WARNING: THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN BY AN ANIMATION NERD. PREPARE YOURSELVES TO REALIZE THERE’S MORE TO CARTOONS THAN JUST MICKEY MOUSE.

When Pixar announced plans for “Finding Dory”, the sequel to “Finding Nemo”, the Internet was filled with a wide variety of opinions.  Most were negative with many people complaining about Pixar being over-reliant on sequels. After all, prior to “Up”, Pixar had only created one true sequel: “Toy Story 2”.  After that movie, 3 sequels have followed; “Toy Story 3”, “Cars 2” and the soon to be released “Monsters University”.

The quality of these sequels has been uneven to say the least.  “Toy Story 3” is one of the greatest American films created in the Twenty-First Century and possibly among the best ever crafted. “Cars 2”, on the other hand, is little more than a cash grab, filled with surprisingly one-dimensional characters and a tone at odds with its beloved predecessor. We’re still about two months out from “Monsters University”, but ads seem to make it feel like it’ll have some of the nostalgia attached to “Toy Story 3”, but the feeling of unnecessariness that was practically plastered on “Cars 2”.

While that kind of uneven quality is certainly a good reason for people to be wary of sequels delivered by Pixar, are they really that much different than DreamWorks Animation, who crafted endless “Shrek”, “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” sequels?  Pixar’s first ten films, all but one of which are completely original films, seem to showcase a much different kind of film slate than DreamWorks Animation. Yet, that may have been less of a declaration of art and more reflective of restrictions in place in Pixar’s original contract with Disney.

Flashback time!  Back in 1999, when “Toy Story 2”, was a smash hit, Pixar had a contract with Disney to make several movies for the massive company. This way, Pixar could utilize its cutting edge CGI technology, while Disney could gain new franchises to add to the studio’s bank of movies. However, when Pixar learned that “Toy Story 2” didn’t count in its contract with Disney, since their contract to create films for Disney didn’t include sequels, the little animation studio was furious. As a way to get back at the studio, no sequels were produced until a new contract was created with more benefits for Pixar.

For all we know, if sequels had been included in Pixar’s original contract, we’d be talking about the epic “A Bug’s Life” trilogy, or how “Toy Story 7” isn’t quite as good as “Toy Story 5”.  In 2006, when both Disney and Pixar signed a new deal that was superb for both studios, Pixar put “Toy Story 3” into immediate development; and after the first film sold unholy amounts of merchandise, “Cars 2” followed afterwards.

While Pixar certainly does like to keep quality in mind (to be frank, “Cars 2” is still better than “Madagascar 2” and the third and fourth “Shrek” film), it’s obvious that, under their new deal, they will be creating many more sequels and franchise extensions. Some of these won’t even be created by Pixar; “Planes”, a “Cars” spin-off dealing with, well, planes, will be developed by DisneyToons Studios, creators of the “Tinkerbell” movies. Still, “Finding Dory”, is a mild disappointment creatively.  And frankly, after creating some simply stupendous movies, maybe I, and most of the world, should at least wait before a trailer is released before passing official judgement.

But please, can we get an “Incredibles” sequel next?