EXCLUSIVE: John Ratzenberger Reveals Why He Stopped Doing Pixar Cameos

For years many fans of Pixar films have become familiar with a particular voice in their movies. That voice is actor and comedian John Ratzenberger. While many growing up in the 1980s remember him as Cliff Calvin on the popular sitcom Cheers, children from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s have heard his voice in other places.

Starting in the 1995 animated film Toy Story as Hamm the piggy bank, the actor went on to appear in 23 films for the animation studio. He was P.T. Flea in A Bug’s Life, Yeti in Monsters Inc., The Underminer in The Incredibles, Mack the Truck in Cars, and many more. In essence he became the Stan Lee of Pixar.

However, in recent years, he has been noticeably absent. His last vocal appearance was in 2020’s Onward as Fennwick the Cyclops. There was apparently a cameo in 2020’s Soul, but it was more of a visual reference instead of his voice. In a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance, a man on the subway resembling a younger Ratzenberger can be seen. 



There has been much speculation as to why he was not only vocally absent from Soul but also completely absent from Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear, and Elemental.

This weekend, the actor was a guest at Motor City Comic Con. As someone who was curious about the subject myself, I felt like going to the source and asking, not knowing if I would get an answer. I asked specifically why he had been absent from the recent films. Surprisingly, he did answer my question.

Please note: The following is a paraphrasing of the encounter as I was not allowed to record.

His first works were very blunt and ingrained in my memory very well, “Because they suck.” He went on to say that he was not a fan of the new regime that came in after John Lasseter “stepped down.” He was also not a fan of all of the political messaging that was being put into the films. 



Lasseter and Ratzenberger were good friends, so he appeared in all those movies as a sort of good luck charm. That is also why he made a cameo in the 2022 Skydance Animation film Luck as Rootie, which Lasseter was a producer on.

However, this does not mean that Ratzengerger is not working on Pixar films as his current established characters.

Ratzenberger is set to reprise his role of Fritz, the mind worker, in Inside Out 2 and potentially Hamm in Toy Story 5, but it is unknown if he will appear in 2025’s Elio. He also reprised the role of Yeti for the Disney+ series Monsters at Work, so he may only be reprising roles going forward instead of new characters.

Only time will tell if he will return to his regular cameos at Pixar, but perhaps he has decided to move on to Skydance like his peers. You never know if he’ll show up in their next movie Spellbound.