By Ben Fritz
EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter finished strumming his miniature ukulele and folded his 6-foot-5 frame onto a couch to explain that the reason the studio behind "Toy Story" is struggling to find its next hit franchise might be him.
"I got into animation because it's easier to draw people than talk to them," he said, seated in his office beside sculptures of characters from his directorial successes "Monsters, Inc.," "Up" and "Inside Out." In his early years managing Pixar's cadre of ambitious filmmakers, the 57-year-old admitted, "I probably overindexed on, 'Do whatever you want.' "
Docter's first three movies were among an extraordinary string of hits Pixar made from 1995 through 2019, many of which became long-lasting franchises for parent company Disney. With "Cars" merchandise, the "Ratatouille" theme park ride and multiple "Toy Story" sequels, Pixar created brands that printed money across the Disney empire.
Now Pixar is pumping out hit sequels like 2024's "Inside Out 2," but it hasn't had an original success since 2017's "Coco." Current and former employees say one of the biggest reasons is that the conflict-averse Docter encouraged new directors to make autobiographical movies that too many audience members struggled to connect with.
After a series of disappointments culminating in last year's bomb "Elio, " Docter is pushing Pixar to re-embrace the universally relatable concepts like talking toys and monsters in the closet that once made it a juggernaut.
"As time's gone on, I realized my job is to make sure the films appeal to everybody," the 36-year company veteran said.
Pixar's newest movie is a step in that direction. "Hoppers," a comedy about a girl who "hops" her consciousness into a beaver and talks to animals, opens this week and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
But the odds of success are longer than in the age of "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E." Across Hollywood, original movies are struggling to get people off their phones and into theaters. Pixarians, as they call themselves, are painfully aware that the most successful original animated film in recent years was a streaming hit on Netflix: "KPop Demon Hunters." Disney's business model is built on box-office success.
As chief executive Bob Iger prepares to hand the reins to his successor Josh D'Amaro, the entertainment giant needs new franchises to complement aging brands like the Avengers and Avatar.
Pixar in the past picked original movies based only on the quality of the idea. Now, part of the approval process is gauging sequel potential. When the films are complete, directors are asked to come up with stories for possible follow-ups.
The studio that long prided itself on making two original movies for every sequel is now making two sequels for every original. June's "Toy Story 5" is widely expected to be a blockbuster, a third "Incredibles" is scheduled for 2028 and a second "Coco" is expected to land in 2029. It's also developing a third "Monsters, Inc.," according to people familiar with the matter.
Pixar president Jim Morris, who runs the business side of the studio, said the reason for the switch is simple: "Just so that we're profitable enough, frankly, to persist."
The Lasseter filter
Until 2018, Pixar movies were all filtered through the taste of one man: John Lasseter. The "Toy Story" director had the loudest voice and final say among a group of directors known as the braintrust who provided feedback on every project at the company that created computer animation. Docter was the least assertive member of the braintrust, according to people who worked with him, and seemed happiest focusing on the emotional core of his own movies.
But when Lasseter resigned in 2018 following reports that he hugged and touched employees non-consensually, Docter was Pixar's only veteran filmmaker willing to replace him as chief creative officer.
"I was like, 'I don't want to be running the studio, I've just gotten used to directing,' " Docter recalled. "But somebody has to do it."
Lasseter, who now runs Skydance Animation, apologized at the time for not respecting colleagues' boundaries.
Pixarians used words like "supportive," "humble" and a "filmmaker's filmmaker" to describe their new leader. They said he gave less direct feedback than Lasseter and seemed to never want to be the bad guy.
The first original movies Pixar made under Docter included "Luca," about a shy Italian boy who's secretly a sea creature, and "Turning Red," about a Chinese-Canadian girl who transforms into a giant panda during puberty. Both were inspired by their directors' experiences growing up.
Gauging their success was difficult initially because they came out during the pandemic. Pixarians hoped their movies would be postponed until theaters reopened, but Disney executives wanted them to drive subscription growth for the company's new streaming service. Artists were deflated when films they spent four to six years creating dropped onto Disney+ like any other piece of digital content.
All were popular during their first few months online, including the Docter-directed "Soul," which won two Oscars. But they weren't as heavily rewatched as "Encanto," from Pixar's sibling studio Walt Disney Animation, the only new franchise Disney has created since 2020.
Pixarians, frustrated that their streaming releases didn't resonate more, grew panicked after the flop of their first film back in theaters, 2022's "Toy Story" spin-off "Lightyear." The next year's original "Elemental," in which fire and water symbolized the director's experience growing up in an immigrant family, opened poorly and ultimately made a small profit.
In late 2023, Docter gathered Pixar's staff in their steel and glass atrium to deliver an uncharacteristically blunt message. He said they'd erred in making so many autobiographical movies and needed more broadly commercial hooks. Pixarians remembered it as his "come to Jesus" speech.
Around that time, Pixar's leadership showed an in-progress film called "Be Fri," short for "best friends," to Iger and other Disney executives. Soon after, Docter canceled the project, which was based on its director's adolescent experience with a platonic breakup.
Pixar has successfully reworked many troubled movies like "Brave," so employees were stunned when a project three years in the works with roughly 50 people involved was scrapped.
"It's super hard to make sure we're not just settling for a film getting better, but ensuring it's great," said Lindsey Collins, Pixar's senior vice president of development.
Docter made a different, but equally dramatic, decision with "Elio." Test audiences liked the story of a lonely boy who finds friends in outer space, but said they wouldn't pay to see it in a theater. So in 2023 Pixar ordered an overhaul, though more than half its animation was complete. When director Adrian Molina told the crew he was leaving the movie, whose title character was inspired by his childhood, people cried.
Two new directors made a slew of changes, including excising elements that suggested Elio was gay. Earlier versions included a pink bicycle and a scene in which he imagined raising a child with his male crush, according to people who worked on the movie.
The changes disappointed some at Pixar, which has gender-neutral bathrooms and a history of supporting LGBT employees. They were further discouraged by the removal of references to a character being transgender in a Disney+ series called "Win or Lose."
Docter said Pixar found some parents didn't want entertainment to force them to have a conversation they weren't ready for with their children. "We're making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy," he said.
After a 15-month delay for the extra work, "Elio" tested slightly better than it had originally. The 2025 release was Pixar's biggest flop, losing Disney more than $100 million.
A feline thief, a ghost market and ... a musical?
"Win or Lose" was part of a short-lived move into television for Pixar, which added hundreds of employees to support the Disney+ launch and ultimately released just two series, neither of which was a hit. The streaming reversal was a big reason for layoffs that, combined with attrition, have shrunk Pixar from 1,500 employees to 1,100.
Pixarians worry that if they don't up their game, more cuts could come. While other animation studios increasingly use overseas crews to save money, Pixar often spends more than $200 million making each film on its 16-acre campus in the pricey Bay Area, according to people familiar with the matter. It hasn't integrated generative artificial intelligence in its production process, which often involves years of creative exploration followed by costly last-minute overhauls.
Much of "Inside Out 2" was made in a frantic all-hands crunch because the filmmakers didn't finalize their story until the fall before its June 2024 release. Docter served as unofficial co-director when there wasn't time for the original director to review all the footage.
"Inside Out 2" turned out to be Pixar's biggest hit, grossing $1.7 billion.
Morris said the studio is making some movies more efficiently than ever, including "Toy Story 5."
With its shrinking number of originals, Pixar is trying to balance returning to broad commercial concepts while pushing the boundaries of its tried, true and, to some, tired formula. Next year's "Gatto," about a feline thief in Venice, features animal fur and human hair that look like they were painted by hand, rather than a computer trying to simulate the real thing. "Ono Ghost Market," which was originally going to be a streaming series, is inspired by Asian myths about supernatural bazaars where the living and dead interact. The studio hasn't publicly unveiled "Ono" yet.
Pixar is also developing its first ever musical, from "Turning Red" director Domee Shi, according to people familiar with the matter.
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March 06, 2026 19:30 ET (00:30 GMT)
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