’s more than a $20 million jump from the averages stated during Pixar’s early years. When worldwide sales are accounted for, that number jumps to an average of $672 million per movie, which is over $100 million more than what Pixar movies made during the company’s early days. (Note: Coco was not included in these averages.)

So Did Disney Ruin Pixar?

The short answer is no. During Pixar’s time under Disney, the company has certainly embraced its more commercial side, arguably to a fault. It’s hard to explain the existence of Cars 2 and Cars 3 without pointing to toy sales. However, during this same time period, Pixar has still produced some of the greatest children’s movies and cinema of our time. Up, WALL-E, and Toy Story 3 are indisputably masterpieces, and it looks like Coco may be heading in that critically acclaimed direction as well.

Under Disney, Pixar has become a stronger, more profitable company. However, as Disney dives into Pixar spin-offs like Planes and computer animated critical darlings like Moana and with Pixar creating its own Disney princess with Brave, it’s becoming more difficult to tell these two branches of Disney apart. But as Coco is currently proving, Pixar is just as strong, innovative, and emotionally devastating as it ever was.