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Patrick R

"Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

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Saw Monster's Inc! Random Thoughts:

  • Annnnnnd then the terrible jokes start. The worst part of these early Pixar movies. A sampling: "Yeah, didn't I see you on Monsteropolis' Most Wanted?" "STALK/DON'T STALK" (seriously, I think about STALK/DON'T STALK sometimes randomly during the day and get so mad), "BABY BORN WITH FIVE HEADS! PARENTS THRILLED!" (why is this in the newspaper?) "GAIN 10,000 POUNDS PER WEEK! SCARE YOUR NEIGHBORS!" (why would someone in this universe want to scare their neighbors?) "Can I borrow your odorent?", "I'm gonna take her to a monster truck rally." (is this a regular truck rally in this world?) etc. etc. etc. etc.
  • Randall feels like a weak villain. I don't understand who he is, or how he invented this other scream machine.
  • I love the Simpsons teen-voiced janitor guys.

 

I like "stalk/don't stalk"! It's a funny background joke. I also like the odorent gag, especially because they run with it. "Stink it up."

I won't go point by point, but I think the logic of any of these could be explained and as they're only a tiny part of the movie's humour I'm surprised they bug (lol oh wait wrong film) you so much. "Poo poo platter" is dreadful, though - I assume it's a play on sushi platter but it doesn't work.

I like Randall in that they manage to make him stand apart from the other monsters as genuinely scary, but yeah there's not much to him. I guess the scream machine didn't take much inventing, it's just an adaption of the current tech. It's more that it took extreme callousness.

And I'm going to go for full house by also disagreeing with you on the janitors - perhaps if I hadn't seen The Simpsons I would, but they feel tired. It reminds me of something I noticed, though, which is that the 'out-takes' at the end seem to reveal which the creative team's favourite characters were, and I always disagree with them .Here it's the janitors and Edna.

 

I also want to go back to Toy Story 1 and say that one of my favourite moments is when the shark pops up wearing Woody's missing hat. "I'm Woody! Howdy howdy howdy!" I love the idea that this shark just sat there waiting with the hat on, in service of this one joke, which is rather undone by his unimaginative impression. It instantly gives a great little character sketch of this random toy who we never really see again.

 

 

Finally, a reminder that we're onto Finding Nemo on Monday.

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Between the iron fist of the CDA, and the civil engineering disaster that is designing a city for a population who all have completely unique and varied bodies (including blob people who fall through sewer grates and monsters who set things on fire when they sneeze) Monsteropolis seems like a dystopian nightmare.

 

Not to mention energy shortage and rampant misopedia. The dystopian impression – I think it's quite purposeful. Pleasantville style, or even Fido style. :)

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On an old Idle Thumbs episode Sean talked about how bummed out he was by seeing suggestions for DLC inside of the world of Arkham City because he was reminded that instead of a cool interactive narrative experience it could be, it was just a toy.

 

I feel the same way about lame puns and jokes in animated movies. I love animation, and so want to buy the common rhetoric that "these movies are made just as much for adults as for kids!" but every time I see a belabored odorent gag, I'm just reminded that these are primarily directed at 5-year olds.

 

Howdy Howdy Howdy shark is an MVP for sure, though. The fact that they don't really give him the same level of facial animation as the rest of the toys is what really nails it.

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I feel the same way about lame puns and jokes in animated movies. I love animation, and so want to buy the common rhetoric that "these movies are made just as much for adults as for kids!" but every time I see a belabored odorent gag, I'm just reminded that these are primarily directed at 5-year olds.

 

Howdy Howdy Howdy shark is an MVP for sure, though. The fact that they don't really give him the same level of facial animation as the rest of the toys is what really nails it.

 

Ha, yes, you're right about the shark animation!

 

Oh, that's an interesting point about.the puns. That's a pretty big aspect of Pixar movies (all family movies?) - the balance they have to strike in aiming for child, family and adult audiences. I'd say that, sticking with "odorent" as the example, these jokes are going to go over 5 year olds' heads - they're probably there for the slapstick. I'm nitpicking a bit because 8 year olds would probably get it, but I think that shows the spread of humour they're going for, and if you want to believe the rhetoric that the movies are for adults and kids, there's got to be stuff in there for both, right? I enjoy the variety it lends the film's comedy, and also the way that they're doing stuff simultaneously, like the way that they're observing human locker-room behaviour at the same time, something only adults are likely to appreciate.

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Double-post!

 

I just watched Finding Nemo and my reaction to it was similar as on first viewing: pretty boring. Not particularly imaginative series of sequences where a fish meets another fish and either runs away from it or is given directions by it. Also, Beyond The Sea sang by Robbie Williams, ugh.

 

I don't have much to say about this one, so I'll be interested to see what the Nemo fans like about it.

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Alright, Finding Nemo. I've watched this a million times now with my son.

It's got lots of problems in the story. Marlin almost has no arc and whatever arc he has is sort of forced through the dialogue with Dory instead of coming naturally from the situations. Dory has to basically spell it out to him inside the whale. "Let it go!" Cross-cutting between the Marlin and Nemo storylines almost always just makes the story more confusing and sort of takes the momentum out of it. As Ben points out, Marlin's story is basically just a series of Meet Fish, Get Directions or Run Away situations. It conjures up a big finale out of nothing with the big school of fish bit (although I like that it's a callback to Nemo's earlier experience) that sort of works but mostly just feels forced again. I like the prologue but it probably could've been shorter or not been there at all. Marlin's anxiety is well-established in the actual first scene with him and Nemo, and we would've gotten to the action quicker. I don't know..

And yet.. I love this film! I always enjoy watching it (almost.. maybe the millionth time was a bit much) and I cry at the end when Nemo wakes up and everything's good and.. I guess after having kids I'm the biggest sucker for father-son stories. It's a beautiful film in almost all parts (some parts of the Dentist's Office don't look as nice) The underwater art direction holds up really well even today. That big, colorful shot on the way to school. Amazing. And I love the team of fish in the Dentist's Office. They're all fantastic characters. I'm fine with Nemo, a bit bored by Marlin.

In the end, I think whether or not you like this film comes down to.. Dory. I love Dory and Ellen DeGeneres' work as Dory is fantastic and that carries a lot of the film's more boring parts for me. I can totally see why some people don't like her character and I think if you don't then this film falls almost completely flat.

Anyway, Finding Nemo.. One of my top Pixar films, despite Marlin being boring.

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ut first, let's get this out of the way.

 

 

In that video they say "Puns are like conversation's candy. And sure, too much candy will rot your teeth." Well, my best friend has a genuine compulsive behavior which is to say every single possible half-assed pun that comes to his head all the time, forever. Things that don't even rhyme, things that don't even make sense, things that have nothing to do with the conversation.

 

So you can say my teeth have fallen out at this point, and I can no longer chew.

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In honor of Disney's latest film I thought I would introduce the "Is It Better Then Zootopia?" Metric and will now apply it to the movies I have seen so far:

 

Toy Story: No

A Bug's Life: Hahah. No

Toy Story 2: Sort of close, but no

 

Okay it seems to be working so far. Good.

 

Stay tuned this weekend when I apply it to Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo once I get my stupid Apple TV to load my rental of Monsters Inc after failing to for two weeks straight.

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It's interesting that so few people have written about Finding Nemo.

 

I watched it last week, and while I still find it fairly well done, I haven't felt the need to talk about it at length. :mellow:

 

But, hey, The Incredibles next week already. I get to talk about Herbert Feuerstein. That'll be a hoot.  :D

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Okay After giving up on Itunes I rented Monsters Inc on Amazon and I'm now ready to give my thoughts on it: It was okay.

 

Oh should I say more? *Sigh* Fine. The movie overall is cute and has a few good gags but like A Bug's Life never really gels in any meaningful way. The idea of a society of monsters is a fun one that they never do anything with. And also what was the point of setting up the monsters not being super scary, presumably so as to make the movie kid friendly, and then having the villain plot to kidnap children and attach them to a torture device to suck the screams out of them? I get you don't want to make it too scary for young kids and I get the feeling this movie was aimed a little younger then most Pixar films, so by all means tone it down. But then why the torture plot? It's not a deal breaker. But it's just adds to the slapdash feel of the whole thing.

 

So is it better then Zootopia? Well, it's less prone to iffy race metaphors, but no. It is not better then Zootopia.

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We're in "Incredibles" territory since yesterday, but two more things about "Finding Nemo".

First: Did it occur to anyone that the only notable kid character in this kid's movie is a reckless asshole and potential main character killer?

Second: The submarine/bombs/sharks scene was so incredibly dark. Has Pixar ever come as close to portraying actual, non cartoonish war before or afterwards?

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Second: The submarine/bombs/sharks scene was so incredibly dark. Has Pixar ever come as close to portraying actual, non cartoonish war before or afterwards?

 

That scene still kinda bums me out more than it entertains, being that its an addict relapsing and then blowing up basically.

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The kid in Nemo reminded me of Sid from Toy Story, not only because she's joyfully destructive but also because of the 'protagonist lands amongst a group of characters who initially seem scary but turn out to be nice and living in fear of the kid from whom they help the protagonist escape'.

 

I haven't watched The Incredibles again yet, but I've seen it many times and love it.

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Okay, double-post then!

 

Watched it again, stiiiill love it. Immediately, the introduction of Brad Bird and Michael Giacchino into the mix feels like a revitalisation for Pixar - to me, this movie has a notably more sophisticated, adult feel.

 

The story starts off pretty slowly but soon snaps into gear and is very well constructed.

 

Visually it looks great. They also do a really clever thing where in the opening sequence set years earlier, the textures are a lot simpler. Works on a metaphorical level but also uses Pixar's technological history to emphasise time settings. It's also good to see some exaggerated human character design - Mr Incredible, his boss, the teacher etc. Some aren't as interesting, notably the two female adult characters - they fall into that female face design template that has been brought up elsewhere on these forums, which a lot of 3D animated films default to. And it's a shame that a lot of the incidental non-super characters all have bland, un-designed faces. It works for the henchmen but not so much for cops, office workers etc. I'd read it as a stylistic choice to set the heroes apart if it weren't for contradictions such as the boss, teacher etc. It's a particular letdown in comparison to The Iron Giant, where every background character has really interesting, individual design. Couldn't they have let the interns loose on this?

Also, there's not a lot of skin texture going on, so all the characters look the same age despite some crow's feet or extra weight - it kind of works with this film but it has become the standard look for human characters in every 3D film which was a shame (I think this is why Rango got a lot of attention despite not being the best film - it dared put some dirty, complex textures on its characters). But generally, the cinematography and direction are fantastic.

 

There's almost an Inverse Star Trek Rule pattern happening here for me:

 

Toy Story  :tup:

A Bug's Life  :tdown:

Monsters Inc.  :tup:

Toy Story 2  :tdown:

Finding Nemo  :tdown:

The Incredibles  :tup:

 

However, I think I'm going to be pretty down on the rest of the films from here, so maybe it's a Fibonacci sequence or something!

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With the exception of Monsters Inc. for sheer originality, The Incredibles were the best up to that point.

 

I love the movie score, but kept being irritated by it – what Michael Giacchino delivers here is a James Bond movie score, not one for a superhero movie. Still, Mr. Incredible humming his own character theme ... great fourth wall break. :P

 

The Incredibles is a fairly schematic movie, and you're likely not getting surprised by it at all. However, their stylistic and animation choices here are the absolute top. They're doing incredible things with hair and fabric, and those nature and particularly water scenes are phenomenal. As Ben mentioned, the character models particularly of the female characters look fairly similar. It's true: Pixar has fled the Uncanny Valley and taken shelter in the doll house. I'm not sure they will ever set foot outside of it again.

 

The message... *sigh*. Well, the message. I have the same problem with the Incredibles that I have with e.g. Harry Potter. There's a bunch of super people and they're just pretty damn superior to normals. And coincidentally they're the philantropists as well, and the saviours of the world. The normals in this movie? A rotten insurance company boss, a merciless evil overlord, a not exactly morally stable henchwoman seductress. And what's with that moral superiority anyway – as soon as Mr. Incredible breaks out from his prison cell, he easily kills six henchmen in the next two minutes. :mellow:

 

...were there any puns to speak of? :P

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Why does Nemo need to go to school?

 

EDIT: "I'm H2O intolerant."

I'm going to hate this movie.

 

EDIT EDIT: Ok, this movie had a pretty high density of groan-worthy moments (the sea turtles are the nadir, but most anything involving Dory was pretty terrible too) but it also has a high density of impressively harrowing moments as well. Its also the only other movie, besides Toy Story 2, to successfully be About Something, so good on it for that.

 

Still don't think animated fish are all that interesting to look at, since the nonsensical physics usually suck the tension out of the set-pieces, with gravity existing only when it's convenient. But I don't know anyone with kids who doesn't adore this movie, so I can accept that it's just not for me.

 

PIXAR POWER RANKINGS THUS FAR

Toy Story  :tup: 

A Bug's Life  :tdown: 

Toy Story 2  :tup:  :tup: 

Monster's Inc.  :tdown: 

Finding Nemo  :tmeh: 

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