IGN Reports: From the outside, Pixar’s narrative is a clear story of redemption: after an undeniably tough few years – battered by COVID-19 theater shutdowns, two Hollywood strikes, and a couple of box office disappointments – the studio needed a win, and that win was Inside Out 2.

The sequel to Pete Docter’s Oscar-winning 2015 blockbuster is Pixar’s biggest hit in years, and it’s not even close. Inside Out 2 isn’t just Pixar’s highest-grossing film. It’s the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, sitting at a jaw-dropping $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office. It’s a stunning turn of events when considering the studio’s aforementioned recent struggles. And who doesn’t love a redemption story, especially when a brand as beloved and nostalgic as Pixar is involved?

But for many of the workers behind Inside Out 2, its record-shattering success is more than a little bittersweet. As reported earlier this year, the studio began layoffs affecting 175 workers, or 14% of its staff, in May. And not only are laid-off employees unable to benefit from a bonus for Inside Out 2’s success – some are also recovering from what several sources describe as an “unprecedented” crunch surrounding Inside Out 2.

“I think for a month or two, the animators were working seven days a week,” one source says. “Ridiculous amounts of production workers, just people being tossed into jobs they'd never really done before… It was horrendous.”

IGN spoke to 10 former Pixar employees for this story under the condition of anonymity. They go into detail about the pains of the layoffs, the financial struggles those layoffs have left them with, and the details behind what one source calls “the largest crunch in the studio’s history." It’s a claim disputed by a senior executive at Pixar, who tells IGN that the crunch at the end of Inside Out 2 was no different from those on many other films from the studio. But the fact remains: there are many who feel like they rushed to give Pixar the hit it so desperately needed, and were hung out to dry.

“I would venture that at least 95% of the people that got laid off are financially f*cked right now,” one person says.

Outside of the financial strain of it all, sources also paint a picture of a studio that’s terrified to rock the boat, with some internally pushing to avoid LGBTQ themes, requiring edits to Inside Out 2. It’s a studio, they say, that’s overly reliant on Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter, stubbornly set in its ways, and setting its remaining team up for more crunch in its future films.

“The internal culture of Pixar right now is really rough,” one former employee says. “There is just an incredible amount of people who are like, ‘I can't do this anymore.’ “