The Pitiful Downfall of PIXAR 

What is your favorite Pixar film?

The fact that we are living in a day and age where DreamWorks, Illumination, and Sony are all kicking Disney’s and even Pixar’s ass in the box office at the same time is still mind blowing…

Fun fact. A lot of the pixar movies from the innovation era was created in ONE evening One day, when some of the founders of pixar were having lunch they thought they’d need amazing stories. So they would all pitch ideas for stories and draw rough sketches on the table. They would come up with the stories for wall-e, finding nemo, etc. That lunch break created 2 billion dollars for them

Disney went from the "it's not just for kids" to "it's not even good enough for kids"

Studio ghibli definitely should be a part of this conversation. It’s rare an animation studio from Asia can make this kind of impact on the western world. But love your video non the less, I appreciate your respectfulness and understanding.

Something to keep in mind about Across the Spiderverse's high employment rate is that over 100 animators had to leave during production due to unsustainable working conditions. It's a shame because they could've slowed down production to keep people happy and healthy and still make bank.

I feel bad for Pixar. I love their classic movies, but seeing them struggle because of greedy Disney makes it even worse.

Thank you for making an actual video going through the history of pixar and Disney instead of a twenty minute rant about how terrible the companies are

My brother told me about spider verse and how incredible it was, I didn't believe him. A month after he told me I had time to sit and watch it, I was blown away. Puss in boots 2 was unbelievable as well, I went in expecting to laugh at it but ended up really enjoying it, that movie had style and you can tell people enjoyed making it.

The only groundbreaking thing Elemental did was having the main characters made out of special effects. Not an anatomy of a model character covered in fire, water, air, ect, actually elements morphed and moved into a body. I don't think any animated flick has done that, ESPECIALLY since special effects, like fire, is the most difficult thing to animate. So to have the special effects the main character has to have some praise.

Spider-verse was SUCH a wake-up call to the animation industry, I genuinely have no idea how Disney/Pixar haven't woken up and smelled their burning toast yet

I feel bad for Pixar, I really do. But seeing Disney failing is really satisfying.

I know people don't want to acknowledge that Pixar was John Lasseter. He's why their movies worked and he was the formula. When he was made head of Disney Animation he spear headed some of Disney's most successful animated movies (Frozen, Zootopia, etc). Right now it seems like Pixar is on auto-mode trying to recapture what they once had but without knowing how to execute it properly.

I think something really important to note is that although Across the Spider-verse employed so many animators, the way they were treated was abysmal. The artists were put through ludicrous amounts of overtime and unnecessary revisions just because the people in charge of the project had the power to do so.

Disney as a corporation is the embodiment of what happens when a business takes over artists. Art dies when you prioritize business over art.

The irony is that the people of the studio absolutely didn’t want their movies during the pandemic to be put on Disney+, but they did it anyways and now look where they are.

Welp... Inside Out 2 apparently just had the biggest opening of any animated film ever... I think Pixar might be doing just fine now.

It's sad that Pixar has been seemingly stuck with going for realism in their animation style. Obviously not all their recent movies focus on realism as their stylistic choice (Turning Red is one good example), but animation is so much more than just recreating real life through animation.

Elemental being the movie that marks the 100 year anniversary of disney is such a slap in the face

I think it's fundamentally a management problem, when an animator isn't performing they lose their job (which is not to say all animators who lose their jobs lose them because they weren't performing) but when upper management keeps making the same mistakes there's no mechanism to oust them before it brings the whole company down.

I personally like Luca, it's not groundbreaking or anything like that, it's just a simple movie that is just there for you to have a good time and relax a little bit. I also like the art style, it's cartoony without going too far to be annoying like turning red or the boss baby

Across the Spider verse did employ a ton of animators and have a smaller budget. But the animators also got really underpaid and had a terrible experience doing that. So...not a great tradeoff even though the movie turned out great

Pixar fell off

The frustrating thing about Elemental is the marketing is so ass it doesn’t talk about the best part of the plot. A movie about someone immigrating with their family to a new country and trying to be their own person separate from their family is a great message for an untapped audience, and the art style looks fun. But the marketing played it off as a element Zootopia and nothing more.

I feel old. This guy is actually 2 years younger than I and he narrates like a wise man who writes a good script to do videos.

I hate how Pixar went for emotional masterpieces with deep morals to the classic Disney “let’s do this because money” mindset. I think the main thing to blame is Disney they ruin everything they touch.

As amazing as Across the Spider-Verse was, I really do hope that Beyond the Spider-Verse is delayed to avoid rushing and overworking the animators. And I hope studios don't take the wrong lesson of wearing down the animators to make good product.

Just to note Nintendo basically had Illumination on a leash so that Mario didn’t fall into common pitfalls of modern films which also contributed to it’s success. Edit: The film from what I can infer seems decent in that the adults will tolerate it but won’t think it’s awful but little kids enjoy it more. Also the fact of the matter is that name recognition definitely boosted it’s success both in terms of IP and people involved. If Nintendo did not make script changes then it would have been a standard illumination film and a mediocre one overall. Also it probably exceeded expectations from the first trailer drop.

I get what you’re saying about into the spider verse being absolutely incredible on a low budget because it’s stunning but also the treatment of their animators is absolutely insane and exploitative. It should have cost more. They need to have paid their animators more.

Fun fact about Lightyear, the film was apparently going to have a more mature tone to it before Disney stepped in and requested a revision, citing that the film had "too much loss" for it to be family-friendly, so the story and script were revised and what we got was the result of Disney's interference.

"Animation is art" is probebly the most important line ever to remember these days in modern animation. This art form can do anything and it's not just one thing I remember watching an interview with Brad Bird and he mentioned this. I remember more specifically Brad Bird said "Animation is an artform."

Man to be honest Spider Man into the spider verse changed the whole animation genre and just showed us that how good a movie made with passion,soul and love can be instead of being repetitive and continuie adding more numbers of a movies title that is already ended

When you compared the amount of money that these studios used to create these movies and emphasized Spiderverse's low budget in comparison to other movies, I couldn't help but think about the hundreds of spiderverse artists who were underpaid and overworked over the course of the project, so much so that they had to quit.

I'll always thank Pixar for creating Mrs Incredible and exposing young me to women with fat dumpers

With the success of both Spider-Verse movies and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, I think it’s safe to say 2D/3D hybrid animated films are the future of western animation.

While it does suck to see Pixar fall off like the teenager in their prime during high school it's great to see animation in general take a big leap that wasn't possible before with it really opening the eyes to people that animation is more than just a way to distract the kids

For me, Up and Wall E are the best pixar movies. The montage from Up still tears me up, its insane how pixar fell over the years.

I wish pixar made more short stories they were so simple and fun

You're an insanely talented editor. I've seen too many of these Pixar/animation "video essays" and yet yours still stands out as super entertaining and heartfelt.

The LEGO movie and Into the Spiderverse is a showcase on how to push animation forward. Pixar and Disney are interested in all these technological specifics that don’t really speak to the general audience. Like the Lego movie and Spider-Man are taking the idea of playing with Lego’s or reading a comic book where we would use our imagination the fill in the “action”- take that now crank it up to 100 and throw it on a big screen! I don’t care how realist water or hair physics is in an animated movie when you can literally choose any other way than realistic.

Unfortunately while I love Across the Spider-Verse, the treatment that many of animators were and currently still are receiving is atrocious and disheartening. Animators work around the clock to make these movies and their often Underappreciated and underpaid for their hard earned work. Right now a huge writers strike is taking place and it is still not ending. resulting in a years long project that took so much hours of abuse and pain not even seeing the light of day anymore. Beyond the Spider-Verse has been delayed indefinitely and it is unclear when this movie will see the light of day anymore. While Hollywood is currently at war with studios and writers, animators are being laid off because of lack of projects being in development.

Flaming hot take: Soul was a great movie with a novel concept and could fit in the Innovation Era in terms of quality, but it was sadly overlooked and underrated. Disney did not give it enough exposure or marketing, and it felt like they just dumped it on their streaming service. It's my mom's favorite Pixar movie and it's sad to see it constantly lumped in with the mediocre Pixar movies of recent years.

Sad to see pixar felling in the box office and in movies, didn’t think Skipper would talk about Pixar’s but it was very entertaining as always, thought it would take another month for you to make a new video

Those Boxoffice bombs are actually a lot worse when you factor in marketing costs and distribution fees (usually with tickets sales split between the cinema and the studio). Not to mention interest on the money financed to make the movie. A typical high budget production had to make up around three times its budget only to break even.

As someone born in 2001, I can relate to basically everything you said. I grew up with the best animation movies, not only feom Pixar, but from everyone - Shrek, Ice Age, Dinosaur(we have these 3 on VHS that my bro and would watch every time we went to our grandma's), Wall-E, Ratatouile, the Toy Story trilogy, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Cars(the first movie I ever watched in a cinema), How to train your dragon, Kung-Fu Panda, Rango, Despicable me, Madagascar, The penguins from Madagascar(including the TV series) and don't even get me started on all of the other amazing animation series such as Gravity Falls, Sponge Bob, Fairy Oddparents, Transformers Prime, Phineas&Ferb, etc. Man, did we have the biggest feast as kids. And now with the Spider-verse movies and Puss in Boots:The last wish, I feel like the creativity and innovation has returned, after a decade of near-constant slop. Hope Pixar changes stuff around, as unlikely as it sounds with Disney on top. Their innovation era movies will always be part of our childhoods and a part of us.

Even though it just came out on Netflix this weekend, Nimona totally belongs among the list of innovative films from other studios showing up Disney/Pixar. It has the kind of quirky-yet-relatable characters and heartfelt message that Pixar used to be known for, plus distinct stylised animation. Which is pretty funny given that Disney had the rights to the film at one point, but apparently rejected it for being too gay.

Lightyear could have worked if they made it a fun, colorful sci-fi adventure like The Fifth Element or Ratchet and Clank, but instead they made an Interstellar Annihilation knock off.

I didn’t mind Turning Red and Luca at all. They both seemed to almost be like coming of age stories and finding yourself, other Pixar movies have those basic premises as well. With that being said, the cost of these movies is absolutely insane, given what smaller budget movies can do with more effort.

Your exposition is touching and well crafted! And yes, the day Pixar will stop taking their audience for granted, the day they remember animation is for all ages, not for little kids only, that will be they day of their return with shining colors!

“Animation is not dead because Pixar lost their way. Animation is in a new Big Bang because the Disney mindset is failing. Not everything is about money, animation is more than just a way to shut up your kids. It touch’s people, it changes their lives, and is art. *Animation is Art.* And I’ll forever love animation and what they’ve done for me, including Pixar.” That is probably the most beautiful quote I have ever heard from a video synopsis. Very well said! 👏👏

Modern Pixar is so sad because classic Pixar was a shining example of how artistic vision and money-making could co-exist. Their films were immensely profitable while still being engaging, fun, well-told stories. All that was thrown out the window for tons of uninteresting sequels to stories that were self-contained and didn't need to be continued, because it wasn't enough that they were making money, they needed to make _all the money._ Tragic example of how the desire for more and more can damage a studio.

this aged well…

My mom said Nemo was my favourite film as a baby. She would reminisce about how I would watch it every day, over and over. The second the Credits rolled, her and Dad would start the movie all over again... And they said I loved every second of it. Recently rewatched it after a few years, and... *...I still love it.*

This is 2000s for Disney all over again. With the rise of CGI Animation and films like Pixar, Shrek and Ice Age being successful while Disney Animation was struggling by playing it safe and still making hand drawn Animation, which is why films like Treasure Planet, Atlantis and Home on the Range being box office bombs. And now in 2020's, stylized animation took over and realistic CGI fells apart.

As a 2000’s kid, I must say I am so happy I was born in the generation where my childhood was growing up with peak animated movies that were truly the embodiment of “Wholesome Childhood Memories” and felt like magic was truly a real thing.

I really feel bad for Pixar. They’ve always been one of my favorite animation studios by far and still is. I know they’re still able to make fantastic films as good as the ones in the golden days. Just hope Disney can leave them alone to their own devices… This is YOUR fault, Disney!

I like the message of hope in here about the Disney model failing in the face of actual art. With the rise of AI and the working conditions that led to the writers' strike, it's good to be reminded that audiences ultimately do want art with their entertainment.

Time stamping every piece of Hotline Miami music 0:43 Scattle - it's Safe Now 1:33 Light Club - She Meditates 5:38 Scattle - Knock Knock 7:53 M|O|O|N - Hydrogen 12:32 Prey Growl - Detection 13:02 Scattle - Knock Knock (again) 14:00 CoConuts - Silver Lights 15:10 Sjellos - Chamber of Reflections

I disliked disney for shutting down club penguin, then I understood disney for the lack of players then I hated disney for buying out studios and running them to the ground... I miss blue sky studios. 😢

well,inside out 2 just reached over 1 billion

Did you know that Disney Will Re-Release 8 Classic Movies? 1. Toy Story - July 21 2. Frozen - August 4 3. Beauty and the Beast - August 18 4. The Incredibles - September 1 5. Coco - September 15 6. The Lion King - September 29 7. Mona - October 13 Also, one non-animated movie: Pirates of the Caribbean Really Disney? After what you did to Johnny Depp? Do they think people who were upset at them for how they treated Johnny Depp will just go back because they release a movie with him in it? Do they want to guilt-trip Depp into returning? ''Look at all your movie fans. Do it for them.'' Let me speculate why those animated movies in particular are being re-released. 1. Toy Story 5 is coming 2. Frozen 3 is coming 3. A ‘’live-action’‘ Mufasa movie is coming 4. ‘‘Live-action’’ Moana and cartoon series is coming 5. Beauty and the Beast was the first full-length animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture. And its remake isn’t hated as much as many others. 6. Coco re-release is for representation. After they canceled ''The Owl House'' and their new show ''Primos'' controversies they are hated from all sides. 7. The Incredibles is just a beloved classic and its sequel made tons of money. All those movies made a lot of money. I wonder how they will censure the re-releases. Remember how they changed the drier in ''Lilo and Stitch'' into a pizza box? Will they keep all the ''spicy'' scenes from ''The Incredibles'’? Will they keep the horny triplets from Beauty and the Beast? Particularly the scene in which LeFue is checking out their boobs?

As much as i love Spider-Verse, I'll always feel the LEGO Movie is underappreciated nowadays

Now I know this isn't a movie, but as anyone seen Arcane on Netflix?! The stylistic choices made gives it's own unique mark in the animation landscape. While I will always love Pixar from the 90's to the 2000's era, animation with style and character is alive and well.

Well written and well edited man.

6:00 “kids like to play with that woody” that’s definitely one of the quotes of all time 😬

Not just Pixar Disney is really struggling with everything Phase 4 of the MCU has been very disappointing, disney original animations aren't doing too well as of late and they focus on terrible or mediocre live action remakes of classic films That doesn't even begin to discuss the disaster that is modern star wars Disney is really imploding in on its self

I really like these relatively shorter videos, and the way you talk about your appreciation for animation really hits a chord with me

Aged worse than milk 🥛

I think the reason why Elemental was so expensive to make is because of the technological aspects. The characters in that film were constantly morphing and thus were created from a brand new blend of motion and visual effects; The animation pipeline was totally rearranged to achieve it. Now that you mentioned it, it’s kind of another Good Dinosaur, where it was a stepping stone for impressive visuals, but didn’t have a great story. In my opinion, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red were much better stories that deserved a better shot at making back money than straight-to-streaming (and Disney executives potentially censoring the writers). If you’re looking for more tech innovation that blends well with story, then I highly, HIGHLY recommend the works of Studio Orange. They have a unique 3D animation style that embraces the strengths of 2D, and have gone to great lengths to improve the technology that captures that appeal. In fact, Spiderverse as we know it would probably not exist without their influence! Plus the works that they’ve adapted into animation lean towards mature themes such as existentialism and prejudice, and they’re not afraid to shy away from the consequences of conflict.

18:57 I love how you used the song "Let Down" while trashing disney for their layoffs

I will say elemental is a actually good movie that is the closest we have gotten to another innovation era where most the time they where trying to make these texture look pretty and well made, it’s not the largest new trend like spiderverse but it’s a step up from other effects in movies recently.

The fact that Elemental surpassed ATSV in the box office lol

14:57 Am I Dreaming will never stop giving me goosebumps

Compared to your other videos, this one is really good comedy/editing wise. I wouldn't be surprised if it became your most viewed. It was also written pretty well, so kudos man. Good work👍

This aged badly xd

Hey, something to keep in mind when comparing Spiderverse/Sony animated films to WDAS and Pixar. A lot of the production for Spiderverse and other Sony pictures is done in Vancouver. If Sony was making these films in California, and especially if their staff were members of the Animation Guild, the budget for these films would inflate. Sony enjoys lower labor costs and delicious tax breaks for keeping their productions in Canada.

No idea if you'll see this, but your last two videos have been my favorite of your catalog. The amount of effort and passion you've had for the subjects is insane, and I hope you know it's appreciated

So nobody's gonna talk about how Across the Spiderverse was crunched to all hell with edits were being made from higher ups once scenes were already competed, proving that to Sony money is still more important than creativity.

As a 2003 kid, I could relate with everything you say. We are really lucky to be in that era

17:11 For across the spider verse’s 100 million dollar budget as much as I love that movie I think you should read the recent news about Phil Lord and Chris Miller on why it was a 100 million dollars! And it’s not good reason for those animators!

"Being born in 2002" It was nice to think of myself as young because I was born in 1998 while it lasted

When u played Sunflower i got Goosebumps 😊

An easy way to tell the difference between early Pixar and later Pixar is how the story is told. Early Pixar focused more on letting each character breath, the lessons to go unspoken, and the lessons being timeless. Later Pixar focused more on preaching and forcing characters to fit a setting, the lessons to be screamed out, and to be terrible in general.

One of my sisters had a drunken rant and subsequent bawling her eyes out moment during a Disney cruise about how everyone was mean to the dinosaur in the Good Dinosaur after getting smashed with my dad at the Vibes club on the ship. It was definitely memorable.

Bro this video synopsis is one of the best I’ve ever seen. This isn’t a rant or hating on Disney, this is literally just telling a story about how quickly a company can go from being on top to falling to the bottom due to the decisions they’ve made and he still gives Pixar the benefit of the doubt and praises them for their past projects and inspiring so many animation studios today.

I think another one of their downfalls is that they only have one animation style nowadays. Look at how similar the Luca and Turning Red characters all look. It’s an animation style that isn’t proving to be successful but Pixar isn’t changing it anytime soon

I completely agree, animation *is* art. Almost half of my top 10 favorite movies of all time are animated. Screw the people that think animation is just shallow media made for toddlers.

The soul of Pixar went with John Lassiter. His creative vision drove the quality.

Im rooting for pixar in pulling themselves together and making a comeback. its a shame that they refuse to adapt and focus on making some innovative films.

Have you even SEEN Elemental? It is amazing. The marketing for it was a garbage fire but it was worth seeing multiple times with multiple groups.

Lasseter was an essential part of why Pixar worked. Even if it was understandable why he was let go, his influence has not been replaced by anyone in-house, at least not yet. Edit: also Disney milking them is a problem.

guillermo del toro’s Pinocchio was absolutely beautiful and had an amazing story, I normally don’t cry at movies but this made me cry, please watch this movie, it has a beautiful story, and beautiful animation, the new Pixar could never amount to that masterpiece

12:40 Nah bro Cloudy 2 is actually really good. Obviously not as good as the first, but it’s still genuinely very solid and a worthwhile experience. I love coming back to it.

I'm so glad you like Monster's University, because I ADORE that movie

1:41 this part with the birds made me laugh more then it should have

Into the spiderverse changed my life, and across the spiderverse made me a whole other person. I will never take these 2 movies for granted and I'm so greatful that it was even released to begin with. I just hope beyond the spiderverse won't be a rushed hot mess

Toy Story 4 is a prime example of how to completely destroy the development arc of the lead character. Woody spent three movies saying how good it was to be owned by a kid and watch them grow up. Sarge and his remaining two Army men reinforced this in Toy Story 3 when they left ("We've done our duty. Andy's grown up."). Woody even convinced Andy to donate them all to Bonnie so the gang could continue watching a kid grow up. And then he uncharacteristically throws all that away to chase porcelain tail (i.e. Bo Peep). He abandons Bonnie and he abandons his friends. Toy Story 4 absolutely destroyed Woody's character and is rejected as canon by many fans.

There was a time when Pixar defeated other movies at the box office. Those days are sadly gone now. There was at least a bit of marketing with Elemental in comparrison to Strange World, but even that is not enough to earn a profit. I doubt Pixar will go out of business soon, but from the losses they've been receiving, it's not going well for the company.

It hurts to see Disney the way it is, I really do hope Innovation is brought back to the forefront. All they seem to be focused on is sequels & live actions of Classics.

Haven't watched the last 3 pixar films. However the quality of the pixar films before that are still head and shoulders above everything else Disney is shovelling out. I love how down to earth Luca was. Actually a breath of fresh air. It took the time to slow down, respect its audience and just be a slice of life film. Im a big fan of Ghibli and believe at a minimum 3 of their films are more deserving than the films that took best animated films of the given year. However I think it is more telling of the Hollywood machine. An eco chamber of out of touch elites that no longer take risks. Btw Coco is my absolute fave, followed closely by The Incredibles and Toy Story OG