The title pretty much says it all, has there ever been a time when you changed your mind about a Pixar film before? Be it for better or worse?
Also, please note that the first chunk of what I’m going to say is an opinion of mine of old, I’m just describing it in such detail to give an idea of how rapidly my opinion on said film changed, and any withstanding opinions are just that, opinions, so if you disagree with anything I have to say, please try to be polite and civil about it. Anyways…
The main one for me would have to be Wall E. I’m going to admit it, the first time I saw it, I had a very cold reaction to it, and that’s putting it lightly. For some reason I didn’t buy the whole Wall E and Eve relationship, and I found many of the underlying political messages to be a tad preachy and in your face, the one that especially bugged me was the anti mass consumerism, considering the film was distributed by a studio such as Disney, and I have to admit the lack of dialogue on the part of the two main protagonists caught me off guard when I watched it in the cinema for the first time back in 2008. I usually don’t mind it when films don’t have an abundance of dialogue, but with this film didn’t click with me the first time around for some reason.
I felt bad for having such a cold reaction to it though, it wasn’t like Cars where the general consensus was that it was inferior to Pixar’s other works, I really felt like I was missing out on a great film as many loved it in the same way I did Up when I watched it upon its UK release in late 2009. It made me feel bad for listing it as my second least favourite Pixar film, and I don’t usually let the opinions of the majority make me even moderately question my stance on something, but I did with Wall E for whatever reason.
Well, earlier this year I started collecting Disney blu rays, as well as Pixar ones, and eventually I had every Pixar film that had been released in the UK besides Wall E and Cars, and despite my ill feelings toward the two films I wanted to buy them to give them both second chances, and also fill the gap that was in my collection at the time. Unfortunately my opinion on Cars didn’t change at all, Wall E however…ooh god, I fell in love in with it!
I noticed how much Wall E and Eve actually managed to say to both each other and the audience without uttering a single world, outside of each other’s and their own names or the odd noise now and again. It was a marvel to behold, it really was, and this alone made me enjoy the film so much more than I did the first time around as it felt like a completely different film. I guess in the 2 years since watching it I wasn’t surprised by the political undertones of the film, and the stuff I missed stuck out to me like crazy upon re-watching it. I got so much more involved in Wall E and Eve’s journey, and found myself on the verge of tears towards the end of the film.
I have to admit, the mass consumerism did still kind of bug me, but not to the extent it had the first time around.
It went from being my second least favourite Pixar film to my 3rd favourite, behind Up in 1st and the Toy Story Trilogy in 2nd (each one of those films slightly better than the last) it was quite surreal for me to say the least.
I suppose I could also say Monsters Inc, though to a much lesser extent, I just remember thinking it was “Meh” when I was younger, but I re-watched it on blu ray earlier this year and while it is still lower down on my list of Pixar films, I came to love it to bits regardless upon re-watching it.
So yeah, any Pixar films you’ve changed your mind on, be it for better or worse? ^^ Lemme know, I’d be curious to read about some of yours!