Pixar creative chief addresses whether sequels or originals are priority
Pete Docter spoke to RadioTimes.com about the future of the beloved animation franchise.
There's been a feeling in the last few years that Pixar has somewhat lost its mojo of late – with recent efforts such as Lightyear and Elemental failing to scale the heights of the beloved animation studio's greatest hits.
There's a lot of hope that the imminent release of Inside Out 2 – a sequel to one its finest films – will mark a return to form for the studio, but what might this mean for the future of Pixar: could it be that sequels might become the priority going forwards?
RadioTimes.com put that question to the company's chief creative officer Pete Docter (who directed Monsters Inc and the original Inside Out) during an exclusive interview ahead of the new film's release, and he explained that it's all about finding the right balance.
"It's tipped both ways," he said. "So I mean, generally, I especially love doing the original stuff. We went for a long stretch there of all originals – and I think we probably overtipped that way.
"So now we're trying to counterbalance with a few more sequels."
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He added: "We have Toy Story 5 coming out in a number of years. And we're thinking more about some other films as well, to get that balance, right.
"I don't know that there is a perfect way to gauge it, because the audience, I think, generally says they want all new – but then they tend to go more when they are familiar with the character. So yes, it's a balance."
In the studios heyday – back in the '90s and '00s – originals were very much the main focus for Pixar. Indeed, with the exception of the first two Toy Story sequels, all of the films made in the 15 years after the release of their first feature was an original, with highlights including The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Up, among many others.
In the 2010s, however, sequels became much more common – with the release of two Cars sequels in addition to Monsters University, Finding Dory, The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4.
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In that time, it continued to produce some brilliant new features as well, especially Inside Out and Coco, but it's clear that the creative priorities of the studio had shifted – and based on Docter's comments it looks like we'll continue to see a mix of original stories and sequels for the foreseeable future.
Inside Out 2 is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14th June.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
