22
votes
Pixar: Layoffs hit storied animation studio
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- Title
- Major Pixar Layoffs, Long-Expected, Now Underway In Restructuring (Exclusive)
- Authors
- Pamela McClintock
- Published
- May 21 2024
- Word count
- 661 words
I'm real tired of being a part of history.
I could be completely off base, but my impression was that Pixar didn't work on the streamin side content, they had a separate studio in Canada working on most of that stuff. I only see a few Disney+ entries on Wikipedia,
These seem very safe, but I guess Disney+ in general is a money sink and free money is over, so I guess cuts were inevitable. Sadly, it sounds like the Inside out spinoff may be cancelled (a series absolutely perfect for an anthology for exploring of mental health. They finally were doing it and it's gone)
What's not cancelled is the upcoming Win or Lose, which I believe would be Pixar's first Original TV series.
It's a shame because I thought the Elemental comeback may have helped keep the studio up though the hard times earlier this decade, but I guess no one is safe in media this year. Dreamworks is reportedly gutting itself as we speak and I wouldn't be surprised to hear more Laika cuts since they always seem to be teetering on the edge of financial stability (they had cuts at the beginning of COVID). I support Minions and Mario will keep Illumination safe, at least.
I think it was referring to a broader focus on streaming content, not exclusive to Pixar. That said though, I don't think just looking at a list of Disney+ entries from Wikipedia is a good indicator of the push for streaming content.
It takes time to produce content from the conceptual stages to actual production. The film Turning Red, which came out in 2022, took four years to complete—and is considered one of the fastest films to be made at Pixar. To maintain a consistent release schedule, Pixar is always working on multiple projects at once. So any number of extra projects can really add up fast.
The animation on Monsters at Work was outsourced, but Dug Days and Cars on the Road were made directly by Pixar. Those two were announced at the same investors' meeting in 2020, meaning there was almost certainly an overlap in the production time frames. This is on top of the films they were already working on. 2022 also had two feature-length films, so there was one more film than usual.
This doesn't account for any projects that hadn't reached the public announcement stage yet. I wouldn't be surprised if Chapek was pushing for more spin-offs and content that was still in the conceptual stages. He also seemed to push for quick production times. Cars on the Road was noted to take 15 months to produce. In comparison, Monsters at Work was in development for at least three years. Interestingly, that one was first announced in 2017 back when Iger was still in charge.
Just comparing the timelines, as well as several other controversial decisions by Chapek about Disney programming, quality generally seemed to be a secondary consideration for him.
Sure, I completely understand that. I'm sure 90% of Pixar's ideas never make it past the pitch, and then 90% of the remaining will die in per-cconceptualization phase. That's just the result of how the creative/business process collides.
It's just that the spinoffs we did get publicly (and I could be missing something, I'm sure Wikipedia isn't closely monitoring all Disney+ content) seems very predictable and are/were probably safe bets. If anything, I'm surprised the one publicly announced Original is still in development. Companies are chopping off risk and focusing on safe right now. I guess Win or Lose must basically be done if they are still set on releasing it.
I imagine that was due to delays, no? I liked Luca, but it did always have the vibe of "Disney+ movie". I wouldn't be surprised if it got promoted to a cinematic release in reaction to Turning Red being internally delayed (and a lot of other non-Pixar Disney movies being screwed over), and a need to get something up and running to fill in that year. The opposite of Raya.
This is all a crackpot theory, so take with a mountain of salt. But I wouldn't be surprised if pretty much everything this decade was delayed or shuffled in one way or another due to a mix of COVID, aggressive streaming wars, and simple leadership shiftings.
I'll let Iger do his thing. But to be cynically frank, the "commitment to quality" tagline for me has long worn out. These days I simply see that as PR for "we want to make less content for cheaper, double down on the big money makers, and move more of our work out of the expensive areas".
I obviously can't speak for all of Disney, but Pixar's output this decade (outside of Lightyear) was pretty fresh and interesting to me, even if only one of them feel like they hit that high of Pixar's 00's works. I appreciated the films that weren't necessarily "for me", especially Turning Red. It'd be a shame to give up on all that just to focus on Toy Story 5, even if it ends up being really good.
Illumination's business model has been incredibly bullet proof, much like Blumhouse but for animated children's films. They keep their budgets low, so even when their films disappoint they still make profit. Migration was the first original movie from Illumination since The Secret Life of Pets, and while it under-performed expectations relatively it was still profitable making four times it's budget.
Pixar movies have always cost a lot, mostly due to them not out-sourcing their animation, so I suppose this is Disney trying to cut costs indirectly. Inside Out 2 should be a hit, and will continue to re-establish Pixar as a theatrical studio rather than a streaming one. They also have Elio next year and Toy Story 5 after that. But an issue they had is that the original talent responsible for all their initial hits and consistent acclaim are all gone. And they didn't do a good job at nurturing others to eventually replace them. Leaving them with so-so writers and directors, who are comparable to the other studios in ability as opposed to being leagues ahead of them like the OG.
yeah, perhaps. It's a shame because there's so much education Pixar and Disney Animation gave out to prospective students on how to do exactly that, so it seemed they were doing a much better job fostering the future than other media.
But I guess hiring practices changed (or simply made bad calls), or talent drifted elsewhere hearing the horror stories, or any other number of small factors added up. They are still making good to great movies, mind you. But we may never truly recapture that early Renaissance again.