Pixar wise to do away with awful DVD sequels

It must be hard to be a Disney animator these days.

The Mouse House renewed its collaborative relationship with the Pixar folks last year, thus ensuring there will be stellar cartoon works in theaters for years.

For those who don't remember, Pixar has a spotless track record, having created the "Toy Story" movies, as well as "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles," "Cars" and a handful of Oscar-winning animated shorts. (And Pixar's latest is the well-reviewed "Ratatouille," a film that received a nearly unanimous positive-critical rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com.)

You'd think that Disney animation employees would be thrilled to be working with Pixar. However, there's apparently a lot of grousing over a Pixar-led decision to scrap Disney's lucrative but artistically bankrupt, straight-to-DVD sequels program (see Disney dumping sequels for DVD).

According to several animators' blogs, the decision has not been well-received by Disney-animation employees, some of whom are said to be quite depressed about it.

But Pixar chiefs Steve Jobs and John Lasseter were very vocal about their displeasure with the DVD sequels, even saying they were "embarrassing." That may sound harsh ... but for the most part it's true.

Also, Pixar has gotten where it is by holding its animators and filmmakers to a higher standard than other animation studios.

The Disney employees should feel honored just to be included with them.

AND HAVE I MENTIONED IT'S FREE? Another one of my favorite films is "Breaking Away," the Oscar-winning, 1979 comedy-drama about bicycling.

It's a warm, funny film with several great performances (especially by Barbara Barrie, who won an Oscar nomination for her performance, and Paul Dooley).

The film kicks off the Sundance Institute's 10th annual Outdoor Film Series, which includes screenings of movies from previous Sundance Film Festivals, as well as "hidden gems and overlooked classics that deserve to be dusted off and enjoyed again," according to organizers.

"Breaking Away," which plays July 6 at the Park City Park, is definitely one of them. Additional screenings of the film are July 9 at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City and July 11 at the Sundance resort in Provo Canyon.

Other films in the series are "The Truman Show," "Kinky Boots," "Never Cry Wolf," "Stop Making Sense," "Ocean's Eleven" (1960), and "Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

All screenings are free; showtime is dusk, approximately 8:30 p.m. (for a complete schedule go to www.sundance.org).

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com