Pixar, the animation studio partnered with the Walt Disney Company, is glorious with its movies, such as “Inside Out,” “Incredibles,” “Soul,” “Bao,” “Luca,” “Cars,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Brave,” “Elemental,” “Up,” and many other favorites.
Until fans noticed that Pixar is seemingly trying hard to be Grubhub. Here’s the scoop.
There’s a new miniseries on Disney+
In case you are not aware, there’s a new miniseries now on Disney+ from Pixar. It’s called “Win or Lose.”
“Win or Lose” is the first-ever original long-form animated series of Pixar Animation Studios. It follows Pickles, a co-ed middle school softball team, in the week toward their championship match.
Each episode offers viewers an inside look into the off-the-field life of a character – either a player, their parent, or the umpire, among others – unveiling their funny, emotional, and always relatable point of view in a distinct visual style.
It is created, written, and directed by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates. The stellar cast includes Will Forte, Ian Chen, Izaac Wang, Jo Firestone, and Milan Ray. The cast list also has Josh Thomson, Erin Keif, Rosie Foss, Rosa Salazar, Chanel Stewart, Dorien Watson, Lil Rel Howery, Flula Borg, Kyliegh Curran, Jaylin Fletcher, Tom Law, Beck Nolan, Orion Tran, and Rhea Seehorn.
However, “Win or Lose” is creating a controversy that fans of food delivery services are not wanting.
The controversy
Despite the favorable reviews, the Disney animated series is generating controversies that are only scattering if not mitigated.
“The most respected animation studio cribbed ‘Win or Lose’s art style from the most hated food commercial,” Keegan Kelly wrote on Cracked.
First, Pixar went viral for cutting a planned plot line that would have established one of the child characters in the series as gender non-confirming, similar to the voice actor. Then, there’s the shoe-horning of an awkward and explicitly Christian prayer scene into one of the series’ episodes, generating a mixture of cheers and eye-rolls.
“Thirty years ago, the venerated animation studio Pixar was on the cutting edge of 3D graphics as it led the industry into its Golden Age. Flash forward three decades, and the mediocrity of corporate aesthetic coupled with delivery milkshakes have rounded that edge into dull, doughy disappointment,” Kelly noted.
What fans are fuming about
So, here’s what the fans are fuming about. There was a part in “Win or Lose” that reminds fans of the trending “Delivery Dance” commercial that Grubhub released in 2020. In the advertisement, rotund, glossy, and gyrating characters hip-thrusted into their salad.
It wasn’t the best commercial from Grubhub, in fact, it is infamous, yet Kelly wanted to say that you shouldn’t get angry of the scene because it is merely trying to make an impact.
“But, hey, for all the criticism, against it, Win or Lose is still the product of hundreds of artists’ hard work, and the end result is a labor of love – and, as the commercial taught us, you must always Grub what you love,” the Cracked correspondent stated.