It seems we are so close to buying Pixar we can smell it. I am at once excited and wary. Pixar has been the only one making guaranteed animated hits for us lately. The reason their movies are hits is because they care about story and character and concentrate on the elements a company like, oh, say, Disney, easily lets fall by the wayside in order to make money.

Okay, that’s a bit harsh. I think we’ve done some good animated films that have not been hits. Treasure Planet was a very good movie, beautiful, engaging, fun… but a flop. Yet I know for a fact that those in charge at Disney often make suspect creative choices either because they need to relieve the pressure to make money or because they are idiots who have no clue what good product is. Or both.

So I am excited that Pixar is now going to be part of the company I work for, but also wary that, by losing their independence, they’ll succumb the the Hollywood Crap Disease from which most product made here suffers.

UPDATE: After digesting this entire deal, I am very excited. In fact, there’s a must-read article at Business Week with in-depth discussion of Steve Jobs at Disney. This article got me even more excited than I had been. All us Apple wonks are biding our time, barely able to contain ourselves as we wait for Apple to release whatever it’s gonna release for a media-convergence machine. (I’m also waiting for Apple’s cell phone strategies to make my life better than this Cingular hell I am living in now, but that’s another story. Actually, no it isn’t…)

The best computer maker combined with Walt Disney… My God, the possibilities are enormous(e)! (Sorry. I couldn’t stop myself.)

Hopefully we won’t get into the Sony quagmire, though, where the consumer electronics arm is constantly battling the entertainment arm over the future of digital fun.