Pixar to Disney: Drop Dead

i mean "sports sports sports toilet seat up oh no!! anniversary :/" is so broadly sitcom-ish to the point of self-parody but pixar has a tendency for that type of stuff and they're the only people on earth still gainfully employing tim allen so i guess it isn't too surprising

also does NO ONE remember cranium command come on now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlwLkM0iGE0

People are fucking boring. Pixar know$.

Would not be at all surprised to learn that this was originally pitched as a Cranium Command film.

"sports sports sports toilet seat up oh no!! anniversary :/"

lol well done

I don't think most people will be bothered by this kind of thing. Like I'm sure everyone else in my office would go "oh COME ON" at these criticisms because they rely on this kind of shit for their own sense of humor. It's the "hahaha soooo truuue" kind of humor they're comfortable with, it's written into their brains and reinforced by hallmark card jokes, words written on snarky novelty items, and commercials featuring women rolling their eyes at dopey husbands.

― Evan, Thursday, December 11, 2014 10:33 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well.... yeah. Doesn't mean we have to be excited about it though! Some of their other films really went for something with a lot more heart and insight than this lazy Dreamworksy shit.

Well like I say, there may turn out to be more depth to the concept than the trailer reveals. Signs aren't good though.

This trailer feels roughly of a piece with the somewhat recent trend in commercials that show couples/families who can barely hide their resentment of and boredom with one another.

Well.... yeah. Doesn't mean we have to be excited about it though! Some of their other films really went for something with a lot more heart and insight than this lazy Dreamworksy shit.

― Doctor Casino, Thursday, December 11, 2014 12:15 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I'm definitely not saying anyone is forcing us to be excited about that trailer. Just kinda frustrated that people are complacent despite the criticisms already brought up here.

Not that they have to agree either if presented with them.

I want to give Pixar more credit from so many years of goodwill, but they did just make a Monsters Inc prequel and sequel to Cars... still, I will keep hope alive.

i hope everybody likes thinkpieces about gender stereotyping because come july we are IN FOR IT.

― the dreaded Laramie (reddening), Wednesday, December 10, 2014 9:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

evan just pointed me to this and yeah, this is gonna get thinkpieced to death - and rightfully so to a certain extent - unless of course the trailer is deceptive. like ebert *pours liquor* once said, the trailer almost invariably reflects the film the studio (disney overlords rather than pixar people) wanted made, rather than the film that was made.

but pixar might also be washed i mean i didn't even try fuckin' with cars 2 or brave, havent seen any of their flicks since up and toy story 3

Brave was ok, but a little sub-par for them

I'm really worried about the future of The Good Dinosaur.

I fell asleep during Brave and didn't feel particuarly inclined to try again. Monsters Inc prequel was entertaining enough, but hardly a classic.

They're following the Disney template with a glut of classics right out of the gate followed by a slate of forgettable halfassery.

but the Dad in that trailer was daydreaming about SOCCER. It's clearly super-progressive.

they were just thinking about the international box office

ha, yeah that's probably exactly right

Well, both. Soccer was big this year in the US so it's a kill two birds kinda thing.

brave was painfully conventional, occasionally beautiful

monsters u was by-the-numbers hackwork

still lots of goodwill attached to the brand but they need a legit Pixar entertainment aoon

monsters inc prequel was fun, I don't hold that against them. not so sure we need Nemo 2 since Nemo is one of their absolute highlights. Brave was fine, I think it's a much better film than the woeful Frozen.

Despite the quality of any given Pixar movie overall, their animators still consistently come across as the most imaginative and best at timing/expressions/mannerisms/etc of their characters & worlds.

Oh yeah, the animation in that trailer is sublime.

Yes, but Pixar should remember that DreamWorks animation is also very pretty, but underneath lies a vacuous void with the heart of a hyena (a cowardly hyena's heart).

Cars 2 was the beginning of the slide.

Pixar's sequelitis is a little surprising, as even Disney proper has avoided that to a pretty large extent (either shipping that garbage straight to video or dumping it on a lesser studio, a la Planes). I think the critical and commercial success of the Toy Story series went to their heads and suggested that the rest of their library could carry subsequent installments.

true, but so far, the only terrible sequel is Cars 2. I still stand by Monsters U.

Monsters U was fun but Cars 2 good lord

but it's true they really haven't tried anything ambitious or critic-friendly anyway since Up

I guess Brave had its fans actually

xpost Which is baffling, since up to that point (IIRC), each subsequent movie did better both critically and financially than the one before. Why mess with that formula?

Cars was WAY too big of of an incentive from a merchandising point of view for them to not do. I can imagine a push in very early phases of writing Cars 2 to "expand the universe" with that in mind. And imagine the pressure after Up to produce another good merchandising opportunity.

Are you kidding? Those Carl dolls are still flying off the shelves five years later.

haha

Ha - yeah and my kids did not dig Up at all. Maybe they were put off somehow by their parents weeping within the first three minutes.

worth mentioning that the people who made pixar A Thing are currently focused on making disney A Thing again.

Good bit of recent discussion ITT about that very Thing. I hope Lassiter stays in a position of power at Disney for a long time to come.

ah my bad - i figured that already came up. i just assume that's the reason pixar seems to be treading water at the moment.

weirdness of that trailer aside though, what i've read about that brain movie seems pretty promising.

Well, usually their storytelling is pretty good. That trailer was just establishing the world. Same with Monsters U- Pixar did a nice job with the story and it was a fun movie, but the similar trailer just showing the characters as college versions doing Animal-House-but-not-humans was also really shitty looking initially (though I'm not saying it came close to the legacy that ended with Toy Story 3).

Cars 2 was the beginning of the slide.

It was one of them, considering they devised it as a means to marketing toys to boys, though the irony is that it was totally Lasseter's baby because he likes cars. But I think the breaking point was giving up and greenlighting Toy Story 3 after Disney threatened to start making straight to video sequels on their own and Pixar capitulated.

Nothing wrong with Toy Story 3 though imo

Stays true to the magic of all the other classics.

Is anyone else excited for the movie about people's emotions being anthropomorphized? Looks like it might be pretty good, IMO.

"greenlighting Toy Story 3 after Disney threatened to start making straight to video sequels on their own and Pixar capitulated"

this happened with Toy Story 2 actually

wasn't making Toy Story 3 one of the required terms of the Pixar/Disney buyout deal?

this happened with Toy Story 2 actually

Yeah, this may be right, or at least closer. I think Toy Story 2 was going to be straight to video, but they decided to make it a feature. This is back when Pixar worked more or less independently from Disney, while Disney handled distribution. They split profits 50/50, but Disney retained character/sequel rights. Regardless, Toy Story 2 is perfect, so worked out OK. Last several Pixar, starting with Cars, have been erratic or otherwise disappointing, while Disney (under Lasseter) has cleaned up, creatively and commercially. Again, no coincidence that we are in the middle of the longest stretch yet between Pixar films, many of which have had creative conflicts/changes and/or have been delated (Brave, Dinosaur).

Intrigued about the return of Andrew Stanton post John Carter. It's too bad it's for Finding Dory, but Finding Nemo may be my Pixar fave. Definitely up there.

u r all cray monsters u was a by-the-numbers betrayal of everything that made the first one worthwhile

I disliked Monsters U. I thought it was lame and unfunny and I was shocked they went with the boilerplate slobs vs. snobs set-up. Iirc it saved all its few jokes for the fuzzy guy. Monsters Inc, is one of Pixar's formative masterpieces.

All I meant (speaking for myself) was that it had a nice charm to it and that it would have been a very strong Dreamworks film. But yes against the earlier Pixars it was disappointing for sure.

I kinda want to say that The Lego Movie was fantastic and better than anything Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks has put out for the past few years, to my shock