Pixar Reportedly Developing ‘Planes’ as Direct to DVD Spinoff of ‘Cars’

Posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by Russ Fischer

It had to happen eventually. Pixar has flirted with the idea of direct to DVD sequels in the past — notably with Toy Story 2 — and as the studio veers more overtly towards sequels that leverage proven characters (the Toy Story films, Cars 2, Monsters Inc. 2) it is probably inevitable that we’d see a direct to DVD Pixar project.

Reportedly, the first one to actually happen could be Planes, which is intended as a spin-off from Cars.

Movieline reports that Pixar is developing Planes as “a semi-sequel and spinoff franchise to Cars, one meant to take advantage of the enormously lucrative direct-to-video market.”

We have little more info at this point, as Pixar’s development process is not a quick one. That being the case, this film could go many different ways: it might take final form as described here, it could be scrapped, or it could mutate into a theatrical feature.

I think many people visualize Pixar as a studio that is very much above it all, and I expect to hear some cries that a move like this could dilute what the Pixar name represents. But it could also be a way to generate revenue so that the studio can make more adventurous movies, and a set of direct to DVD films would only help broaden the opportunities for animators, designers and storytellers to hone their skills. Let’s wait until there are more (read: any) real details about this before jumping to many conclusions.