Jul 7, 2023

Win Or Lose" Creator on Making Pixar's First Feature Series (video interview)

"Win or Lose" is Pixar Animation Studios' first original feature-length series and will premiere on Disney+ later this year.

The series is directed by two first-time directors, Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, who also co-create and executive produce the show together. The series will feature the intertwined stories of eight different characters, each preparing for a big softball championship game. According to the studio's official synopsis, the show "reveals what it's really like to be in each character's shoes, from the anxious kids to the helicopter-like parents to the umpires in love, in an incredibly funny, highly emotional and uniquely animated perspective."

Cartoon Brew spoke with Yates, Hobson, and producer David Lally in Annecy in June. The interview is below:

Yates and Hobson both worked on feature films for the studio, and the foundation for "Win or Lose" was laid when they worked together on one of the company's films. [Me and Carrie were working together on "Toy Story 4," and we often had different impressions of how the meeting went after it was over. It was something that really fascinated us. It's interesting to be in the same room and experience something completely different." [On the challenges of producing Pixar's first series, Larry said, "From a production standpoint, it's a 148-episode series, which is a lot of fun. From a production standpoint, it's a challenge to produce an animated feature that's longer than a feature film at 148 minutes." There are eight different protagonists in this show. Instead of putting everything behind one protagonist, all of a sudden you have eight different protagonists."

Hobson said these challenges are part of the fun of production. According to her, they were also necessary because "if you do a series, you have to do things you can't do in a feature film."

There was also a lot of fun during production. Yates and Hobson said they especially enjoyed working with artists from different departments.

"We love working with the animators," Hobson says. We wanted to have characters that were expressive and that the animators could have fun with. So it's not just a cartoon. It's a cartoon with an intention."

Yates explained how important it is to let the artists do their own work as well. It's not just about making something different, it's about making something better."