Pixar’s Newt cancelled

The Pixar Blog got the exclusive news yesterday that Pixar’s upcoming animated film Newt has been axed. After rumours began back in February due to a comment made by insider Floyd Norman on a post over at the Animation Guild Blog, Newt had reportedly been removed from Disney archivist Dave Smith’s May 2010 edition of the Disney A to Z. Mike at the Pixar Blog followed up on this, and received an email from Smith: “The film has been cancelled.”

The film had potential to be another Pixar hit, being directed by Gary Rydstrom (who helmed the hilarious short film Lifted) and written by Rydstrom along with Leslie Caveny, who was a writer on Everybody Loves Raymond. Originally slated for release in 2011, Newt was pushed back to 2012 in order to make way for Cars 2, which was brought forward to 2011. However, with Brave (a.k.a. The Bear and the Bow) and the recently-announced Monsters, Inc. 2 now looking at 2012 releases – many were uncertain of Newt‘s future. And now, it looks like it doesn’t have one.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t terribly excited about Newt. While it may have ended up a great film (and I’m sure it would have; I trust Pixar), the concept itself wasn’t enough to really grab me. Unlike WALL-E, for instance. The leaked concept art wasn’t much to go on, and the story of the last remaining blue-footed newts being forced together by science, in order to save the species…I don’t know. Something just didn’t click for me. But as I said, I probably would’ve changed my mind come release.

The thing that annoys me most about this cancellation is that an original effort has been bulldozed in order to make way for sequels. Toy Story 3. Cars 2. Monsters Inc, 2. The upcoming Pixar schedule is now full of them, and most of them seem unnecessary. It seems like the studio is becoming just like the rest of Hollywood… In fact, Brave is now the only announced Pixar film without a number on the end of it. I’m severely disappointed.