Is Pixar starting to lose quality and become worse?

[choptop]

Soul never bombed at the box office. It wasn’t released in most countries, including the US, and still grossed $120 million internationally during a global pandemic. And when Onward came out, everyone knew there was a pandemic with most big cities shutting down just days after it opened.

Pixar is doing better than anyone else with original animation. Families are only coming out for animation when it’s sequels, spin-offs, and/or video games. If Pixar wants to get more money, they need to make some sequels, spin-offs, or use known characters with lower production costs like everyone else. Stop spending big money on unknown stories and characters.

Um ya soul did bomb at the box office yes the pandemic was responsible but it still bombed and even if the pandemic didn't happen it still probably wouldn't do very well because I'm just being honest it wasn't that good and onward was worse.

[Zauriel]

Um ya soul did bomb at the box office yes the pandemic was responsible but it still bombed and even if the pandemic didn't happen it still probably wouldn't do very well because I'm just being honest it wasn't that good and onward was worse.

Yes, I agree. you are right. even without the pandemic, Soul might have made a little more money but not enouigh to be a box office success. Same with Onward.

[choptop]

Yes, I agree. you are right. even without the pandemic, Soul might have made a little more money but not enouigh to be a box office success. Same with Onward.

With Soul the stuff in the Afterlife was kinda cool but after he gets put in the cat it just becomes another talking animal movie been there done that Onward was just a bunch of unfunny BS.

[LordMikel]

Here is the article I was looking for.

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/el...g-weekend-low/

The director of this movie was the same as the Good Dinosaur, which is also one of their lowest box office movies. Personally I am calling this strike one against this movie. You have a guy who directed something which didn't do very good for you, but let's give him another chance. (That's the theme from Raya)

It mentions both Luca and Turning Red got rave reviews, but they were both released to Disney+. I'm sorry, but I don't think either of these movies would have done well released in the theaters.

My daughter isn't clamoring for us to go see Elemental. It looks fine, seems interesting, but I'm not getting a "Need to rush to see it vibe."

I've already trashed Lightyear before, so I won't trash it again, but it was bad. Strange World was also bad.

So yes, at the end of the day, I think Pixar is losing quality. Not sure why, but they need to do something.

[choptop]

Here is the article I was looking for.

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/el...g-weekend-low/

The director of this movie was the same as the Good Dinosaur, which is also one of their lowest box office movies. Personally I am calling this strike one against this movie. You have a guy who directed something which didn't do very good for you, but let's give him another chance. (That's the theme from Raya)

It mentions both Luca and Turning Red got rave reviews, but they were both released to Disney+. I'm sorry, but I don't think either of these movies would have done well released in the theaters.

My daughter isn't clamoring for us to go see Elemental. It looks fine, seems interesting, but I'm not getting a "Need to rush to see it vibe."

I've already trashed Lightyear before, so I won't trash it again, but it was bad. Strange World was also bad.

So yes, at the end of the day, I think Pixar is losing quality. Not sure why, but they need to do something.

Well at least Strange World wasn't a Pixar.

[Zauriel]

They should do the opposite of what you said, the best Pixar movies are the unique ones not the sequels.

I agree with what you said about the unique movies. But the sequels such as Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019) not only outperformed and outsold the original films, but also are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time.

Here is the article I was looking for.

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/el...g-weekend-low/

The director of this movie was the same as the Good Dinosaur, which is also one of their lowest box office movies. Personally I am calling this strike one against this movie. You have a guy who directed something which didn't do very good for you, but let's give him another chance. (That's the theme from Raya)

It mentions both Luca and Turning Red got rave reviews, but they were both released to Disney+. I'm sorry, but I don't think either of these movies would have done well released in the theaters.

My daughter isn't clamoring for us to go see Elemental. It looks fine, seems interesting, but I'm not getting a "Need to rush to see it vibe."

I've already trashed Lightyear before, so I won't trash it again, but it was bad. Strange World was also bad.

So yes, at the end of the day, I think Pixar is losing quality. Not sure why, but they need to do something.

Yes they need to do something about quality.

I looked into Pixar's next project called Elio, that's scheduled for March 2024 release. They didn't say much about Elio but judging by the summary and description, it doesn't sound interesting to me.

They will need to rely on their upcoming project "Toy Story 5" to recoup those financial losses. I enjoyed all the four Toy Story movies, all of which have sold extremely well at the box office. So it is a safe bet to say Toy Story 5 will sell well when Pixar finishes producing it and release it to the theaters,

[Mister Mets]

It seems so.

It's not that they started to lose their quality. That was a while back.

In one decade, they had Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars (not that critically acclaimed but a monster hit), Ratatouille, Up, Wall-E and Toy Story 3.

They haven't had anything close to that track record since.

Usually, the films are good, but it's not on that level.

[Zauriel]

It seems so.

It's not that they started to lose their quality. That was a while back.

In one decade, they had Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars (not that critically acclaimed but a monster hit), Ratatouille, Up, Wall-E and Toy Story 3.

They haven't had anything close to that track record since.

Usually, the films are good, but it's not on that level.

Yeah, neither Up nor Toy Story 3 were good enough to win a Best Picture Oscar.

Pixar made films about toys, fish, cars, robots, dinosaurs, and elements. Pixar used to be extraordinarily creative.

I remember having watched the first Toy Story film when it came out in theaters. It was good but didn't leave a lasting impression on my mind. I liked Toy Story 2 better.

[Mister Mets]

Yeah, neither Up nor Toy Story 3 were good enough to win a Best Picture Oscar.

Pixar made films about toys, fish, cars, robots, dinosaurs, and elements. Pixar used to be extraordinarily creative.

I remember having watched the first Toy Story film when it came out in theaters. It was good but didn't leave a lasting impression on my mind. I liked Toy Story 2 better.

It can be subjective. It seems Pixar did make some shifts with an emphasis on sequels in the late '10s, and then original content in the last few years. Sometimes it was derided as "woke" (since it corresponded with greater diversity in content) but I suspect the bigger problems are a balance of bad concepts (From my understanding, "Lightyear" did not make sense as a movie that would've made Andy a big fan of the character), and a flawed strategy of premiering Pixar films on Disney+ rather than keeping it in theaters.

But we could take a look at the films. I'm going to put what I think are the top eleven (in terms of quality and impact) Pixar films in bold.
Toy Story- Regularly makes lists of the best movies ever made.
A Bug's Life- Decent. Hit.
Toy Story 2- A sequel largely considered on the level of Toy Story, which regularly makes lists of the best movies ever made.
Monsters Inc- Decent. Smash hit.
Finding Nemo- Regularly makes lists of the best movies ever made.
The Incredibles- Possibly the best superhero film not based on existing IP.
Cars- Smash hit. Merchandising bonanza.
Ratatouille- Critically acclaimed hit.
Up- Regularly makes lists of the best movies ever made.
Wall-E- Regularly makes lists of the best movies ever made.
Toy Story 3- A sequel largely considered on the level of Toy Story and Toy Story 2.

Then it got sequel heavy.
Cars 2- Merchandising bonanza. Not critically acclaimed.
Brave- Decent. Not Up/ Wall-E/ Ratatouille level.
Monsters University- Decent prequel. Doesn't surpass the orginal, which was not Up/ Wall-E/ Ratatouille level.
Inside Out- Best Picture nominee, and deserved it.
The Good Dinosaur- Limited impact. I never saw it, but I'll remember it forever, because it was playing the same time as Spotlight, and when I was leaving Spotlight, I saw a family where the older members saw Spotlight (about reporters uncovering sex abuse in the Catholic Church) and the younger ones saw The Good Dinosaur. A grandmother asked what happened in that movie, and the kids were excited and talked about dinosaurs. And then one of the kids asked what happened in Spotlight, and after a few seconds of awkwardness, the grandfather said it was about reporters carefully reviewing documents.
Finding Dory- Sequel that wasn't on the level of Finding Nemo, but quite good.
Cars 3- See Cars 2.
Coco- Seems to have an impact as the most successful original Pixar film since Inside Out.
Incredibles 2- Decent sequel that doesn't seem to be on the level of the original.
Toy Story 4- Good sequel, but doesn't seem to be on the level of the original trilogy.

And here comes the overcorrection.
Onward- Bad timing to come out a week before Covid. I don't think many are saying it's on the level of Coco or Inside Out.
Soul- I really liked it, but it is ultimately about a teacher's mid-life crisis, which isn't that interesting to kids.
Luca- Limited cultural penetration. Bad timing to come out during Covid.
Turning Red- Bad timing to come out during Covid. I'm not sure the think-pieces helped its reputation.
Lightyear- Clear flop. From my understanding, the concept was fatally flawed. It's supposed to be the film that made Andy forget about cowboys, but it seems more like Interstellar. Maybe it should have been sold as the movie Andy would grow up to make.
Elemental- Flop. #2 in the opening weekend The Flash was a historic flop.

It's important to consider wider cultural impact. Ratatouille was parodied in Everything Everywhere All At Once. I don't see a future Best Picture winner/ Letterboxd Favorite having a subplot parodying Soul or Onward.

One other potential issue is that non-Pixar Disney got good. Frozen and Moana were hits.

[choptop]

It's really sad after you consider the last few Pixar movies combined probably lost 500 million

[Zauriel]

It's really sad after you consider the last few Pixar movies combined probably lost 500 million

True. It's really sad. A waste of money. Pixar needs to stop churning out unoriginal crap which you and some of the other posters have pointed out and criticized.

Pixar needs to go back to the drawing board and try to find a new good product that can entertain the audience again. I am not sure Elio will be a blockbuster hit.

Disney can afford to lose a few millions, but at this rate several flops ought to bankrupt Pixar.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Pixar has been on a downward spiral for years now. Ever since they really started to push out sequels to their greatest films (not including any the first two Toy Story sequels but definitely including the third) and the fact that so many of their movies have basically the same plot has become increasingly noticeable (characters get lost far from home and have to find their way back while learning valuable life lessons).

At this point, I'm much more excited about the next Laika movie and Spider-verse film than anything in Pixar's pipeline.

[Zauriel]

Pixar has been on a downward spiral for years now. Ever since they really started to push out sequels to their greatest films (not including any the first two Toy Story sequels but definitely including the third) and the fact that so many of their movies have basically the same plot has become increasingly noticeable (characters get lost far from home and have to find their way back while learning valuable life lessons).

At this point, I'm much more excited about the next Laika movie and Spider-verse film than anything in Pixar's pipeline.

Yes, Toy Story plot is getting predictable and redundant. But I doubt it will deter the development and production of Toy Story 5. Toy Story 3 and 4 respectively each made over 1 billion dollars at the box office. It means children enjoy and like it.

Lightyear is bad. But despite Lightyear's disappointing box office results, the Toy Story Franchise will remain popular with the children.
.

[Aahz]

Elemental- Flop. #2 in the opening weekend The Flash was a historic flop.

Is there any good reason why it opened against the Flash? I mean June id crowded with big releases this year, but at least the coming weekend has no big movie opening.

[Zauriel]

this Screenrant article explains the reasons why Pixar is going in a downward spiral and nails it with the caption "Elemental and Lightyear were both huge box office failures for Pixar, and these 10 steps could help the legendary company get back on track."

10 Steps To Fixing Pixar After Two Box Office Disasters In A Row

Some of the suggestions made by the article to Pixar sound reasonable and make sense. Especially the number 9 step. "Pixar Movies Need To Stop Copying Other Stories"

They were right to compare Elemental to Zootopia. A city where different races live and coexist in harmony? Elemental clearly copies several elements (no pun intended) from Zootopia, while Lightyear's story is a pretty bland sci-fi knockoff.


Why Lightyear Failed For Pixar - What Went Wrong

Pixar used to be so innovative but now it has run out of new ideas.