While the decision to move the upcoming Pixar film “Turning Red” to an exclusive release on Disney+ may be good for subscribers, it’s impacted morale at the beloved animation studio, according to Insider’s Jason Guerrasio.
A staff member at Pixar told Guerrasio, “It’s safe to say that we’re all feeling extremely disappointed. Until today, we all thought ‘Turning Red’ would be our return to the big screen, and everyone at the studio was so excited about it being this film in particular. It was quite a blow.”
Despite the disappointment, there also seemed to be an understanding behind the decision, as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to run rampant, deterring many people from going to movie theaters at the moment. A second staffer added that the move came as a “shock,” but later noted, “[It] sucks, but I get it.” A third specifically noted Omicron as a reason why they’ve accepted this move: “With Omicron infections so high, I haven’t heard anyone say the decision to pivot to streaming is wrong.”
The last Pixar film to premiere exclusively in theaters was “Onward” in March 2020. Since then, “Soul” and “Luca” became Disney+ exclusives. As of the writing of this article, no decision has been announced to move “Lightyear,” the next film from Pixar, from its scheduled theatrical release beginning June 17.
“Turning Red” premieres on Disney+ on March 11.
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See a lot of families going to theaters right now?
Encanto should have done the same thing
But they did. After a short theatrical run (like it was literally like a month or so), they put it on Disney+ and look at the audience it has now.
This thankfully isn’t a death sentence for the film. Hope it can at least gain some success from this.
As thus article shows there is two sides to every story. While they were disappointed by the decision, they understand the reason behind it. With the Omnicron variant out there, it’s going to be difficult to be around crowded people again. In fact from what I heard the same is with Chapek as he has made to make some hard decisions, yet it was to help the company survive the Pandemic. So everyone stop being mean to him. Maybe you can interview him about it.
There’s more chance of Disney going back to free Fastpass than there is Chapek giving an interview to WDWNT.
Maybe they moved it because anyone with a brain saw that it was going to bomb.
100% agree
Let’s be honest… this movie looked like a “Direct to DVD” type of movie. Does not look good.