Pixar Dust?

Pixar's brillance is well-known. The studio has released 10 consecutive critically acclaimed and successful box-office hits that put the rest of the industry to shame. Probably the only thing more envied about this studio is their painstaking, critical, creative process. They take one movie at a time and work on it for 4-5 years, constantly reworking story, characters, and running each tiny element and shot through the gauntlet. The "Brain-Trust" is perhaps the most interesting element of Pixar's moviemaking. The "Brain-Trust" is a collection of Pixar's Godfathers, if you will, composed of Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, and Lee Unkrich to name a few. It's a collection of Pixar's most successful directors responsible for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and my personal favorire The Incredibles. Each movies is pitched frequently to this group of story geniuses and have their movies ripped to shreds, telling what's working, what will work better, and what should never see the light of day.

So it seems now, Disney is recognizing how legit Pixar is and entreating their help for some in-house story consulting. Both The Muppets movie and Tron met with the Pixar Brain Trust in order to glean some achievement from these guys. Though they are still pretty much under the Disney umbrella, it's cool that they enlisted Pixar, who in all right is running animation these days. Sure Dreamworks makes more money, but they certainly don't wow (I haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon). Anyway, I hope it sparks a trend actually. It reminds me of the early days (for me) during the 90's of the string of musicals where they had a similar story contribution format. A sort of free-flowing contribution of ideas that really contributed to the brilliance of that time. Personally, I'm not that into Tron or The Muppet Movie. But after hearing this news I can be persuaded. Here's hoping a little Pixar dust works on these movies.