Finally some news at last! TimesOnline has a good article about Pixar and pleasing adults as well as kids with their films. It also discusses the possibility of Pixar being too-mature with Ratatouille. Here’s an insightful quote from the article and Brad Bird…
While Pixar uses pop-culture buffoonery as the icing on the cake, for DreamWorks it is the cake: remove the jibes at Disney in Shrek, or the celebrity jokes in Shark Tale, and there’s not much left, least of all that sense of enchantment that is the lifeblood of fantasy. “Pop-culture references are easy,” sighs Bird, “and they give the audience a cheap thrill. But they don’t last. Take Disney’s Aladdin, which I like – when that came out, and I saw the genie doing an impression of [US chat-show host] Arsenio Hall, I thought, ‘This is going to mean nothing in 10 years’ time.’ We try to avoid that. People who know James Bond movies could feel their influence on The Incredibles, but hopefully you didn’t need to be familiar with them to enjoy the film.”
Now if only the rest of those at hollywood who are trying to catch the CG animation train would read this article and realise this! It’s the most interesting read I’ve had to today, so why not have a look. You might be surprised.
Last modified: September 17, 2007
Liked the article, thanks! How true is the comparison between Pixar and Dreamworks!
And thats why all the animators want to work at Pixar over just about anywhere else too.
I love that quote…
While Pixar uses pop-culture buffoonery as the icing on the cake, for DreamWorks it is the cake
Thanks Luxo Jr.!
I agree with this point for the most part, which is another aspect that Cars dissapointed me in. Ratatouille was such a great rebound from that. Now if they would start releasing 2-disc dvd’s again I’d have zero problems anymore.
Yes, for Dreamworks and others, bonus DVD material is the icing on the cake. For Pixar, there’s only cake, no icing.
Wow, I had the exact same thoughts on pop culture references too! Nowadays, Dreamworks Animation has this formula in which it HAS to have some pop culture humor in order to be entertaining. It can still be entertaining without such stupid cheap humor. (Look what happened to FLUSHED AWAY. It was a victim of DW’s tampering and it didn’t allow Aardman Animation to show its British wit.)
Keep in mind, adding pop culture humor into animation isn’t new. Look at the old Looney Tunes cartoons with the celebrity cameos, for example.
Now I have more reasons to love Brad Bird! 🙂
This is the kind of stuff I end up debating to a lot of folks with. Because it does seem that the American culture just cannot fathom the idea of animation going beyond something to ‘entertain the kiddies.’
I’ve seen animation and shorts from Europe that show some great emotional depth, and even in Japan animation has been used to tell stories from fantasy to historical drama.
Whereas PIXAR is willing to take their chances with unconventional material, Dreamworks can’t even break free of their doldrums. There are times I just get tired of pop culture and poop jokes. That’s when I put in ‘Spirited Away’ or other Studio Ghibli films. Those are wonderful, as Hayao Miyazaki does not rely on pop culture, but just sets out with his crew to tell a story.