Pixar is combating "brand fatigue" by making live-action movies based on 1906 earthquake and John Carter of Mars. And why this is history repeating itself. Part #2.

Part #1 of this series discussed how Disney is concerned about Pixar's declining box office mojo. A large chunk of this can be chalked up to mountains-out-of-molehills since none of Pixar's movies have never lost money.

However, there is a sense that the Emeryville studio's consistently high quality is being taken for granted by North American moviegoers, who no longer are seeing Pixar's movies in the vast numbers they used to.

Not only that, after 12 years on top of the CGI animation heap, at least two senior members of Pixar's vaunted brain trust want to throw their hats into a very different arena.

Fred Willard Appears in WALL-E

Much like Disney is dipping its toe back in cel animation waters by putting animated sequences in Enchanted, Pixar is flirting with adding live-action to its CGI gumbo. Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton is leading the charge by putting an actual actor on screen for his 2008 flick, WALL-E.

In the movie, Fred Willard (who virtually stole the flick Best in Show) will play the role of the fictional BuyNLarge Corporation's CEO. This is a first for Pixar's movies, which have been previously CGI animated with no motion-capture or "other shortcuts." But the live-action doesn't stop there . . .

Andrew Stanton Goes to Mars

Long-time readers will know that Stanton is also developing a trio of movies based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' 11-book Barsoom saga, better known as John Carter of Mars. This was the legendary pulp author's first set of stories, before he created the better-known Tarzan the Ape Man series.

John Carter of Mars holds the record for Longest Time in Development Hell, since it was first optioned for the movies back in the early 1930's, and no adaptation has ever made it to production. However, Stanton is confident that he can break the John Carter curse and put a decent representation of Burroughs' tales of green-skinned aliens and naked, red-skinned princesses on the silver screen.

Much like every other attempted adaptation, Stanton is working on Burroughs' first book, A Princess of Mars, as the basis for the first movie. It will be re-titled John Carter of Mars for when it hits theatres.

Needless to say, there will be a lot of CGI involved in these flicks since the Screen Actors' Guild doesn't have any tall, green-skinned aliens on its member list, and the SPCA would likely object to Pixar pinning extra limbs on horses and dogs. But the central characters will be portrayed by actors. It's also likely that Stanton will go for a PG rating for these movies, or even a PG-13.

IMDb claims that John Carter of Mars is scheduled for a 2009 release, while Wikipedia maintains it will come out in 2012.

Brad Bird Gets an Earthquake

Brad Bird (Ratatouille) has been working for quite a long while on a script about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, simply called 1906. It's based on the book by James Dalessandro, who Bird has also called in to help adapt it for the big screen. If Bird can convince Pixar and Disney to green-light such a downer movie concept, he hopes to start shooting this sucker in 2009.

History Repeating Itself: Walt Disney in the 1940's

If you're sensing a bit of déja vu from Pixar's plans to go live-action, there's a good reason.

Back in the 1940's, Walt Disney Studios was in serious trouble. Fantasia, Walt's grand attempt to bring classical music to the masses, had died in theatres, nearly bankrupting the studio. A bitter animators' strike in 1941 was still having repercussions. Not only that, a little thing called World War II ensured that not many people were going to the movies.

In 1946, Disney released Song of the South, a flick that mixed live-action actors with Disney animation. Despite later controversies over the character of Uncle Remus, the movie did extremely well and won two Oscars: one for Best Song ("Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah") and a special award for black actor James Baskett.

Heartened by this, Walt Disney went on to make a completely live-action film, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The film was also successful and the rest, they say, is history.

So once again, Pixar is following in Disney's shoes by toying with live-action movies, in the hopes that audiences will no longer see the Emeryville studio as merely an animation outfit, but as a company that makes high quality movies. Period.

Is Pixar dumping its bread and butter: CGI animated films? Probably not. WALL-E is coming in 2008, Up in 2009 and Toy Story 3 in 2010. After that, there have been no further announcements.

Perhaps, much like Disney, Pixar will start making animated films more sparingly, so that each movie will become more of an event, much like when Pixar began in the mid-1990's.

Will it work? Will Pixar become an incredibly profitable studio, instead of a reliably profitable studio? Stay tuned, but unfortunately your fearless Animation writer won't be able to report on Pixar's live-action forays. Job description and all that.

Fun Fact: In May of 2007, Disney CEO Robert Iger officially announced that Disney would not release Song of the South onto DVD.