Pixar is NOT the Next ILM

The über animation studio Pixar is making it clear that they are not a special effects studio. /Film tells us:

When it was announced that Brad Bird would be directing a live action adaptation of 1906, a co-production of Pixar and Warner Bros, many assumed that the Emeryville animation studio would be providing the visual effects. Well now Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull told attendees of the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference that Pixar will not be entering the special effects business.

“We’ve got two projects coming where there’s a live action element. But our view is not that we’re trying to diversify; it’s more that we’ve got a creative vision to try something different, and we want to support that vision,” Catmull said. “Whether or not it goes beyond that we don’t know, but we don’t want to turn Pixar into a live action studio. In fact, the intent is that the special effects will not be done at Pixar… We are not trying to become a special effects company.”

I think that this is a good move for the company. Yes, Pixar's movies are absolutely stunning to look at, but that's not what makes their movies great. What makes them great is the story and the imagination they put behind all their movies. Yes, they look fantastic, but The Incredibles could have looked like a Nintendo 64 game, and it still would be my favorite movie of all time. Why? Because the story is funny, imaginative, and (no pun intended) incredible. So if Pixar begins to focus more and more on visuals, I'm afraid that they would start to lose sight of what made them so good in the first place. So I wholeheartedly approve of this decision.