Pixar movies

[RobbyBevard]

Pixar keeps coming up in several threads, and is a recurring topic in the Disney thread. Maybe its fine there, but there's enough movies and history to it, and enough upcoming films I figure it could use its own thread.

*shorts
*Toy Story 1, 2, & 3
*Bug's Life
*Monsters Inc. 1 & 2
*Finding Nemo
*The Incredibles
*Cars 1 & 2
*Ratatouille
*WALL-E
*Up
*Brave
*The Good Dinosaur
*The Untitled Pixar Movie that Takes You Inside the Mind
*The Untitled Pixar Movie About Día de los Muertos

[Robo Gorilla]

[youtube]oFTfAdauCOo[/youtube]

Continues to look just alright. But you guys are discussing, Pixar trailers can be deceiving.

[Cyan D. Funk]

Pixar rankings:

1) Toy Story
2) Toy Story 3
3) Bug's Life (Very under appreciated)
4) The Incredibles
5) Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. (Tie)
6) Up
7) Finding Nemo
8) Wall-E
9) Ratatouille
10) Cars (But it's a fine movie in its own right, just not compared to the rest of Pixar)

[RobbyBevard]

1)Ratatouille (the artist mindset and the romance and the music)
2)Incredibles
3)Monsters Inc.
4) Toy Story 3 (needs a few more viewings and time to sit)
5 (tie) Toy Story 1 and 2
7)Wall-E
8)Up
9)Cars
10)Finding Nemo
11)Bug's Life

Slots 4-8 can fluctuate pretty radically depending on the day. Cars I find going up for me over time.

I may need to see TS3 a few more times before I can fairly judge, but I think it actually is my definitive favorite of that trilogy.

And totally a Brad Bird guy. Throw Iron Giant into that list as an unnoficial Pixar film.

[Ubiq]

1. Toy Story
2. Toy Story 3
3. The Incredibles
4. Monsters, Inc.
5. Wall-E
6. Ratatouille
7. Finding Nemo
8. Toy Story 2
9. Up
10. A Bug's Life
11. Cars

Six through eight could be switched around any given day. Probably five through eight now that I think about it.

A Bug's Life just never caught me that way the others have. Cars, now, Cars I did understand, but I still rank it lower than the rest.

Up, well, I think I've made it clear over the past year or so what my problem with UP is.

[Cyan D. Funk]

No Monsters Inc for you Cyan?

Knew I was forgetting something.

[RobbyBevard]

I think its telling that you can have a top 10 Pixar films list... and then have to ask the question "Wait, what did I miss?" Since they all belong.

Hard to tell if that'll keep up with two more sequals coming in the next two years, but its hard to argue with that track record. (And I think Brave and Monsters Inc 2 are BOTH slated for 2012 currently?)

[Robo Gorilla]

1. Toy Story 3
2. Up
3. Monsters Inc.
4. Toy Story 2
5. A Bug's Life
6. Toy Story
7. Incredibles
8. Finding Nemo
9. Ratatouille
10. Cars

I have yet to see WALL-E. I've got netflix, but anything that's not on instant queue might as well not be there. After 5 is kind of iffy as I haven't seen any but Toy Story in a long time.

[RuNa]

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like Toy Story 2 here.

[Ubiq]

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like Toy Story 2 here.

It's not so much that I like it as I have less problems with it than the films I ranked below it. I've seen it crop up on many a Best All Time list though and I've never understood why.

[Cream-of-Chicken]

(And I think Brave and Monsters Inc 2 are BOTH slated for 2012 currently?)

Correct, and I think that's all they have down right now.

[The Beast]

Alongside Cars, which nobody likes, Wall-E is the only other Pixar film I don't really like. It's an incredible film until Wall-E gets to the space station.

I found the rest well-done, but working with weak material that brought it down extensively. Only Pixar could keep it a watchable movie, but the premise was still ruined by injecting it it with the fat assholes plot. It didn't need any of that.

And yes I get that the rest is what kept it marketable as a children's film. It was still dumb.

Also, for all the flack Ratatouille sometimes gets, it's a very solid film. It's basically Pixar just working with a less "Pixar" subject matter that's more akin to your average, generic CG studio.

[RobbyBevard]

The first half of Wall-E is fantastic, as is the space ballet. But the rest of the second half is pretty weak. The live action human footage is lame too. Really, pretty much anything with actual people felt eh. (Though that may be a side effect of them not appearing till the second half and having no screen time.)

My biggest problem with Up comes in the last bit too. Fantastic start, those first 10 minutes alone pretty much make the movie... but the second the villain shows up it gets iffy. Especially because he was so INSISTENT on being a villain, he would have worked a lot better as a more ambiguous adversary who found a better path at the end. Though looking at the deleted scenes, apparently the Pixar guys from the very start insisted he die at the end... they had like four other deaths for him, him turning over a new leaf or being more three dimensional was never in the cards.

The actual message of "wait on your dreams, you can always do them after its too late" is a little off too.

They're both cases where a 10 or 20 minute short would have been enough. And they're basically silent too. Makes me wonder what Pixar could do with a Fantasia style movie... not that they'd ever consider it, since Fantasia 2000 flopped just a few years ago and it had the name on it.

[The Beast]

Some parts of UP were really off, yeah.

Things like the talking dogs just felt... amateur. Like, how the Alpha Dog's voice module was high-pitched. That's just such a cheap attempt at a laugh and it was painful to watch. The only dog the movie needed was Dug. The part with the dogs piloting planes was also really dumb.

A lot of the things that kept Toy Story's narrative brilliant (that continued in the subsequent films in its series) tend to be missing in Pixar's stuff. Things like having to inject a traditional animated "villain" in UP kept it down.

At least UP still has its first half. Which is just so remarkable. The flashbacks with Carl that it opens with are basically the best thing they've animated, to me.

[Airflow]

The actual message of "wait on your dreams, you can always do them after its too late" is a little off too.

That wasn't the actual message was it? I thought that was an acknowledged mistake that Carl made. What about the bit at the end where his wife's telling him to not be weighed down by the past and to live his own dreams.

Anyway, my list:

1) Toy Story
2) Monster's Inc
3) Toy Story 3
4) The Incredibles
5) Ratatouille
6) Wall-E
7) Toy Story 2
8) Up
9) Finding Nemo
10) A Bug's Life
11) Cars

[RobbyBevard]

A lot of the things that kept Toy Story's narrative brilliant (that continued in the subsequent films in its series) tend to be missing in Pixar's stuff. Things like having to inject a traditional animated "villain" in UP kept it down.

The Alpha dog voice joke worked... as an initial surprise. It shouldn't have been its introductory voice... and he probably shouldn't have kept it so long. Let alone got his menancing voice back... and then lost it again immediatley. Plus Emperor's New Groove did the same thing with Yzma. But it WAS funny and surprising, it worked to that end.

But there was really no reason the main villain had to be such...a villain. Him wanting to kill the bird and the kid wanting to save the bird was enough conflict. He didn't have to be "I'm crazy and I've killed other adventurers and I'm destroying your house intentionally and shooting at you and have dogs that can pilot airplanes" evil. A *lot* more subtlety would have worked so much better, especially when the rest of the film was so nuanced.

The dogs piloting airplanes was kind of wtf too, actually. Especially since up till that point they'd basically only done real dog things.

That wasn't the actual message was it? I thought that was an acknowledged mistake that Carl made. What about the bit at the end where his wife's telling him to not be weighed down by the past and to live his own dreams.

I suppose at the end of the day it was the message, but not until the end, and not until it was too late.

[MetaMario]

My ranking:

1. Toy Story
2. Toy Story 3
3. Toy Story 2
4. Monster's Inc
5. Ratatouille
6. Up
7. Finding Nemo
8. A Bug's Life
9. Cars
10. Wall-E
11. The Incredibles

If there's one significant short Pixar made, it's Geri's Game. A classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7dcbIKvlw

[Hawkeye]

What happened to Newt? Heard they canceled it. Sad, the premise seemed pretty cool.
http://www.movieline.com/2010/09/pix...-potential.php

1. Monster's Inc
2. Toy Story 3
3. Toy Story
4. Toy Story 2
5. Ratatouille
6. Wall-E
7. Finding Nemo
8. The Incredibles
9. Up
10. Cars
11. Bug's Life

[RobbyBevard]

My favorite short is the one with the rabbit and and the wizard. That's like, classic Bugs Bunny comedic timing right there.

What happened to Newt? Heard they canceled it. Sad, the premise seemed pretty cool.
http://www.movieline.com/2010/09/pix...-potential.php

Apparently it was having significant story problems during pre-production. (It might be the premise only really works for 20 minutes, the fact that other similar cgi films are coming out, or that ultimately, its a sex comedy, or a combination therof. Has "Alpha and Omega" already come and gone?)

Stuff that far down the pike getting cancelled isn't uncommon, it happens to Disney films ALL the time, we're only aware of it because it was announced SO far in advance.

[Robo Gorilla]

What happened to Newt? Heard they canceled it. Sad, the premise seemed pretty cool.

They just didn't think it would work well.

And while we're on the topic of bad things in good movies. Am I the only person who found Lotso/ Bib Baby/ Chuckle's flashback ending kind of odd? They find Daisy and find out that Lotso's been replaced. Lotso makes everyone go. Yeah Lotso's bad. But Chuckle gives him no sympathy "actually Lotso, you're screwed, we're fine. See you later.". Chuckle tries to completely turn his back on Lotso. For some reason he doesn't follow through, but just calling him on it seems kind of weird to me.