Although Pixar‘s parent company, Disney, has transformed animated classics into more than 20 (and counting) live-action remakes since the 1990s, Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter will not let the computer animation company follow suit.
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.
“No, and this might bite me in the butt for saying it, but it sort of bothers me,” Docter told the publication. “I like making movies that are original and unique to themselves. To remake it, it’s not very interesting to me personally.”
Docter added that making a live-action film about a rat “would be tough” because “so much of what we create only works because of the rules of the [animated] world.”
“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?’” he continued, referring to 2009’s “Up.” “But if you have a cartoon guy and he stands there in the house, you go, ‘Okay, I’ll buy it.’ The worlds that we’ve built just don’t translate very easily.”
Docter’s comments about live-action remakes come ahead of Pixar’s release of “Inside Out 2,” whose box office success, according to the Pixar executive, could 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,” he said.
Part of Pixar’s current strategy to lure audiences into theaters, Docter explained, is to “try to balance our output with more sequels.”
“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.”
Docter added, “On the other hand, they’re almost harder than originals because we can’t do the same idea again. We have to build on it hopefully in ways that people don’t expect.”
Docter, who directed the Pixar films “Monsters, Inc.,” “Up,” “Soul” and “Inside Out,” has served as the studio’s chief creative officer since 2018.
“Inside Out 2” hits theaters June 14.