Bleeding Cool is reporting that the planned spin-off from Pixar’s Cars, namely “Planes” may not wind up being a Pixar production after all. We initially reported on Planes here, since when sources claim that the storyboarding, layout, final edit and sound mixing will be carried out at Disney Toon Studios which much of the animation itself handled by Disney-contracted animators based in India.
It is unclear how far this news is from the horse’s mouth, but given how much of a pet project Cars was for John Lasseter, it seems unlikely that he would relinquish hands-on creative control of a spin-off. So far, Pixar have managed to resist the temptation to make cheaper, inferior, straight-to-DVD sequels and spin-offs and frankly, long may that trend continue. They fought to protect Toy Storys 2 and 3 as theatrical releases and we’re not sure how to feel about a departure from this.
Up until now, even Pixar’s lesser work (Cars itself and A Bugs Life) has fully warranted a cinema release. If they can continue to focus on quality rather than volume cash-ins, the cinema world will be a better place for it.
