“Everyone is chasing the feeling of a win.” The words are spoken by a sage, soda-stained child in the first moments of Pixar’s first fully original series (following the amiable Inside Out spin-off/film industry spoof Dream Productions). On the surface, they seem to refer to the tense game of softball playing out in front of our precocious narrator. But older viewers, au fait with the patchy recent record of Disney’s prestige animation imprint, may identify a meta subtext.
Win or Lose proves an apt title for what may be the studio’s most creative, and most controversial, release in years. Each of the eight 20-minute episodes follows the fortunes of a different character connected to the Pickles softball team ahead of a state championship match. Among them are the coach’s maladroit daughter, who is weighed down by a globular manifestation of her anxiety; an umpire whose capacity for deflecting abuse compromises his personal life, and a “momfluencer” who experiences her daughter’s success through a screen.
While the various segments all tell their own tale, each episode feeds into the next, filling in gaps and reframing our understanding of what has come before, like a colourful Rashomon. It is clever storytelling brought to life by rich, fluid animation that captures the world as the individual characters see it.
And yet conversations about the show may also focus on one story that doesn’t appear: an episode involving a transgender character that was pulled at the eleventh hour and subsequently rewritten. While many (including some former Pixar staffers) have decried the decision as “political” and tantamount to censorship, a Disney spokesperson said that it was made because “many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.” Given that Win or Lose features various other “grown-up” themes — from the gamification of dating apps, to the hardship of being a low-income single mother — this response may seem disingenuous to some.
With the hastily revised episode not sent out to critics, it remains to be seen if it coheres with the rest of an otherwise well-crafted show. The four chapters that were available to preview, however, deliver an appealing blend of diligent world building and throwaway gags; surreal whimsy and heartfelt emotion. And while it’s perhaps too soon to chalk it up as a win for Pixar, there are enough signs that the light in the studio’s iconic lamp hasn’t gone out completely.
★★★★☆
Episodes 1 & 2 streaming on Disney+. New episodes released weekly