How Disney Pixar Runs Their Films for Families? Report

Introduction

Many people have numerous questions about the success of Disney Pixar in the animation film industry. People wonder what makes the company to be so appealing. Besides, a majority of people wonder how the company manages to turn an ordinary world into a magical world. Disney Pixar started by coining the idea of walking and talking toys (Abel 2004). No other company had come up with such a notion before; therefore, Disney Pixar knew that it was out to make something big out of the idea. The company released A Bug’s Life and later Toy Story, which were two animated movies. The two films were set in the usual world, but they depicted an extraordinary scenario. Leskosky and Berenbaum (1998) posit, “A Bug’s Life brings the insect world to life and it meant that children grew up with awareness that bugs are alive and connected to each other” (p.61). Disney Pixar took every aspect of life that the audience would take for granted and transformed it to bring out a different picture altogether. The company is capable of developing intelligent films that attract the audience from all the age brackets. This capacity makes the company unique.

As the world continues to adopt new technology, Disney Pixar continues to improve its creativity in the film industry (Abel 2004). Through the help of sophisticated equipments, the company has given life to monsters and made them act like human beings. This aspect has helped the company to open a novel world to adults and children, a phenomenon that is astonishing and hitherto still linked to the universe through clandestine doors. Over time, Disney Pixar has continued to relate with its vast audience through passing across information regarding the extraordinary world in a fascinating and enlightening order (Abel 2004). Disney Pixar focuses mainly in the production of family films. Through its experienced personnel, the company produces numerous animated films intended for children, adults exclusively as well as others intended for both children and adults. Currently, the company serves a wide target audience comprising of people from different age brackets, gender, and different backgrounds. This paper aims at analysing how Disney Pixar runs its films for families. The paper will analyse the company’s target audience and focus on its marketing strategies.

Disney Pixar film content

Film producing companies articulate the contents of their films based on the target audience. The companies develop scenes and use languages that their target audience would understand. Disney Pixar has made the effort to engage its audiences through the contents of its films. For instance, in some of its trailers, the company includes scenes that consist of a language and jokes that only adults can understand (Booker 2010). Besides, the company uses its characters carefully based on the target audience. In Toy Story, the company used cute toys with an intention to engage its younger audience. The company is always keen to the rule of content, which dominates the film and media industry.

Failure to include the appropriate content in the film or media coverage drives the target audience away (Booker 2010), which underlines the reason why Disney Pixar insists on content in all of its releases. The majority of the company’s films feature extraordinary phenomena. For instance, the company manages to give life to monsters and enable them to assume different personalities, which makes the films attractive, thus attracting a wide audience across the globe. The release of The Incredibles helped the company to recreate the world in a surprising manner (Booker 2010). The film made the public to believe that nothing is impossible. It comprised of a poor middle-aged man, who acted as the main protagonist. The film not only helped the company to connect with the children, but it also helped it to connect with youths as well as the old generation.

In 2008, the company released WALL-E. Unlike other films, WALL-E did not depict the world as extraordinary or magical (McNaughtan 2012). The film seemed so calm, but very enlightening. The film’s content intended to bring hope to people. The film featured a deserted universe that had no signs of hope. Nevertheless, a little robot in the universe kept pushing on no matter the situation. Such content aimed at giving the audience hope despite the hardship it encounters in life. Besides, the film brought out the theme of love and friendship, something that most of the previous films did not portray. WALL-E captured the attention of the target audience thus reigniting its love for Disney Pixar (Wiersma 2000). The introduction of WALL-E to the market and the reception it got marked the turning point for Disney Pixar in terms of film contents.

The company embarked on developing films that captured the emotions of the target audience. Disney Pixar started coming up with films that encouraged people to pursue their dreams in life regardless of their age. The company sought to help people to keep their hopes alive. In the process, it managed to capture another group of movie lovers. Shortly after WALL-E, the company came up with Up. This emotional film focused on an old man who lost his true love (McNaughtan 2012). Despite the loss, the old man kept the faith and struggled to pursue his dreams. Until now, the company continues reaching its target audience through releasing animated films full of delight and enchantment.

Millions of people watch Disney Pixar’s animated films; therefore, the films have a high propensity for influencing children’s development with respect to cultural beliefs. Besides, some of the films convey different messages regarding families. The films portray different types of families. One of the films whose contents convey information regarding family life is Finding Nemo. According to Price (2008), Disney “Pixar’s films depict three categories of fatherhood” (p.17). They portray fathers as aggressive, controlling, and protective disciplinarians. Besides, some portray fathers as affectionate, caring, and self-sacrificing. Finding Nemo depicts a father with a number of these qualities. Such a depiction of the family facilitates in establishing a strong cohesion between children and their parents. Besides, it helps children to learn and understand their parents.

Target audience

Revisiting the history of animation, one learns that branding did not play a significant role in yesteryears. By then, Disney was a studio whose role was to guide the audience who made the films. Nevertheless, the success of Mickey Mouse allowed Disney to change its image forever (Price 2008). The company dictated on the quality of animations that the audience could get. The audience had no control over the animation industry, which has significantly changed in the modern animation industry. Today, Disney Pixar targets audiences from different backgrounds. The majority of its films do not have complex plots and they use simple language. These films target audiences with limited knowledge, particularly those that are academically challenged (Giroux 1999). Besides, the company makes its plot and language simple to cater for children. On the other hand, Disney Pixar has a set of the target audience that is educated and sensitive to plot complexity and level of artistry in a film, which underlines why the company produces some complex films. It seeks to serve audiences from the different backgrounds.

Upon its establishment, Disney Pixar targeted children. This target group of the audience is aged between one to ten years. For instance, its initial films like Toy Story and A Bug’s Life targeted the children. Nevertheless, after Bob Iger took control of the company, he decided to expand its target audience (Giroux 1999). Currently, the company has a wide target audience that ranges from children, teens, adults and is currently focusing on professionals. Besides, the company puts gender into consideration in its target audience. One of the major target audiences of Disney Pixar is children. When developing its animated films, the company considers the child’s mind as a blank book (Jackson 1996). Hence, it seeks to assist the child to write some information it its mind as it grows. The company seeks to ensure that it comes up with films that help children to grow morally.

Today, Disney Pixar’s television programs and DVDs are used as babysitters in most families. The company has developed programs that seek to trigger creativity in the minds of children (Jackson 1996). Children enjoy programs that create a sense of adventure. They enjoy watching that are appealing and adventurous films, which underlines the reason why Disney Pixar makes sure that it develops animation films with a simple plot and appealing characters for the children. This group of the target audience is very sensitive to images and pays no attention to the message conveyed in a film (Stone 1995). For children, they enjoy watching characters performing humorous stunts without following the plot of the story. One of the Disney’s animated films that attracted a lot of attention from children is Up. Even though the story in the film is upsetting, children remain glued to screens because of the fascinating characters.

Another group of the target audience for Disney Pixar comprise young adults. This group does not enjoy watching characters in a film; on the contrary, it enjoys following the story in the film (Leskosky & Berenbaum 1998). Young adults like films that exhibit some level of artistic maturity. Three decades ago, young adults could not watch animated films when thrillers or action flick films were readily available. These films not only exhibit a level of artistic maturity, but they are also educative. Since this group of the target audience focuses on the message in a film, Disney Pixar currently ensures that it includes a blend of humour and educative message in most of its films (Leskosky & Berenbaum 1998).

This way, the company manages to attract both children and young adults. In the past, young adults associated animations with children; therefore, they perceived all the animated films as intended for children. However, with time, this target group has come to realise that animation is one of the media used by the film industry to sell their films (Leskosky & Berenbaum 1998). Young adults are sensitive to plot complexity, which underlines why many young adults would go to a theatre to watch Alvin and Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, as opposed to watching Coraline. The two films target children. Nevertheless, the former has a complex plot, which attracts viewership from young adults (Phillips 2003).

When Disney Pixar started producing its animated films, the public was not sensitive to gender discrimination. Consequently, people from both genders would watch a film that depicts one gender as superior or that portrays one-gender domination without raising eyebrows (Phillips 2003). Nevertheless, this scenario has changed and many people are sensitive to gender depiction in films. Disney Pixar does not have a specific gender that it has isolated as its sole target audience. The company targets the two genders. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to note that the company pays more attention to the female gender as compared to the male gender (Phillips 2003).

Mostly, males are insensitive to gender discrimination since in most cases they are not the victims. Hence, they reluctantly watch all kinds of films without paying attention to gender. The same scenario does not apply to females who are sensitive to how a film depicts their gender. Therefore, to address this sensitivity, Disney Pixar makes sure that it continuously increases the number of female characters in its subsequent films (Phillips 2003). One of the problems facing its current films and that makes many females to fail to watch them is that the company is yet to make female characters the major protagonists. Nevertheless, the company has films that present females as autonomous and this aspect attracts many female viewers. In 2012, Disney Pixar released its first film that featured a female as the protagonist, which led to the film enjoying positive reception from female viewership.

Disney Pixar has a superior brand in the market. Currently, the company is working hard to come up with another segment of the target audience, which it refers to as the “Tween boys” (Roman 2009). It is working on animation films that feature science fiction as one of strategies to diversify its target audience. The “Tween boys” market segment comprises of a group of individuals with skills in technology and science fiction. Besides, the audience has a passion for sports and action adventures that are inclined to science fiction (Roman 2009). This aspect underlines the reason why Disney Pixar is working on including sports in its animation industry. The addition of Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana in its channels saw Disney Pixar capture a new group of audience dubbed “tween girls”. The “tween boys” market segment comprises audience aged between 18 to 25 years (Roman 2009). This group enjoys watching films full of action or drama. The company is now contemplating on producing an animated version of action films like Dark Knight.

Promotion techniques

After being in the film industry for a long time, Disney Pixar has accumulated vast experience, which enables it to promote its products successfully even in the face of competition. The company has a unique marketing strategy that comprises advertising and marketing purpose (Ross 2004). This unique promotion strategy helps the company to engage with its audience. The company understands factors that contribute to the target audience watching particular films or scenes of a film. Therefore, it leverages on these factors to ensure that it deals with competition (Ross 2004). Advertising is one of the promotion strategies that help Disney Pixar to sell its films. The company ensures that it engages its target audience by informing them about an upcoming film even before releasing it to the market. The approach leads to the target audience yearning to watch the film and thus it always remembers about an upcoming film that the company intends to release (Tanner et al. 2003).

Disney Pixar has an active website that alerts the audience on all the upcoming films. The company likes stirring desire from its target audience long before releasing a film. For instance, prior to the release of the University Monster, the website ran numerous advertisements about the film for months, which helped the target audience to know of the upcoming film and its contents thus preparing to purchase it immediately it hit the market (Thompson & Zerbinos 1997). The company believes in the power of contextual marketing. Apart from the website, Disney Pixar also includes extra scenes in its existing films that seek to inform the audience about the next film that the company intends to release in the market. This strategy makes sure that the company reaches most of its target audience as the advertisement pops up in the middle of the film at a time when the audiences’ attention is on the screen. This approach is effective relative to other media like posters (Towbin et al. 2004).

Disney stores sell toys since children have watched Disney Pixar films. Most of the toys represent the characters in the company’s film as well as other characters that the company wishes to see them feature in its films (Shepard 2008). The sell of toys acts as a good marketing strategy for the company. Whenever children visit the stores to purchase toys, they remember the animated films that they have watched and enquire about new films. The toys aid the company to keep its target audience updated with the latest developments in the film industry.

Reception of Disney’s ‘Brave’ film

Brave is the latest Disney Pixar’s film that has had a positive reception in the market. For many years, critics accused the company of being gender biased in developing its films. The company had never featured a female protagonist in any of its films. Nevertheless, Brave became the first film to feature a female protagonist (Tranter & Sharpe 2012). Consequently, the film enjoyed positive reception from both genders. The majority of the gender sensitive consumers, especially the female, found the film attractive since it puts into consideration the issue of gender balance. Besides being conscious of gender, the film also had a high level of artistic maturity. Consequently, its consumption came from across all the target blocks.

While a majority of the slightly old children watched it due to sense of humour, thrill, and its fascinating characters, the young adults and adults watched it because it is educative. Particularly, the film enjoyed positive reception from the female adults and young adults. For example, Russell and Carl’s adventure made the audience to realize that life could be disappointing and at the same time surprising (Tranter & Sharpe 2012). The scene allowed the majority of the adult audience in the theatres to perceive Brave as one of the successful films that Disney Pixar has ever released. Brave features a female character who vows to pursue her goals without succumbing to intimidation and pressure from the male domain. Therefore, the majority of the female audience watch the film since it gives them courage to stand for their rights and to fight for justice.

Despite the positive reception, the film receives strong criticism from some quotas. Some people feel that the film company continues to propagate the culture of male dominance. The main protagonist hails from a loyal family. Some people complain that they cannot buy to the idea that the film features a female protagonist for the first time. They question the reason behind depicting the protagonist as from the loyal family. The audience claims that they would like to see Disney Pixar come up with intricate female characters that are not assigned “special” titles or roles in the film because of their origin. The critics feel that the company would succeed in featuring female protagonists when it does so convincingly. According to McNaughtan (2012), one of the audiences claims, “I would love to see a heroine, who shows that girls can be judged and validated because of their achievements, tenacity, and individuality; the way their male counterparts are” (p. 753). This point would be the only time that the company would feature a female protagonist on merit without any prejudice or favour.

As aforementioned, children enjoy watching films with a sense of humour. However, films that comprise thrilling scenes might scare children thus turning off their desire to watch such films (Towbin et al. 2004). Brave is one of such films. It comprises thrilling scenes; however, it features snarling dogs, which appear as if they might jump out of the screen. Rather than attracting children, the dogs look frightening thus making the children to fear watching the film. Most children cry when scenes featuring the dogs pop up on the screen. The scenes affect their mood of watching the film and they do not enjoy it at all. Nevertheless, for the older children, the dogs make the film attractive by enhancing its thrill.

Conclusion

Disney Pixar is one of the renowned companies in the animation film industry. The company enjoys a wide range of audience that comprises the literate, illiterate, children, young adults, and old adults. In a bid to serve all these segments, the company makes sure that it articulates the contents of its films to meet the interests of the different groups. For instance, the film directors identify extraordinary creatures or world and present them in a way that the target audience understands. Besides, the majority of the films contain encouraging and educative contents, which seek to enlighten the audience on matters affecting their life. The different target audiences that Disney Pixar targets exhibit different interests. Young children love watching films that have a sense of humour, and whose plots are simple to follow. On the other hand, young adults are sensitive to a certain level of artistic maturity in a film. This group enjoys watching films with complex plots.

Therefore, to meet these demands, the company produces different films for different audiences. Disney Pixar makes efforts to engage its audience through promotional strategies. The company runs an active website that informs its target audience about an upcoming film before it reaches the market. Besides, Disney stores sell toys to children, which act as a strategy to remind the children about the company’s films, thus compelling them to purchase the latest films. The majority of the company’s films enjoy positive reception in the market. One of the films that received mixed reactions from different quotas of the target audience is Brave. The majority of the females embrace the film because it features a female character as the protagonist. Nevertheless, some people feel that the film is not different from the others. They claim that the female got the protagonist role because she hails from a loyal family. For them, she did not get that role on merit. The company is however working towards making sure that all its films observe gender balance with respect to the roles that the characters assume.

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