Pixar has been a staple of children’s entertainment since I was a wee babe. I’ve seen most (not all) of the Pixar animated films, and while a lot of them are classics that I have revisited countless, some of them are just … fine.
Right now, Pixar has twenty feature films under their belt, with Toy Story 4 aiming to be their 21st, and while Toy Story 3 was a tearjerker that has emotionally wrecked us, the fact that Pixar is making yet another sequel takes away the thing that was special about Pixar movies: the chance to see a unique story. Of the last five movies, Pixar has made only two original movies—CoCo and The Good Dinosaur—that are not part of a series or a sequel to another film. Pixar is slowly losing a little bit of its magic, but they have such a hook in us that we rarely realize we didn’t care for something until much after we’ve seen it.
Like Incredibles 2.
Did I enjoy Incredibles 2? Absolutely, but even though I enjoyed it, while watching, I felt like a lot of the things I really enjoyed about the original were not present. Jack-Jack is still a king and Edna a queen, but those were always going to be my favorite parts. Elastigirl’s powers being put on display is awesome, but the final act is really repetitive and not as interesting as it could have been.
It’s been years since I’ve seen the original Incredibles, but that movie is so clear in my mind that I don’t think I need to revisit it that often. I saw Incredibles 2 a few months ago, and it’s just a fun blur overall, beyond some set pieces. A well-made, beautifully designed, entertaining blur, but a blur nonetheless.
Before I unveil some of my own controversial Pixar opinions, I asked my fellow The Mary Sue writers for some of their unpopular opinions on the animation studio:
Kaila and Dan let it be known that they don’t really care for Pixar, possibly because they missed the window for it to be an impactful part of their adolescent years. Although, Dan did say that he enjoyed the first Toy Story as a kid.
While most people are deeply affected by the opening sequence in Up, Rachel said: “I didn’t cry during the montage of Up, but rather at the end, when Carl goes to Russell’s boy scout event.”
Chelsea boldly proclaimed, “I don’t think Finding Nemo is as good as everyone says it is, give me Monsters Inc. any day.”
For me, the most underrated Pixar movies are A Bug’s Life and Brave. I saw A Bug’s Life in theaters as a kid, and I remember being terrified of Hopper and his gang of grasshoppers, but I also remember loving Princess Atta (voiced by former president Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her slow character development from someone who passively allowed the imperialism of the grasshoppers upon her colony, to standing up on her own. (Antz is also a good movie, for the record.)
Brave I also saw in theaters, and I felt it was unfairly held up against Toy Story 3. People were quick to dismiss Merida as “another spunky Disney Princess,” not taking into consideration her story and that Disney had never produced a mother-daughter story like it before. Even more so, the fact that Merida was a tomboy who dismissed feminine strength, and learned throughout the movie to appreciate both her mother and father’s strengths, was incredibly effective and still not a story we see often in films, animated or otherwise.
Pixar has created some truly original masterpieces, but they are getting few and far between and with cinema, in general, being oversaturated with sequels (not mention now reboots of franchises like Shrek). We need Pixar to harness their creativity more than ever.
What are some of your unpopular Pixar feelings that you don’t share at dinner parties?
(image: Disney/Pixar)
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Published: Nov 7, 2018 05:07 pm