How can anyone say that this was bad for Disney?
Because Hollywood does not follow the rules of the normal world. It isnt that Monsters, Inc. is bad for Disney, is that most of the good is going to Pixar. And this isnt trying to find the cloud on a sunny day; its just an honest look at how the film industry works. And the worst part about this is that Disney has done nothing wrong, theyre simply stuck in an extremely difficult situation.
Pixar is the company that actually makes the movies (Monsters, Toys, Bugs, etc.). They write it, produce it and animate it. Once the film is finished, they hand it over to Disney. The Mouse is responsible, for a fee, to getting the film into theaters and for marketing. With the tremendous successes of the previous Pixar movies, there was enough money to go around and everyones been very, very, very, very happy.
The problem with this business arrangement is that its coming to an end. Under the current contract, Pixar needs to turn over three more films to Disney. At this point they look like theyll be Finding Nemo in 2003, The Invincibles in 2004, and Route 66 in 2005. After that, Pixar is free of the contract and can do whatever they want.
Through a series of events, the chances of the contract being renewed are almost completely nonexistent. And theres growing pressure from Pixar to try and get out of it early. As Monsters grows more successful, it gives Pixar greater leverage in its dealings with Disney. And as Disneys own animation efforts falter (Ill be polite), The Mouses position becomes weaker. If you read the coverage, you will see Monsters labeled as a Pixar movie more often than a Disney movie the exact opposite of what happened with Toy Story.
Hollywood views hype with more importance than reality. At the moment, both Dreamworks/PDI and Pixar are the companies with the buzz. They are attracting talent, financing, projects, publicity, theater space, and talent (Ill repeat that because its so important). Disney is seen as fading quickly and not a desirable place to work. Major talent has either left or got thrown out of the door. Entire animation groups are being shut down. Those that are left are assigned to make direct-to-video sequels instead of new films.
Corporations do not make films people do. No matter how hallowed the brand name, it still takes a writer at the keyboard, an artist with a pencil and an actor behind a microphone. Unless those people are there, no amount of history, loyalty or magic can make up for it.
P.S. Apparently both Disney and 20th Century Fox were blindsided by the Pixar Lucasfilm deal on the Star Wars teaser. The deal that Fox has with Lucas is extremely one-sided and Fox needs to use every bit of leverage it has just to break even. It woke up to find the Star Wars attached to other studios films (Monsters for Pixar and Harry Potter for Warner Bros.) rather than attracting an audience to a Fox film. You can hear the screaming from Century City all they down here. It appears that Pixar has learned their lessons about hardball tactics.
