Toy Story
Like: Buzz and Woody’s relationship arc from one of jealousy to one of friendship
Dislike: Well, the design of the humans as already stated, to be fair though this was the early days, but it’s rather strange looking back.
A Bugs Life
Like: A story related to feeling you’re not ‘one of the crowd’. Flick in general. Also doing the right thing DESPITE the idea it would possibly make you unpopular.
Dislike: Too many characters really I think in some ways.
Toy Story 2
Like: Buzz and Woody friendship while unfortunatly reduced still remained feeling important. Emotionally answered some questions reguarding towards when kids grow out of their toys. Good additions to the cast. (Jesse, Stinky Pete etc.)
Dislike: The Chicken Man. I guess?
Monsters Inc
Like: A world filled with possibilities to explore, and characters which you can see existing in human forms in many ways. THE WATERNOOSE REVEAL IS AMAZING (plus makes sense). Some unintended things were inferred but that makes everything more interesting than it might have been. Boo and Sulley’s friendship.
Dislike: Incomplete protaganist arc from Randall’s unorthadox exit. Missed opportunities in several areas. (But then to make them all you might need multiple movies).
Finding Nemo
Like: The father-son bond arc, the difficulties of single parenthood and the fears which come with it. Dory, Bruce and the sharks, and emotional sucker punches along the way. Also the Tank Gang- especially Gil and Peach.
Dislike:… I can’t think of anything actually. Maybe the fact it wrapped up things so well the only thing I can really say is that I couldn’t stand it if a sequel came out for it? Heh. I guess it did screw around with biological facts here and there.
Incredibles
Like: Mirage is generally interesting to me and also had the best line of the movie regarding strength and respecting life. Bob/Helen is also my Pixar OTP. The idea of supers being persecuted also isn’t all that original (but then neither is M.I.s concept), but they generally pulled it off very well. Also Dash and Violet really did act like kids their age. Syndrome at times was chilling. And it was heartbreaking when Bob thought they were dead as well as terrifying when he started choking Mirage. Fascinating world possibilities in making supers affiliated with the government.
Dislike: I… , I sometimes got from this film that it was saying if you weren’t ‘born’ talented you should just roll over and deal with it. I know that’s what they weren’t really saying but it left an unfortunate impression. Granted Syndrome did show he was an adequate threat without ‘Their special gifts’, but still, if they ever had a sequel, I’d like them to show someone without powers who manages to save the day. I feel this is still something Bob has to learn myself.
Cars
Like: Most of the characters, and general plot. A redemptive arc was just what the docter ordered. And my favourite scene has to be where Lightning helps ‘The King’ across the finish line, showing how he realised what really matters in life.
Dislike: World Building Twitches. I can’t believe very well that this world exists unlike other Pixar movies.
Ratatouille
Like: A story about a rat, being the lowest you can in society trying to follow his dreams. The animation of the humans was pretty cool in this too, I really liked how Lingini looked for instance- he seemed more ‘real’ to me than how some of Pixars humans had looked before. Anton Ego was great.
Dislike: I guess Remy was kind of… cocky at points. It kind of bugged me occasionally.
WALL-E
Like: WALL-E is adorable and I really enjoyed seeing EVE realise how much WALL-E had done for her and him helping her to have fun. She also almost realised too late what she could lose as well, which was great to see emotionally speaking. It’s odd that little robots with only a little ‘facial’ expression and limited speech managed to convey so much. Also Stanton proves once again he’s perhaps Pixars best world builder in keeping to his own universes rules along with Bird. The use of the word ‘Axiom’ was particulary clever when you think about it (look up the definition!). Some of the space scenes were wonderful.
Dislike: Um… I guess the whole thing with the antagonist was unfortunate, he was doing what he was programmed to do after all. Though I guess there was no other choice.
Up
Like: Carl/Ellie, Carl bits in general. He was a good character in general and felt very real to me as well as situation before he decided to tie balloons to his house.
Dislike: Um… I’m going to get flamed for this. I mean Dug was funny at first but it got old. Same with Russell unfortunatly (at points). The universe broke its OWN previously established rules and a lot of what was thrown in there seemed like stuff simply thrown in there to stop kids from getting bored. Also Muntz was disappointing. The sterotypes surrounding the dogs was also aggravating. (Though at least they ended up okay- but it still bugged me. Dug didn’t have to be a retriever). Up honestly elt like something which would have been their best short film if they’d instead simply cut Russell- just done a wordless montage and ended with Carl smiling as he sat in his flying house.
Toy Story 3
Like: Well I guess it was nice to see what DID happen to them when Andy grew up, even if that had been sorted out emotionally before hand. Lotso was a genuinely interesting character, someone who both drew sympathy from me but also made me appalled by his actions. I honestly think he’s the way Syndrome was wanted to be taken as by Pixar- only he succeeded more in this. . Like a mixture of Waternoose and Randall from M.I. he was rather fascinating all in all. Also the incinerator scene was excellent, displaying true friendship to the end. Also Woody saving Lotso before hand. Go Woody! This movie, along with HTTYD from Dreamworks was also welcome after being disappointed by other movies, as they were the only ones who helped me immerse myself in the movie and care about the characters. They made me forget this was a ‘family film’ and they’d probably be okay in various instances.
Dislike: Lotso was unfortunatly a missed opportunity to me- I would have given up the incinerator scene for him to be redeemed myself. Also the opening sequence? Dire, though it thankfully improved. Spanish Buzz was thankfully shortlived but should have been shorter. There were also some moments where it seemed more like a Dreamworks feature. Now I don’t consider that synonymous with ‘bad’ like some necessarily but it didn’t feel very Pixar at some points. Plus the amount of Buzz/Woody friendship was unfortunatly thin on the ground. It didn’t feel as important as in the other movies.
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(I know this is all very wordy)
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