Pixar’s box office juggernaut Inside Out 2 has been described as a toxic workplace by former employees after the film became the most successful animated movie of all time.
The film, which stars Amy Poehler and Maya Hawke in the respective roles of Joy and Anxiety, has grossed an impressive $1.67 billion at the box office, but staff have claimed the film’s success came at the expense of their health and finances.
According to a new report from IGNITION10 former Pixar employees have come clean about the alleged ‘crushing 24/7 pressure’ of working to make the film a hit for the ailing studio, with their efforts never rewarded after being fired – and now they are ineligible to receive a bonus for the film.
The employees say Pixar, which is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, has left them “stranded” after the “biggest crisis in the studio’s history” led to the layoff of 175 workers (14 percent of the staff) in May.
It was claimed that Pixar was determined to make the film a hit due to fears that the studio would go under after years without a major hit.
Pixar’s box office juggernaut Inside Out 2 has been described as a toxic workplace by former employees in the wake of the film becoming the most successful animated film of all time.
A source said “everyone felt pressured” and added: “Even now, I think people are gone, they still feel that pressure of ‘Oh my God, we did it. We did it.'”
Inside Out was allegedly “poorly managed,” leading to a greater number of “last-minute” changes, requiring tools to be developed “on the fly.”
One source said the animators were working seven days a week for a “month or two,” adding: “A ridiculous amount of production workers, people thrown into jobs they’d never done before… It was horrendous.”
A senior Pixar executive told the publication that the creaking sound at the end of Inside Out 2 was “no different than many of the studio’s other films.”
They worked long hours, were paid overtime and offered time off instead, but sources said the rigorous demands and production structure left everyone exhausted.
Sources have claimed that the studio is “too dependent” on creative director Pete Docter, to the point that “nothing can be done without Pete. Literally nothing.”
The film, which stars Amy Poehler and Maya Hawke in the respective roles of Joy and Anxiety, has grossed a stellar $1.67 billion at the box office, but staff have claimed the film’s success came at the expense of their health and finances.
Sources have claimed that the studio is “too dependent” on creative director Pete Docter, to the point that “nothing can be done without Pete. Literally nothing.”
Multiple sources also claim that Pixar wanted to make Inside Out 2 “less gay” following the box office failure of 2022’s Lightyear, which featured a same-sex kiss and was banned or censored in numerous countries; sources claim the scene was roundly blamed for the film’s failure.
One former employee said: “The internal culture at Pixar right now is really tough. There are an incredible number of people who say, ‘I can’t do this anymore.'”
Multiple sources also claim that Pixar was on a mission to make Inside Out 2 “less gay” after the box office failure of the 2022 film Lightyear.
The film featured a same-sex kiss and was banned or censored in numerous countries; some sources claimed that the scene was roundly blamed for the film’s failure.
The film was alleged to have been subject to numerous edits that “intensified” in September 2023 after the WGA strike ended and just nine months before the film’s release date, with “particular care” taken to make lead character Riley’s relationship with supporting character Val appear “as platonic as possible.”
It was stated that the editions tor the lighting and tone of certain scenes were done to remove any trace of “romantic chemistry”; one source said: “(It was) just doing a lot of extra work to make sure that potentially no one would see them as not straight.”
Employees were told that layoffs would occur in January 2023, and Disney announced a “strategic realignment” in May of that year that would include 7,000 layoffs across the company. In June 2023, 75 employees were laid off.
More layoffs began in May 2024, weeks before the release of Inside Out 2: it was the largest layoff in the company’s history.
Another source said that when HR told her the bonus was only for active employees, she felt like Disney was telling her to “fuck you.”
The doctor said Anklet Earlier this month of layoffs: ‘That was another thing that made this year really weird: saying the removal was a result of Pixar moving away from streaming-only projects.
“Unfortunately, Disney has reached a point where they’ve realized that the amount of money we have to spend to achieve the quality we have doesn’t make sense.”
Former employees criticized the studio for its “disconnected” celebration of the film’s box office success while those who had worked on it had been fired, saying “it’s like watching an ex hook up with a movie star, basically. It’s like, ‘I’m happy for you, but why?'”
They said the delayed Elio feature, which was originally planned for release in March 2024 before being postponed to June 2025, had caused the same problems, prompting staff to ‘Working crazy hours to cure Elio.’
Employees were left “sobbing” over the lack of a bonus, saying “we work all year for that bonus” and another source said “at least 95% of the people who were laid off are financially screwed right now.”
Another said: “We work all year for that bonus. That’s part of what makes working at Pixar worth it… we depend on it.”
Another source said that being told by HR that the bonus was only for active employees made her feel like Disney was telling her to “fuck you.”
Sources said the bonus was crucial as Pixar’s base salary for many positions is “considered low” for Emeryville, California, where it is headquartered. Employees who spoke to the publication praised the company’s health and mental health benefits.
Pixar employees are also not unionized under The Animation Guild (TAG) and Pixar It currently remains ‘outside union coverage and without union fees’.
They added that executives are acting “out of fear… to preserve their own power in their own jobs. So I think morale is really low because people no longer trust that they will be guided with their best interests in mind.”
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Disney and Pixar for comment.
In June, Inside Out 2 surpassed Disney’s 2019 film Frozen II ($1.45 billion) at the global box office.
Disney Animation’s Frozen II grossed a global total of $1.451 billion after its release in November 2019. It grossed $477 million at the domestic box office and $972 million at the international box office, according to Box Office Mojo.
After Inside Out 2, which took the top spot, Frozen II is the second highest-grossing animated film of all time, according to THR.
They said the delayed Elio feature, which was originally planned for release in March 2024 before being pushed back to June 2025, had caused the same issues, leading staff to “work crazy hours to fix Elio.”
They are followed by 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie with $1.36 billion; 2013’s Frozen with $1.27 billion; 2018’s Incredibles 2 with $1.24 billion; 2015’s Minions with $1.15 billion; 2019’s Toy Story 4 with $1.07 billion; 2017’s Despicable Me 3 with $1.03 billion; and 2016’s Finding Dory with $1 billion.
Overall, Inside Out 2 is the 13th highest-grossing film ever, having also surpassed 2023’s breakout hit Barbie ($1.44 billion) on Monday, and is the highest-grossing film since it hit theaters last summer.
The film became Pixar’s highest-grossing film at the global box office earlier this month, unadjusted for inflation, when it eclipsed the worldwide gross of Incredibles 2.
The massive success of Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing film of the year so far, marks a rebound for Pixar and Disney after a string of underperforming films like 2022’s Lightyear, 2022’s Strange World, and 2023’s Elemental.
Inside Out 2 was directed by Kelsey Mann and features a supporting cast of Ayo Edebiri, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Lilimar and Grace Lu.
The film’s story centers on the emotions of a 13-year-old girl named Riley (Tallman) who is dealing with a host of new emotions as she goes through puberty and starts high school.
The emotions depicted in the initial film (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust) are now accompanied by new emotions including Anxiety, Envy, Shame, Boredom, and Nostalgia.