Max Frequency

PIXAR LAYS OFF 175 EMPLOYEES, 14 PERCENT OF STAFF, SHOCKING NO ONE WHO’S TRIED WATCHING THEIR RECENT FILMS by John Gruber for Daring Fireball

After a few duds I stopped watching new Pixar movies automatically and waited for ones that were well-regarded. And I’m still waiting.

There’s just nothing special about Pixar any more. Excellence is fragile, and genius talent is rare.

I'm not writing this to argue with Gruber, the crux of his piece about the braintrust of Pixar being gone is fact. I'm just here to defend Luca and Soul.

Pixar has been by far one of the worst handled studios during the shift to streaming alongside the shutdowns spurred by COVID-19. For example, Onward flopping at the box office is surely more due to the fact it came out checks calendar March 6, 2020. It was one of the last film's I saw in theaters before the shutdown.1

Soul was a late 2020 film that got the straight to streaming kick, which sort of spurred Pixar as a day-and-date Disney+ treatment. Soul was directed by Pete Doctor, who – as Gruber pointed out – is still there. Soul was rock solid; a beautifully animated movie that went a little deeper than emotions. Think Inside Out but ethereal.

But I won't stand by and let my precious Luca be thrown out with the bath water. A stunning animation style that tells a touching tale of friendship and growth. It hits me every time, probably because of—slight spoilers, I suppose—how the ending resonates with my own experiences of moving as a child. Is my defense influenced by personal attachment? Most surely, but I think I can set that aside and look at it with a critical eye. Luca is a banger that I have returned to multiple times.

Was the last great Pixar film Toy Story 4? Yes.2 Does that mean nothing is special about the studio? I take that as a bit extreme. It hasn't been the peak of smash hit after smash hit that I grew up alongside.3 And I've been pretty checked out after Turning Red. I saw Lightyear out of a Toy Story-minded obligation and it was the first Pixar movie that debuted in theaters since COVID-19. Now that movie was surrounded by questions, the predominant one being "why?"

I didn't even bother seeing Elemental. I suppose there is hope riding on Inside Out 2, but I remain skeptical. And I suppose that is Gruber's ultimate point. Excellence is fragile. Genius talent is rare. But Luca is superb.

Footnotes

  1. I'm not saying Onward was a banger. I certainly bunch it up with Brave or The Good Dinosaur more than the Pixar classics, but it not terrible like Cars 2 or Turning Red. ↩

  2. This one gets me to cry, multiple times, every time. Full waterworks. I think about the day when Eloise will watch these movies and she'll ask why I am crying. ↩

  3. I was born one year before Toy Story. I was 10 when The Incredibles came out. Talk about an inherent run, with more greats after that arbitrary age cutoff I made up. ↩