The real reason why Pixar's Newt was cancelled

After speculation regarding Pixar’s canned project ‘Newt’ - a film that was meant to begin production in 2011 - their company president Ed Catmull has revealed the true reasons why it never went ahead.

As Catmull expresses in an article he wrote on balancing commerce with art, he admits that when the creative team come up with an idea ‘at some point, all our movies suck — they really do’, which is where the decision is ultimately made whether it’s viable to progress with or get scrapped.

Problems From The Beginning
To this day, just one Pixar concept (to public knowledge, anyway) has begun its life only to be cancelled, and Catmull had some interesting revelations on ‘Newt’ and an explanation. Even though the premise seemed like Pixar could’ve had another hit on its hands, that wasn’t the mindset they had. “Newt was another unlikely idea that wasn’t working”, he said, after mentioning how both ‘Ratatouille’ and ‘Toy Story 2’ had been restarted after unimpressive pitches.

Pete Docter’s Involvement
Aside from the beautiful concept art and a vague and typically Pixar story in circulation, there wasn’t much else revealed about ‘Newt’. However, Catmull goes on to say: “When we gave it to somebody new [Pete Docter, director of Up], he said, “I’ll do it, but I have another idea altogether, which I think is better.” And we thought it was better too [Docter’s concept was the basis of Inside Out, which he is directing for a 2015 release]. That was the reason we didn’t continue with Newt.”

So it seems that its initial director, Gary Rydstrom (who helmed the short ‘Lifted’) was an out-of-favour choice, making way for arguably one of Pixar’s most successful and experienced storytellers. Docter, who also directed ‘Monsters, Inc.’, wanted to develop ‘Newt’ into his ‘Inside Out’ idea, so seems that this new story took over and began a life of its own, albeit materialising several years later.

Contributing Factors
Even though Catmull declares this was the sole reason for ‘Newt’s’ abandonment, there were likely other factors, too. Firstly, caution may have been expressed over its uniqueness, as in 2011, when production was due to begin; both ‘Rio’ and ‘Rango’ were released prior to summer. If you compare all three, there’s the possibility of them looking kind of similar, when Pixar pride themselves on doing something totally original with their features.

Its cancellation is a likely combo of all these factors, as well as Rydstrom’s apparent lack of feature experience. But specifically Catmull’s acknowledgement that Docter’s idea for the film was much better obviously took precedent over ‘Newt’s’ existing story that couldn’t have been shaping up too well. Still, it’s quite the revelation that Docter was drafted in with his concept that’ll come to fruition next year.

What do you think about this news regarding the cancellation of ‘Newt’?

Mike indulges in all genres, with a particular affinity for animation — specifically Pixar. His favourite films include ‘Toy Story’, ‘Lost In Translation’, ‘The Shining’ and ‘Jurassic Park’. For more thoughts on movies and other such frivolity, follow him on Twitter.