Disney Now Desperate for Pixar's Help

What happens when you're the computer-animation offshoot of a larger studio that just happens to have a nearly perfect record at the box office?

Your studio bosses come knocking with projects and scripts in hand asking for help.

The latest project to get some advice from the "Brain Trust" at Pixar that includes John Lasseter and Brad Bird is a new Muppets movie.

Earlier in the year, the studio had asked for help with its new "Tron" sequel, and besides a day of meetings, managed to get some rewritten scripts to help with reshoots.

Earlier, Disney had gotten help on "The Princess and the Frog," and thanked the "Brain Trust" in the credits, but this is the first fully live-action Disney project after the studio released a number of dogs like "When in Rome" and "Prince of Persia."

This is also the first time the studio has flown up before a film went into production, and it could be a sign that the creative culture at Pixar -- and its "nerve-wracking" critical candor -- might spread to the rest of the company.

If only they thought of it before the last installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jackson West figures whatever it takes to improve Disney movies is okay by him.