Pixar's Cars, which outran the box office competition by a mile last weekend with a solid opening of $60.1 million, looks like the beginning of a beautiful new friendship between the hitmaking CG 'toon shop and Disney. And like the backward-driving antics of the movie's hillbilly tow truck, Mater (see sidebar next page), the Pixar-Disney union represents an amazing reversal. As plenty of coverage over the past few years has detailed, Cars nearly became the final co-production between the two studios, thanks to loud and public tangles over how their relationship should work—and what it should cost. Instead of divorcing, they wound up renewing vows, as Disney agreed to fork over a staggering $7.4 billion to acquire Pixar outright, along with handing over management of all Disney animation to Pixar's gurus.
But what sounds like a fairy-tale ending actually involves a dramatic coda — one that affects the fates of some of Pixar's most beloved characters. As part of the renewed partnership, Disney scrapped a nascent, in-house animation studio called Circle 7, which had been crafting follow-ups to Toy Story 2 and other Pixar flicks. And within the brief rise and fall of the place waggish observers christened ''Pixaren't,'' there's a terrifically twisty tale of high-stakes poker involving contract battles, clashing egos, and a mountain of scrapped creative work.
And here you thought the cartoon world was such a nice, sunny place.
It all started after Toy Story 2 opened to $57.4 million in November 1999. That's when Pixar CEO Steve Jobs and then-Disney chief Michael Eisner started bickering over how the Pixar empire should be run, and on what terms Disney could go on being part of it. (Their deal was to expire after Pixar's seventh feature.) The crux of this fight between two family-entertainment titans boiled down to creative control and cash — and Eisner brought those issues to a head with Circle 7. The Disney exec had conceived the upstart studio as a new engine for franchising Pixar's cartoon stars...without Pixar. How could he do that? Because Disney controlled rights to all Pixar characters up to and including those in Cars, and could deploy them in as many sequels, made-for-video spin-offs, and theme-park rides as it wanted. To make manifest that control, Disney boldly constructed a surrogate-Pixar CG studio on Circle 7 Drive in Glendale, Calif. — hence the name — and began hiring staff in earnest in 2004. (Not that it was easy: Many potential hires fretted they might alienate Pixar if they signed on.)
Asked about Circle 7 during an early-April interview for Cars, Pixar's star director John Lasseter had no comment. But Andrew Stanton, writer-director of Finding Nemo and a co-writer on the Toy Story movies, was less circumspect in a separate chat (also on the topic of Cars) . ''We were never fooled that [Circle 7] wasn't the most expensive bargaining chip ever created,'' Stanton says. ''But we also knew that, bargaining chip or not, they'd go through with it. They weren't going to blink.''
At least, not if Eisner stayed in charge. The former CEO (and current CNBC talk-show host) declined to comment for this article. But James B. Stewart, author of 2005's DisneyWar, recalls that ''[Eisner] would say, 'All creative teams go in cycles, and Pixar is riding for a fall.' He kept telling me that's why he didn't want to renew the deal.'' Eisner seems to have figured that Circle 7 would either so enrage Jobs that he'd break off negotiations — in which case Disney would make sequels more cheaply than Pixar could — or it would chasten Pixar into more favorable renewal terms.
By the end of 2004, Circle 7 was well on its way to filling an eventual employment roster of around 170 artists, writers, executives, and directors — and it was clear that Disney was pouring millions into the venture. First up on the production slate: Toy Story 3, to be directed by Lion King 1½'s Bradley Raymond. (Follow-ups to Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo were also in development.) Word was that Tim Allen would likely return to voice spaceman Buzz Lightyear, thanks to his ongoing relationship with Disney (which produced Home Improvement and makes the Santa Clause films). Tom Hanks, a.k.a. Woody the cowboy doll, was a question mark. The scuttlebutt at Circle 7 was that Disney would pitch Hanks a contract for both a third and fourth installment, for a huge payout.
Pixar staffers had reactions ranging from livid to merely sad, but their agitation was aimed chiefly at Disney suits. ''I hold no malice toward any [nonmanagement] individuals involved,'' says Pixar's Stanton. ''They were just artists trying to do something great and feed their families.''
One of those strivers was screenwriter Jim Herzfeld, who by the end of 2005 had turned in a Toy Story 3 script that saw a defective Buzz get recalled (see sidebar, right, for plot details). Hired on the strength of his work on Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, Herzfeld wasn't the only scribe in the mix — there was at least one before him and two after — but according to him, his draft got the project greenlit, at least for a while.
''I should have had my agent look into it more,'' the writer says, looking back on his decision to work on the sequel. ''There'd been a pot of bile just simmering on the stove.... [The TS3 crew would say,] 'We were just pawns, used to scare Pixar to the negotiation table.' It was essentially Michael Eisner putting a gun to the head of Pixar's children.'' But the weapon aimed at Woody and his pals ultimately went off in the faces of the Circle 7 staff, when Eisner left Disney in October 2005. Just three months later, new Disney chief Robert Iger essentially buried his predecessor's pet project, announcing that as part of the Disney-Pixar merger, two of Pixar's chief creative architects, Lasseter and Ed Catmull, would now be running all of Disney animation. Their first major move was to pull the plug on all of Circle 7's work — including preproduction on Toy Story 3. It was a swift and decisive blow, but in the months since, according to published reports, Disney has made every attempt to fold roughly 140 out of 170 or so Circle 7 refugees into Disney Feature Animation, leaving about 30 people to find employment elsewhere.
Of course, wiping clean Circle 7's drawing boards doesn't mean the end of Toy Story 3. In May, Iger announced that Pixar would be taking over the sequel. Although the new CEO didn't reveal plot details or a target release date, it's understood that John Lasseter will be the guiding hand behind it. (Rumors have long circulated that Lasseter has a story line in mind that will wrap up the franchise definitively, so no part 4 or beyond.) ''The idea behind [Circle 7] always put a bad taste in our mouths,'' says Andrew Stanton. ''We're glad to have a say again about how our kids will be raised.'' Counters Herzfeld: ''I can understand that. Somebody took their children and dressed them up in clothes they didn't approve of. But it doesn't mean they're bad clothes.''
The Other Story
It will never be in theaters, but here's the plot of Circle 7's TS3 What was in the nixed Toy Story sequel? Don't ask Pixar. ''We purposely didn't look,'' says original TS alum Andrew Stanton. But for the more curious, here's a taste of what would have befallen Buzz, Woody & Co.: A malfunctioning Buzz loses control of his bodily functions — random speech bursts, a hand popping off — and accidentally scratches his kid owner, Andy, with his pointy arm stump. Against Buzz's will, the other toys ship him to Taipei, believing he'll be fixed. But Hamm the pig, working the Internet, discovers that Buzz in fact won't be repaired once he meets his toy-company makers because he's part of a massive recall. So the bedroom gang ship themselves to Taipei too, via faster courier service, hoping to save their pal. Meanwhile, Buzz meets a bunch of caged-up recalled toys, including Cozy Rosey (a tuck-in doll whose heating element catches fire), Jujubee Bee (a Pez knockoff), and a tall action-figure gal with defective gams named Jade — to whom Buzz delivers a punning take on his signature catchphrase: ''To infinity and be-yotch!''
