Toy Story 3 and Pixar

[texas_ex2000]

I'm a huge Pixar fan and saw Toy Story 3 this weekend. I you like great story telling, writing, artistic creativeness, and visuals...whether you're a child or an adult you have to like Pixar.

Toy Story 3 was solid, and the more I think about it especially the last 30 mins or so of the movie, the more I seem to like it. Toy Story is their Godfather, and Toy Story 2 (like the Godfather 2) is probably better and one of their masterpieces. Toy Story 3 while not as good as Toy Story 2 is still superb. Unlike recent films like Incredibles (jet setting across a comic book fantasy world), Ratatouille (Paris), Wall-E (space and post apocalyptic Earth), and Up (South America), Toy Story 3 takes place mostly in a daycare. So the amazement and scaling aspect of the story isn't there. To succeed, they have to concentrate on the characters and their relationships and make that as meaningful as the grand settings as their other recent masterpieces. And Pixar does a great job once again.

Every Pixar movie has a strong message to tell (Up - affirmation in life, Wall-E - love, Ratatouille - responsibility and passion). The message in Toy Story 3 is about family and loyalty. It seems like in every one of their movies, they put in the Scene that just captures the essence of the message and you walk away thinking about that scene for the rest of the week. My favorites:

1) Wall-E - Define dancing scene where Wall-E and Eve are flying/dancing through space...artistic brilliance and the best scene of that year in the movies. Define Dancing Wall-E

2) Up - Married life montage. Just brilliant. Married Life Up

3) Toy Story 2 - When She Loved Me scene with Jessie. Someone said that when they saw it again when they were older, it meant more about about a parent growing away from their child. When She Loved Me Toy Story 2

4) Ratatouille - Anton Ego's food review. Freaking Peter O'Toole. Probably the best words written in a Pixar film. While Wall-e is my favorite, I actually think Ratatouille might be the overall best crafted, soundest, and flawless made movie from Pixar. Anton Ego's Review Ratatouille

5) The Incredibles - Dash's chase through the jungle. Incredibles 2 is the movie I want to see made. The Chase The Incredibles

Honorable mention: Cars - Life Could Be A Dream. Cars is Pixar's worst movie, but it's still a very good movie and better than almost anything that comes out of Dreamworks or anywhere else. It's a good fun movie to throw in for your 6 year old. It also has Paul Newman as Doc Hudson, one of Pixar's best characters. Life Could Be A Dream - Cars

Bug's Life - The City. Bug's Life is so underrated. Definitely one of my favorites. This was Pixar's second movie, and The City scene gave us a hint of all the creative and visual awesomeness to come. The City Bug's Life

I'd love to see Pixar do a western or maybe a prequel to Up focusing on a local adventure of newlyweds Carl and Ellie...that'd be like an animated Frank Capra movie.

 

[bullseye-35]

After I saw "Up," I came to the conclusion that Pixar movies would some day be considered high art. Their storytelling is masterful, including the marriage montage and the first 20 minutes of WALL-E. I'm not sure that any Oscar winning directors could have done any better. Jane Austen apparently was simply considered pop culture at first. It took some time before her works were respected as literature. Maybe Pixar will gain the same respect in the future.

 

[buckhorn]

Saw it today.

Just great.

Lassiter and the crew are on top of story-telling, character development, classic narrative arcs involving change and stasis over time, good and evil, loyalty and treachery, permanence and disposability, and surprise and recognition as sources of humor.

I think I saw some guys sniffling and dabbing their eyes at the end. *******. Granted, the 3D glasses did irritate my eyes a bit toward the end, forcing me to turn from my girlfriend while massaging the moisture away.

*******.

Anyway, superb.

And the opening short, Night 'n' Day was one of their best.

Great stuff all around.

Bravo.

 

[bullzak]

You way underrate Cars.

I have 3 year olds so I am getting reacquainted with the Pixar lineup. These movies have a lot of depth and character. Its not just gimmicky animation and thats why these movies really are timeless.

I read that Pixar was actually a failing hardware firm and as a kind of last gasp Lasseter went around trying to convince people to buy the hardware. Nobody was interested in that but they loved some of the animation they did on those computers and Pixar was on their way.

Interesting story here:

10 interesting facts about Pixar

 

[l00p]

Those were indeed interesting facts. I have not seen many of the Pixar films and always meant to. I just forget or don't think about it when figuring out what movie to see either at a theater or at home. I need to go watch Toy Story 2 soon so I can watch 3.

Have not seen Up!, Cars, Nemo or Wall-E. That needs to change.

 

[Roger]

Took my oldest to see Toy Story 3 yesterday and it was fabulous. I've yet to be disappointed by a pixar movie. Usually when someone gets it right at some point you at least have a movie that disappoints due to unrealistic expectations, but hasn't happened yet with Pixar.

 

[lostman]

TS3 is on the agenda for this week. We have no young children in the house, but they have all grown up on the first two movies. My 15 year old used to call people a "baby daisy" when he was mad, or he would put his arm out and shoot his pretend laser at us like Buzz.

Did you know...

 

[Perham1]

texas ex - that was an outstanding post. (was going to type "texasex" but ... I see that the emphasis is placed elsewhere....).

I completely agree with you on Ratatouille.

 

[JoJo]

we took our two boys to see Toy Story 3 on opening weekend. They are 27 & 25, and we all loved it
and I agree with buckhorn, those 3D glasses irritated my eyes also.

 

[Pentaconta]

I'm beginning to think that 3D is just a gimmick by the movie studios to wring extra bucks out of the moviegoing public. I would have been just fine with seeing TS3 in 2D, but my wife scored free tickets to a theater that was only showing it in 3D. We still had to pay the extra 3D surcharge over the price of the regular tickets.

Now that being said, I loved the move. Had the same problems with um...eye irritation toward the end, too. Go figure.

 

[militaryhorn]

If your interested here is a timeline on Pixar.

History

What I found interesting was that George Lucas may not be able to make great films anymore as a director but he sure can make some money. Just think how much more money he would have had if he would have held on to Pixar.

 

[I_Live_In_OK]

I don't think "Cars" is on anywhere near the same level with the others. Clear drop off in delivery and writing compared to the rest, just mediocre.

 

[MaduroUTMB]

The thing is, the fact that their films are stellar apart from the technology is a small part of what they do. Catmull-Clark subdivision is named for Edwin Catmull, one of the founders. Marionette, their in house software package, is downright scary and largely unknown.

Pixar will be remembered in the same way that Thomas Edison was in terms of revolutionizing the film industry, except that they make good movies.