for the record, I can easily tell by a trailer what is a Pixar movie and what isn’t, and it isn’t necessarily based on the overall quality of the movie. its everything from character design to cinematography, soundtrack. I dont think there is ONE Dreamworks CGI movie or a CGI animation movie from any other company that is better than ANY of the Pixar films. The closest Dreamworks came to competing was Antz, and I still think Bugs Life is better. As for the Brad Bird/Incredibles thing, noone was concerned for that one because he wrote Iron Giant. its not really an ‘outsider’ issue, its a matter of trust. and right now, noone trusts Disney to do a good job. and with good reason.

have you seen what they’ve done with the sequels to their “classics”? they dont give a shit if its any good, its just a cash-in, and I doubt Toy Story will be any exception.

you definitely underestimate the fanbase that animation movies have amongst adults. knowing several animators personally, and just how much more work an animated movie takes in comparison to most other films, its really depressing to the animation fanbase when something is really bad… because a bad big budget CGI animated movie takes just as much effort as a good one. For me personally, I actually care more if Toy Story 3 is good than I would Indiana Jones 4, or any new Romero movie. I like a good animated movie.

So basically, I think animation fans deserve a little more respect than Jay seems willing to give.
both Toy Story movies are in the IMDB top 250, and deservedly so.

I dont even care about the “it doesnt matter, its the third one” thing. Sure, it would be better if people would just move on to other projects, but if a project is confirmed and on the go, enough people have made enough investment into these characters to be allowed to care at least a little bit what is going to be done with them.

and PS – the animation world already knows who is in charge of Toy Story 3, so their anger is not presumptuous – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0713214/

Bradley Raymond, whose only credits are other bad Disney sequels.

what is funny though, is the writer has Tapeheads as a credit.

A lot of Muppet hardcores, like me, have a hard time accepting any new project because Steve Whitmire is not Jim Henson, Richard Hunt is dead, Frank Oz and Dave Goelz are too busy, and thus the spirit of the old Muppets has faded. They think it would be better if they just went away. And theres a good argument for that. If Carroll Spinney died and they still made Sesame Street with a new person playing Oscar and Big Bird, a little part of me would die.

I guess my point is never underestimate kids movie franchises. Childrens cartoon/movie franchises I feel have a lot more value and should be judged on a different level than adult ones.

its a bigger deal to me when someone screws up a kids’ franchise because kids movie characters are way more iconic and long-lasting… i want the new kids classics to last generations and generations much like old disney movies have, and not be cheapened and run into the ground within a decade.

As for Pixar, here’s a few ideas i’ve had kicken around for animated film ideas. I offer this to the executives at Pixar.

1. “Phones” – Soundtrack by Randy Newman

A young cellular phone, which talks, goes on a cross country quest to find his father, an old english telephone booth, who has been put on display in a telephone museum. Along the way, the young cellular phone meets up with a vintage rotary phone with a british accent and a femail answering machine. They help him on his journey to reconnect with his father.

2. “Chairs” – Soundtrack by Randy Newman

A love seat and maching couch, that talk, are happily married and the proud parents of “Ottie” the ottoman. When their owners decide to replace their living room set with a sleek black leather couch, the family is sold at a garage sale. Father couch, voiced by Ray Ramono, travels cross country to re-assemble his family. Co-starring Jack Black as the fast driving moving van.

3. “Cars”

A group of talking cars…oh wait. They did this one.

4. “Boats” – Talking Boats
5. “Planes” – Talking Planes
6. “Sports Balls” – Talking Sports Balls
7. “Computers” – Talking Computers
8. “Groceries” – Talking Groceries
9. “Garbage” – Talking Garbage
10. “Boats 2″ – Talking Boats

oh come on, anyone sarcastic enough can reduce any director or studio to such simplistic terms

besides, things go way beyond the general plotline. theres the character development and more importantly, how well the story is told. Pixar put more care into their stories and characters than almost all ‘adult’ movies, and certainly more care than any other studio creating kids movies…
is the plot all you care about?

if anything, the simplicity, the universality of the stories is one of Pixar’s greatest strengths, and helps make them contemporary classics, unlike “Shark Tale” which is just a mafia movie with fish and SNL type jokes.

I might also remind you that talking non-human objects were pretty much a necessity for any CGI company at that period of time, as absolutely noone could pull of doing humans yet, and they werent going to focus on a human movie before they knew they could pull it off as well as they did with the Incredibles…

While I’m all for putting nerds in their place (particularly where it includes keeping my own uncool vices in check), I have to point out the fact that the Space Junk radio show and website is almost exclusively made for debating nerdy topics such as these. Even if we (the radio show hosts) didn’t personally have much of an opinion on the subject, I don’t think that makes it a useless point of discussion.

Also, I would definitely like to see a movie about talking groceries.

let there be e-peace

Hopefully the folks at Disney see the light and cancel all plans to make this film. I agree that this could tarnish the Toy Story legacy forever.

I plan to start a petition to halt the release of Toy Story 3. Everyone interested in taking part, please leave a message on this thread. Once we’re at one million names, i personally will send the list to Disney in hopes to stop their franchise smashing machine for good.