I’m back! I’m so sorry for the irregular schedule, folks! The past few weeks have been a bit of a challenge, from the horrible summer heat in my country (where temperatures reached 50℃ in at least one area) to work and school taking over my life for a bit, followed by a freak accident where my ankle was pinned by their car.

Things seem to be turning a corner, and I’m excited for what the next few weeks have in store. We’re going to be on a Sunday drop this week and next week, and then I’ll update you on the schedule for the succeeding newsletters. I’m still tinkering, trying to figure out my workflow, the best schedule for this newsletter, and even what stories resonate with you the most.

✨ What you can expect from this newsletter

After this week’s issue, I’m doing a series on folks whose fandom and work are intertwined. I’ve interviewed a musician, two podcast hosts, and a writer-curator for this series, and I’m pretty excited for all of you to finally read it.

Pixar wants to move away from its current brand of storytelling

In between my excitement over the second half of Bridgerton S3 (one of my favorite seasons of the show so far), the return of Criminal Minds: Evolution for its second season (essentially a follow-up to the original series and continues that story) and the return of House of the Dragon, this article about Pixar dropped on social media a few days ago, causing a furor in fans of the animation studio.

The furor stems from these two paragraphs, and from other parts of the story that seem to lay the blame on John Lasseter resigning after sexual misconduct allegations and on three movies released on streaming during the pandemic that did not perform well—Soul, Luca, and Turning Red—and the ‘autobiographical’ stories they were hinged on.

These paragraphs have been circulated on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, where this one post alone has been shared thousands of times and viewed around 10 million times.

I understand Pixar’s disappointment—Lightyear came from an existing IP that people loved, featuring a backdrop that still captures the imagination of people (space), a bittersweet tone that would’ve made it appealing across generations, and a story that spoke to the tensions between optimism and nihilism; the loneliness and community one finds in the middle of a disruptive pursuit; and the fantasy and reality of an adventure.

It’s not the first time Pixar’s underperformed. The same article even talks about how The Good Dinosaur and Cars 3 have underperformed in the past, so Lasseter’s work or influence is not exactly bulletproof.

But this string of disappointments—even though Onward, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red were releases clearly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic—has clearly triggered a rethinking for the organization.

My worry is they might be abandoning one of the things that made them great in the first place.

For as long as I’ve been old enough to watch movies and read about the behind the scenes, Pixar was built on two things: great storytelling and innovative technology. The latter has evolved exponentially just since the 2000s, with generative AI tools expanding to potentially cover filmmaking. For me, the former is what truly makes Pixar stand out as an animation studio.

I’m lucky to have grown up in the 1990s, in the middle of the Disney renaissance, Pixar being launched, 20th Century Fox taking a stab and releasing Anastasia, and DreamWorks out of the gate strong with the cultural touchstone that is The Prince of Egypt.

The Toy Story series paralleled my own childhood milestones, with Toy Story 3 coming out during my senior year in university. I watched it with my parents and we were all in tears by the end of it, because we were all saying goodbye to one part of life as individuals and as a family unity.

I also still cry whenever I hear Sarah McLachlan’s When She Loved Me. (Thanks, Toy Story 2).

I had fallen in love for the first time when I saw Up, and to this day, I will tell you that it has had a lasting influence on me. Carl and Ellie’s relationship is one that I aspire to, that mutual love and support, the levity in the face of challenges, and the acceptance and encouragement as they get to new stages of life.

WALL-E and Ratatouille captured my imagination. (They’re also guaranteed to make me cry, as does the first few minutes of Up.) Finding Nemo has put me on a lifelong mission to get good enough at piano that I can play Beyond the Sea and other jazz pieces. Brave made me feel seen as a young woman realizing she was bucking tradition.

None of those stories reflected parts of me, but they spoke to parts of me.

And when Pixar started exploring more intimate stories with Onward, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, I still found myself seen, even more so in some cases. Turning Red was essentially my childhood in the 90s and teenage years in early 2000s distilled into a movie.

I even thought, “What a fascinating evolution—they used to focus on how storytelling is pushed forward by technology and creating these vast worlds for us to explore and be in awe of, now they’re turning that attention within, expanding what’s vast within the individual.”

But apparently the business-minded folks within the organization don’t agree with my assessment.

I understand where they’re at. (I run a business, too.) But I fear that misdiagnosing the problem and pointing it at streaming-only releases and a story that maybe didn’t even need to be told to begin with creates scapegoats, when there are larger things to consider.

If I found myself in the room with Pixar executives, I’d probably ask them to consider the following:

What is the job that a Pixar movie does? If they ask me, I’d tell Pixar their job is to stoke the fire of wonder and awe. When I was young, I remember being amazed by how the characters and the setting felt so real. As I got older, it became about telling stories that captured my heart and encouraged me to feel deeply. For myself, for the characters.

What do they think is an animation studio’s job at this point in time (and maybe for the future)? Right now, it seems like the job is to right the ship and make money. But that’s a business result. Thousands of other companies would tell you they need to make a profit and stay sustainable.

It’s not the purpose that steers the ship.

Why would I watch a Pixar movie over anything else? My answer here is because of the storytelling and the quality of the animation that transports me into other worlds. It teaches me things, even now that I’m in my 30s.

And sometimes when I want to carve out care and empathy for myself or even be inspired as a creative, I’d watch a Pixar movie.

Because a Pixar movie has a strong perspective.

Think about WALL-E. WALL-E in my youth was a space adventure. Now it’s a warning, a frank, blunt allegory about humans’ impact on the environment. Anybody watching it now would be in horror that we’re closer to that reality and not the post-credits scenes’ reality.

Coco and Turning Red touched on the importance of family traditions, even as we strive to create our own paths in the world. Soul was literally about purpose in life. Onward is literally about dealing with grief. These are all stories that we need in a world that is more complex.

Pixar can’t play the content games, because if it goes back to its ethos, it didn’t become one of the world’s best animation studios by not having a strong perspective. If it wants to recover, I think they could stand to remember that people loved them first because they had a unique way of seeing the world.

What am I competing with? I’m not an industry insider, just a person who hangs around social media and reads about movies, but I think studios still think they’re in competition with each other or with streaming. Which makes sense. That’s been the system, and technology has changed who gets to be part of that ecosystem (the advent of YouTube brought in vlogs and streaming made it possible for smaller companies like Dropout to launch their own service with their own library).

But maybe Pixar could benefit from asking themselves, “What would make someone watch a Pixar movie or TV show instead of reading a book, or hanging out with friends on Discord, watching a YouTube video they’ve already seen before, following a TikTok series where one person plays all of the parts, or even going offline?” The world is more complex, so even their competitors aren’t just their usual competitors anymore.

Maybe that could get them to a different diagnosis than maybe, kinda blaming it on stories that happened to include a wider variety of voices.

It’d be a shame if they’d give up storytelling and perspective, because they truly have built something unique and admirable in the filmmaking world.

If you liked this newsletter, please share this with your friends, family, and fellow fans! I’d also love to hear from you. Are there any topics you’d like to read more of? Is this newsletter too long? Do you want me to do a deeper dive on topics from previous issues? Do you like the Sunday drop better?

I do love getting mail from readers. (Also, feedback is always appreciated!)

Happy Sunday, folks, and have a good weekend.