Despite the unrelenting pace at which its parent company, Disney, has been transforming animated hits into live-action remakes (coming soon: Mufasa: The Lion King, Moana, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lilo & Stitch, Bambi, and more), Pixar has yet to take the plunge. And if Pete Docter has his way, live-action Pixar remakes actually won’t ever happen.
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The company’s chief creative officer (as well as the director of Monsters Inc., Soul, Inside Out, and Up) spoke to Time about various issues currently swirling around the famed studio. That includes the push and pull between creating films based on original ideas versus creating spin-offs and sequels that draw on familiar works; the latter is something Pixar fervently hopes will bear box-office fruit with this weekend’s Inside Out 2.
“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,” Docter explained to the magazine. But one thing we won’t be seeing are any Disney-style, live-action remakes of Pixar classics. In fact, Docter said he would not even consider the idea, viral Ratatouille remake campaigns be damned. (Here’s the backstory on that situation, via IndieWire.)
“This might bite me in the butt for saying it, but it sort of bothers me. I like making movies that are original and unique to themselves. To remake it, it’s not very interesting to me personally,” he explained. He also pointed out that “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?’ 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.”
Inside Out 2 hits theaters Friday, June 14.
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