The Elusive Formula: How Disney Pixar Fails at Great Cultural Representation and How It Can Change

Introduction

Pixar as a company

Pixar Animation Studios is a computer animation studio based in Emeryville California, which developed the first computer-animated feature film, Toy Story, in 1995. Since then it has produced another 24 feature films and multiple short films which never fail to capture universal themes surrounding love, family, individuality, and creativity. In 2006, Pixar was bought by Walt Disney Studios, which had been providing the animation studio with enough funding for most of its movies as far back as 1997. Despite being owned by the gargantuan mouse, Pixar retains a certain level of independence from its parent company, and is often recognized for taking on the riskier projects their parent studio rejects. As such, Pixar has garnered a reputation as a creative and visionary company, boldly stepping outside of Disney’s normative fairy-tale happy endings to focus on more experimental ideas. Examples of these include WALL-E (2007), about a sentient robot left in a post-apocalyptic, desolate Earth; and Up (2009) exploring what happens after the happy ever after is gone. Though many of their movies deal with universal themes and use animals, objects, or even concepts as their main characters (such as 2015’s Inside Out, or 2007’s Ratatouille) being under the Disney umbrella has garnered it some criticism for their lack of diversity and representation both on screen and within their creative teams. In response, Pixar has recently pivoted some of its attention to the exploration of other cultures, starting with Coco in 2017. Today, their latest releases Soul (2020), Luca (2021), and Turning Red (2022) are all explorations of other cultures.

Thesis

Disney Pixar has come a long way regarding representation of cultures outside of white and anglo-saxon within their movies in the past decade. However, the reception of these, in particular Coco, Soul and Luca by people from the portrayed cultures (Mexican, African-American, and Italian respectively) reveal that there is still much room for improvement. The problem stems from the studio’s failure to portray these cultures with the nuance that can only be provided by creatives that come from inside said cultures, ultimately pandering to the vision white American audiences have of these cultures, and accidentally strengthening stereotypes. To correct this issue, Disney Studios -and by extension Pixar- should take the risk to hire diverse creative teams which include, no, which are led by people from the cultural background being represented, not just as consultants but as directors, writers, and producers. Since Pixar’s animation is rarely the object of criticism, as it is pretty great, I will instead be looking at the criticisms raised about the elements of story that members of the represented cultures have had issues with.

Movies Examined

Before diving into the reception of culturally diverse Pixar films, it is important to know what these movies are about, and how they incorporate elements of other cultures. They have been organized in chronological order, according to release year.

Coco directed by Lee Unkrich is a 2017 film about Miguel, a 12-year-old boy with a talent and passion for music, who journeys to the land of the dead in search of his dead great-great-great grandfather in order to get his family’s music ban lifted. This movie is inspired by the Mexican celebration known as Día de los muertos (Day of the dead), a yearly festivity with prehispanic roots that celebrates the life of those that died by honoring them with flowers, altars, and other offerings. The main themes of the movie are the importance of family and forgiveness.

Soul was released during the 2020 pandemic. It is directed by Peter Docter, closely advised by Kemp Powers. The movie stars Pixar’s first Black lead, a man named Joe, who after years of chasing his dream to become a professional Jazz musician finally gets a gig… only to die minutes afterward. Refusing to give up on his dream, Joe travels from the great Beyond to the great Before, where he begrudgingly befriends an unborn spirit known as 22 (played by Tina Fey) and tries to get back to his body on Earth. When he does, he winds up stuck in the body of a cat while 22 gets control of his body. Together they find a person who can switch Joe’s soul back into his body and allow him to play his gig, and in the process give 22 a “life meaning”. The movie’s themes revolve around individualism, what makes life worth living, and dreams versus life purpose.

Finally, Luca directed by Enrico Casarosa, is the story of a young sea monster, Luca Paguro who is curious about what it is like in the world above, which is populated by land monsters. He gets the courage to venture out after befriending Alberto Scorfano, another sea monster who chooses to live on the surface, albeit in isolation. After Luca runs away from home, they both enter a fishermen village race to get enough money to buy a Vespa and run away together. This competition is a relay race consisting of swimming, biking, and pasta-eating, for the third member of their party they enlist Giulia, a local girl whose father is a sea monster hunter. The overarching theme of this movie is friendship and found family.

Audience receptions

Reception by white American audiences

Outside of Soul, which experienced significantly more criticism both from spectators and critics, Pixar’s films have been largely well-received in the United States. The movies were praised for their genuine representations of typically “othered” cultures in American cinema, and congratulated on their imaginative animation and attention to detail. Several articles were written about the steps taken to make the movies as culturally conscious as possible and on all the research that went into developing stories that would resonate both with US audiences and the cultures portrayed. It was acknowledged that the creative teams were largely not part of the cultures represented, but this was quickly brushed aside by highlighting the parts of the movie that were made better by cultural advisors, as well as emphasizing the many actors of color hired for the roles, and the scores inspired by traditional music. Above all, Pixar was praised for managing to tell stories that hold universal messages -the importance of family and friendship, the individual’s desire for greatness and acceptance- through stories centering people outside of their target demographic.

Reception by portrayed cultures

Much like American audiences, the popular reception of Coco in Mexico was overwhelmingly positive. The movie was praised for its attention to detail when fabricating the imaginary town of Santa Cecilia, as well as its depiction of cultural icons such as Frida Kahlo, and use of typical art styles such as papel picado to convey important information. The portrayal of a matriarchal family and the depiction of how family trauma can affect generations was also lauded, with good reason. Mexican people were happy to be represented, but slowly started realizing there were a few underlying problems. For starters, by making the film’s afterlife a society much like that of the living, the movie twisted the very aspect of death that is celebrated in Day of the Dead: that of the great equalizer. The movie completely bypasses important cultural elements of the celebration, such as altar offerings that go out directly to any ghosts who have no altar of their own, and instead create a posthumous society with social tiers derived from how many people remember and honor the dead person. Those who were once famous, culturally significant, or simply get the most offerings are at the top of the pyramid, which is in direct opposition to the actual celebration which highlights how death is the one thing everyone experiences regardless of class, race, economy, and morality. It is an American, consumerist vision that shows a lack of Mexican voices in the creative team.

Another interesting choice that gives away the largely American creative team was the decision to include immigration officers in the afterlife. This was clearly meant as a subtle political message, and in some ways it fulfilled its purpose of acknowledging an issue that has affected both Mexican and American societies, especially one year into Trump’s America. However, what left a bad taste for some Mexicans was the way it was handled, essentially making a series of jokes about the experience of trying to get through the officers without documentation. It reduced the hardships and experiences of thousands to a few funny scenes. It also portrayed the immigration officers as bumbling buffoons for comedic effect. These characters were genuinely funny, but it must also be acknowledged that it paints them in a nicer light than we know to be true, as real immigration officers have been known to be cruel and dehumanizing towards immigrants.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Italian audiences appear to be the least bothered by their Pixar representation. Outside of some articles regarding the reliance on stereotypical depictions of Italian accents and food, there seemed to be a consensus that this was very much what was expected from an American film, and people moved on. It is reasonable to think that perhaps this response has less to do with actual positive representation, and more with Italians being the farthest removed from American culture. After all, they are known to be somewhat immune to their influence. Think how Starbucks took years to make it in the italian market even as it dominated the rest of the world. Simply, Italians appear to have no interest in what Americans specifically think about them, because they are not directly affected by their culture in overt ways, as opposed to Mexican people, being the neighboring country, and Black people, whose culture exists in tandem to other US cultures. Perhaps if Luca had been a French production, the historical and cultural connotations would have produced a different response.

By contrast, Soul, Pixar’s first African-American feature film was perhaps the most criticized of the three movies. Black people throughout the United States have voiced that the movie feels like a “Black movie made with white people in mind” (Pulliam-Moore, 2020), a sentiment all too familiar to Mexican’s critiques of Coco. Critics of Soul praise the technical ability the studio has to make characters that look like realistic Black people, hair texture and all, but are disappointed with the story-crafting aspect of the movie. As mentioned earlier, Soul recounts the story of a Black man aiding an unborn soul (voiced by a white woman) to find meaning and a passion for life. This immediately rings some bells, having a white-savior but also magical negro undertone to it. Another exasperating trope that was pointed out was that the Black character doesn’t get to be both Black and himself for the majority of the movie. Joe spends a significant amount of screentime as a disembodiedblue swirl of toothpaste(Ibid, 2020) soul, and even when his body returns to the screen, Tina Fey’s 22 is the one in the driver’s seat for a lot of the run time. Finally, the movie has been critiqued for just falling into a lot of stereotypes while not really looking into other parts of Black culture. Yes, Jazz is part of Black culture, it is very recognizable, and has been done before in movies. Why could the movie not focus on Black community, which is something that Joe clearly struggles with? Why when making their first African-American movie did Pixar take so little risks in the story?

Questions such as the one posed above prompted some people to look at the creative teams in search for answers. They found that in all three movies most of the creative team was white and American, with only one or two people from the represented culture being a part of the process, and often tacked on only as consultants. This is a problem because although with research anyone can tell a story from any point of view, it doesn’t mean they will portray it as accurately and sincerely as a person who has lived and experienced that culture first hand. Likewise, one or two people will not speak for the majority of that culture, the more people that can voice their views, the more nuanced and accurate the depiction can become. Moving forward, Pixar should perhaps take into consideration this critique, which was voiced for all three films individually, the most. Having people from different backgrounds working on stories portraying their backgrounds will usually make for more honest, compelling, and -paradoxically- universal stories. The studio in fact has already made progress in this regard. Turning Red (2022) is the latest Pixar film which centers around a chinese-canadian teenager exploring the beginnings of adolescence. The movie is directed by Domee Shi, a Chinese-canadian writer and animator, who has been very open about the semi-autobiographical nature of this movie. The story’s themes about friendship, expectations, and the awkwardness of being a teen are relatable to people of many backgrounds, but people of chinese descent have had a positive response to this movie unparalleled to that of Soul, Coco, or Luca.

Conclusion

Pixar was bold in taking the first step towards portraying different cultural groups in their movies. To a large extent they succeeded, people from these cultures hold these movies close to their hearts, and they have even touched members of other marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ+ community. The universal nature of their messages ensure that they are a fun, educational watch for all ages. Their parent company, Disney, is slowly starting to imitate its model with releases such as Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto. However, these films were made mostly by white creators, with a white audience in mind, and sadly this is a limitation that works against the studio by creating an image that is not entirely accurate or endorsed by the culture being portrayed, and even alienating them. Culture is not a monolith, every person’s experience is different, but having creators that are familiar with the culture at the helm of projects with incredible reach and pop culture relevance such as these is a necessity so that stereotypes or hurtful messages can be better avoided.

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