Well, you could say that this was just an arrogant statement by an executive with the intention of pleasing investors, but there is evidence to suggest otherwise. This marks the second time in recent months that Hastings has spontaneously brought animation as a focus area for the company. Speaking for The Hollywood Reporter, he made the same bold claim to want to “beat” Disney in family animation. Even more notably, he suggested that they would compete for the domain of animation for the next half century:
We want to beat Disney in family entertainment. This will take a while. I mean, they are very good at that. We are both very focused on building our animation group and, you know, it’s a friendly competition. We both want to make incredible stories for consumers and we want to be able to raise the bar in this area. We know that they will be challenging and competing for the next 50 years.
So far, Netflix has released only three original animated features – Klaus, The Willoughbys, and About the Moon – and despite the strong qualities of each film, none could be considered a legitimate challenger to the throne of Disney and Pixar. But here’s the caveat: Netflix is still in the process of stepping up its animation division. Animation is a notoriously slow art form and each film takes about four to eight years, from concept to release. We will not begin to understand realistically what Netflix is trying to accomplish with its animation program until next year, when they have a definite goal of releasing six original features a year.
While Netflix’s original animation production remains a mystery for now, so do Hastings’ remarks that he wants to “catch up” with Disney. What exactly does it mean to catch up? Countless others have tried over the years to make Disney and Pixar-style films and all have failed, simply because Disney and Pixar have perfected their home styles and do it better than anyone. But there is another way, which is to offer the audience something original, something that would never be mistaken for a Disney movie. Notably, the two non-Disney films that won Oscars in the past decade – Spider-Man: In the Spider-Verse and Rank – suggested striking alternatives to the well-used rhythms and beats of Disney products. In fact, when Pixar made its first feature, Toys Story, this film was also a rebuke to the Disney standard.
Netflix seems to understand this – that to defeat Disney you it can not be Disney. His next list includes projects that sound bold and different from the typical style of animation, run by authors who have a history of challenging conventionalism. This includes films like Richard Linklater Apollo 10 1/2: a space age adventure, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Nora Twomey My father’s dragonand Henry Selick’s Wendell and Wild.
Netflix at this point remains a great experience with an undetermined result. The sheer number of films the company plans to release gives them the freedom to scour the edges of the art form and, most importantly, the freedom to fail. It is important to remember that Disney would not be Disney today without its share of failures. Just before the launch of Pinocchio, Walt Disney said, “I prefer an artistic failure to a major box office success any day.” He fulfilled his wish not only with Pinocchio, but also your follow-up, Fantasy. Both films were creative triumphs that failed at the box office.
The failure of any of these films may have been enough for a contemporary film studio to retreat into its animation division. But Disney saw the game long – he understood that to achieve true dominance in the middle, he had to continually invest in animation and keep experimenting. At first, Netflix seems to share that same long-term vision, which bodes well for Hastings’ vision of challenging Disney.