Today I was talking with a friend on twitter about Cars 3 and how we hoped it would be something that the Cars 2 haters couldn’t deny it was a quality film.  I have a feeling part of the reason they want to do the project is to prove the doubters wrong and make something great. I could be totally wrong about that but I still think it would be awesome if it is a good film.

Anyway, I told him what my pitch for Cars 3 would be if the Pixar brain trust asked.  Clearly they are already in development and working on it so I’m not being realistic here.  But it just gave me the idea and got me thinking- if it was just me what would I want to see as a continuation for the Pixar properties?

This is all in fun but here’s what I would pitch.

Cars 3-

I’ve always thought a problem with the Cars and Planes world is there are no robots.  There has to be robots to put things together or at least repair things.  In 2 they tried to give characters antennae arms but it just makes sense in a world of cars you’d have a world of robots.

So here’s my idea.  You take our team from the first 2 films and they stumble upon a city populated with robots. Cars are subservient to the robots in this world so they are immediately threatened but also meet people they can become friends with.  This would be a great idea because it would mellow down the humor that everyone hates and introduce a whole new world which Pixar is so good at building.  You could have elements of sci-fi, fantasy and maybe even a war element.  It would still have to appeal to kids so it couldn’t be too dark but most of the kids who loved the first Cars movies are older so I think that could work anyway.

There’s a lot of ways you could go with it but a city of Robots would be great for Cars 3!

Ratatouille 2-

My follow up to Ratatouille would be somewhat similar to Toy Story 3 but there is no way Remy could get by for long without getting trapped by someone.  So he gets trapped and the gang including Linguini and maybe even Ego get involved to rescue him and perhaps they could expose some illegal product testing on animals or something like that along the way.

It would be exciting.  It would be tense and I think the food angle was kind of done to its completion in the first one so you have to go somewhere else.

Brave 2: The Legend of Merida-

This is perhaps the easiest sequel to write because it is basically my pitch for what I wanted in the original movie but didn’t get.  From the trailer and first 15 minutes I was promised an epic legend and what I got was a domestic dispute film.  I want Merida to go on a quest where she has to rescue a neighboring Princess who has been kidnapped for ransom and to try and goad the lands to declare war on each other.

You’d want a character like Malagant from the King Arthur stories who wants conflict and war so that he can gain power.  This is Merida’s villain that she must defeat- another thing desperately needed in the first film.  Merida would use her archery to lead against Malagant and his men and save the Princess.

Seriously how awesome would it be to have a Disney princess saving another Disney Princess? (well, I guess we have that in Frozen but you know what I mean!).

Saving Nemo-

I am aware Finding Dory is already happening but here’s the pitch that I think would be cool.  We’ve already had a story of Nemo, Dory and Marlin looking for something.  We don’t need that again.  Why not have something threaten their coral reef?  There is some kind of toxin or trash that is being released  and Nemo must develop a plan to stop this from happening and keep the ocean clean.

This would be an easy way to involve all our favorite characters from the first film without them doing the same thing.  Crush, Bruce, Nigel, Gil and all the aquarium fish could all be used to send messages and create distractions while they got the message to the humans and the trash was stopped.

I mean if the Finding Nemo team can make a dentist office exciting surely they could make this concept great!

Walle 2-

Technically this would be more of a spin off than a sequel.  A lot of people don’t like the science fiction end of Wall-e when they get to the ship.  I disagree strongly with this assessment because I am transfixed with the character of Captain McCrae.  When he looks at the screen and see’s the world he could be living, the life he could be living it is so moving.  He understands for the first time that he could do more than just be satiated.

At the end of the film he rallies the people around the plant and declares to them the start of a new era.  I want to see what that era looks like.  I want to see how McCrae and his team do.  This would be more of a simple film without a huge intense plot but that would be befitting Wall-e and the first film.  We could see their ups and downs, their failures and successes in the first year on the planet.  I would love that! And you certainly could involve our favorite robots and add new one’s that they uncover in the rubble or design themselves.

Toy Story 4-

Again I am aware this is already happening, so this is just for fun.  I think in a new Toy Story movie you could follow the example of the Toy Story Time Forgot and Toy Story of Terror and tell a relatively small story.  In 2 and 3 and a little bit in 1 we got airports and refineries and big set pieces but in these 2 shorts it is basically them getting lost in a hotel and at a friends house.  I think that is the way they should go for 4.  Make it a simple story with minimal involvement from the humans just as in the shorter films.

What I would do is take a page off of Honey I Shrunk the Kids.  Why not have several of them get left out by Bonnie at a campsite.  They then have to navigate bears, lush vegetation, trees, birds etc to get back home.  That way you wouldn’t be dividing up our team which was a problem in 2 and a little bit in 3.  It would be something new they haven’t quite taken on before except for the dogs that have been in the films dealing with animals.  It could also provide moments of heart and even a western vibe which would be perfect for Sheriff Woody!

Monsters Inc 2-

We’ve gotten the prequel for Monsters Inc now let’s get the sequel.  Here’s what I would do- start the film with Boo having grown up and starting a family of her own.  Her little girl starts to complain about being scared at night.  This makes Boo go to Mike and Sully and find out who is doing the scaring instead of the laughing.  Perhaps Monstropolis isn’t the only city that has doors to the human world.  Maybe there is one with more classic monsters like Wolfman, Dracula, Bigfoot etc?

You’ve still got the banter between Mike and Sulley but you could get some of that tension that we had for a lot of Monsters Inc.  You’d also have Boo’s little girl to bring the cuteness back in and a new reason for them to care about the human world.

Incredibles 2-

So if Brad Bird was asking me here’s what I would pitch for Incredibles 2 (not that he needs any help from me in that department!).  The Incredibles family is growing up but they start to notice their super powers aren’t as potent as they used to be.  They feel weak and aren’t able to help people as easily as they used too.  Some supers are even dying from premature aging.

Is it something in the water? Something in the air?  They have to investigate to find out.  What they don’t realize is that one of their own is tired of not getting the attention in the press The Incredibles and Frozone get and so he has engineered a way to start removing the powers from his foes, making him look all the stronger.

This would be great because it would require the Parrs to not rely solely on their powers but use their intellects and teamwork to defeat a fellow super (unlike first one where the foe was a normal man with technology).  There certainly would be lots of room to introduce new characters both super and not and would be a great place for Edna to design products that help them when their powers aren’t super strong.

So that is my pitches.  I didn’t have anything great for Bug’s Life or Inside Out but I will keep thinking of them.

What about you?  What do you think of my pitches?  Could you see any of them making decent movies?  What would be your pitch if you got in front of the brain trust for a Pixar property film?  I would love to hear.  Put in the comment section!  And remember this is all in fun so don’t be too hard on my little ideas.