Sign in to follow this  
Patrick R

"Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

Recommended Posts

Does anyone still care about A Bug's Life? It feels like such a Toy Story also-ran when I think back, but it's been 15+ years(!) since I've seen it.

 

ALSO

 

People who love Finding Nemo: What do you like about it?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have always preferred and will always prefer A Bug's Life to Toy Story.

 

That's about as deep as I am willing to get on this. Because I have no real justification for it. I just like A Bug's Life more!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

honestly its probably cause theres no poo poo platter jokes in toy story

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm trying to think of a Pixar movie that I actually really like and the best I can come up with is Wall-E. Up is more then a tad manipulative, I could really do without the objectivist subtext of The Incredibles and Ratatouille, I don't really remember Finding Nemo, A Bugs Life, or Monsters Inc, I never saw Brave or Monsters University, and didn't like Cars for obvious reasons. I used to like Toy Story but I don't especially like them much these days, and I did not like Inside Out at all.

 

So anyways anyone heard of this Miyazaki dude? I hear he's pretty good. Made some movie called Blood Souls about some fish that really likes ham or something.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There are obvious parts of Wall-E that are incredible (SO GORGEOUS), but I always thought the social commentary was so shallow and naive. And I really don't like love at first sight as a device, so a lot of it left me kind of cold.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think WALL-E is just pretty enough that I don't care as much about the rest of it. I also don't mind most of UP but it's the reason Fantastic Mr Fox didn't win an Oscar so F that movie. Not that Oscars mean much but still.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

People who love Finding Nemo: What do you like about it?

 

It's flawless. It's not even my favorite pixar film. It's just actually perfect. ( I read your thing in the movies thread and realized that I should probably come up with a substantial post about this but long story short: i love how that movie looks, i love dory, every scene in that movie is memorable)

 

What does everyone think about the ending of Ratatouille? I love Ego's speech to death and it's my favorite thing in that movie. I've always felt that without that ending, the movie is kind of weak, or at least very clunky.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

NO ONE AGREES ON ANYTHING.

 

I love Ratatouille, hate that speech. It's untrue (critics of every medium have historically been hugely important to shaping them! Only assholes love to write bad reviews!) and feels weirdly like sour grapes from a group of artists who have basically never had to deal with negative criticism to begin with. Also their whole movie IS criticism of Disney, so it's also weirdly hypocritical? "The average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. Except for before when we were criticizing all those direct to video Little Mermaid and Lion King sequels, that doesn't count."

 

I think Rataouille is the most gorgeous and inventive of Pixar's films (I adore that it is a critical but earnest love-letter to everything Disney could be but had, in recent years, failed to live up to), but I should say that I haven't seen it in nearly ten years. Most of these movies I only saw once or twice when they came out. This whole string of conversations will probably make me rewatch them all next year.The video store I work at has most of them on Blu-Ray.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think Rataouille is the most gorgeous and inventive of Pixar's films (I adore that it is a critical but earnest love-letter to everything Disney could be but had, in recent years, failed to live up to), but I should say that I haven't seen it in nearly ten years. Most of these movies I only saw once or twice when they came out. This whole string of conversations will probably make me rewatch them all next year.The video store I work at has most of them on Blu-Ray.

 

Man, I'm also shocked at how different everyone's list is. A group rewatch would be a lot of fun, I think.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Man, I'm also shocked at how different everyone's list is. A group rewatch would be a lot of fun, I think.

 

That would be super fun.

 

I like a lot of the movies to varying degrees, Wall-E being one of my faves for the silent storytelling. But I'm not seeing enough Brave hate. That was a movie that was half made with more ambitious and different narrative ideas, that halfway through production was squashed into the Story Moldtm and it really does show.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh boy, let's see! Here's how I would rate my Pixar favs:

 

1. Inside Out

2. Ratatouille

3. The Incredibles

 

Inside Out really touched me when I saw it in cinemas, in a way that Pixar films hadn't up until then. I've always been disappointed with Up, which is partly through high expectations and then talking dogs and a weird, meandering middle and end to the movie. So basically the whole movie except the first act. Inside Out, I didn't expect a whole lot of it, thinking the idea sort of corny. But then, boy, it was so charming and meaningful. Everything is a symbol, and yet it totally works. Surprising and stirring.

 

Ratatouille is just gorgeous and 'classic' in terms of structure. I love it, the scenery, the vibe, the 'villains', it's fun.

 

The Incredibles used to be my number one pick, but I since grew a little tired of it. Upon rewatching again and again, the film loses some of its charm and lustre. It's kind of a weird movie, actually, full of strange and wonderful ideas. It came at the right moment in the superhero revival, but has since aged a little when it comes to its theme and execution. Still, pretty good!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I like Up, Wall-E, Inside Out. Don't remember Ratatouille that well. I also think Miyazaki is great, but IMHO Wolf Children is the top the animation genre has achieved so far. And now I realized this new "The Boy and the Beast" movie that was in PÖFF but I missed was also directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Should have gone to see it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Man, I'm also shocked at how different everyone's list is. A group rewatch would be a lot of fun, I think.

 

I could go for that, I haven't seen most of the old Pixar movies in over a decade. Someone else, speak up so we'll have four and I'll feel good about starting the Pixar Rewatch thread. Or maybe we should just do it here because this is already the Pixar thread? Megathreads are confusing.

 

When you say group rewatch, do you mean that everyone just rewatches the movies and discusses them, or an actual group rewatch where we try to organize a Skype call or something so that people can watch as a group?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

For me the top three are Up, Toy Story 2,and The Incredibles. I've never really liked Wall-E all that much (except for Ben Burtt's sound design) despite really wanting to.

Also I enjoyed Inside Out after expecting to dislike it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I could be convinced as well. A lot of these movies are played fairly regularly in our house anyways. I assume it's a re-watch of everything but the Cars movies since we all seem to actually agree on those.

To re-iterate, my top three are probably:

1. Inside Out

2. Wall-E

3. Toy Story 3

I like Rodi's brief take on Inside Out and that is probably the most concise way to state exactly how I feel about that movie.

I have a lifelong love affair with robots and Wall-E just felt like a love letter to my childhood. It was a beautiful movie and I actually didn't mind all the stuff that happened after they got back to the humans all that much, which seems to be most people's complaint with the movie. It was cute, presented a fairly interesting take on how we would end up if we were stuck on a single space ship in micro gravity for 700 years, and the greatest human triumph in the whole movie was the captain managing to get out of his chair and walk. For me it struck the right balance of being cute and just the right amount of goofy. However, the ending would have been better if they all got back to Earth and died a slow, painful death from all the pollution and dirty water and that wonderful Peter Gabriel song would have played to an animation of Wall-E and Eve dancing on their graves for all of eternity. Missed opportunity there.

I already said my piece on Toy Story 3 but basically I like it's rendition of Toy Story 2 just a bit better since yeah, it was basically the same plot.

And just generally speaking, I feel like a lot of Pixar movies could go from good/great to great/fantastic if they just went a little dark and had some more realistic, less happy endings. Toy Story 3 is the best example with the trash fire.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No, if we're going to do a Pixar rewatch, we have to include both Cars. I watch the first one regularly with my son and even though it's completely rubbish I always find something I like in it and I'd be interested in hearing people's wildly different opinion on why Cars is rubbish!

 

We must all face the Cars.

 

I'll have to try and scramble some thoughts about Finding Nemo sometime. Short version, I have become a sucker for father-son stories at this time in my life. I've watched it way too many times with my son and I get teary-eyed at the end of it..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I kinda agree that it would be therapeutic to watch Cars and formulate specific criticisms. Maybe it'll even turn out that some people like it. (people can always skip that one if they wantl

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
For this group rewatch thing, is anyone interested in trying to make it a group Skype call (or even just live text chat) or the like so that we can watch and discuss realtime? Or just do more of a book club "This week we watch and talk about X" thing?

 

I have a lifelong love affair with robots and Wall-E just felt like a love letter to my childhood. It was a beautiful movie and I actually didn't mind all the stuff that happened after they got back to the humans all that much, which seems to be most people's complaint with the movie. It was cute, presented a fairly interesting take on how we would end up if we were stuck on a single space ship in micro gravity for 700 years

 

I saw it as a trite critique of 21st century consumerism (Earth is literally full of garbage! Everyone's fat in futuristic fat-scooters, and they slavishly follow the billboards. Do you get it? Consumerism is BAD you guys!), which made me much less charitably inclined towards the whole thing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think it makes sense to keep the re-watch discussion in this thread. Also, I would vote for discussing the movies here rather than in live chat...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I think organizing a live watch across all these time zones would be a nightmare.

 

I don't know if I can make it through Toy Story again. One of those movies I wore out as a kid, every moment is so clearly burned into my brain that watching it feels redundant and weird. I have the same problem with Star Wars.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll rewatch Brave and Incredibles with you guys since I have the blu-rays just sitting there brand new, but I also generally have nothing positive to say about Pixar, so I don't know.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Here's an idea:

 

Of the 16 Pixar movies, I think it's safe to say that most of us have seen a majority of them (although I never saw Cars 2 and have yet to see Good Dinosaur)

 

So, I propose that we all list our top 5 (or even top 10) Pixar films, and see which films are the "most-favored" pre-rewatch, and then do the same after the rewatch. It wouldn't take many people to make an interesting sample size. Like Patrick, I also have not seen a lot of these movies in years.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I pretty much like all Pixar films. If we're doing top fives, let's see...

1) Wall-E

2) Ratatouille

3) The Incredibles

4) Toy Story 3

5) Inside Out

Maybe? Subject to change if I think of a good one I forgot. Haven't seen Cars 2 or The Good Dinosaur either.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's a great idea, so great I went ahead and made a doc for people to put in their top 5s.

There's currently a sheet with my top 5 and plenty of space for other Thumbs. Underneath our picks is an automatic score counter that gives 5 points to a 1st picked film, 4 points to 2nd etc. To make sure it works, it's easiest to copy paste from the film title there. I thought it'd be fun to have objective metacritic ranking in there too.

 

We could add another postwatch sheet later of course, but for now fill the sheet to your heart's content.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this