Pixar announced Newt, a rom-com about the last two blue-footed newts on Earth, in 2008, then shelved it. Its restart became Inside Out. See what went wrong and why Rio got blamed.
Pixar almost never cancels a movie after announcing it. Newt is the famous exception.
It was a romantic comedy about the last two blue-footed newts on the planet. Disney showed it off in 2008. By 2010, it was gone.
And the restart that replaced it turned into “Inside Out.”
So what was Newt, and why did Pixar walk away? Grab a sock puppet. You’ll see why.
What was Pixar’s Newt about?
Here’s Pixar’s official pitch, as Film Stories reported: the last male and female blue-footed newts on Earth “are forced together by science to save the species, and they can’t stand each other.”
Their names were Newt and Brooke. The synopsis ended on a pretty good line: “Love, it turns out, is not a science.”
At Disney’s 2008 presentation, director Gary Rydstrom filled in more, according to /Film, which pointed to Ain’t It Cool News’ write-up of the event.
Newt had lived in captivity since he was a tadpole. His only friend was a sock puppet.
He practiced a nine-step newt mating ritual from a chart he could see from his cage, but he couldn’t see Step 9. A Mr. Coffee was in the way.
Brooke, meanwhile, was a wild newt who kept escaping the biologists chasing her. Once the two got thrown together, it went badly. Later, they met Eddie, a big Hellbender salamander with lousy dating advice.
Who was making Newt?
Gary Rydstrom, a sound legend.
Pixar’s own synopsis called him a seven-time Academy Award winner for sound, Film Stories noted. He had also directed Pixar’s Oscar-nominated short “Lifted.”
Newt was going to be his first feature as a director.
Pixar also tried something new with it, Ed Catmull, Pixar’s co-founder, wrote in his 2014 book “Creativity, Inc.,” as Film Stories reported. The team worked a short distance from Pixar’s main campus, as a kind of startup inside the studio, and it brought in some outsiders.
When Rydstrom first pitched it, “we were blown away,” Catmull wrote.
Why did Pixar cancel Newt?
There are two versions of the story.
The one Pixar told first. In 2011, John Lasseter told IGN that Newt’s story was a lot like a movie then in theaters “with a blue parrot.” That was Fox and Blue Sky’s “Rio.”
“It was really pretty similar,” Lasseter said, as Film Stories reported.
The one Catmull told later. In “Creativity, Inc.,” Catmull explained that the story wasn’t coming together, especially the second half, when the newts head out into the wild, Film Stories reported. And because the Newt team worked apart from the main studio, the problems weren’t spotted until it was late.
Pixar sent in more experienced help, but by then, it had already put a lot of time and money into the project.
Catmull also talked about it on “The Tim Ferriss Show” in 2014. Pixar had abandoned only one film, he said, and only because “we needed to bring fresh blood in,” as /Film reported.
When was Newt canceled?
Around May 2010.
Newt had been aimed at summer 2011, then got pushed back a year to make room for “Cars 2,” Film Buff Online reported at the time.
Then it vanished from Pixar’s release schedule. In May 2010, a Pixar fan blog got word that the film had been canceled, Film Buff Online reported.
How did Newt become Inside Out?
Pixar asked Pete Docter, the director of “Monsters, Inc.” and “Up,” to restart Newt, /Film reported.
Docter agreed, with a catch. Since they were starting over anyway, he had a better idea, “a completely different idea,” Catmull said on the podcast.
Pixar loved it. That idea became “Inside Out,” which opened June 19, 2015, according to D23.
So no, there are no newts in Riley’s head. The restart went somewhere else entirely.
Here’s Pixar’s official trailer for “Inside Out”:
What happened to Gary Rydstrom?
He got to direct a feature after all, just not at Pixar.
After Newt, Rydstrom wrote and directed the Pixar short “Toy Story: Hawaiian Vacation.” Then George Lucas hired him to direct “Strange Magic,” one of Lucas’ passion projects, Film Stories reported.
Where can you watch Inside Out and Rio?
Both are on Disney+, according to JustWatch.
Yes, “Rio” too. Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019, so the parrot movie Lasseter pointed to is a Disney movie now. Funny how that works out.
What are some fun facts about Newt?
Disney made a logo. Disney released an official Newt logo with tiny blue feet on the letter T, along with the synopsis, /Film noted.
Pixar got quieter after that. As of 2020, Newt was the only movie Pixar had announced and then canceled, and the studio had been keeping projects under wraps until it was sure they’d get finished, Film Stories noted.
That hasn’t stopped quieter cancellations. This spring, reports said Disney shut down “Be Fri,” an original Pixar film that had been in the works for about three years.
It was announced with some famous company. Newt was revealed alongside the films then called “Rapunzel” and “The Bear and the Bow,” which became “Tangled” and “Brave,” plus “Cars 2,” according to Film Stories.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
Simon Brew, Film Stories, April 30, 2020: The story of the lost Pixar movie (citing Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. and John Lasseter’s 2011 IGN interview)
/Film, Aug. 15, 2014: How Pixar’s ‘Newt’ Got Flipped ‘Inside Out’ (citing Ed Catmull on The Tim Ferriss Show and Ain’t It Cool News)
Film Buff Online, May 16, 2010: Pixar’s Newt Squashed
D23 Disney A to Z: Inside Out (film) entry
JustWatch: Inside Out and Rio U.S. listings, checked Oct. 11, 2026
Pixar on YouTube: Inside Out, Official US Trailer
AI Disclosure: All articles are assigned, edited and reviewed by an experienced human editor before posting. Like most modern newsrooms, WebReef Media uses a variety of AI tools to help with accuracy and efficiency. Ways AI may be used in article creation include research, grammar, fact-checking and ideation, as well as occasional AI generated or enhanced thumbnails or graphics. No articles are generated or posted without human oversight or involvement.