{"id":299949,"date":"2025-11-22T16:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299949\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T16:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:19:09","slug":"toy-story-is-turning-30-but-can-pixar-recapture-its-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299949\/","title":{"rendered":"Toy Story is turning 30. But can Pixar recapture its magic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may seem hard to believe, but it\u2019s already been three decades since Andy first wrote his name on the bottom of Woody\u2019s boot in the movie Toy Story. And that anniversary is nothing to scoff at; the animation powerhouse behind it, Pixar, is celebrating its birthday in style \u2014 with brand collabs,<\/a> live concerts,<\/a> new merch<\/a> and even unearthed Steve Jobs interviews proclaiming people will still be enjoying the movie in 60 years.<\/a> <\/p>\n

But it’s doing so in the shadow of a rather large elephant in the room. Despite strong performance for a few tentpole sequels, much of the magic Pixar once commanded seems to have dissipated. And while its original films, from Elemental to Elio, struggle in the box office, films from countries and studios less well-heeled in the world of animation have somewhat usurped its throne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these studios \u2014 the American ones especially \u2014 for so long were chasing what Pixar could do,\u201d said entertainment reporter Petrana Radulovic. \u201cAnd now they’ve decided that, maybe, they don’t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Daniel Gies, co-founder of Montreal animation studio E.D. Films, the areas Pixar now struggles in are particularly difficult given how it began. Originally a computer division of Lucasfilm,\u00a0Pixar burst onto the scene in 1995 with Toy Story, the tale of lost toys running back to their beloved owner.<\/p>\n

And while the story itself tugged at the heartstrings, the achievements ran far deeper. Prior to its release, computer animation was seen as more of a novelty: 3D rendering so complex and unwieldy it could only possibly be used for image generation instead of video.<\/p>\n

When it was released in 1995, Toy Story’s innovative techniques completely changed the world of animation. (Disney)<\/p>\n

After releasing a number of short films \u2014 like the Oscar-winning Tin Toy \u2014 showcasing the technology it was at the forefront of, Pixar stunned the animation world with Toy Story, the first full length 3D computer animated film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than just a moderate milestone for animation, Time magazine noted<\/a>, it was \u201cpossibly the most significant since the introduction of colour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories were really strong and really relatable at the time, but they were also performing a magic trick that no one had ever seen before,\u201d Gies added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That turned what was essentially a software company into an animation behemoth overnight. And it led to a string of hits that equally rested on a supposed timeless storytelling quality and insistence on innovating what was possible in the world of animation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Animation innovation<\/p>\n

Each new movie was inextricably and excitingly connected to a new technique other animators could follow, according Alla Gadassik, an associate professor of media history and theory at Emily Carr University.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrave is a beautiful film about a young woman in her relationship with her mother. But for the animation industry, when they look at that film, they see incredible rendering of 3D hair and textiles,\u201d she said. \u201cFinding Dory is really a film about \u2018How do you animate water?\u2019 And Monsters, Inc. was a film about \u2018How do you animate hair and fur and different textures?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s really been a gift \u2014 not necessarily a gift because they profit from the software, but that’s been something Pixar has given all the other animation studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after a virtually unending slew of successes, came its inevitable first dud. Right on the heels of one of Pixar’s biggest successes, Inside Out, 2015 saw the release of The Good Dinosaur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A visually stunning but narratively dull flick, Gies says it showed what happens when an animation studio gets so big it can\u2019t risk being as creative or innovative as it once was.<\/p>\n

\"AA stunning success in 2015, Pixar’s Inside Out came just before its first real failure: The Good Dinosaur. (Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you can’t take a risk and you can’t tell a really personal story, then you’re watering down your content,\u201d he said, noting a more risk averse, less creativity-forward storytelling style in that film. \u201cAnd the audience is already so saturated that they’re just not going to respond to any visual trick anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is also when the studio really started to give up on its early hatred of sequels<\/a> and dive into franchises. Four of its next five films were sequels, while even now, three of the five films in development are, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And just as Pixar started to stumble due to failings inside the company, the bottom was falling out of the movie business. Shifting viewing habits and shrunken theatrical windows before movies hit streaming, along with the pandemic, all did a number on the film industry.<\/p>\n

Even while Pixar\u2019s Inside Out 2 was one of the tentpoles supporting the box office last year, its original outings continue to struggle; its big original release this year, Elio, saw the studio\u2019s worst-ever opening weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting back on top<\/p>\n

As for Pixar getting back to where it once was, it\u2019s less a mountain to climb, and more a cliff face.<\/p>\n

The genie\u2019s out of the bottle when it comes to 3D animation coming exclusively from behemoth studios; the success of films like Flow \u2014 made on open source software Blender by a comparatively tiny team \u2014 are indicative of a diversifying animation field. <\/p>\n

It no longer takes hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of people to make 3D animated films, Gadassik said, which means there\u2019s more competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of the reason why international productions like Ne Zha II and Demon Slayer have been able to break through into the mainstream. And as movies like KPop Demon Hunters increasingly move to streaming \u2014 less of a gamble than theatrically released movies \u2014 the studios that make those films are more able to take big risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s only emphasized Pixar\u2019s relative stasis.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they have been the standard of what American animation looks like and what a lot of studios wanted to strive for, they haven’t really been forced to innovate in that regard,\u201d Radulovic said of Pixar. \u201cAnd now they’re kind of facing this dilemma where every other studio is trying new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATCH | What’s behind Pixar’s recent struggles:\"\"Pixar was the definition of great animation. Now, fans are left wondering what happened. From streaming pressures to endless sequels, here\u2019s why the studio is struggling to feel like its old self.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not Pixar\u2019s strategy. Even as it continues to take on artist-driven stories, Gadassik said, the studio has a tendency to then over-workshop them due to anxiety over upsetting wide audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cPixar is a very kind of crew-based production model\u2026. They’ve pioneered management, creative management theory with their brain trust,\u201d she said \u2014 a situation that reportedly removed the original queer storyline of Elio<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnPixar’s Elio, despite strong critical reviews, led to the studio’s worst-ever opening week box office results. (Disney\/Pixar)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a limit to what their production model can do with a really personal artist-driven film,\u201d Gadassik said.<\/p>\n

That difficult way forward is even shown by a kind of fractured brand identity in Pixar\u2019s newest films. While the studio originally defined itself as a 3D animation innovator specializing in non-human characters, that\u2019s now largely changed.<\/p>\n

From 2020\u2019s Soul to 2021\u2019s Luca, 2022\u2019s Turning Red and this year\u2019s Elio, Pixar has largely entered its human era. While its animation style used to be a sign of quality, that human-first design had some pointing to its “bean mouth” style \u2014 the rounded, bean-shaped mouths and bodies associated with Pixar and purportedly rife in modern animation<\/a> \u2014 as the reason its movies have flopped.<\/p>\n

And instead of leaning into the technologies that first made Pixar famous, its next film, Gatto, is marketed as a return to 2D, hand-drawn animation styles. Given that it\u2019s a style Pixar itself never produced, Gadassik said it could be indicative of an attempt to rebrand as an artisanal studio like Laika, separating and differentiating itself from larger studios.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he says he’s unsure of the benefits of championing the difficulties of hand-drawn animations to a generation of children who may now assume creating it is as easy as pushing a button.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And with that door closed off, Pixar\u2019s route back to the supremacy it once enjoyed seems decidedly unlikely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think you can get Pixar back to what it was,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t think that’s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may seem hard to believe, but it\u2019s already been three decades since Andy first wrote his name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-299949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}