Once known as the gold standard of family films, Pixar has laid off 14 percent of its workforce after multiple box office failures, after its parent company had apparently woken up.
Pixar president Jim Morris sent a memo today informing 175 employees that they were being laid off.
“Calendar invitations to speak with a leader have already been sent to those individuals, and we anticipate that we will have connected with everyone affected by the end of the day,” the staff note states. read.
But this did not come as a surprise to employees, as many had known about these layoffs since January, although they expected that around 20 percent would be laid off rather than the current numbers.
The studio that produced hits like Toy Story, The Incredibles, Up and Inside Out has suffered hard blows since the pandemic.
Pixar president Jim Morris (left) sent a note today informing 175 employees that they were being laid off.
Released in March 2020, the film Onward, which referenced a lesbian relationship, earned only $142 million at the box office due to the pandemic.
Its decision to release Soul, Luca and Turning Red directly on its parent company’s streaming service, Disney+, when theaters began to reopen caused the studio to suffer a major setback.
Additionally, the studio’s 2020 theatrical release Onward and 2022’s Lightyear also failed to make an impact at the box office.
At the time, Lightyear angered Toy Story fans after it was revealed that Tim Allen had been replaced by Chris Evans as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the adult tale. He continued to get more angry at the inclusion of a lesbian kiss. In Pixar’s Onward, there is also a reference to a lesbian relationship.
Lightyear’s Gay Kiss was removed from movie theaters and Disney+ services worldwide, particularly in the Muslim world. Actress Uzo Aduba briefly kisses her partner in a scene.
Disney and others defended the scene because it gave viewers an insight into the different types of families that exist.
Thirteen nations in the Muslim world and the Palestinian territory banned it.
As for Onward, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia refused to screen the film.
Lightyear was also released amid a battle between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, when the company’s then-CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against the Sunshine State’s Don’t Say Gay bill.
Chapek was ousted at the end of 2022 and replaced by former CEO Bob Iger. The returning boss sought to repair Disney’s relationship with state lawmakers.
In late March 2022, DeSantis signed the bill banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
The moment had previously been removed from the film, but was restored after Pixar employees protested Disney’s response to the Florida bill.
Pixar was able to revive itself somewhat after its film Elemental earned nearly $500 million worldwide to become the biggest original animated film since Pixar’s Coco in 2017.
But the studio is still suffering from the loss despite the success of Elemental.
Lightyear, released a year ago on a budget of $200 million, generated a modest $226.7 million in worldwide ticket sales and received a decidedly mixed reception.
Elemental earned nearly $500 million worldwide to become the biggest original animated film since Pixar’s Coco in 2017.
Last year, Pixar had cut 75 positions, including those of two executives behind the box office flop Lightyear, in what are the first significant job cuts at the studio in a decade.
The cuts included Lightyear director Angus MacLane, a 26-year-old animator who was part of the senior creative team on such acclaimed films as Toy Story 4 and Coco.
Michael Agulnek, Pixar’s vice president of worldwide advertising since 2015, was also fired. He will also be leaving the studio, Lightyear producer Galyn Susman.
Susman had been at Pixar since the release of the original Toy Story film in 1995 and was hailed as a hero at the company after it was discovered that she had a backup copy of the Toy Story 2 film on her home computer when the company mistakenly deleted theirs. version outside of the servers while the film was in the early stages of production.
Among the recipients of a round of layoffs was Angus MacLane, a 26-year-old veteran animator who was part of the senior creative team.
The story was revealed in a tweet: “Someone at Pixar deleted all of Toy Story 2 and the backup hadn’t worked for a month, and the only reason we watched that movie was because someone on maternity leave had a copy.” . on his home computer. Her name is Galyn Susman and she is now the producer of the new Lightyear movie!
Oren Jacob, former CTO of Pixar, explained how someone probably ran the command “at the root level of the project and the system was recursively crawling through the file structure and eliminating its way like a worm working its way out of the kernel.” of an apple.’
‘He (producer Larry Cutler) looked at the directory and it had like 40 files, and he looked again and it had four files. Then we saw the footage starting to disappear,” he said. The next website.
Susman was on maternity leave, but had been provided with a computer at home to continue working on the film. The computer contained an incomplete backup of the movie, but it was still better than an empty file directory.
Susman had been at Pixar since the release of the original Toy Story film in 1995 and was hailed as a hero at the company after it was discovered that she had a backup copy of the Toy Story 2 film on her home computer when the company mistakenly deleted theirs. version outside their servers
The cuts, which took place on May 23, 2023, are part of Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger’s previously announced plan to eliminate 7,000 jobs and cut $5.5 billion in costs.
The restructuring combines the film and television groups into a single unit of Disney Entertainment and eliminates a division in charge of distribution.
While small compared to Pixar’s employee base of about 1,200, the layoffs are significant because the studio is a creative force that generates revenue-generating franchises and characters across Disney.
But with Inside Out 2 scheduled for release on June 14, Elio in 2025, and Toy Story 5 in 2026, Pixar hopes to return to its former glory soon.