What’s Next For Pixar?

One of the most successful collaborations is the one between Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. Together, they’ve produced over twenty films that combine the family-friendly Disney approach with Pixar’s top-quality, realistic and immersive animation.

All of the Disney-Pixar films that have had traditional cinema releases have performed well at the box office – some of them very well indeed. They’ve also been highly appreciated by audiences and critics alike. So what’s next for the hugely successful animation studio?

Upcoming Films

Pixar has created a total of twenty-three films for Disney to date. The first, Toy Story, was released back in 1995, while the most recent, Soul, was released to the Disney+ streaming service on Christmas Day 2020, bypassing cinemas in many places because of lockdown restrictions. The studio recently confirmed it’s working on four upcoming film projects.

Scheduled to come out on 18 June 2021 is Luca, a charming coming-of-age tale about a boy living on the Italian Riviera who enjoys a fun-filled summer with a new friend. However, it turns out that his new friend is actually a sea monster living beneath the water’s surface. Will his friend’s true identity mean the friendship has to come to an end?

In 2022 there are two Pixar productions scheduled to be released. On 11 March, the film Turning Red will be opening in cinemas. This film’s all about Mei Lee, a somewhat dorky young girl of thirteen who has a unique trait: whenever she gets too excited, which is very often indeed, she suddenly transforms into a giant red panda.

The second Pixar film to come out in 2022 is Lightyear. This is quite an interesting one because it’s a spin-off of the Toy Story series and is about the hero who inspired the toy Buzz Lightyear. In this film, the hero is to be voiced by Chris Evans, though there’s every chance that the toy Buzz Lightyear will be making an appearance and will be voiced by Tim Allen. The film tells the story of how a young space pilot went on to become a heroic astronaut and has a tentative release date of 17 June.

Pixar has announced a film for 2023, but no details about this have been revealed. All we know about it is that it has a release date of 16 June pencilled in.

Sequels and Prequels

The four highest-grossing Pixar films are all sequels. These are: Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, Toy Story 3 and Finding Dory. Even though the studio’s sequels have been its most financially successful releases, the focus going forward seems to be on originals. The last sequel to come out was Toy Story 4 in 2019 and one of its producers, Mark Nielsen, reportedly said that Pixar wanted to concentrate on entirely original films.

All Pixar movies released and scheduled to be released since Toy Story 4 are originals. The upcoming Lightyear is technically set within the Toy Story universe, but it’s not connected to the story of the toys in any way, so it’s very much a spin-off with its own original story.

Could the studio produce sequels and prequels again? Even though the focus is currently on new stories and original content, the studio could easily decide to expand existing films by adding to them. There could well be a Toy Story 5 or a Cars 4. One of the studio’s many standalone films, such as Coco, Inside Out and Ratatouille, could even get a sequel or prequel made.

A Winning Partnership

What’s clear is that the Disney-Pixar partnership is a winner. The two companies have together produced some of the best-loved animated films – and characters – in recent times. It’s very unlikely that the partnership will change in any way in the coming years. Disney benefits from Pixar’s film producing skills, while Pixar benefits from Disney’s stories and worldwide reputation for being family friendly. It would be mad for either side to bring things to an end.

A Bright Future

Pixar’s had an impressive history and it’s still going strong after over two decades in the business. Though it’s taken a hit thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic (Onward’s cinema release was disrupted and, as mentioned above, Soul, completely bypassed cinemas in many places), the studio is in the fortunate position of still being able to produce and release content.

As well as films, Pixar has been producing short-form content for Disney+. It’s recently released a series of mini-shorts, Pixar Popcorn, starring popular characters from some of the studio’s biggest films. It’s also released shorts such as Lamp Life, which serves as a sort of prequel to Toy Story 4. It’s very likely that as well as films, Pixar will continue producing more short-form content for the Disney+ platform.