Pete Docter Wouldn’t Make Pete Docter’s Movies

Leave it to Disney to rain on their own parade. They had a good movie with Hoppers and won the weekend box office. Still, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter told The Wall Street Journal that the studio is getting out of the business of making interesting films like Docter’s own Up and Inside Out. When asked why the studio removed an LGBTQ+ storyline from Elio, Docter replied, “​​We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”

This is such a dumb statement for several reasons. The first is that it cedes the ground to parents who don’t want to talk to their kids about LGBTQ+ issues as if parents who have LGBTQ+ kids aren’t worthy of address. Second, Disney, for pretty much its entire history, has had no trouble traumatizing kids with stories of dead parents. There’s way more therapy from Man shooting Bambi’s Mom, but I doubt the studio would retreat from such plotlines. Apparently, it’s easier to say a main character only has one daddy than two daddies (and if you want to address what happened to Belle’s Mom, I suppose you can say it was the plague). 

But more than that, Docter’s current outlook wouldn’t allow for some of Pixar’s most beloved films; films that he directed! It was Docter who made Up, a film in which, in the first ten minutes, we go through almost the entire lifetime of the protagonist, Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner). Does no one pay the therapy bills when it’s time to explain that he and his wife, Ellie, were unable to have children and that their dreams of traveling abroad were dashed by constant financial expenses? Then Docter made a movie about literal feelings with Inside Out and how sadness is as essential as joy in our maturity. 

There’s something particularly vile about burning a bridge you’ve crossed so that no one else can cross it. When Docter was coming up under the old Pixar, there was room for his stories even under Disney’s ownership. But now that Disney only wants profitable IP, anyone who wants something deeper is dismissed as wanting “more” than a movie. Furthermore, it’s not like this strategy worked. Poor test screenings caused Docter to overhaul Elio, bring on new directors, and it still flopped. If your movie is going to tank, maybe at least make something that speaks to some people rather than no one.

On the one hand, Pixar will probably be fine churning out forgettable sequels. Inside Out 2 made over $1 billion, Disney’s Moana 2 and Zootopia 2 both made $1 billion, and the upcoming Toy Story 5 will likely make over $1 billion. It makes fiscal sense that Pixar is developing Incredibles 3, Coco 2, and a third Monsters, Inc. But whereas Pixar used to lead the way in making the most exciting, memorable features, their new goal is apparently to craft the most profitable films that mean little to anyone. It doesn’t matter that Inside Out 2 is a faded memory next to the vibrant original; it made money. Pixar used to be able to have hits and make interesting films, and Docter is wrong in thinking that the studio must choose one or the other.

Unless Pixar returns to the kind of bold filmmaking and confident storytelling that made their reputation, they’ll continue to cede ground to other animation studios. The cost of producing animation is only getting cheaper, so that a small movie from Latvia, Flow, can win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Pixar has been a non-factor in animated filmmaking, while Sony Pictures Animation is on the rise with KPop Demon Hunters and the Spider-Verse films. The animation world isn’t going to get less competitive. Docter can try to make Pixar similar to Illumination Entertainment, which makes profitable, empty pictures, but that’s an awful waste of the talent at his disposal.

Instead of leading Pixar towards a new, exciting phase, Docter is defending his studio’s stagnation. If the time for personal movies is over, so be it, but it also means a studio that produces nothing that anyone cares about. You may have an ephemeral enjoyment from a film like Hoppers, but the movies that mean something–movies that cause people to feel deeper emotions–are the ones that will endure.

What I’m Watching

I’ve been watching a bunch of Best Picture winners I’ve never seen or haven’t seen in a while. Over the past few days, I’ve focused on the first movies to win the award (those from 1927 - 1937), and you can understand why some have endured (All Quiet on the Western Front), and others are only remembered by virtue of winning the Oscar (Cimarron). I’m going to shift gears after the Oscars on Sunday (look for my predictions later this week), but you can follow me on Letterboxd to see which Best Picture winners I’ve watched lately.

What I’m Reading

I’ve been meaning to promote this for the past few weeks, but my buddy Mike Ryan launched a newsletter, The Hard Pass. Mike is a fantastic writer and interviewer, but what’s great about this newsletter is dishing about his work as an entertainment journalist. His piece about the time Simon Pegg threw him under the bus is a good example of the confident, insightful articles you’ll get as a subscriber.

Meanwhile, I’ve kept up a steady clip of reading all of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels. My current tempo is to read a Vonnegut novel and then hop to something else before moving on to the next Vonnegut book. I’m currently on God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, which was the first Vonnegut I ever read, but I haven’t picked it up since college, so I’m excited to return to it. You can keep up with my reading habits over on Fable.

What I’m Hearing

The new Metric album arrives next month, so I’ve been listening to the latest singles. I quite liked their latest two discs (Formentera and Formentera II), and I’m excited for this one. I wish I could say the same for the upcoming New Pornographers album, The Former Site Of, but those tracks have been fairly bland. It’s possible they just don’t have as much left in the tank as their Canadian indie rock peers.

What I’m Playing

I’m making my way through Ghost of Yōtei, which is fine. It’s got plenty of open-world stuff to do, and it’s certainly pretty. I just wish the story were stronger and the combat was a little more robust (right now, fighting enemies largely consists of smashing the triangle button and occasionally parrying attacks). I hope to have it wrapped by mid-April when Mouse: P.I. for Hire arrives.