Bob Iger Weighs in on Pixar’s Recent Failings
By Movieguide® Contributor
In a recent interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger spoke about the Disney enterprise and recent failures, specifically Pixar animation.
“There were three Pixar releases in a row that went direct to streaming, mostly because of Covid, and I think that may have created an expectation in the audience that they’re going to eventually be on streaming and probably quickly, and there wasn’t an urgency,” Iger said. “And then, I think you’d have to agree, that there were some creative misses as well.”
Iger also acknowledged that Disney as a business has encountered both “peaks and valleys” in its success, and right now there is no peak.
“If you look at [Walt Disney’s] history, there were peaks and there were valleys,” he stated. “Every valley was followed by a peak. I studied it very carefully.”
“It’s true in my predecessor Michael Eisner’s days too, great halcyon days of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and LITTLE MERMAID and LION KING and just this tremendous success, and then there’s a dip.” Iger continued, “I’m not suggesting we’re necessarily in that, but I’m also not suggesting we’re at a peak either. We have some work to do there in terms of improving our creative output.”
According to an article published on the Wrap, the recent Pixar movie ELEMENTAL had one of the worst box office ratings in Pixar history but has since picked up and now grossed more than $250 million.
Despite Iger’s statement that movies that go directly to streaming platforms have something to do with this “dip,” there may be more to it than that. A recent Movieguide® article shared how the lack of family morals and decline in Christian values from Disney may contribute to why “the broad audience of moviegoers [is] turning a cold shoulder toward Disney’s new theatrical movies.”
The article states:
“In its first 100 years, Disney built its brand as being the most family-friendly movie studio and entertainment company in the world. However, in the last five years, Disney seems to have forgotten their own brand. Due to pressure from lobbying groups in Hollywood, much of the newer movies have embraced anti-family agendas. Unfortunately, this includes a significant amount of anti-biblical themes.”
A portion of Movieguide®’s review of the most recent Disney/Pixar hiccup, ELEMENTAL, shares that “the movie sometimes veers into identity politics and woke memes, including a same-sex couple that appears in one important scene, but there are five other couples who are heterosexual, with three of them being married.”
Iger believes that the solution to the dip is “Spending less on what we make and making less.”
If Disney went back to its roots of traditional family morals and values, that would also likely help.
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