Why Disney Shelved ‘Newt,’ a Movie About an Endangered Species
Pixar and the wider world of Disney animation have delighted fans young and old for decades. For all the talent and know-how throughout the company, some projects just don’t come together the way they want them to. The studio’s most famous unfinished film is Newt, the first Pixar film to be canceled after being publicly announced. While the movie never made it to the big screen, the production did lead to the formation of a modern Pixar classic.
‘Newt’ fell apart during production
Newt was announced during a Disney presentation in 2008. After the reveal, the studio released an official plot synopsis of the story:
“What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can’t stand each other? Newt and Brooke embark on a perilous, unpredictable adventure and discover that finding a mate never goes as planned, even when you only have one choice. Love, it turns out, is not a science.”
You can read more about the characters and see some concept art on SlashFilm.
Newt came from the mind of Gary Rydstrom, who co-wrote the screenplay and was set to direct the picture. Rydstrom gained prominence in the industry as a seven-time Oscar-winning sound designer who worked on blockbusters like Titanic, Jurassic Park, and Saving Private Ryan. His first directorial effort was the Pixar short Lifted, which debuted before Ratatouille while it was in theaters.
No footage was shown of Newt, but there was no reason to suspect that the production was in any real danger. Toy Story 3 included an easter egg of a Newt Crossing sign in Andy’s bedroom in 2010. But that same year, the movie was suddenly canceled. So what happened?
In 2014, Pixar Animation Studios president Ed Catmull went on The Tim Ferris Show, and during their conversation, he shed light on the Newt situation. Pixar’s decision-making is built around the Brain Trust, their in-house creative team of experienced hands that help shepherd movies to completion. When they run into roadblocks, they either restart the process to make changes to the project or abandon the idea altogether. With Newt, they attempted to do the former before admitting defeat and moving on.
“So what do you do when you either abandon [an idea] or restart? In our history, here, we have only abandoned one film,” Catmull said. “The other ones either evolved into what they were, or we did a restart. The one that we abandoned, the only reason we abandoned it is that we realized we needed to bring fresh blood in.”
The movie had a lot in common with another animated animal romcom that was in development at the time
Newt’s production issues were magnified by another concept Pixar was developing at the same time.
“We’ve put movies into development and some get further than others and [when] we feel like things just aren’t quite ready we put them to the side and that’s just been put on a shelf and we’ll see where that goes in the future,” said former Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter to IGN. “Its story was very similar to a movie that’s out in theaters right now with a blue parrot. Oh my! Wow, we were like … no, there was no … great minds think alike, I guess. It was really pretty similar.”
That movie was Fox’s Rio. This animated feature came out in 2011 and also centered on the last two members of a species forced to consider a romantic life together. Both movies also featured an introverted male protagonist and a more charismatic female lead. Once Rio beat Newt to the finish line, there was no way for Pixar’s film to present itself as original to audiences.
The cancelation of ‘Newt’ led to a different great Pixar movie
When Pixar was still trying to make Newt work, they replaced Rydstrom with Pete Doctor as the film’s director. Docter previously directed Monsters Inc. and Up for the studio. However, when it came to Newt, he convinced the rest of the Brain Trust that they should go in a new direction.
“And so the person we brought in said, ‘yes, I will do a restart on the film. But since we’re restarting, I have an idea which I think is even better, which is a completely different idea,'” recalled Catmull on the Tim Ferris Show. “And when he pitched that idea, we said, “you’re absolutely right! That’s a brilliant idea.”
Doctor’s idea was a movie that personified the conflicting emotions a person feels. The final result was Inside Out, one of Pixar’s most successful movies ever, amassing $858.8 million at the global box office.
Losing Newt surely stung, but Rydstrom did get his chance to direct later on. He helmed the English language dubs of several Studio Ghibli titles, the Pixar short “Hawaiian Vacation”, and the 2015 feature Strange Magic.
