Across March, Zaboru spent a significant amount of time coordinating new tasks for both PIXAR and Disney. These two studios were among the most important parts of ZAGE's growing animation empire, so he personally reviewed their progress and future plans.
PIXAR had been working on three major projects that originally began development around 1997, and by now all three films were essentially completed. Those movies were Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, and The Incredibles. Each of them had gone through several years of development, including story revisions, animation improvements, and technical experimentation with 3D graphics.
At this stage the films were nearly ready for release. Toy Story 2 was scheduled to premiere in June this year, Monsters Inc would follow in August, and The Incredibles was planned for a September release. Only The Incredibles still required a small amount of final polishing—mostly minor animation adjustments and post‑production work. With those projects nearly finished, Zaboru was already preparing to assign PIXAR three new tasks so the studio could immediately begin the next wave of animated films.
First would be Toy Story 3, continuing the story after Toy Story 2. In Zaboru's previous life, the Toy Story series had become one of the most beloved animated franchises ever created, largely because of its emotional storytelling and strong character relationships. Rather than being just a children's comedy about living toys, the films explored deeper themes such as friendship, loyalty, and the fear of being forgotten as time passes. Zaboru believed that continuing the story properly could create another powerful film that would resonate with audiences of all ages. In this world, however, Toy Story originally began as a ZAGE video game franchise, which meant the film series was technically an adaptation of a game property—making it a unique case of a successful video‑game‑based movie.
The second project would be Shrek. In his previous life Shrek had become one of the most successful animated movies ever released. The film was funny, fast‑paced, and filled with clever twists on classic fairy‑tale characters. Instead of the traditional heroic prince saving the princess, the story followed an unlikely hero—an ogre who simply wanted to live peacefully in his swamp. The humor often included jokes that adults could appreciate as well, which made the movie enjoyable for both children and older viewers. Some parts of the comedy leaned slightly toward adult humor, but Zaboru knew that it never crossed the line too far. It remained playful and extremely entertaining, which was why the movie worked so well with a wide audience.
The third film would be Cars. In Zaboru's memories this movie had a completely different charm compared to the others. The story centered around Lightning McQueen, a talented but arrogant race car who slowly learned the value of friendship, humility, and community. The world of Cars—where vehicles lived like people—allowed the film to explore themes of competition, ambition, and personal growth. Zaboru also remembered how visually impressive the racing scenes and environments looked in his previous life. Because of that, he believed the film would showcase Pixar's technical strengths in animation.
These three films were extremely strong projects in Zaboru's memory, and he wanted them all prepared carefully. His target was to have them completed and ready for release around 2003.
While Disney's Tarzan had already been completed and released in November last year, the movie performed extremely well at the box office and received strong audience reactions. Encouraged by that success, Disney was already preparing its next projects. The studio's upcoming releases included Finding Nemo, scheduled to premiere this March, and Ice Age, which was planned for release in July. Both projects were expected to perform strongly and further strengthen Disney's animation lineup.
Because of that momentum, Zaboru decided to assign two new tasks to the Disney animation teams: Mulan and WALL‑E.
Mulan was chosen because it would be a 2D animated film, and Zaboru still believed traditional animation should continue to thrive alongside 3D animation. The story of Mulan—about a young woman disguising herself as a soldier to protect her family and fight for her country—carried themes of courage, honor, and personal sacrifice. Zaboru wanted the film to preserve the elegance and beauty of hand‑drawn animation, so he set a target release window of 2002 to give the team enough time to polish it properly.
Meanwhile WALL‑E was a completely different type of project. Unlike Mulan, this film would rely heavily on advanced 3D animation and environmental storytelling. The movie followed a lonely waste‑collecting robot left behind on an abandoned Earth, quietly continuing his work for hundreds of years until he encountered another robot named Eve. In Zaboru's memories, the film stood out because of its emotional storytelling with very little dialogue. Much of the narrative was told through visual expressions, atmosphere, and music rather than constant conversation. Because the film required impressive graphics, detailed environments, and subtle character animation, Zaboru set its target release around 2003, aligning it with Pixar's next wave of projects.
Of course, there was also a simple personal reason behind these choices—Zaboru genuinely loved these movies in his previous life and believed they deserved to exist in this world as well.
Aside from this, Zaboru was also planning something much bigger related to the movie industry. He wanted Disney to expand into a stronger live‑action movie branch. In his previous world, Disney had created several extremely successful live‑action films, and one of the most famous examples was Pirates of the Caribbean. That franchise had proven that Disney properties could work incredibly well outside of animation when handled properly. The mix of adventure, humor, memorable characters, and large‑scale world building had turned it into a global phenomenon.
Remembering that success, Zaboru believed Disney in this world could achieve something similar if they started preparing early. But Pirates of the Caribbean was not the only reason he wanted to expand the live‑action side. Zaboru was also thinking much further ahead. Since ZAGE already held majority ownership of Marvel, he knew there was an opportunity to build something even larger—an interconnected film universe similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe from his previous life. If done correctly, individual superhero films could gradually connect into one massive storyline spanning multiple movies. However, that kind of project required careful long‑term planning, production pipelines, and experienced teams. Because of that, Zaboru believed it was important to begin building the foundation early, even if the first major results would only appear several years later.
Regarding the MCU, Zaboru also remembered something that always felt unfortunate in his previous life. In that timeline Marvel struggled heavily with copyright and licensing problems during the early years of their cinematic universe. Many of Marvel's most famous characters—such as X‑Men, Spider‑Man, Ghost Rider, and Daredevil—were not even under Marvel's direct control when the first Iron Man movie was released. Because those characters had been licensed to other studios years earlier, Marvel had to begin their cinematic universe without several of their strongest heroes. Even when the MCU eventually became incredibly successful, the absence of some of those key characters during the early stages still limited what stories could be told.
Zaboru also remembered another issue: many Marvel films later became known for relying heavily on light, sometimes overly childish humor. While the humor helped make the movies accessible to wider audiences, it sometimes weakened the dramatic weight of certain scenes. As the majority owner of Marvel in this world, Zaboru wanted to approach things differently. With all major characters still under Marvel's control, he could design a much stronger and more coherent cinematic universe from the beginning. His version of the MCU would balance humor with more serious storytelling, stronger character development, and carefully planned long‑term narratives. In his mind, this new MCU would be far more unified and powerful than the one he remembered from his previous life.
Aside from this, Zaboru knew that if he truly wanted to build an MCU in this world, he would need to be prepared to face criticism from many traditional filmmakers. In his previous life, the rise of the MCU had changed the way audiences approached cinema. Many people began to follow superhero films the way they followed long television series, watching each installment to understand the larger story. Because the formula proved extremely successful, other studios tried to replicate the same model. As a result, many standalone "cinema" films slowly lost popularity compared to large interconnected franchises. Zaboru also remembered another change that happened during that era—the actor effect. In the past, audiences often chose movies because their favorite actors or actresses were starring in them. But after the MCU grew popular, audiences became more interested in the characters and the universe itself rather than the actors portraying them. While some filmmakers disliked this shift, Zaboru understood that it was part of the natural evolution of the film industry. Even if it meant receiving criticism from traditional cinema creators, he believed the movie world would eventually need to adapt to these changes.
So When Zaboru presented this idea to Walt Disney, Walt was initially skeptical. Disney had spent most of its history focusing on animation, and the company did not yet have much experience producing large‑scale live‑action adventure films. However, Walt was also naturally curious and ambitious. Even though he admitted that he personally might already be too old to directly lead such a new direction, he was still excited by the possibility of expanding Disney's capabilities.
After thinking about it for a while, Walt agreed that the idea had strong potential. Instead of handling the project personally, he decided he would assign several trusted subordinates to begin preparing a dedicated live‑action division inside Disney. This team would slowly build the structure needed for real‑life movie productions, including script development, casting departments, and production management. Fortunately, Disney already possessed enormous resources, an excellent reputation in entertainment, and well‑established studio facilities. Because of that, Walt believed building a proper live‑action branch would not be overly difficult if the right people were placed in charge.
Walt estimated that the basic team structure and production pipeline could be prepared by the end of the year. Once the division was ready, they could begin developing their first major live‑action projects. Hearing this plan made Zaboru extremely pleased. He knew that if Disney successfully built this new branch, it would become the foundation for many future films—including the large cinematic plans he had in mind.
Aside from this, Zaboru also wanted to explore something much darker in tone. Most of the studios under ZAGE—Disney, PIXAR, Nickelodeon, and even YaDo in Japan—were widely known for producing family‑friendly content. Even ZAGE itself carried a similar reputation, despite the fact that some of its games were clearly aimed at older audiences. Because of this, Zaboru felt there was still an untapped opportunity to develop films and animated projects that embraced darker themes and more mature storytelling. In his previous life he had seen works such as South Park, The Boys, and 300 prove that audiences were also very interested in stories that were bold, satirical, or brutally dramatic. Those kinds of projects could explore politics, violence, and complex moral questions in ways traditional family animation rarely did.
However, Zaboru was still uncertain about the best way to approach this idea. Launching darker content directly under Disney or PIXAR might damage their family‑friendly brand image, and Nickelodeon was also closely associated with children's programming. Because of that, he considered whether it might be smarter to create or acquire an entirely separate studio dedicated to mature animation and films. Such a studio could freely explore darker narratives without affecting the public perception of the other companies. Still, this decision required careful planning, so for now Zaboru decided to postpone the idea until he had a clearer strategy.
Instead, another possibility came to his mind. Since ZAGE already held majority ownership of Marvel, he could potentially expand Marvel's publishing and creative divisions to explore darker comic themes first. Stories similar in tone to 300 or The Boys originally began as comics before becoming larger multimedia franchises. If those darker stories started in comic form, they could later be adapted into films or animation once audiences were familiar with them or Zaboru wanted to research it first. If there are Dark Horse companies in this world or their equivalent if it exists then Zaboru can acquire them.
Time passed, and it was now the end of March as the ZAGE March game releases were preparing to launch. At the moment, Zaboru was setting up his alternate accounts on Steam—he had created two of them for testing and observation purposes.
To be continue
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