Having recently been inundated with news of further sequels
from Pixar, it seemed as though their continual outflux of originality had gone
the way of the dinosaurs. But does their latest output herald a year of change
for the company?
Pixar have released the first teaser trailer for The Good Dinosaur (2015), to be released
later this year. As with all teaser trailers, it’s humorous and a fairly
innovative concept. The trailer posits what would happen if the meteorite that
wiped out the dinosaurs bypassed Earth, and the dinosaurs remained, and
evolved. Aside from this, it gives very little away concerning its plot, but
one thing is certain: it looks interesting, at least visually, and strikingly
different from anything else that preceded it. Perhaps Pixar are finally
returning to form? Maybe it’s a little too early to say.
The fact of the matter is that a disturbingly large quantity
of sequels remain in the pipeline. For the last five years, Pixar seem to have
embraced their established franchises and played it safe. That said, this
should not in any way hinder creativity and originality otherwise, outside of
these franchises. But people’s collective disappointment in the company’s
output, invoked by their unfortunate bout of sequelitis, was likely exacerbated
by the weak and underdeveloped Brave (2012),
which saw an original concept accompanied by a mediocre and frankly unoriginal
storyline. Indeed, it seemed the curtain had fallen on Pixar’s seemingly
irrepressible winning streak.
Yet this year, Pixar seem to be re-emerging as the front
runners of original storytelling. The cynical of us had our doubts initially –
admittedly I’m one of them – but it seems as though they’re getting back on
track. Although The Good Dinosaur suffered
problems behind the scenes (such as Peter Sohn taking over the directorial role
from Bob Peterson in summer 2013*, not to mention a substantially delayed
release), the concept nonetheless has promise. What with the release of their
long-awaited comeback with the wholly original Inside Out this month, it seems that 2015 might well be the year
Pixar bite back.
Watch the teaser
below:
*Sources:
LA Times: ‘Pixar Animation yanks director Bob Peterson off ‘The
Good Dinosaur’’; http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-pixar-director-20130831-story.html
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