Pixar Reduces Workforce by 14% as Disney Enforces Severe Budget Cuts

(ProsperNews.net) – Animation giant Pixar is slashing 14% of its staff amid widespread budget cuts. The Walt Disney-owned company, which produced box office hits including Toy Story, is cutting roughly 175 jobs and significantly reducing its output. The move follows similar cuts earlier this year when 75 employees were laid off, including the executives behind the “woke” Toy Story follow-up, Lightyear. CEO Bob Iger further admitted that Pixar has massively overspent on its streaming service content and has lost billions of dollars as a result.

“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories,” Iger said before noting that this cost the company north of $4 billion.

Last year, parent company Disney cut more than 7,000 jobs globally as it sought to trim costs by more than $5 billion. The cuts were the first decision of returning CEO Iger, who said the company must increase accountability and review the content of its output. Iger also announced changes to the company structure, bringing streaming, production, and distribution under one roof and separating ESPN into a stand-alone unit.

Some commentators remark that Disney and Pixar have slumped at the box office because their releases have become increasingly political. Walt Disney lost its number one box office spot last year to Universal after releasing several movies dismissed as “woke” by conservative critics.

Among these was The Marvels, which featured non-white female leads. Producer Sana Amanat dismissed criticisms as “hate.” The Little Mermaid was subject to a similar backlash when its remake changed the main character and recast her as black. Producers likewise refused to entertain critique and dismissed naysayers as racists.

Elemental, an animation set in the fictional Element City, brought together the four elements – fire, water, earth, and air – as characters who live in the same place while maintaining separate lives. The story sought to address the immigrant experience and featured animation’s first-ever “non-binary” character.