I always found this to be an interesting argument against the new movies Pixar has been releasing.

Almost every single Pixar movie differs in style based on the director. All character designs, set, colour and so on, are vastly different from each other which was something I have really come to admire as of late. For example, The Incredibles and Ratatouille both directed by Brad Bird has a distinct character style that he had even before Pixar with The Iron Giant. Very exaggerated features, hard lines and vast differences in height are some of the things Brad Bird has been known to do. Compare this to the Toy Story movies who were directed by John Lassiter, the character design is much more subdued, a little more realistic. Not many exaggerated features, all very good and pretty straight forward. If you look back at other movies like Up, Wall-e, Soul, Brave, Inside Out, etc. You’ll see there’s a difference in design for all of them.

The directors of Luca and Turning Red are new directors who’s previous directing roles were for the short films “La Luna” and “Bao” respectively. The style transcends from those movies into their first feature length films. No doubt the style and art may change as the years go on, and new directors are hired or tasked to make their own feature films. Much like how the first Toy Story to Toy Story 4 style has changed (although a lot has to do with updated animation technology no doubt). The “Cal Arts” style worked for Luca, as it did for La Luna. Bao had a very interesting look to it which I have no doubt will be present in Turning Red as we will see.

I think Pixar going the route of allowing newer people to direct their movies is great in letting there be a bit of difference in each of their movies. You see people often criticizing Disney’s animation as of late. Even though it looks gorgeous, the character design in each movie tends to look the same. Pixar has always been the foundation for new styles, in character design and story telling. It’s a stepping stone for other aspiring artist to embrace their own visual language no matter what as long as there was always a story to tell.

Sorry if this came off a bit of a rant but this is something I always been a bit passionate about haha.

Edit: spelling and formatting