Pixar Addresses What Changes It Is Planning On Making To Their Studio

TV & Film

Mar 14

Pete Docter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, recently commented about the upcoming turn he wants Pixar animation to take soon, heading back to its roots. He said that Pixar recognizes that their recent feature films, like Elemental and Luca, have begun to miss the mark with target demographics. Docter thinks this is partly due to the departure from their older movies’ themes and an overall idea of teaching young audiences about complex topics in a fun way.

Just think about how many kids learned about ocean ecology for the first time with Nemo and Dory or about regulating their emotions by watching Inside Out. The Library of Congress even deemed climate change-centered WALL-E to be one of the United States’ most important modern films. In the early 2000s and 2010s, it seemed like Pixar was producing more educational content than Disney, and Disney movies were more about fairy tales and fantasy tropes.

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Elemental — Image Source: *Animation World Network*

In 2008, Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull expressed that Pixar’s mission was to be the animation studio with “the depth, robustness, and will to keep searching for the hard truths that preserve the confluence of forces necessary to create magic.” Now, the production company is hoping that connecting back to their classic “hard truths” will help future projects regain popularity for the studio. When Elemental came out in June 2023, it ranked as Pixar’s lowest box office profit in the 2000s productions, bringing in only $29.6 million during its opening weekend in the theaters. Studios trying a new look or returning to their “tried and true” isn't completely foreign it might be exactly what the Docter ordered.

As Inside Out 2 hits theaters later this year, this may be the beginning of the restoration period Pixar is striving towards. Despite past successes, especially with franchises like Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and Cars, Pixar might be done with its current stringent release schedule, producing an average of one film a year. However, that one film also usually has a budget of 175-200 million dollars. If the studio doesn’t profit at least double that while the movie is in theaters, it doesn't fare well for Pixar. With audiences around the world preferring to stream movies at home rather than head to the movie theater, Pixar fights to support all the ideas they want to produce.

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