Pixar sequels: 'The Incredibles 2,' 'Cars 3' moving forward, says Pixar president

Pixar sequels including a second 'Incredibles' movie and a third film in the 'Cars' series will be released, according to Pixar president Ed Catmull. The Pixar sequels were announced during a recent meeting for shareholders and D23 members.

|
Walt Disney Studios/Pixar Animation/AP
Pixar sequels will include a new 'Incredibles' film, according to Pixar's president.

Many a person was relieved when Pixar president Ed Catmull offered his assurances that the beloved animation studio will, heron out, put renewed emphasis on the task of churning out quality original content – hence the company’s next two releases, Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur – rather than just prioritizing sequels and/or spinoffs of its previous hits (see: Cars 2, Monsters University, and so forth).

The plan moving forward – as Catmull described it – will be for Pixar to alternate between new intellectual properties and established franchise installments, on a year-by-year basis. We already knew that the list of upcoming sequels includes Finding Dory (i.e. the followup to Finding Nemo), but we can now officially add The Incredibles 2 to that list.

A sequel to The IncrediblesBrad Bird’s Oscar-winning 2004 computer-animated film about a family of superheroes – is something that many a person has been asking for, far more than any other prospective Pixar sequel mentioned to date.

In fact, yours truly can attest: pretty much every single time I’ve written about an upcoming Pixar movie (no matter what it is), someone inevitably leaves a comment expressing their desire to see the adventures of the middle-aged Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), his wife Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), their super-powered children Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Spencer Fox), and their friendly-neighbor Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) continue on the big screen.

Well, at long last, it appears that Disney/Pixar is ready to grant the masses of Incredibles die-hard fans their wish. Today, at the annual meeting for the shareholders and D23 members, Disney Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger confirmed that not only is an Incredibles sequel being actively developed, but that Pixar and the Mouse House also have a third installment in the popular (though the least critically-respected among Pixar’s brands) Cars franchise planned and starting to move down the pipeline.

The news about Cars 3 is bound to generate far less excitement than the Incredibles 2 announcement. Fact is, after the comparatively lackluster Cars 2 – which many people still regard as superior to a lot of other kids-oriented entertainment on the market – and multiple less-than-memorable shorts focused around the tow-truck character Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), many a film buff tends to view the Cars franchise as being an easy way to make money for Disney/Pixar – and not much else.

On the other hand, the profitability of the Cars movies has eased pressure on Pixar and Bird to make Incredibles 2 as quickly as possible. Indeed, Bird has said on multiple times over the last decade that he’s never stopped brainstorming ideas for an Incredibles sequel, but has simply yet to find a premise that he believes has real potential – seeing how, like everyone else, he wants the sequel to match or improve upon the original film’s mix of rousing can-do action, engaging familial drama, and clever social commentary elements.

Hopefully, the reason that Incredibles 2 is now moving forward at a faster pace is because the creative minds over at Pixar have, at last, found a way to start cracking that especially difficult nut. Then again, it is Pixar; at this stage, its track record is still strong enough to ensure that any product the studio releases should have a reasonable amount of thought and care put it into. (Yes, even with something like Cars 3.)

As for Bird’s involvement as director on Incredibles 2, that isn’t guaranteed yet, even though (as reported by Variety) Iger says Bird is currently working on the screenplay. However, given his healthy working relationship with Disney (Bird is also putting together the sci-fi adventure Tomorrowland for the studio) – combined with his obvious affection for the franchise – there’s good reason to believe that Bird could end up calling the shots on this project.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Pixar sequels: 'The Incredibles 2,' 'Cars 3' moving forward, says Pixar president
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2014/0319/Pixar-sequels-The-Incredibles-2-Cars-3-moving-forward-says-Pixar-president
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe