Hey everyone! I just found this place today, and after lurking around for about half an hour, I finally decided to join! I’m really in shock and awe from the sheer amount of pure awesomeness that is seems to be radiating from these forums, so please excuse me if my post becomes really long and ramble-y, as I’m still trying to soak it all in.
This place is amazing! I mean I can’t believe how organized everything is, especially considering the relatively small number of members. There’s a blog, a podcast, contest… and what’s this? A magazine?! I’m a member of a pretty large forum, Skateboard-City, at about 30k members, but this place is so much more professional! Over there, everything gets off topic within the first few posts, there’s vulgar language and just an overall feeling of hecticness. Here it looks like there’s just a clean cut, genuine affection toward a common love, and everyone looks friendly and mature. I’m swear I’m not trying suck up to anyone, and I really mean this when I say this: major props to the staff and members!
Ok, now with that out of the way, let me tell everyone a little about myself. I’m just your average 15 year old guy in high school. My love of Pixar actually just arose about a month ago, when I was flipping through channels on TV.
I somehow ended up watching the Disney channel, because nothing else was on, and they were showing Cars. It was basically like the tail-end 15 minutes of the film, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. After piecing together some bits, and finishing the movie, I was like, “Wow that actually was not bad. It was pretty interesting, I wonder what happened in the first part of the movie that I missed.” Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel that this curiosity justified buying the DVD to watch to whole thing so, erm… uh, I kinda… Ok, I’ll admit it!!! I watched a dvd rip someone posted on Youtube!!! Not exactly legal, and not exactly a good sign when a future Pixar fan won’t even support the company by paying for their movies!
Anyways, I loved Cars, and it completely redefined my thinking on animated movies. Before, I kind of just thought that they were for small children, or the parents of those children who are forced to sit through the movies with them. However this movie had something that most hit movies that come out of Hollywood lack – a plot! Not to mention, in addition to that, amazing characters, and a really deep moral that made me rethink my outlook on life.
I started to wonder what I’ve been missing all these years. I purchased the Pixar Ultimate Movie Collection, along with Wall-E and Up from Amazon. Probably the most worthwhile $200 I ever spent! I watched the rest of the Pixar movies in under a week. Like with Cars, I don’t think that there was a single film in which I didn’t laugh or cry. I just can’t believe that I’ve been exposed to Pixar my entire life – heck, I’ve even seen some of their movies before as a small child – but I’ve never realized their genius until now. I guess it wasn’t until now that I finally have the maturity to recognize that there is more to Pixar’s movies than just little cute cartoon characters running around.
I can’t say that my room is covered with Pixar posters, or that I only wear Pixar clothing. Nor can I say that I own all the Pixar collectible toys, or that I have memorized the dialogue and frame numbers of all their films. But what I can say is that I truly love everything Pixar, and what started as a stroke of luck surfing channels has now turned into an obsession. I’m over a decade late, but I’m finally on the Pixar train!
I really look forward to meeting everyone!
EDIT: Oh my gosh, what was I thinking? I just read what I wrote, and I just realized that I wrote a small novel! Sorry everyone, sometimes when I’m saying something and I get on a roll, I can’t stop myself. It’s like brain diarrhea, everything just starts flowing out uncontrollably! So I apologize if anyone spent the time to actually read this whole thing.