Pixar is one of the most consistently successful film studios working today – critically, financially, you name it. Thus, when parent company Disney acquired Marvel Comics for a paltry $4 billion( hah), it was only natural for fans far and wide to wonder: Might Pixar be inclined to use their strange movie-making magic to adapt a Marvel property for the big screen?

After all, who wouldn’t want to see, say, the Pet Avengers done in the style of Up or Finding Nemo? Well, want no more, dear readers – because Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter recently put the kibosh on such pipe dreams by saying that there would be no Pixar/Marvel team-ups, now or in the future.

When IGN Movies discussed the possibility of Pixar/Marvel team-ups with John Lasseter, his response was less than enthusiastic.

“No, Pixar, we are -- Disney has been great. Bob Iger is phenomenal. I'm Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation as well, and with Pixar it's like, ‘Keep doing what you're doing, guys.’ It's a filmmaker-driven studio. All of the ideas come from the filmmakers themselves. Working with the filmmakers on ideas.”

When asked if there was any chance at all that we would see a Pixar/Marvel film, Lasseter said:

“No, not at Pixar. We have The Incredibles, so we've done superheroes here ourselves and so we have that kind of history with Brad Bird doing The Incredibles.”

On the one hand, I would love to see Pixar adapt a Marvel comic book property, so much so that I don’t even care what that property is. (Although Warren Ellis' Nextwave would be my preference.) I think The Incredibles actually proved more than anything that superheroes belong in animated films – not exclusively, of course, but they belong.

Pixar's The Incredibles

Take, for example, Green Lantern. Would we be concerned at all with the issue of shoddy, computer-generated masks and suits and boots, et cetera, if the entire movie had been animated with sure and steady Pixar-employed hands? No, I don’t think so.

On the other hand, I’m glad to see that the people behind Pixar just make whatever the hell they want, whatever way that they see fit. If no one there wants to make a Marvel movie, then it’s better for everybody if they just steer clear of the whole situation. And, who knows, maybe a few years from now Brad Bird will get some bright idea to make a Guardians of the Galaxy animated feature and the John Lasseter of 2014 will say, “Well, we changed our minds.” It could totally happen. (Cross your fingers.)

Pixar's next film, Cars 2, hits theaters June 24th, 2011.