Pixar Boss Says No Live-Action Remakes: ‘I Like Making Movies that are Original’

Published: June 13, 2024

Pixar Boss Says No Live-Action Remakes: ‘I Like Making Movies that are Original’

By Movieguide® Contributor

Pixar Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter, does not like the idea of live-action remakes of Pixar-animated movies.

“In a recent interview with Time, Docter was asked if he’d ever consider developing live-action versions of Pixar’s films after a fan campaign to cast Josh O’Connor (CHALLENGERS, THE CROWN) in a live-action RATATOUILLE started trending online,” Variety reported Wednesday.

“No, and this might bite me in the butt for saying it, but it sort of bothers me,” Docter said. “I like making movies that are original and unique to themselves. To remake it, it’s not very interesting to me personally.”

He notes that a real-life version of RATATOULLIE would be difficult.

The Time reporter agreed, adding it would be difficult to make a realistic-looking rat “cute.”

“So much of what we create only works because of the rules of the [animated] world,” he said. “So if you have a human walk into a house that floats, your mind goes, ‘Wait a second. Hold on. Houses are super heavy. How are balloons lifting the house?’”

“But if you have a cartoon guy and he stands there in the house, you go, ‘Okay, I’ll buy it,” he said, referring to Pixar’s UP. “The worlds that we’ve built just don’t translate very easily.”

Audience’s response to Pixar’s next animation, INSIDE OUT 2, which comes out June 14, will determine the future of the studio.

“If [INSIDE OUT 2] doesn’t do well at the theater, I think it just means we’re going to have to think even more radically about how we run our business,” Docter said. The movie will help “try to balance our output with more sequels,” he added.

Movieguide® recently reported on Pixar’s strategy:

After a turbulent past few years, Pixar is focusing on sequels to help the studio make up lost revenue.

A new report from Bloomberg stated that the studio will be moving away from Disney+ releases and stand-alone stories and instead will put their power behind theatrical releases and sequels to existing content, like the upcoming INSIDE OUT 2, or proposed follow-ups to hits like FINDING NEMO and THE INCREDIBLES.

Pixar President Jim Morris explained the plan, saying that Pixar will aim to make three movies every two years, “with every other title a sequel or spinoff and the rest standalone concepts or potential seeds for [a] new franchise.”

“It’s hard. Everybody says, ‘Why don’t they do more original stuff?’ And then when we do, people don’t see it because they’re not familiar with it,” he said. “With sequels, people think, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that. I know that I like it.’ Sequels are very valuable that way.”

Just because people are familiar with sequels, it doesn’t make them easy to create.

“On the other hand, they’re almost harder than originals because we can’t do the same idea again,” Docter explained. “We have to build on it hopefully in ways that people don’t expect.”

While Pixar doesn’t plan to jump on the remake bandwagon, plenty of other Disney animated movies have been remade into real-life pics. ALADDIN, THE LITTLE MERMAID and 101 DALMATIANS are some of them, to name a few.

Inside the Magic reported last year that HERCULES, MUFASA: THE LION KING, LILO & STITCH, BAMBI, THE SWORD IN THE STONE, ROBIN HOOD, THE ARISTOCATS, HUNCHBACK and MOANA all have live-action remakes in their future.