Le Voyage d'Arlo (2015) experienced multiple production issues. The film was in production for six years and it suffered from creative differences, story problems, Pixar multitasking between film productions, and a quality slump the studio suffered from Cars 2 (2011) to Monstres Academy (2013). Director Bob Peterson was removed from the project in the summer of 2013, just under a year before the film's original release date in May 2014. Peterson moved on to another project, while John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Mark Andrews, and Peter Sohn stepped in temporarily to work on various sections of the film. In November 2013, due to further delays, Pixar laid off sixty-seven employees of its twelve hundred-person workforce, following the closure of its satellite studio in Canada a month before, when about eighty employees had been laid off, officially to refocus Pixar's efforts at its main headquarters. "For Pixar, it was a dramatic event", said Jim Morris, the studio's General Manager and Executive Vice President of Production. "It was tough on the company. Most studios would have said, 'The movie's fine. It's not bad.' And it wasn't bad; it just wasn't great. We wanted to have a great movie." On October 21, 2014, Peter Sohn was officially named the new director. The story was then re-worked, and some major changes included lowering the age of the protagonist and adding the concept of nature itself being the main antagonist. While John Lithgow still remained cast as Poppa in the film (he would later be replaced), he acknowledged the fantastic changes in the script and said that "(The film's) gonna be better than I ever imagined."
Arlo's movements were based on those of young elephants.
This film marked the first time Pixar Animation Studios had released two films in one year, following the release of Vice-versa (2015) in June.
Originally, Arlo was going to be older (approximately seventeen-years-old) and voiced by Lucas Neff. However, Director Peter Sohn, in order to convey the idea of Arlo maturing, as well as accurately portray the "boy-and-dog" relationship between Arlo and Spot, decided to make him younger (approximately eleven-years-old).
EASTER EGG: One of the asteroids at the start of the film resembles the Pizza Planet truck from the Toy Story franchise.