For many animation fans, recent Pixar films like Elio evoke a feeling that’s just… different from the studio’s earlier classics. While still visually stunning and often charming, there’s a sense that something has fundamentally shifted since the days of toys, monsters, and fish ruling the screen. This isn’t just nostalgia; it reflects a deliberate, and sometimes challenging, evolution in Pixar’s storytelling focus. Welcome to what some are calling Pixar’s “Human Era.”
The Magic of “Secret Worlds” and the Parenting Metaphor
For over a decade, Pixar built its sterling reputation on exploring compelling “secret worlds.” Toy Story invited us into the hidden lives of toys, a concept so irresistible it became a template. We saw the unseen societies of bugs (A Bug’s Life), the professional fright-givers of Monsters, Inc., the vast ocean teeming with Finding Nemo‘s marine life, the quirky towns of Cars, and even the culinary aspirations of a rat in Ratatouille.
This focus on non-human characters wasn’t just a creative choice; it was partly practical. In Pixar’s early years, computer animation technology struggled to convincingly render realistic human characters compared to traditional hand-drawn methods. Creating stylized bugs, monsters, or cars was simply more visually feasible and appealing to audiences at the time.
Alongside these imaginative worlds, early Pixar often leaned heavily on another powerful narrative tool: the parenting metaphor. Stories frequently revolved around characters learning the joys and pains of raising or letting go of “children,” whether it was Woody grappling with Andy growing up, Sully caring for Boo, Marlin searching for Nemo, or even Joy acting as a de facto mother figure to Riley’s other emotions in Inside Out.
The Gradual Shift to Human Protagonists
While non-human characters dominated, humans weren’t entirely absent from early Pixar. The Incredibles featured a family of superheroes, though their caricatured proportions made them feel more like living action figures than typical people. Wall-E‘s future humans were intentionally blob-like, and earlier depictions in that film used live-action. Films like Up and Brave made further inroads with human leads.
Inside Out (2015) represented a significant step. While the main characters were personified emotions, the emotional core of the film centered entirely on Riley, a human girl navigating a difficult transition. Her well-being was paramount, setting the stage for more human-focused narratives.
The “Human Era” Arrives (Post-2017)
The true turning point came in 2017 with Coco. This vibrant exploration of Mexican culture and the afterlife featured human characters as the central focus. Since Coco, the majority of Pixar’s original films (Soul, Luca, Turning Red, Elio) have prominently featured human protagonists. Even Lightyear reimagined a Toy Story character as a human space ranger.
This shift reflects Pixar’s increasing mastery of animating and styling human characters, moving them from the periphery to the core of their stories. These films often center on coming-of-age experiences, directly engaging with the lives of young people in the audience. Correspondingly, the dominant parenting metaphor has become less universal, with the focus shifting to the internal and external journeys of the child or teenager themselves.
Successes and Depth in the New Era
This focus on human experience has led to some of Pixar’s most acclaimed recent works. Coco, Luca, and Turning Red are celebrated for their depth and specificity. Luca is praised for its unhurried pace and focus on the bond between its leads in their human forms, capturing an intimacy reminiscent of Studio Ghibli. Turning Red is lauded for its specific cultural context and honest portrayal of early teenage emotions, framing Mei’s transformation into a red panda as a puberty metaphor from her own perspective.
The exploration of human emotion is also becoming more psychologically grounded. Inside Out 2, for instance, didn’t just invent new emotions; it consulted with psychologists to introduce complex adolescent feelings like Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui. The film delves into the challenging experience of teenage anxiety, depicting panic attacks and the struggle to form a complex “sense of self” that accepts contradictions. Experts who consulted on the film see it as a valuable tool for understanding adolescent mental health, highlighting how modern Pixar can tackle deeply internal, human struggles with nuance.
Beyond feature films, the TV series Win or Lose, focusing on a kids’ softball team, is another example of the studio’s strength in non-fantastical, human-centric storytelling, demonstrating that Pixar can excel even without secret worlds or overt magic.
The Challenges of Being Human
However, the shift to human leads isn’t without its pitfalls. Placing recognizable human characters at the center of the story invites a different kind of scrutiny. Unlike the “secret world” films where formulaic plots could be somewhat masked by dazzling animation and imaginative concepts, human characters are implicitly compared to real people and characters in other media.
This can make weaknesses more visible. A somewhat generic human protagonist, like Elio‘s title character despite his intriguing setup, can feel less compelling when compared to the more distinctive, non-human leads of earlier films or even the well-developed humans in other recent Pixar successes like Turning Red.
Moreover, attempts to blend human stories with fantastical elements can sometimes feel strained. While beautiful to look at, films like Elemental have been criticized for metaphors (like immigrant experiences told through fire and water elements) that feel labored or muddled compared to the more grounded character dynamics seen in films like Turning Red or Win or Lose.
There’s also a critical perspective that argues some Pixar films, both old and new, suffer from an “emotional uncanny valley,” inducing sadness that feels manipulative or disproportionate. This critique points to scenes like Jessie’s abandonment in Toy Story 2 or Bing Bong’s fate in Inside Out as creating trauma for characters in hypothetical situations, arguing such sadness lacks practical value for a child’s emotional growth. This highlights that while Inside Out 2 aims for psychologically grounded emotion, other films might still fall into perceived emotional excess.
The Evolving Landscape of Pixar
Ultimately, the feeling that “new Pixar” is different stems largely from this conscious evolution towards a “Human Era.” While early Pixar thrived on exploring external, secret worlds and universal parenting themes, contemporary Pixar is increasingly focused on the internal landscape and specific experiences of human (particularly young human) characters.
This shift allows for new forms of depth, nuance, and psychological exploration, leading to critically acclaimed films like Coco, Luca, and Turning Red. However, it also means that when the characters are less developed, the metaphors feel forced, or compromises are made (whether creative or corporate), the flaws are more exposed and feel, ironically, “more human.” The magic is still there in their best work, but the arena has changed, and audiences are navigating this new emotional and narrative terrain alongside the studio itself.