75 employees laid off at Pixar, including the director of Lightyear

[Moliphino]

I thought Turning Red was the funniest Pixar movie for sure. It was very enjoyable.

Plus the giant red panda is adorable! I saw multiple kids (boys and girls) in the Paris airport with red panda Mei stuffed toys last year.

 

[BrianL]

Plus the giant red panda is adorable! I saw multiple kids (boys and girls) in the Paris airport with red panda Mei stuffed toys last year.

Right? And there's only a little talk of...you know, in the movie, mostly played as a joke making the dad uncomfortable. The rest is all metaphor.

 

[Disneychick13]

I have not seen Turning Red or Onward. Why are they not good stories for the masses?

So my take on those movies….I thought Onward was just really depressing to be honest. Maybe that comes from me losing my dad as a young adult, but I really was just kind of sad watching it. Turning Red I think has a target audience of preteen girls. I had a preteen girl when we saw it and we really did enjoy it. But I really do think this is the very limited audience for this movie. And it’s not because it briefly discusses menstruation; it’s because this literally is a movie about female puberty (somewhat disguised from “I’m becoming a woman” to “I’m becoming a red panda”) that the littles and boys would have no interest in. But for the audience it seemed to target it was a really good fun movie. I would heartily recommend it.

 

[Jwaire]

Pixar is in trouble. They're going to get relegated to only making sequels from their most popular franchises if they don't shape up.

Basically, every film since John Lasseter was forced out has been a flop and Elemental is tracking to be a flop too. Political correctness/activism or not, I don't think their current film strategy is working.

If Apple can hire Lasseter, Iger can bring him back. He was the soul of that company and it needs him.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

The amount of Turning Red merchandise at the parks over a year later makes me think it wasn't nearly the flop that some claim it was.

 

[BrianL]

Pixar is in trouble. They're going to get relegated to only making sequels from their most popular franchises if they don't shape up.

Basically, every film since John Lasseter was forced out has been a flop and Elemental is tracking to be a flop too. Political correctness/activism or not, I don't think their current film strategy is working.

If Apple can hire Lasseter, Iger can bring him back. He was the soul of that company and it needs him.

Again, only Lightyear was a true flop. That said, I do agree that things aren't s good as they were under Lasseter, and bringing him back would be worthwhile.

 

[Methos]

Again, only Lightyear was a true flop. That said, I do agree that things aren't s good as they were under Lasseter, and bringing him back would be worthwhile.

Pixar has been in a slump since the SJWs took control.

 

[BrianL]

Pixar has been in a slump since the SJWs took control.

That term is meaningless.

 

[fatmanatee]

Pixar has been in a slump since the SJWs took control.

*taps the sign*

 

[nancipants]

Pixar has been in a slump since the SJWs took control.

Oh lord, here we go.

 

[DodgerGirl]

If you look at Pixar in the past the only movie that has flopped because it was weak was The Good Dinosaur and part of the reason why The Good Dinosaur flopped in theaters was because it was released months after Inside Out the same year. What I think happened with Lightyear is that people thought it was gonna be great but the main real reason Lightyear flopped was because of the absence of Tim Allen in the role of Buzz Lightyear and replacing Tim Allen with Chris Evans playing Buzz Lightyear's voice and while most people associate Chris Evans with Captain America having Chris provide Buzz's voice was a surprise and if Tim Allen reprised his role as Buzz Lightyear would've been a success. But what I think will happen when Elemental opens in theaters Friday is that Pixar will get double money and I have a feeling that Elemental will do well in it's first week. Onward was destined to be a hit and it was a hit and it turned Tom Holland into a superstar actor and Chris Pratt was superb as Barley and when you put big celebrities like Tom Holland and Chris Pratt in a Pixar movie it usually means the movie will score a big success. But the second film that Pixar did in 2020 Soul was a flop because it was weak and the only thing that made Soul worth watching was Jamie Foxx and while casting him as the voice of Joe Gardner was smart having Tina Fey as 22 just felt out of place. Hopefully Pixar will improve themselves with the upcoming Elio in 2024. But why I think Pixar did this is to hire new employees and get a whole new team of animators so they can make good quality movies that people can watch time and time again

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I get frustrated with people not believing the numbers on things. Elemental looks to need a miracle to make money in the box office with only a $29.5 Million opening weekend. Elemental cost like 200 million with another 100 million in marketing cost. So it needs absolutely minimum of 600 million dollars to just break even. Name another movie in history that started to less than 30 million and went on to make $600 million? It's one thing to say you like something and wish others would to, but it's another all together to claim something will be successful, when it is quite obvious it almost has an impossible task to be financially successful.

Studios need financially successful movies to keep their doors open, it's really that simple.

 

[BrianL]

I get frustrated with people not believing the numbers on things. Elemental looks to need a miracle to make money in the box office with only a 29.5 opening weekend. Elemental cost like 200 million with another 100 million in marketing cost. So it needs absolutely minimum of 600 million dollars to just break even. Name another movie in history that started to less than 30 million and went on to make $600 million? It's one thing to say you like something and wish others would to, but it's another all together to claim something will be successful, when it is quite obvious it almost has an impossible task to be financially successful.

Studios need financially successful movies to keep their doors open, it's really that simple.

Who's "not believing" the numbers? Clearly the weekend was poor for the box-office this week. Elemental will no doubt be a money-loser, which is too bad becuast it's a great movie. You've been calling it a failure for weeks though, but we just couldn't know that ahead of time. The box-office is fickle and hard to predict, especially now. Both Flash and Elemental underperformed even their meager estimates, which is no doubt a surprise to the studios. Ausience scores on Elemental were at least high though - in a better time-slot/environment it might have done better.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I just think there are lots on here that sugar coat things too much. You think it looks pretty and others should like it, and don't understand when they don't. Pixar needs to make animated movies that appeal to the masses, and get back to their roots. If not, they are in trouble. You can't just lose money on all films (6 consecutive movies) and stay in business. Here is a simple test, name the last movie that made a profit for Pixar? Now give the date of that movies release.

Super Mario bros just proved this can still be done in animation, it's time to call a spade a spade.

 

[BrianL]

I just think there are lots on here that sugar coat things too much. You think it looks pretty and others should like it, and don't understand when they don't. Pixar needs to make animated movies that appeal to the masses, and get back to their roots. If not, they are in trouble. You can't just lose money on all films and stay in business. Here is a simple test, name the last movie that made a profit for Pixar? Now give the date of that movies release.

Super Mario bros just proved this can still be done in animation, it's time to call a spade a spade.

It's just so much more complicatred than you want to make it. I don't necessarily think that others should or should not like something. By all rights, Elemental has been well liked by those who have seen it, it's just that many people chose not to see it, just not necessarily because it's a "bad" or even unappealing movie. A LOT of it has to do with marketing and timeslot. The marketing seemed light, but maybe that's just me. The timeslot is the real key. Honestly, if Elemental had Mario's slot, it probably would have done better (not necessarily the same, just better than it did). Family movies have to be very careful with when they are released, especially now. Mario played a little more like a blockbuster due to it's wide appeal to older audiences. Spider-Verse too - it may as well be an MCU movie for many. There are just a ton of factors that play into it. Everyone here is calling out Disney on the streaming issues, and how they have treated Pixar product recently, so who's sugar coating. Just because we're not all 100% convicned that Disney is teetering on the cusp of bankruptcy, and seemingly WANT it to happen like you do, doesn't ean we're sugar coating anything.

Also, the last movie to make money at the box-office for Pixar was Toy Story 4, releasted on June 21, 2019. That is a very short amount of time in movie studio terms, plus you factor in the pandemic. Also, it made over $1 Billion. We'll see if there is a real problem when Toy Story 5 comes out.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Toy Story 5 will do great, because it will be seen as getting back to their roots. 4 years is not a short window of time in the business world, I 100% disagree with you on that. Based on that logic Marvel is in incredible shape currently, because they had one of the biggest movies of all time just 4 years ago right?

I don't want Disney to fail, I love Disney. My childhood was full of classic Disney movies, and my Kid's favorite vacations are mostly Disney vacations. You can want Disney to right the ship as a fan, I am pretty sure.

 

[BrianL]

Toy Story 5 will do great, because it will be seen as getting back to their roots. 4 years is not a short window of time in the business world, I 100% disagree with you on that. Based on that logic Marvel is in incredible shape currently, because they had one of the biggest movies of all time just 4 years ago right.

I don't want Disney to fail, I love Disney. My childhood was full of classic Disney movies, and my Kid's favorite vacations are mostly Disney vacations. You can want Disney to right the ship as a fan, I am pretty sure.

In hollywood though, it's not really a lot of time. Studios have survived a decade or more turning out dreck and flops. Disney survived the '80s after all! Disney is clearly in a downturn. It's not catastrophic. In fact, it will likely result in an explosion of some of the best stuff we have ever seen after a few years - that has happened several times over their history. It will just take a spark.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

Name another movie in history that started to less than 30 million and went on to make $600 million?

I understand your point. And Elemental is going to be a huge box office disappointment for TWDC and Pixar.

But, there are movies that start small and end up with enormously successful box office numbers. Lost In Translation made less than $1,000,000 its opening salvo and made over $44,000,000 domestically. My Big Fat Greek Wedding opened to less than $1,000,000 its opening weekend and made over $240,000,000 domestically. Big-budget or low-budget films can start small and gain traction. It happens, but to your point, its the exception not the rule.

in a better time-slot/environment it might have done better.

This too may be true. But, I see this situation much differently. TWDC and its movie divisions, across the board, have a massive problem.

First, LucasFilm is such a total disaster that it cannot even get Star Wars projects green lit and shot and are dumping ideas/stories (e.g. Taika's project, Jenkins' project, Rian's projects, etc.) with so much frequency I do not believe any thing Kathleen Kennedy says now. It's all blue-sky nonsense. Frankly, I am deeply concerned with the upcoming Indy movie. I hope its great. That's all I have though: hope.

Second, Marvel is a mess. The recent box office figures are not gangbusters. Some of this is within Kevin Feige's control (i.e. hiring Jeff Loveness to pen a major movie or green-lighting the Eternals) and some is out of his control (i.e. Chadwick Boseman's death or Jonathan Majors' legal troubles). As an aside, the upcoming Marvels teaser looked so bad, when I saw it, I commented to my son that looks like one of the worst movies of the year (not just comic-book genre either).

Third, Pixar has embraced this existentialism form of story telling recently (i.e. Soul, Onward, Elemental, etc.) and it isn't producing good movies. This form of story telling can result in good movies, like Fight Club, 2001 or Everything Everywhere All At Once. Good luck trying explaining this esoteric, caviar stuff to a small child.

Plus, like it or not, Republicans and conservatives buy movie tickets too. And if there is a group that decides to spend their money elsewhere (e.g. Illumination movies), then they do and TWDC loses at the box office. And if Republicans and conservative parents feel alienated, then they won't spend their money with TWDC and TWDC needs to accept this reality.

Fourth, Walt Disney Studios isn't doing super well both live-action and animation departments. Not only was Strange World a massive flop last year, the truth is that The Little Mermaid may not even break even. I have no idea why TWDC spent $250M on a movie and then spent another $100M to market a movie with no A-list talent cast as the two leads, Ariel or Eric. The budgeted money is obscene to start with and then you try to make a movie where the audience is saying to itself who are these actors. I get that actors need a break to make it big. Perhaps a lower budget movie is the right place to start rather than a $250M budget? It reminds me of 20th Century Fox handing Simon Kinberg the reigns to an X-Men movie and he had never directed a movie before. Simon may turn out to be a talented director. But how about letting him start on a smaller project with a lower budget and cut his teeth there rather than a massive budget blockbuster movie? Even Steven Spielberg, an all time great, started with a small TV movie, Duel.

I'm still a fan of Disney movies and parks and I can embrace the reality that TWDC is making poor decisions and its going to result in big losses.

 

[BrianL]

Third, Pixar has embraced this existentialism form of story telling recently (i.e. Soul, Onward, Elemental, etc.) and it isn't producing good movies. This form of story telling can result in good movies, like Fight Club, 2001 or Everything Everywhere All At Once. Good luck trying explaining this esoteric, caviar stuff to a small child.

Fourth, Walt Disney Studios isn't doing super well both live-action and animation departments. Not only was Strange World a massive flop last year, the truth is that The Little Mermaid may not even break even. I have no idea why TWDC spent $250M on a movie and then spent another $100M to market a movie with no A-list talent cast as the two leads, Ariel or Eric. The budgeted money is obscene to start with and then you try to make a movie where the audience is saying to itself who are these actors. I get that actors need a break to make it big. Perhaps a lower budget movie is the right place to start rather than a $250M budget? It reminds me of 20th Century Fox handing Simon Kinberg the reigns to an X-Men movie and he had never directed a movie before. Simon may turn out to be a talented director. But how about letting him start on a smaller project with a lower budget and cut his teeth there rather than a massive budget blockbuster movie? Even Steven Spielberg, an all time great, started with a small TV movie, Duel.

Elemental really isn't existential like the others at all. it may appear so, but it is more allegorical. Also, I don't think Onward is really like that either. I think Inside-Out and Soul - definitely. Just because the characters in Elemental look similar to Inside-Out doesn't mean they are similar in theme. They really are not. Elemental is actually a lot more like Zootopia than anything else.

I definitely afree. for all the hemming and hawing about the casting of Ariel I do think that most people don't reall care about "taht stuff." They do care that they've never heard of many of the actors in it. Unfortunately that matters in a big-budget film. Emma Roberts already had a big following from Harry Potter - another huge franchise. People like to see the people that they recognize in movies. How else can we explain the continued box-office success of Tom Cruise?

 

[starlite_]

I have not seen Turning Red or Onward. Why are they not good stories for the masses?

It's about girls *gasp*.