14% of the workers at the studio that created ‘Toy Story’ will have to leave their jobs
May 22, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
Updated May 22, 2024, 16:56
Disney has announced that Pixar would have to reduce 14% of its workforce, a total of 175 people who received layoff notices last Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. Bad news for an essential company in the history of the production company, and an essential chapter in the history of family cinema in recent decades.
The TV is to blame. According to Disney, the reason for these layoffs is due to the decision to stop the production of animated series, mainly for Disney+. Prior to that, Pixar had developed ‘Buzz Lightyear: Guardians of Space’ for UPN and ‘Cars Toon: The Tales of Mater’ for Disney Channel. Two ‘Toy Story’ specials have premiered on Disney+, ‘Toy Story: Terror! and ‘Toy Story: Lost Time’, in addition to the notable ‘Monsters at Work’. In recent months we have seen ‘Dug and Carl’, ‘Cars: Adventures on the Road’ and ‘Win or Lose’, not yet released. In preparation they had a series based on ‘Inside Out’.
Layoffs at Disney. Pixar’s parent company is carrying out a series of layoffs announced just over a year ago. A total of 7,000 people seeking a reduction of $7.5 billion in expenses per year for the company. Last week, Disney talked about how the sectors of the company that would be most affected by these layoffs were related to the marketing of Disney+, but this time it was Pixar’s turn, after the layoff of 75 people in June 2023.
Pixar’s clash with Disney. This is just one of the many clashes that Pixar is having with Disney: despite the prestige of the creators of ‘Cars’, their career under the umbrella of the House of Mouse is being, at the very least, discussed. The pandemic has pitted Pixar against Disney on numerous occasions, mainly due to the disagreement when it comes to dealing with the releases: ‘Soul’, ‘Luca’ and ‘Red’ were released directly on Disney+, wasting the opportunity to go to theaters, in platform benefit streaming.
Punctures at the box office. After a streak of considerable successes such as ‘Luca’, ‘Toy Story 4’ or ‘The Incredibles 2’, Pixar released ‘Onward’, which coincided with the start of the pandemic and did not perform well at the box office. This was followed by the three aforementioned direct releases on Disney+, with the lack of visibility that this entails, but the thing was not solved with the return to theaters, since ‘Buzzyear’ did not work well either and caused considerable losses for Disney. ‘Elemental’ seems to have started an upward trajectory again in terms of income that will most likely continue with ‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘Toy Story 5’.
Saturation of sequels. If there is something that has been blamed on Disney on numerous occasions, it is that it is forcing Pixar to squeeze its franchises excessively since it bought it in 2006. Pixar has shown with films like ‘Coco’ or ‘Elemental’ that it can continue creating new and original films, but you only have to look at the series it has made for Disney+ to see that perhaps the parent company is forcing it too much to give the green light to derivative products. Perhaps, if Bob Iger wants to be consistent with his intention of prioritizing quality over quantity, he should let Pixar work with something more loose-ended.
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