ShyViolet wrote:I can't believe Disney changed it to June 1. Of course it's going to cut right into Madagascar. *Sigh* Another Pixar-DreamWorks-Disney battle coming up.....
I realized something here.
I really don't follow this line of thinking. Is it just me, or is the USA still a capitalist society? It's not perfect, yes, but by no means does it have to be that companies have to play so fairly that they DON'T compete with each other!
When companies get together and decide NOT to compete with each other and arrange their schedules to be nice and spread the happiness all-around, you basically are only one or two steps away from monopoly. That's called oligopoly and it's the reason why it's so hard to find a good deal on gas prices in any town.
(Contrary to what many people believe, Disney did NOT have a monopoly on feature animation for several decades. Most other companies chose NOT to compete with Disney because they couldn't figure out the "magical formula" Disney used to create successful animated features. It's the same basic ingredients most successful enduring films have -- likeable characters and stories that stay with you. It's not enough just to have a pretty-looking picture.)
None of these companies owe the other a break. I'm sorry, but that's just not how it works.
If anything, if competition WORKS the way it's supposed to, it should encourage competitors to put out BETTER product.
Right now, most people believe Pixar is doing a better job making animated films with DECENT stories as opposed to doing films full of pop culture references and throw-away humor inserted to fill dead spaces ==> that's basically what writers did in the Family Guy TV series and I've noticed it more and more in theatrical features, too.
Somebody's going to be a loser in any competition and you may think that stinks, but that's life.
There is a difference, however, between losing one battle and calling off the war and completely surrendering because you think the rules aren't fair and the other guy's cheating. That's completely defeatist and the stupid line of logic both Disney and DreamWorks used to justify shutting down their traditional animation studios and laying off hundreds of people. They thought it was the technique (hand-drawn animation) that was killing their films' profitability and not the fact that the stories and characters in their last few hand-drawn films were forgettable.
Believe me, if the day comes that this CGI lovefest ends or Pixar expands into hand-drawn animation and proves once and for all that story trumps technique, we're going to hear Katzenberg and the next Disney CEO change their tunes quick about hand-drawn animation and rebuild their traditional animation studios. There's no question who's following whom here.
There's never going to be a situation where these guys decide to play fair because A) the people that run these companies are egotists who WANT to come out on top of their competition and B) the moment it appears they're operating an oligopoly, they SHOULD be investigated by the federal government.
