There’s an argument to be made that Pixar as a studio has struggled of late and that few of its recent films belong among the best Pixar movies. I’m still a massive fan of Pixar as a studio, though, and their recent updates about Toy Story 5 and a brand new movie have me excited.
Pixar’s Pete Docter recently appeared at the Annecy animation conference (via THR), where they presented details on the upcoming Pixar movies that we’re all looking forward to. This included info on the films that we already knew were coming, like Toy Story 5, but more excitingly, we also got the first details on a brand new, completely original film.
Toy Story 5 Reveals New Tablet Character
We’ve known the general premise of the new Toy Story film, which will be written and directed by Pixar’s Andrew Stanton. It will see something of a battle between traditional toys and technology as Bonnie begins to have her attention split between the two. The technology side of things will be represented by a new character named Lillypad, a tablet, which becomes Bonnie’s new favorite activity.
Toy Story 5 is one of those movies that fans are, at best, cautiously optimistic about. There’s been a feeling that Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending, and yet, Toy Story 4 was the highest-grossing movie in the series. We can be sure that fans will be at least curious about this one, but for fans less into Pixar’s franchises, there’s more to be excited about.
Pixar’s Upcoming Gatto Sounds Incredible
In addition to Toy Story 5, we knew that Pixar was also working on Incredibles 3, which recently confirmed its director in Peter Sohn. It also has one original concept in development, the movie Hoppers. At Annency, Pixar balanced the sequels vs. originals scale by revealing another original idea, Gatto.
Gatto comes from Luca director Enrico Casarosa and focuses on a black cat named Nero living in Venice who is afraid of water. Nero is indebted to a feline mob boss and forges an unexpected friendship with a street musician. The film is set for release in 2027.
It’s a simple premise, and all we have to give us an idea of Gatto is a single piece of concept art, but I love the idea, if only because it’s a brand new idea from Pixar. I have nothing against franchises. They can make Toy Story movies until the heat death of the universe. But in order to build successful franchises, you must first have a successful original idea, so it’s great to see Pixar not losing sight of this fact.
Pixar’s next original movie, Elio, hits theaters next weekend. The early reactions to Elio from critics have been broadly positive, though it’s unclear what sort of box office impact the movie will have. Pixar’s original films have continued to struggle with audiences, though it doesn’t appear that’s going to keep them from making them.