Next batch of Pixar films after the Monsters Inc. prequel

yeah the marketing on this has been terrible but imo it's the strongest complete Pixar offering since ratatouille. The gender stereotype stuff falls with a wet splat and there's some meandering in the second act but tremendous performances and the emotional beats are all direct hits. Not a dry eye in the house by the end and it's well earned.

Pop Culture Happy Hour folks pointed out that it's a movie with no villain, which is unique, especially for a movie for kids.

Totoro

Kiki's Delivery Service too - even Ghibli films with an antagonist don't tend to have a villain.

Yeah, I'm really glad that Inside Out had no villain, since it's something you don't usually see in a lot of childrens films. Alot of Pixar movies tend to do the thing where a character befriends the leads, and then turns out to have sinister motives and betray them, and I respect Pixar for not returning to that well.

i saw lava last year and yeah, way insipid. nothing wrong with kt kahele (tho "ukulele sucks because indie rock" is one of my favorite ilm looks) but i never wanna see another love-powered resurrection. it's like being dramatically punkd.

maria and cyrus went to inside out the other night and i totally didn't go because of the trailer! bad trailer! oh well. i could still go i guess. rufus hasn't seen it...

you would get a kick out of it i think, scott, it's super satisfying as just a really long, funny index of thought patterns

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-curse-of-the-pixar-universe

god, brody is insufferable

old school trolling

In lieu of the mysteries and wonders of life, instead of big dreams and big fears, in place of the cosmic sense of childhood infinity that Terrence Malick thrillingly got at in “The Tree of Life” (the best movie about a child’s inner life that I’ve ever seen),

I had no idea TTOL was a Pixar cartoon!

Brody is good sometimes, but this is definitely example of one of his worst tendencies: walking in with rigid, somewhat bizarre pre-conceived notions (in this case about the emotional lives of children) and then tearing a movie to pieces because it offers a different perspective.

I kind of would love to see him direct a response film based on the ideas in his column

seeing this tomorrow. one person I know said it was the only pixar movie in years he didn't cry at; seems completely at odds with what everyone else's experience has been. but he is kind of a drunk and young.

I don't cry at movies, still liked it.

I liked it ok, "didja have to tell kids their imaginary friends will die someday?" is pretty mild as far as my kid movie grumbles go. I'm not sure kids enjoy whimsical self-analysis and metaphors about the need to accept pain as much adults do - already heard about a three year old who thinks the movie is about a robot "because she had people in her brain!" But I was entertained.

Hated lava, though - what an expensive video for such a shitty song

I didn't really cry at this one, but it's probably because all of my islands of personality have crumbled into the canyon.

Uh, I guess a three-year-old may not grasp it, but it's not hard to imagine the premise and execution being compelling for, say, a 9-year-old.

I didn't really cry at this one, but it's probably because all of my islands of personality have crumbled into the canyon.

Same, kind of underwhelmed.

Joy was such a condescending jerk (in the beginning, but that was sort of the point).

Also: San Fran-stinktown.

Disgust's animation and faces are great though.

i didnt like this bcuz they kept putting the protagonists in one desperate situation after another and they got stupider and more desperate and then the way they finally got out of the final one was such a dumb deus ex machina and it was really frustrating and stupid like the toy story 3 furnace scene 10x in a fucking row and lava was fucking stupid too.

yeah but the abstraction chambere

disgust is so stupid why does that get to be an emotion and not like... ANY OTHER EMOTION PEOPLE FEEL. it was just a way to shoehorn in mindy k so dumb.

Pixar could've added Gay and cast Adam Lambert.

well it is interesting to note that when they went into the parents heads the emotions were all the same gender as the mom and dad but riley's were BOTH GENDERS omg pixar blowin my mind rn

I like the part where Bing Bong killed himself.

fuck richard kind

have to admit I wept like a baby at the end of this, my wife is still teasing me about it, but the wish to leave my son with more happy than sad memories is a very strong and fraught feeling for me.

i also realize this movie is for babies so its ok that i didnt like it but im so sick of this ITS FOR ADULTS TOO hype bullshit when it is clearly NOT

I probably wouldn't choose to watch this independent of children, but there is definitely a poignancy that I can relate to as a parent of a child the same age as Riley.

Are you quoting a 16 year old or is that your actual opinion

Lol xpost

16 year old me wasn't into richard kind either

i was... underwhelmed by this. even some of the best pixar movies have climaxes that feel, if not perfunctory exactly, then kind of rote. "inside/out" felt a lot like that for much of its length. the inventiveness of the premise did not extend to the mechanics of the action. it also had that problem where it kept making up new rules for the world of the film, to the point where it began to feel quite arbitrary.

that said, there were lots of little clever bits, such that i rarely didn't have a smile on my face. i liked some of the character designs a lot, even if they weren't that original. ("disgust" was the weak link in all respects.)

also: poor, poor bing bong :(

of course, that whole changing-the-rules-every-five-minutes goes double for some ghibli movies. and it gets a little irritating in ponyo and, to a lesser extent, howl's moving castle. but in general the ghibli films are so fucking inventive and weird that i don't mind. (on a side note i rewatched kiki's delivery service last week and i think that might be the stealth best ghibli movie?)

i put totoro / kiki / porco rosso / laputa on the same pedestal

what about nausicaa??!

Manga version blows Nausicaa away.

otm, after reading the books the movie became nigh unwatchable for me, except muted as just something cool to see in the background.

leee otm

basically all of the "lone girl versus / as-a-manifestation-of the unknown or semi-supernatural" films (nausicaa, howl, spirited away, ponyo, mononoke) are good and occasionally great but not upper tier

actually, add "the wind rises" to the top five up there; i'd be hard pressed to rank them beyond that though

otm, after reading the books the movie became nigh unwatchable for me, except muted as just something cool to see in the background.

― a mallomar full of chamillionaires (Doctor Casino), Monday, June 29, 2015 6:36 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

challops!

ahem
http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7b/7f/81/7b7f810667562148ca5626c6b3153d0f.jpg
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/museum/mei/

(you're welcome btw)

I'd been looking forward to seeing this one with my kids. Finally did tonight, and ... pretty disappointed. Reminded me a bit of one of those EPCOT pseudo-educational film before-the-ride movies, but stretched out to feature length. Not boring, just sort of functional. At the same time, it didn't seem quite fleshed out well enough to support its running time - a lot of the movie was just this not terribly thrilling "we need to get the x to the y!" race - though I did love the central conceit of sadness and joy being equally vital components of growing up. And I'd much rather something minor like this than a "Monsters U," no question. But at times I flashed back to "Monsters Inc.", and how wonderfully that movie handled somewhat similar subject matter, yet in a much more creative manner than what this one attempts literally.

Other random thoughts:

1) Design-wise, I actually thought it was pretty uninspiring for Pixar. The main characters were a bit like boring Muppets, and all the little sub-Minion tic tac characters were sort of missed opportunities.

2) I try to see most Pixar movies in 2D, but this felt like the first Pixar movie that really seemed like it was trying to be 3D. Like, lots of things flying at the screen, playing with perspective or otherwise seemingly designed to make the most of 3D. Sort of distracting.

3) I cry at virtually every movie I see with my kids. I love the experience. I probably even cried, most recently, at "Jurassic World," since I love watching them watch movies so much. But weirdly I did not cry at this one.

4) Was surprised at how not funny it was. In fact, early on they use the old "Be positive!" "OK ... I'm positive this is a bad idea" groaner. And then they do it again! And I can't believe they threw in a lame "Forget it, Jake ... " "Chinatown" gag.

5) How long was Riley at the new house? A few days? And jeez, wouldn't that house go for, like, $10 billion dollars in San Fran? Or is that the bad part of town?

6) Bing Bong also seemed like a missed opportunity. And as my older daughter pointed out, shouldn't he have made a fleeting appearance in the opening montage of formative memories?

7) Joy was pretty condescending, wasn't she? She was basically Leslie Knope.

7) The nightmare music was the music from Disney's "Haunted Mansion" ride!

8) I would watch an entire movie about the inner lives of cats.

on a side note i rewatched kiki's delivery service last week and i think that might be the stealth best ghibli movie?)

we just went thru a Miyazaki festival and, yeah, I agree.

"Kiki's" is great, one of my older daughter's faves. Also, some great Phil Hartman in the English version.