On the one hand, it's hard to say yes because, well it is not exactly like pulling a film from theatres in this time is a bad idea, and it was said that Turning Red would not be put behind premier access. On top of that, they are still getting a good push and it is not like Pixar is going to be the next Blue Sky Studios. It's not hard to see this is less as mistreatment and more of a case of circumstance, in fact I raised this question to Animated Antic on Twitter and he replied that it was most likely a matter of bad timing, and I can definitely see that side of the argument. Plus it really is not like premier access has that great of a reputation really, so the answer is no, right? Disney is just taking safety precautions towards Pixar's films, yes?
Maybe, this is a big "Me feeling" I'll grant, but I can't shake it. Theatres are open, and this is not an argument about whether or not they should be, but the fact is that a lot of theatres are open, and what movies are they playing? Spider-Man: No Way Home, Encanto, West Side Story, as of Wednesday, January 12th 2022, those movies are playing in select theatres near me. Why are these movies still getting theatrical releases, and are still playing in theatres, but Turning Red does not?
It most likely is a money issue. The last Pixar movie to be given a theatrical release was Onward, which was a fine movie, but a bit of a predictable one. It was also a bit of a flop. According to Variety, Pixar films typically cost 175 to 200 Million dollars to make, Onward only made about 62 Million domestically, and 81 Million internationally [Source], I am being generous with the numbers here, but even with accurate data the total profit does not break even. The information does not lie, Onward was not a theatrically successful theatrical outing, and why this is, quite frankly it should be obvious, it was because it was released early in 2020, in that little period of time where we were aware of the pandemic but were hopeful that it wouldn't last for nearly three years. It can't even be argued that Pixar has been on a downward spiral these last few years because the previous movies before Onward were Toy Story 4 and Incredibles 2, and say what you want about those movies, they were very successful. [Source]
Onward's failure can mostly be blamed on the pandemic, yet for whatever reason, Disney seems to not understand that, because guess what animated feature got a theatrical release despite coming out in early 2021, pretty much in the middle of the pandemic. If you guess Raya and The Last Dragon, you would be right, and also understand why my feelings towards that movie has gotten even more sour over the months since I did my First Impressions, but that's irrelevant. Raya and Encanto were given theatrical releases despite the fact that the pandemic was still happening. To me, this says that either Disney is arrogant or Disney is sabotaging their own studios, and I'm only assuming one or the other because it would be way too easy to assume that Disney's doing both.
I may be being a bit harsh on Disney, since I do doubt that Disney would be so stupid as to try and kill off one of their biggest subsidiaries. Disney and Pixar have become next to inseparable in the minds of many movie goers, in fact, you could probably name every single Pixar film before you could name all of Disney's theatrically released films. So, what does Disney have to gain from destroying Pixar? Well, let me ask a different question, what does Disney feel like they're going to gain from keeping Pixar around?
Pixar was a very different studio from Disney back in the day. Disney was still in their renaissance though definitely in the second half of it, where it started to go downhill and lead to the second (Third?) dark age, but between that time and the 2010s, Pixar was pretty much keeping Disney afloat. They stood out with their CG animation and more adult stories and characters. Now, the only thing that does separate Disney and Pixar movies is the more adult stories and characters, and it's often a subtle difference. Let me put it this way, Merida is an official member of the Disney Princess line, a line that never once featured a Pixar character. I can't really describe it better than that, it really does seem like Pixar is losing what made it stand out against Disney. For the longest time, Pixar was the only one of the two studios that theatrically released their sequels, than Disney released Ralph Breaks the Internet and Frozen II in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and again, say what you will about them, but it does make the line between the two studios a bit blurrier. At this point, I would not be shocked if Bob Chapek, the current Disney CEO, figured that Disney could do the same films that Pixar is making.
And let's also talk about that "Premier Access" thing. Premier Access has been nothing more than a big pain in the side of many Disney+ users, who did not wish to spend extra money on top of the money they were already paying. Premier Access is nothing more than an exploitation of the Fear Of Missing Out (Or FOMO) of moviegoers who just have to see Jungle Cruise, or Raya and the Last Dragon on release day or else they won't have the ability to get in on the trend while it's hot. My first impression on Raya and the Last Dragon, written when the movie came out of Premier Access, currently sits at a whopping 13 views, whereas my first impression on Encanto, written two days after it came to Disney+, sits at 21 views. Sure, this might just be anecdotal evidence and it's not like I would have gotten massive hits if I was timely with my blogpost on Raya, but it still shows, I got less hits on Raya most likely because I talked about it when the interest had died down.
None of that was actually relevant to the point I'm making, but it does go to show why people would buy into Premier Access, even though it's scummy and is theft in all but legality. However, Disney has put some very big movies behind that paywall, movies like Mulan 2020, Cruella, and Black Widow, which actually got them sued over. So the chances are that Disney might not want to attempt another Premier Access, but that would be assuming that this move would actually hurt Disney in the long run. The point is, that Disney put those movies behind Premier Access, so what does it really mean about them not putting the Pixar movies there? Did they really think they'd get more money telling us the sad story about how one of animations most iconic villains is actually a misunderstood person with a tragic backstory than they would from a Pixar movie?
I realize I'm being very pessimistic here, and that I'm probably over analyzing a bunch of stuff that is actually very meaningless. I do want to be realistic here and acknowledge that this could just be me jumping at shadows, but I can't shake the feeling that Disney is hoping they could have an excuse to axe Pixar. I've seen this before, a video game company would delegate some studios into making games that didn't sell and then shut that studio down citing that they weren't making enough profit. While Hanlon's Razor does state that we should never attribute to malice that which is easily explained by stupidity, there is a point where people only even attempt to get away with some things because they'll know that everyone will shake their heads, call them stupid, and go about the rest of their life. No! EA is smarter than that, Activision is smarter than that, Disney is smarter than that. I don't think this is Disney trying to keep us safe because they clearly have no issues putting other films into the theatres, and I doubt that it's stupidity because we've seen this song and dance before.
I'd love to hear what you all have to say, am I over-reacting? Do I have a leg to stand on in this discussion? Was this all a bunch of nonsense from a worry prone animation fan? I'd like to hear your thoughts on why Pixar movies aren't getting the same treatment as Disney films and whether nor not Disney has anything to gain by keeping Pixar around. I think this can be a fantastic discussion to have.
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