{"id":25974,"date":"2025-03-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=25974"},"modified":"2025-03-04T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T23:17:00","slug":"when-pixar-lost-its-lucky-charm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/when-pixar-lost-its-lucky-charm\/","title":{"rendered":"When Pixar Lost Its Lucky Charm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 6, 2020, Onward<\/em> opened in American cinemas, only to quickly end up on digital platforms when Covid shutdowns became a serious concern (by early April, it was already available on Disney+ in the U.S.). It was the beginning of what came to be perceived as Disney\u2019s lack of respect for its second \u2013 and arguably more successful \u2013 animation studio, as the CEO at the time, Bob Chapek, sent Pixar\u2019s next three films \u2013 Soul<\/em>, Luca<\/em> and Turning Red<\/em> \u2013 straight to streaming (Lightyear<\/em>, released in June 2022, was granted a proper theatrical rollout due to its connection to the Toy Story<\/em> franchise). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the end of an era for the Emeryville-based studio which, at one point, was Disney\u2019s sole reliable and steady source of theatrical income alongside the Pirates of the Caribbean<\/em> franchise, proving Bob Iger had been right when one of his first major decisions as CEO in 2005 was to initiate the acquisition of Pixar. Adding to the transitional feeling, albeit unintentionally, was a detail that gained significance later on: Onward<\/em> put an end to the studio\u2019s 22-movie streak of cameos or supporting roles voiced by the company\u2019s self-described lucky charm, John Ratzenberger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best known to audiences as the know-it-all Cliff Clavin on Cheers<\/em>, Ratzenberger had just completed his 11-year run on the famous sitcom when John Lasseter cast him as the wiseass piggy bank Hamm in Toy Story<\/em>, released in 1995. The friendship between the filmmaker \u2013 who oversaw every single Pixar project until 2017 \u2013 and the actor led to Ratzenberger becoming a regular presence in the studio\u2019s output, putting him head and shoulders above other members of the company\u2019s voice acting family (for comparison, the second most prolific performer, Bonnie Hunt, has only 8 titles under her belt, most recently 2019\u2019s Toy Story 4<\/em>). He also lent his voice to the two Planes<\/em> films, which were not made by Pixar but take place in the Cars<\/em> universe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So ubiquitous was Ratzenberger, Pixar felt comfortable joking about it only seven movies into their collaboration: during the end credits of Cars<\/em> (another end-of-an-era film, namely the last one the company produced independently before being acquired by Disney), the characters are watching \u201cautomobile\u201d versions of previous Pixar films. Mack, voiced by Ratzenberger, complains about the \u201ccut-rate\u201d production value once he realizes all three films feature the same supporting actor, who sounds suspiciously familiar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the years went on, spotting Ratzenberger (whose roles were usually cameos outside of the Toy Story<\/em> and Cars<\/em> franchises, as well as A Bug\u2019s Life<\/em>) became the Pixar equivalent of recognizing Stan Lee in the Marvel movies. Unsurprisingly, as estimated by box office website The Numbers, when one includes cameos and voice work, Lee and Ratzenberger are currently first and third on the list of the most successful actors of all time<\/a>, unadjusted for inflation (Samuel L. Jackson falls in between the two). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 2017, Lasseter \u2013 who was overseeing both Pixar and Disney Animation at the time \u2013 took a leave of absence, following accusations of inappropriate behavior, and exited both companies permanently at the end of 2018. Ironically, four of the Pixar films released after his departure \u2013 and all greenlit by him, due to the time it takes to complete such movies – deal with complicated relationships between parents and their children, inadvertently symbolizing the studio\u2019s need to move forward in his absence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Ratzenberger failed to report for duty in Soul<\/em> (although a minor character was drawn to resemble him), fans wrote it off as a singular occurrence. When his voice was nowhere to be found in subsequent movies, some speculated his political stance \u2013 he\u2019s a known Republican, although he did take part in an ad campaign against Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on mail-in voting \u2013 may have played a role, similar to other self-declared conservative actors who claim to have lost work in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This turned out to not be the case, as Ratzenberger has reprised some of his old roles (Inside Out 2<\/em>, the Disney+ series Monsters at Work<\/em>, probably the upcoming Toy Story 5<\/em>). However, he\u2019s unlikely to ever voice new characters for the studio, owing to his friendship with Lasseter and his dislike of the new management (as he reportedly said last year<\/a>). In fact, he has jumped ship with the former Pixar boss, lending his talents to the Skydance Animation films Luck<\/em> and Spellbound<\/em>. Much like the company that gave him his break as a voice actor, he\u2019s headed in the direction hinted at by the film that marked the end of their uninterrupted collaboration: onward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The studio\u2019s 22nd animated feature, released in March 2020, was the end of an era in more ways than one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":625,"featured_media":25975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-looking-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25977,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25974\/revisions\/25977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}