Pixar has made it clear that it won’t shift to making live-action remakes of its movies, and this stance makes perfect sense for the studio. Live-action remakes of animated movies are a trend that has taken over Disney in recent years, though not with the best results. While some of these remakes have succeeded with critics or viewers (though rarely with both), they continue to be controversial and divisive as many find them to be completely unnecessary and even disrespectful to their animated versions, as many are now considered classics.

Despite these failures, Disney continues developing more live-action remakes of its animated movies, so naturally, this has raised questions about other studios, mostly Pixar, possibly following those steps. To the relief of most, Pixar’s Chief Content Officer, Peter Docter, said Pixar isn’t interested in live-action remakes of its movies, favoring original stories. While this puts an end to speculation on live-action remakes of specific Pixar movies (mostly Ratatouille), Pixar’s stance against these remakes makes perfect sense, and it’s for the benefit of the studio, its content, quality, and legacy.

A Lot Of Pixar’s Movies Wouldn’t Work As Live-Action Remakes

Pixar Movies Have Elements Unique To Animation

Pixar’s reign in the world of animation began in 1995 with Toy Story, directed by John Lasseter. Toy Story was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, and gave the world a taste of the type of movies that Pixar would continue to produce. At the time of writing, Pixar has made 28 movies, all of them with the “Pixar formula” that has proven to be successful, as it allows the studio to create emotional but entertaining stories that deliver a moral/life lesson, though, arguably, some movies ended up being hurt by this formula.

However, Pixar’s movies mostly stand out for their outstanding animation and the quality of this, as well as for their fantasy elements, which have led to many of them lacking human leads. Pixar has asked “what if [this] had consciousness/feelings” and applied it to a variety of objects, animals, and creatures, starting with “what if toys had feelings” in Toy Story and going into more complex territory with Inside Out as emotions also had feelings. This has led Pixar to make movies about talking insects and other animals, sentient cars, monsters who live in a world parallel to the human one, and more.

Pixar has also gone through more philosophical paths with movies like Soul, explored life after death in Coco, and visited a fantasy, medieval-like world in Onward, all of which worked in an animated context but wouldn’t really work in live-action. Remaking Pixar’s movies in live-action form would require a lot of CGI to make animals, cars, planes, monsters and more come to life, taking away the charm of the original movies and resulting in some truly weird movies.

Pixar’s Animated Movies Are Already Great

Pixar Doesn’t Need To Remake Any Of Its Movies

Just like Disney’s live-action remakes have been labeled as “unnecessary” due to the legacy of their original animated versions, the same would happen if Pixar made live-action remakes of its movies. Pixar already has a place in film and animation history thanks to Toy Story, and though it has had less successful and forgettable movies, the studio is still synonymous with high visual and narrative quality, contributing to its incredible legacy. Most of Pixar’s movies are now classics, while others are on their way to that status but are already great and iconic, so there’s no need to remake them in any shape or form.

Remaking Pixar’s movies wouldn’t bring any benefits to the studio beyond more money for Disney, and it’s not like the Mouse House needs more in its pocket. Given how unique Pixar’s movies are and their legacy, their live-action remakes aren’t guaranteed to succeed at the box office, so they would be an even bigger risk for the studio.

Pixar Can Focus On Original Stories Instead Of Live-Action Remakes

Pixar’s Focus Is On The Right Path

By leaving live-action remakes completely out, Pixar can continue to fully focus on original stories. Pixar already has franchises, the biggest one being Toy Story, followed by The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Inside Out, so live-action remakes would be redundant. Pixar will continue expanding its franchises with more sequels, but it also keeps bringing original stories. Although some of its sequels have been a hit, Pixar has found more success in original stories, and they should continue to be the studio’s main focus. If Pixar can learn something from Disney, especially in recent years, it’s that live-action remakes aren’t always a good idea.