Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney’s animated future has been put to the test. The rise of high-quality direct-to-Disney+ films ended up hurting Disney Animation and Pixar Animation’s box office results.
Since 2020, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation have released Soul, Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca, Encanto, and Turning Red. All five are distinct original films but only two were shown in theaters and brought in a muted box office given the times. Pixar’s big return to theaters would be Lightyear, a Toy Story spinoff. Strange World would be Walt Disney Animation Studios’ third theatrical outing since the pandemic but its first outing where there weren’t audience concerns about going to theaters. Strange World is a film that will forever be a strange marketing case study. Strange World got screwed by being shoved in between Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water. Also, Disney’s lack of buzz for it didn’t give general audiences much reason to care.
Both Lightyear and Strange World didn’t perform. Lightyear made $226M worldwide, and Strange World made just $73M. Big-time box office bombs especially when you consider the level of budgets Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios receive.
Bob Iger would return to Disney as CEO, and people were starting to wonder how Iger would address Disney’s animated woes.
Due to the weaker box office returns, Iger would announce three new animated projects on Disney’s Q1 call. He would reveal Frozen III, Zootopia 2, and Toy Story 5 we’re all in development. What was supposed to be this reassuring announcement came off as almost reactionary and unsettling. Especially when you consider Elemental and Wish, two more original animated films that will premiere later this year seem to be predestined not to be successful.
Lightyear and Strange World sounded the alarms. Maybe Disney’s strategy of releasing high-quality animated films on Disney+ taught families to just wait for the films on Disney+ instead of going to theaters. That definitely played an issue. The rumor is that Elemental and Wish will have longer windows at the box office to try to discontinue this theory among the general audiences. It’s a smart call and a necessary one.
Disney’s prioritizing Toy Story 5, Zootopia 2, and Frozen III indeed however falls into its strategy of focusing on core franchises. Although for a while now it feels like Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios were really the only studios cranking out original new worlds and developing new IPs. Disney’s live-action studio mostly remakes animated classics or adapts theme park attractions. Disney’s other studios like Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm already adapt from their own IPs.
I hope we continue to see new films out of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Heck, Pixar is on a hot streak in my opinion outside of Lightyear. Soul, Luca, and Turning Red was a nice three-film stretch. I believe we will see more original films but there definitely is a sequel focus coming into view due to box-office worries.
When it comes to the sequel announcement I think its so-so reception comes down to what was actually announced.
Toy Story 5 wasn’t on anyone’s list. Both Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 had great endings. I can’t see how you do a fifth installment unless you shift the focus to a new crop of characters but even that wouldn’t make sense as Disney is clearly only making Toy Story 5 as a box office move.
Although after Lightyear I wouldn’t have gone back to the Toy Story well so soon. There are other Pixar properties that may have been able to deliver you guaranteed box office results with more intriguing story options (Inside Out 2 is a sequel that could end up working well as it’s been a long time since the first film and the sequel could have an interesting story if done right).
Toy Story 5 at the end of the day feels like the most blatantly unnecessary film. Woody and Buzz could’ve easily lived on with a Disney+ series or heck even Pixar Special Presentations. Also, by the time Toy Story 5 comes out will it have been enough time since Toy Story 4 in 2019? Will it be enough time since Lightyear? If Toy Story 5 was coming out in 2039 then we’re having a different conversation. Pete Docter publicly addressed Lightyear’s shortcomings and also said that Toy Story 5 does some surprising things. I just find it bizarre Disney decided to go down this path, I know why they are but just seems like it may not be worth it in the end.
Zootopia 2 on paper makes sense. That film made a lot of money. It made $1 billion worldwide, and it’s been consistent on the streaming charts. I’m sure someone has been pushing for Disney to do more with this franchise for a long time. Yet despite having a rabid fanbase, the film came out in 2016 which was a much different time in the world. Will audiences come back out for a Zotoopia sequel? Will China come back out for it? Disney has Zootopia plans for its parks so there is an aspect of synergy when it comes to the sequel.
Frozen III is the only sequel that feels like it makes sense in this batch. Frozen II continued the story, and made money at the box office. Disney was never going to end the Frozen series at just two films. It always seemed like it was going to be a trilogy. It’s just baffling that the perfect time to announce Frozen III was at D23 Expo 2022. Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad we’re all named Disney Legends. Why not announce the third film there? No one wanted to help Bob Chapek score an easy win? A Frozen III announcement works better at D23 Expo not on a Disney Q1 call as a reaction to box office bombs. Still have no clue why they didn’t announce it during Expo. Just make sure Frozen III has a behind-the-scenes documentary about it.
Bob Iger’s big decree when he returned was that creativity was coming back to the forefront. Yet in one of his first big announcements, he announces a sequel surplus. It creates quite a dilemma. Restoring creativity and putting more faith in creative teams just to announce random sequels feel like two very different things. I think Iger should’ve just said that he believes the creative teams should decide where their content goes but I understand why he did a big spiel about creativity so he could easily set his second run apart from Chapek’s tenure.
The pressure is now on for Elemental, Wish, and Elio to perform. Because it seems like our next few animated films will be sequels; Inside Out 2, Zootopia 2, Frozen III, and Toy Story 5. Unless Disney announces more original animated films. Which begs the question did anything original get delayed at Pixar or at Walt Disney Animation Studios due to these announcements?
Was this sequel surplus announcement just the tip of the iceberg? Can we expect more announcements like this? I don’t know for sure all I do know is that expect more Bob Iger news drops during these quarterly calls.
At the end of the day, the move to announce these sequels may have reassured Wall Street that blockbuster animated films are coming back to Disney. The move might’ve reassured Wall Street, but it didn’t reassure fans.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
