Is Pixar as we know it finished? Has a fifteen-year run of uniformly fine cartoons given way to an act two filled with half-hearted misses and needless sequels? It's a somewhat sensationalistic argument, but the timing is not a little disconcerting. Andrew Stanton, fresh off the epic financial failure that is John Carter (which in many ways can be considered a Pixar live-action venture), is now back at Pixar to helm the sequel to one of his animated hits, a sequel that arguably no one was asking for. And Pixar, fresh off a critical disaster (Cars 2) and a somewhat middling original effort that was supposed to restore their luster (Brave), is now set to make a sequel to their most popular film, a sequel that arguably no one was asking for.
