One fateful day in 1994, a single meeting at the Hidden City Café in Point Richmond, California sprung the four most whimsical animations to be conceived. Four of Pixar’s leading directors at the time—John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and the late Joe Ranft—met for lunch to discuss the next step after Toy Story, which was in its final moments of production. This lunch birthed some of the most imaginative movies of the past decade, “A Bug’s Life”, “Monsters Incorporated”, “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E”, some of the most classic and commercially successful movies the company has made.

“I love the Pixar style,” junior Samuel Adams said. “It’s really simple but really detailed and it gives the movies a lot of character.”

Throughout the past decade, the ratio of original movies to sequels was disproportionate. The company lacked originality and charm, the legacy left by the original movies was being let down, and it seemed the company relied solely on nostalgia with sequels like “Monsters University”, “Finding Dory”, and “The Incredibles 2.”

“I feel like Disney is losing its originality. They’re just doing cash grabs now,” junior Jenna Weber said.

However, coming in 2020 are two original movies: “Onward”, which is about two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, who go on a journey to discover if there is magic left in the world so they can spend one last day with their deceased father.

The second original movie in 2020 will be, “Soul”, a story about a middle-school music teacher who dreams of playing at a legendary New York jazz club. Finally getting the chance, an accident causes his soul to separate from his body. His soul is  then sent to a center where it will undergo development to be transported in a newborn baby.

“The theme seems close to home [and] the characters seem original,” Weber said.

With promising upcoming films, the possibility of a resurgence is great, and a new set of classic movies for a new generation could be in our midst. One can hope Pixar hasn’t sold out, that they care more about the quality of the content they put out, and that they’re ready to move forward, further, and  soulfully onward.