Toy Story Review
Grand Total: 9 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (the rocket) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Woody) +½
Great music +½
Great songs +½
Great writing +½
Total: 10
Overall impression
Toy Story is a computer-animated movie about a group of toys led by Woody, who meet Buzz Lightyear, and must cope with the prospect that Buzz may be Andy’s new favorite toy. Andy, of course, is the child who plays with this group of toys. Now, there is quite a bit more to the movie than that, but at its core, Toy Story is about friendship. Regardless of differences or circumstances, friendship is what brings these toys together even if Woody may be envious of Buzz or even if the two of them end up in another, more violent child’s house. While I don’t actually think Toy Story needed a villain because there was plenty of character development going on, the movie doesn’t treat Sid (the violent child) as the villain. Instead, the movie gives the viewers a look into the differences between a loving child and a violent one. While Sid may be in the movie for a short period of time, you really get to see what his circumstances are like, how he seems to always have his way, and how there just seems to be nobody around to supervise him. There is even more to it than that, but I think that Sid’s inclusion is actually a really useful way for the movie to establish that everything isn’t all bright colors when it comes to children or toys. Perhaps Sid is just a member of a broken family with a drunken father (briefly hinted at) and a mother trying to cope with raising two children, one of which has begun to display violent tendencies. It’s really important to note that this movie has a lot of the same type of depth to it that isn’t really discussed, simply hinted at. For example, there is a scene featuring a group of space toys in one of those 25 cent grab-the-toy machines. All they know is that the claw comes down and takes one, never to be seen again. The film makes you think about what it would be like to live in a closed container, never to know anything else but what you experience within that container. But enough about that. I said earlier that this movie is about friendship and it is. Woody and Buzz’s relationship becomes stronger as they have to weave through the many obstacles the plot throws at them, and this makes for quite a lot of great humor. The other toys they interact with, especially in Andy’s room, are also hilarious, and have great lines. That’s another great thing about the movie: the writing. There are so many references to other movies and pop culture that I definitely didn’t understand as a kid, but really appreciate now. As for the music and the songs, this movie introduced most of us to Randy Newman, who wrote the songs and the music for this movie. His style is so grounded in the early Pixar films that it is almost impossible to separate them. This is great, because it gives the movies their own feel that is unique from the other animated films around this time. Now, this movie isn’t perfect. I won’t slam the animation, because it is, for the most part, great. However, the people in the movie and a certain dog have been pretty poorly animated, so I guess it is just as well the movie focuses on the toys, who are really well-animated. The plot is pretty decent, but nothing stands out as unbelievable, it’s just an all-around good movie. I don’t know if that is supposed to take away from the experience, I just feel that some things could’ve had more weight to them. Still, Toy Story is a classic computer-animated film that more than earns its reputation.
Total: 9
A Bug's Life Review
Grand Total: 8 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Rain) +½
Great performance/character (Hopper) +½
Great music +½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
A Bug’s Life, the forgotten Pixar film, is a movie about a colony of ants oppressed by grasshoppers who find courage and rebellion in Flik, a loser ant. Yes, the story sounds pretty clichéd and, to an extent, it is. But at the same, it’s about a lot of things like believing in yourself, instilling hope and thinking outside of the box, or in this case, the island. The characters are pretty well fleshed out, even the minor ones. One character that is worth noting is the young Princess Dot, who is the only ant who believes in Flik. She’s always full of good dialogue and good messages. Speaking of good messages, one metaphor in this movie that is particularly memorable is the rock. I won’t explain it because I think you should see it for yourself. For a kid’s movie, it’s quite a good one. Another great character is Hopper, voiced by the fantastic Kevin Spacey. Hopper isn’t in the movie for all of that long in that he doesn’t have a lot of screentime, but when he’s on, the movie is at its most interesting. I can’t take my eyes off of the movie when he’s doing his thing; Hopper makes for a great villain and shows that a villain doesn’t have to be in a film for a long time to make an impression. Apart from the good characters, decent story and decent humor, I think two things are really worth mentioning in this film: a particular theme and the music. This theme is finding yourself. I said before that Flik is a loser ant and in the movie there are many parties that are perhaps not as happy with their lives as they would like to be. Even Princess Atta, who is about to earn her place as queen of the anthill is not confident in her abilities and frustrated by her failures. Another party in the film that I’ve failed to mention is the circus bugs. They, along with Flik and Atta, are miserably upset with the way their lives have gone thus far. Together, however, they are able to stand up to the injustice they have all undergone and work out solutions to their problems. The music in the movie is fantastic and is, in my opinion, Randy Newman’s best score. The film music just gets in your head so that you can’t forget its themes. When I think of Randy Newman, I think about the music from A Bug’s Life before I think about films like Toy Story. One thing I will say about this movie is that the first half is a bit slow and lends itself to being much more of a kid’s movie than the second half, which is far more enjoyable. That having been said, I think the movie in its entirety is a little shallow. There isn’t a whole lot there to chew on or think about. It’s memorable for a few scenes, a few characters, and the music, but not for anything deeper. Yes, the film is good, but it isn’t deep or insightful any more than the average kids film with a good message. Now, that isn’t the worst of things, but I just wish it was a deeper movie. Still, it’s a good movie and definitely doesn’t deserve to be forgotten among the Pixar canon.
Total: 7
Toy Story 2 Review
Grand Total: 9 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
Thought-provoking +1
An amazing scene (When she loved me) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Jessie) +½
Great music +½
Great songs +½
Amazing animation +½
Total: 10 (11)
Overall impression
Toy Story 2 is the follow-up to Toy Story and features all of the same characters plus a few new ones. This sequel explores what happens to Woody when his arm gets ripped, he gets stolen by a toy collector, and has to deal with the consequences of Andy, his owner, growing up in the near future. Right away, let me just say that Toy Story 2 does to Toy Story what a sequel should do: it explores ideas and themes the first film set up but didn’t explore, it develops the characters that you already know and love, and it introduces a small number of new characters and takes time to develop them and keep them relevant to the main characters we already know. Toy Story 2 does all of that! Imagine, for a second, that you are a toy that has been played with for years by the same kid. You love this kid. What happens if he/she breaks you somehow? That’s such a great question for this movie to explore. But that isn’t even the biggest question the movie explores. What if you’re that same toy, played by that same kid for however many years, and then he/she leaves you to move on in life? That would devastate you, because your entire life has been based around that kid’s interactions with you. If he/she is going to inevitably leave you, is it worth sticking around? When I gave this film an addition for “thought-provoking”, that is why. Now that the concept of the film is out of the way, let’s talk about everything else. I’ll begin by saying that, of all films that I watched a lot as a kid, this is probably the one that I remember the most. That opening scene with Buzz Lightyear flying through space spawned so many of my childhood fantasies that I’m pretty sure I decided, at age five, that I was going to save up money for a jetpack. As much as I wanted to give that scene the “amazing scene” addition, I knew deep down that there was another scene in this film that was categorically better. More on that later though, as I need to talk about the story of this movie. As I’ve already said, a sequel should explore ideas made possible by the original, and this movie excels at doing that. The person who stole Woody from Andy (the way it’s set up is pretty good actually) wants to sell him and some other toys to a museum where they can be admired forever and have no risk of being left behind by some kid. The thing the movie is so great at doing is making you puzzle over which would be best because sometimes you’re on the museum side and sometimes you’re on the “go back to Andy” side. The other toys that Woody would be sold with are Jessie, Bullseye, and Prospector Pete, toys part of a collection that Woody completes. Of these three, Jessie is by far the most developed. About ninety percent of this development is done in one, perfect scene. There really isn’t much I can say to describe this scene other than that it is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. The scenery depicted in this scene is so gorgeous and bright and it just makes the ending of the scene that much more powerful. In other positives about this movie, the music and the comedy are great in this movie. The comedy, especially, is full of Star Wars references that are pretty in-your-face but still cool to see. On top of that, the animation is several notches above the first Toy Story; the first scene with Buzz Lightyear that I was talking about before still looks amazing, even after sixteen years for animation to improve. But for all of the praise I’ve been giving this film, I can’t help but feel that the first half or so isn’t all that engaging. I think I felt the same way about the original Toy Story in that the movie only had me glued to my seat in the second half. However, I’m fairly sure that this is just because I’ve seen this film about twenty or so times. Still, I feel as if this movie’s only truly “amazing” aspect is the standout scene I’ve mentioned; everything else it does is just “good” or “well-done”, and I don’t think I’m being too harsh on the film either. More so than Toy Story, this film felt like it rushed through things to get through its plot points, instead of letting moments settle in and really make an impact (like in the scene I keep mentioning). I felt as if this rushedness was more prevalent in the first half as the movie struggled to get its footing down as quickly as possible, but that was well remedied in the second half and only slightly brings down my thoughts on the film. At the end of the day, I’m not sure whether or not Toy Story 2 is better than Toy Story. All I know is that it’s a terrific sequel that deserves to be as well-respected as it is.
Total: 9
Monsters, Inc. Review
Grand Total: 9
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Boo goes to bed) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Sully) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Great writing +½
Total: 10 (12)
Overall impression
Monsters, Inc. tells the story of Mike and Sully, two monsters who scare children for a living because children's scares are used as energy for the world that monsters live in. Things go awry when Sully accidentally lets a child into the monster world through a door (there are monsters in your closet, hiding behind your door. That kind of door). As monsters believe that children are toxic, this situation is understandably chaotic and from it, we get our story. Now, I want to preface this review by saying that this is such a great concept; spinning the whole “monsters in your closet” thing into this movie was an excellent idea. I thought this movie was great, but not from start to finish. The beginning and the setup were brilliant. The movie sets up the story very well in a way that doesn’t feel rushed and that makes you relate to and enjoy these characters and this new world. Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski was hilarious, and the screenwriters really gave him some fantastic lines to say. Sully was also well-established as the maverick scarer who was also a nice guy. The movie even did a good job of establishing the secondary characters well, giving them just enough time so that we, as the audience, know just enough to understand them. As soon as the plot gets underway, the bond between this child and Sully is done incredibly well. Seriously, I was really impressed by how touching their scenes were together, and it is in these scenes that Sully shines as a scary monster with a heart of gold. All of this takes a bit of a turn for the worst though, as, about an hour into the movie, Mike and Sully end up going somewhere. I won’t spoil what happens, but let me just say that this scene and this place were so rushed and so poorly executed that it really took me out of the movie, making me wonder why they were even there. Good thing the scenes last only about five minutes. Afterwards, the movie does a good job of concluding, even if it, too, feels a little rushed. Apart from the story, the animation and the humor in this film are particularly noteworthy. I said in my review of Toy Story 2 that the animators really stepped up their game from their previous films and they did the same thing here. There are so many details in the new monster world as well as a ton of designs for monsters that are all done really well. Two details I noticed were really great in this film were the animation of Sully’s fur and the animation of Boo, the child who entered into the monster world. The animation of the humans in the previous Pixar movies were a weak point in my opinion, but this girl is given quite a lot of expression and I was pretty impressed. The comedy is worth talking about too. In the first half especially, this film had a ton of comedy, most of which was really clever. Of the films Pixar has made thus far (up to this movie), I would say that Monsters, Inc. had the best humor. Two more things are worth noting. One is just as Toy Story 2 was filled with Star Wars references, this film had a very The Matrix-style scene in its third act concerning walking in and out of doors. Watch both this film and The Matrix and you’ll understand what I mean. The second thing I wanted to note was a certain weapon this movie establishes about an hour into the film.We are never shown exactly what the thing does, which is a complete waste! Seriously, how is the audience supposed to feel the stakes of this film if we don’t even know what this thing does? That doesn’t make it scary, it just makes it less of a weapon. Oh well, that was a waste. Regardless, this is a great movie. The middle has a five or ten minute sequence that really doesn’t fit with the great first-half, but it’s not very long and the good parts of the movie, particularly the relationship between this kid and Sully, more than make up for the smaller issues.
Total: 8
Finding Nemo Review
Grand Total: 9
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Nemo belly up) +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Amazing animation +½
Great music +½
Total: 10
Overall impression
Finding Nemo is a movie about a clownfish named Marlin and his son Nemo and what happens when Nemo gets taken by divers to Sydney, Australia. From then on, two stories are told: the story of Nemo trying to figure out his new home (inside a fish tank in a dentist’s office) and Marlin trying to track down Nemo to Sydney. Together, the two tell a great story, with a lot more focus on Marlin’s adventure type of story over Nemo’s survival type of story. The story of this film is by far its strongest aspect, especially when things really pick up in the second half, which is far better than the first half. Almost all of the film’s problems lie in its opening scene and its first half. I won’t spoil what happens in the opening scene of the movie, but let’s just say a key plot point is revealed, that plot point being that Marlin lost someone and is therefore an overly protective father whose son just wants his dad to let him do something at all. I really wish the movie had simply told us this plot point that the opening scene establishes and then showed us the scene much later on in the movie, because movie deaths or losses are much more impactful if the characters who either die or are affected by the death have been developed. So I felt that the opening scene was really shoed into the movie to establish things instead of being well-used. After that, and after Nemo is taken, I have to say the movie gets really slow and unfocused while establishing the secondary character Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss. The film tries really hard to make Dory funny with her short-term memory instead of using it for dramatic reasons and I have to say most of the jokes they try to make around Dory fall flat and make her an annoying character, at least in the first half of the movie. It isn’t until about an hour into the film that I really began to believe that Dory was getting the justice she deserved. As soon as the second half starts, you begin to notice that you’re watching a completely different movie. Whereas the first half of the movie really felt like a kids movie, the second half started bringing the moving moments front and center and advancing the plot in ways I really liked. A particularly memorable scene and one that really made the story of this movie is a scene where the story of Marlin’s journey is relayed all the way across the ocean. It is really at that point that you begin to realize how good of an adventure story this movie has been telling this whole time. The movie continues on its good path from then on, and ended on a great note where Nemo and his dad finally have the relationship we had been waiting for. Remember, when you’re down and all hope seems lost, just keep swimming. Great message! Apart from what has already been said, the movie has some great music to it. This is the first Pixar movie to ditch Randy Newman as the composer and, though I miss his stuff, Thomas Newman’s score is much more fitting to this film than I feel any score Randy Newman would have written. Also worth noting are a few references the writers offer to film nerds. Two I noticed were references to The Shining and to Psycho. For all I know, there were probably more there. Overall, the first half of the movie is definitely inferior to the second half, but the movie has a great feel to it overall and a great story to boot.
Total: 8
The Incredibles Review
Grand Total: 10
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Kronos unveiled) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Great performance/character (Syndrome) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Great writing +½
Total: 10 (12 ½)
Overall impression
Before the review begins, I have a quick story to tell regarding this film. In 2004, I saw this movie in the theatres. I was eight years old. One of those sentences is a partial lie. That is because I didn’t actually see all of the movie. I began to cry an hour into the movie as it was too intense for me and I left the theatre. True story. My dad stayed in the theatre to finish the movie though. Why didn’t he just take me home? Because the movie was kind of good. Good is a bit of an understatement actually; this movie was incredible! Now that the obligatory pun is out of the way, let’s get into why this movie is so great. The Incredibles tells the story of Mr. Incredible, a super-hero who is at the top of his game, saving people left and right. When he is sued for saving a man from committing suicide, superheroes all around the world begin to be held accountable for their feats and suddenly have to go undercover. After years of being cooped up, Mr. Incredible, now with a wife and children (also superheroes), decides that enough is enough. He gets fed up with his boring job and decides to go to a remote island on a secret mission. Little does he know, Mr. Incredible just walked into one of the best spy/action movies this reviewer has ever seen. Before I go into detail though, I must warn those of you with weak hearts to exit the theatre at this time because this movie contains the following: a PG rating, a villain who orders the execution of children, a scene of torture, an intense scene in which a hero realizes that many of his friends have been systematically killed, and lots of people actually dying. If I complained at all about films not being dark enough or mature enough, this film came along to ensure that I got all of the darkness I ever wanted. Seriously, this film is a perfect mix of everything I had ever wanted from a kids movie: a great story, mystery, stakes, a threatening villain, great characters, amazing writing, good music, fantastic humor, and complexity. When the story is dumbed down, you could easily argue that it’s actually a simple movie, but the journey of Mr. Incredible, his wife investigating into it (some interesting themes going on in the movie as to why she investigates), and how everything is revealed to the audience are all expertly done. This is a movie that keeps an aura of mystery around it for the majority of the film, keeping you on edge; this is something that can only be achieved by a combination of great writing, a great plot, and characters we care about. It’s no mystery at this point that I think that this movie has all of those. Each section of the movie is done really well. The first thirty or so minutes of the movie serve as a perfect setup, establishing the characters’ motivations, personalities, and why they do what they do to get the story going. Not a whole lot goes on story-wise, but little tidbits, like when Mr. Incredible reads a little blurb in the newspaper that one of his superhero friends has gone missing, keep the mystery and the suspense alive. The middle section of the story is by far the most intense and lengthy part of the film, spanning probably about an hour. It is during this middle section that all of those dark elements come into play. It is during this middle section that much of the mystery is revealed. It is during this middle section that the two stories, one of the husband and one of the wife, intertwine brilliantly to produce maximum interest and intensity. The last section of the movie does a good job of wrapping things up, finally tying the two stories together, revealing all and letting the themes of the movie fall into place. The music in this film is heavily influenced by the music and style of the James Bond films, and really fit the tone of this movie as well. It is definitely worth noting that the music does a fantastic job of turning up the tension in many of the scenes. The humor in the movie is perfectly done, and never does any joke fall flat. The family aspects of the film are really well done, and this film deals with the question “what does it mean to be normal” in some pretty interesting ways. The animation in this film steps everything up ten notches, with tons of excellent gadgets and excellent designs of a certain island. The stakes in this movie are pretty amazing, and the villain is probably the best villain I’ve ever seen in any animated film. He’s smart, calculating, darkly comic, and, above all, actually a threat. Anyway, I wish I could talk about more aspects or scenes in the movie that I really thought were amazing, but I can’t without spoiling things. All I can say is please watch this movie, it is an expertly crafted dynamite of a film.
Total: 10
Cars Review
Grand Total: 6 ½
Technical
Watchable 4
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (I fell in love) +½
Great performance/character (Doc Hudson) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Too long -1
Total: 6
Overall impression
Cars is a slow movie about a race car named Lightning McQueen. He’s a selfish hotshot rookie looking to beat out all of the contenders. On the way to his next race, McQueen is separated from his caravan on the interstate and, while trying to find his caravan, ends up in a small town called Radiator Springs, where people care about each other, about nature, and about keeping the peace. In the process of being caught for speeding, he rips up the road and is forced to fix it. Every day he spends in radiator springs though, McQueen is losing valuable time to get to his race. However, it begins to dawn on him that maybe this race isn’t as important as having good friends and caring about them. If the story sounds clichéd, that’s because it is. But that’s ok. If cliché is done well, I don’t mind and for the most part, this is a story done well. Unfortunately, it’s really, really slow. This movie takes so long establishing Lightning McQueen as a selfish guy that the movie really ends up spending about twenty extra minutes of time than it needed to. Seriously, establishing characters can be done really well, really quickly, if you give them good focus and good lines to say. This movie instead opts for the slow-burn approach, where we as the audience get pounded over the head with what this movie wants us to think of the character in question. This head-pounding constitutes about all of the first half of this movie and gets really boring. During this time a few of the secondary characters, namely the inhabitants of this town, are introduced and they are done so pretty well. They’re pretty stereotypical but play for some good laughs. Quite a lot more than the characters are stereotypical in this film too. This film essentially makes fun of all things American and by that, I mean all things south western. Everything anyone has ever heard about the midwest/southwest is true in this movie. Are people slow? Yes. Do they all talk funny? Yes. Is Nascar a national sport? Yes. Are these people really hospitable? Yes. Unfortunately, this makes for a very stereotypically “American” type of feel to this movie that I wish were more creatively done. One of these stereotypical characters worth mentioning (since he is the main character of the abomination that is Cars 2) is Mater. He is given a decent mix of annoying/likable/genuine heart that worked pretty well for another potentially annoying character in another Pixar film: Dory from Finding Nemo. When potentially annoying characters are introduced, the writers have to make sure that they don’t overplay the comedic aspects of the character, because then the audience misses out on the heart presented by the annoying character. Most of the time, the heart is the reason the annoying character is there in the first place. This is certainly true of Mater and Dory. I think this film did a pretty decent job of balancing it out, though it does get a little annoying at times. The second half of the movie mostly focuses on McQueen’s growth and on the growth and history of the town. I have to admit that I like the second half of the film way more than the first half of the film because the second half is actually quite beautiful. The animators produced some amazing scenery that pretty accurately depicts the midwest and I absolutely loved it. Many of the scenes talk about how people nowadays are always in a hurry to get through life and never slow down enough to actually enjoy it. While that is definitely a good theme to play off of, I think it is a bit manipulative of people's’ nostalgia. At the same time though, here I am reviewing movies from my childhood, so maybe I shouldn’t be the one to judge. Also worth noting is that the film talks quite a lot about slowing down, but took that theme to heart way too much. Oh well, the second half really quite won me over and, though I think Lightning McQueen is a pretty unlikable character, I ended up enjoying the characters and environments they put him in. Sure his transformation from selfish jerk to caring friend is really generic, but it is done well, if quite slowly. The movie is a little dull, but is definitely worth checking out.
Total: 7
Ratatouille Review
Grand Total: 9 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (the review) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Great performance/character (Anton Ego) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Great writing +½
Total: 10 (11 ½)
Overall impression
Ratatouille is a film about a rat with a crazy amount of creativity in the field of cooking. He uses these gifts to transform a dying restaurant (Gousteau’s) into a success again by embracing its founding chef’s motto: anyone can cook. Brad Bird, who previously directed The Incredibles, has this time crafted an entirely different film. A film with only one action scene (a brilliant chase scene), tons of creativity, and a great message. Let me start by saying that this is not a perfect movie, but that it is a very well-made movie with a brilliant first half, a bit of a muddled middle, and one of the best conclusions I’ve ever seen in any movie. Like The Incredibles, Ratatouille often doesn’t feel like a structured narrative (with a beginning, middle, and end) more than it feels like one cohesive story that just flows. Little complications and additional information arrive at opportune times and the story simply takes them in stride and runs with them. The characters are very quickly introduced. The two main characters are Remy (the rat), and Linguini, a bit of a bum who just wants a little confidence and a job at Gousteau’s so that he can sustain his rather sad way of life. Through Linguini (they meet up in a great way and share a hilarious scene involving a jar), Remy is able to cook at Gousteau’s restaurant and finally do what he’s wanted to do forever. For Linguini, he gets to reluctantly take credit for all of Remy’s cooking genius. As you might expect, Linguini eventually has to reveal Remy to everybody and yes it goes down that way but not without quite a few twists and turns that I certainly enjoyed. While I enjoyed them, I can’t say I liked how they were all introduced. This is what I was talking about when I talked about the “muddled” middle of the film. There is a romance in this film that I actually like, but hate how suddenly it is brought into the movie. It’s as if the writers said “well, we’ve kind of set up this romance and now we need it because it’s crucial to the plot later. How are we going to put it in?” and then they suddenly just decided to have it appear in the most instantaneous way possible. It just seemed so random. After they set it up, however, the romance becomes relevant and has a lot of meaning in the story. There are a few other subplots that cannot be mentioned due to spoilers, but let’s just say that I enjoyed them and liked how the story brought them all together at the end. The ending of this movie was really well constructed, in that almost the entire movie that had happened beforehand had lent itself to this moment when a certain critic walks into Gousteau’s restaurant to challenge Linguini. The way in which the scene is executed is expertly done, and leads directly into the conclusion of the film: the review. I honestly could not have written the resulting scene any better than Brad Bird did in this movie. The entire set up and catharsis make for one of the greatest conclusions to any film I’ve ever seen, and that’s not limited to animated or kids films, I mean any film in general. Wow was it good. Also worth noting is that the music in this movie is beautiful, and probably some of the best work I’ve ever heard from composer Michael Giacchino. Not only is it beautiful, but it fits every scene of the movie so well. Apart from what I’ve already said about the movie, it’s worth mentioning that the way in which Remy cooks through Linguini is kind of unbelievable, but also creative at the same time; this is a movie about a rat who can cook, so I’ll let any disbelief slide. Similarly, I have to let slide a particularly over-the-top scene involving many rats toward the end of the movie. It’s likely played for laughs, and I laughed, so no complaints there. In the end, I would say that Ratatouille is a fantastic film with great music, great humor, some amazing writing, and a strong message.
Total: 9
WALL-E Review
Grand Total: 10
Technical
Engaging 6
Thought-provoking +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (outer space) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Great performance/character (WALL-E) +½
Amazing animation +½
Great writing +½
Great music +½
Great songs +½
Total: 10 (12)
Overall impression
WALL-E is a remarkable film for a two reasons. The first of which is that it, along with The Dark Knight, is responsible for the expansion of the best picture category at the Academy Awards to fit a possible ten films, up from five; both of these films received many of the precursor awards and nominations for best picture but couldn’t make the cut at The Oscars because of the lack of slots. The second reason WALL-E is remarkable is because it’s such a great movie. WALL-E is about a robot named WALL-E who lives on what’s left of earth. The human race has long since abandoned earth, and WALL-E robots were left behind to clean up all of the human waste that had built up. The WALL-E that this film focuses on is presumably the only one left operating, as it has been over seven hundred years since they were left on earth. WALL-E has survived because he has a natural curiosity for human items, and collects them. He uses these parts to fix himself when he is injured. I won’t give away exactly what sets the story off, but let’s just say that it is done really well. In fact, the first forty-five minutes of this film take place on earth, and are done so well, I would consider calling them perfect. The reason is quite simple. These forty-five minutes contain no human characters and no dialogue whatsoever, yet perfectly establish the characters of WALL-E and EVE, a robot probe sent back to earth to search for life. WALL-E is a robot, yet you completely fall in love with him because of these forty-five minutes and what the animators and the sound designers are able to do with his character. Not only do these minutes perfectly establish the characters, but they also perfectly explain what happened to the humans, and what the setting is like. It also gives you clues into some of the themes this movie takes on and why, contrary to what many critics have claimed, WALL-E contains far more than a cautionary environmental message. Before I get into that, however, I want to talk about the second half of the film: the part that takes place in outer space. The spaceship that brought EVE to earth comes to take her back and WALL-E hitches a ride on it. The following scene in outer space might be the most beautiful scene I have ever witnessed in an animated film, its only possible competition being from the lanterns scene in Tangled. The music and scenery blend together to create something truly dazzling. The scene ends with the spaceship landing on the equivalent of a Carnival Cruise Ship in space called The Axiom. Almost all of the rest of the film takes place on The Axiom and is admittedly not as magical as the first half of this film. Some of the establishing shots provide some rather heavy-handed commentary on the state of the human race, but are so full of great humor and clever references that I quickly forgot about the preaching. Furthermore, the plot actually begins to get really clever and some of the themes begin to resonate more and more, particularly when the captain of The Axiom starts talking. Although I can’t spoil anything, I just want to touch upon some of what goes on in The Axiom. Businesses have consolidated to become one giant corporation so that everything is easier. People don’t eat anymore, don’t walk anymore, don’t do anything but talk to each other using what is essentially a holographic Skype system; the humans don’t do anything except waste away. One of the themes of the movie is that of experiencing life; this is the balance between working all of the time and doing nothing all of the time. Neither is a good model; the dead WALL-Es on earth show that only working is bad and the basically dead humans on The Axiom show that doing nothing isn’t a good model either. The perfect model is WALL-E, the WALL-E shown to us in the film. What is different about him is that he collects things, learns, repairs himself, cares about things, builds things, loves, dreams, is curious about everything, and yet still works. What’s so important about these things is that they are all human characteristics and WALL-E, who essentially represents humanity, has survived under the worst of conditions for hundreds of years, and would likely survive forever. That is but a glimpse of what there is to get out of this children’s film, and I haven’t even touched on the romance in the film (which is expertly done), or the music (some of composer Thomas Newman’s best work). Just about everything in this film is utterly fantastic.
Total: 10
Up Review
Grand Total: 8 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Married life) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Ellie) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
Up is the touching story about Carl, a widower who is determined to move his house to Paradise Falls, as he had promised his wife that he would take her there. The gap that her passing left on Carl gets filled a little bit when Carl meets Russell, a young boy who wants to get his “assisting the elderly badge” so that he can be a senior wilderness explorer. Carl’s backstory and all of his character development are done in the first 11 minutes and 38 seconds of the film. So when you hear people say “the first 10 minutes of Up are amazing” you can casually correct them by pointing out that it is actually the first 11 minutes and 38 seconds of Up that are perfect. And they really are, perfectly explaining everything that happens to Carl in the, 80 or so years of his life that occur before the story. The film opens with Carl meeting Ellie, his future wife, and explains their mutual fascination with exploring the wilderness and why Ellie wants to go to Paradise Falls. The following montage is completely silent except for Michael Giacchino’s beautiful score, and tells the story of their life together. After that ends, Carl decides to go to paradise falls and has his own adventure with Russell and a few other colorful characters. The film, right away, goes into annoying character mode as Russell begins to unleash every single annoying-kid-ism that is possible. I’ve said this before in other Pixar film reviews, be it about Dory or about Mater. Whenever a film has a potentially annoying character, the film has to make sure it doesn’t overdo the annoying aspects of the character. Unfortunately, we are treated to about half an hour of Russell unrestrained, making the movie almost unwatchable. But then the film begins to give Russell some depth and he becomes far less annoying. I actually began to like how the film included Russell in the story and the two characters that we meet on the way add a lot of comedy to the adventure. Then we meet the villain in this story. Now, you may have assumed that this story was perfectly fine on its own without a villain and you’d be absolutely correct. It’s not that the villain’s intentions or motivations don’t makes sense (though his existence at this time is a large plothole) but rather that he is completely unnecessary to the story. On top of that, this villain goes quite dark for a previously G-rated film, and the tone shift is a bit unsettling. Afterwards, the film begins to get its footing again and focuses on the Carl and Russell relationship. With the focus now where it should be, the film ends on a high note. The problems described are fairly major problems, but are far outweighed by the amazing moments at the beginning, one amazing moment in the middle (stuff we did), and a great finish. As a whole, the film is a little bit jumbled in the middle but still maintains a good story-arch for the characters and works pretty well as an adventure film with a strong backstory.
Total: 7
Toy Story 3 Review
Grand Total: 9
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Spanish dance) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 10 (11)
Overall impression
Toy Story 3 is the continuation of the Toy Story story. When last we met the gang, they were deciding to stay with Andy through it all, ultimately realizing that he will eventually go off to college and leave them. Toy Story 3 picks up as Andy is leaving for college. Things move quickly in the film, and the toys end up at a daycare. Without having time to really consider whether or not the place is right for them, the plot thickens and the toys are basically along for the ride. The plot in the film is far more complicated and quickly-paced than the plot in either of the first two movies, which means that a lot more is rushed. The rushedness of the story helps you ignore dozens of holes as well, but I just wished there had been more thought involved in the writing of the story. This film, probably more than any of the other Pixar films, could have used an extra twenty minutes or so to stop for a second and think. The first two films were full of ideas and used them in the plot. Each film brought new ideas to the table and explored them in turn. This film, however, brings nothing new to the table because the story goes by so quickly that the characters never think about situations and instead try to escape from them. Speaking of escaping, there is an escape scene in the film that I can’t talk much more about for fear of spoiling elements of the film. The characters try to escape from the situation instead of working together to fix it, which is strange considering that this situation has a ton of possible outcomes, many of which would be viable for the long-term happiness of the characters. Again, I’m trying not to spoil anything because the plot has twists in it, so I can’t really elaborate on that. This just illustrates why the story takes priority over the themes and ideas in the film. That issue aside, I really like the story in the film. It’s great to have the characters go through this sort of story, especially given how hilarious and action-packed it is. The humor in the film, especially the humor surrounding Buzz Lightyear (like in Toy Story 2, something happens to him), works incredibly well. The writing in the film, when it isn’t focused on tons of exposition to speed along the plot, is amazing; all of the characters get more than a few great jokes in and I was in stitches throughout the film. Many of the scenes work incredibly well, and the animation, now with eleven years of improvement, really expands the possibilities of what the “camera” in the film can do. Technically, this film is amazing. The detail in the film has improved so much over the first two, and the animation of the humans has especially improved (it was a weaker aspect of the first two). The flashback scenes are done in the appropriate lighting to make them feel like memories. Scenes with a darker tone carry darker colors and imagery. The concluding scene is done in oversaturated lighting to make everything look brighter (and make you feel happier!), though this is a little overdone. It’s actually quite remarkable how well this story ties itself together at the end because, given the lack of new ideas and abundance of story, this film felt more like a side quest than a continuation of the story. As much as I really enjoy good stories like this one and many of the technical aspects of the film, I can’t help but feel as if there just wasn’t as intelligent as the first two films were.
Total: 8
Cars 2 Review
Grand Total: 1 ½
Technical
Boring 2
Kids movie +1
Amazing animation +½
Too long -1
Overly predictable -1
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Mater) -½
Unfunny -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 0 (-½)
Overall impression
2011 was a pretty sour year for Disney-Pixar. Disney released Winnie the Pooh, the remake of the 1977 classic that nobody asked for. Pixar released Cars 2, the sequel to the poorly received Cars that, once again, nobody asked for or wanted. However, Cars was a favorite of Pixar Animation Studios head, John Lasseter, and he just wanted to continue the story of his beloved film. This I can respect and admire. What I cannot admire is the result. Cars 2 is easily the least original, least funny, most annoying, and biggest disappointment to come out of Pixar studios. Cars 2 focuses on Mater this time who accidentally gets in the middle of a spy operation. This is a spy film, with racing and whatnot mixed in the middle. For better or for worse, the enemy plot is revealed about thirty minutes into the film, so then there is just about nothing left for the movie to offer or showcase. That is, nothing left for the movie to showcase except for another hour of Mater. I’ve spoken so many times about why Pixar uses potentially annoying characters and what it must do to ensure that they work as planned. This film throws all of that out of the window and makes Mater as annoying as possible. The first hour or so of this film is almost unbearably full of Mater that I was tempted to just quit and give the film an “unwatchable” rating. The second half of the film focuses a lot more on story and on the villainous plot that is going on. Admittedly, it’s better than the first half, but trades the irksome Mater for violence and dark plots. Seriously, the amount of times say that they are going to “kill” something else is ridiculous. The dark tone of the film stands so starkly different when compared to all of the light-hearted stupid humor that went on in the first Cars and in most of the rest of the movie. On top of that, the dark tone doesn’t work. If filmmakers want to go darker with their story and give stakes to the movie, we, as the audience, genuinely have to be worried for the safety of the characters. The only way we worry about the characters is if the stakes feel real and if we care about the characters. Neither of these are the case in the movie. The characters in question just came across as annoying and pretentious in the first half of the movie and don’t bring any goodwill over to the darker scenes for us to care about. On top of that, the dark tone is never really focused in any scene. Only one scene has a consistently dark tone in it and it’s a scene in which a car is murdered. The only problem is that we met the car once before and in a stupid scene that was played more for dumb Mater humor than for anything else. Don’t you see? How are we supposed to feel scared for a character we don’t care about at all and have barely met? Above anything else, this is the biggest problem with the movie: none of the characters make you care about them at all. Forget about the terrible humor, the constant presence of annoying Mater, and the stupidity of the story. The tone of this film is so inconsistent and uneven that I’m not even sure what this movie was trying to be. The animation is still great, of course. This film follows around a Grand Prix, so we are invited to see dozens of worldly set pieces that are pretty and detailed but never really explored. Oh well, looks like that was a bit of a waste too. This is what the film is: a waste of time. The film gets points for animation and a point for trying.
Total: 3
Brave Review
Grand Total: 5
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
Really funny +½
Amazing animation +½
Too short -1
Overly predictable -1
Obvious plothole -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 6
Overall impression
Brave is Pixar’s mix of Pocahontas and Brother Bear. This is an odd choice of films to take from, especially given that neither of them were any good. The combination isn’t a whole lot better. Brave is a story about Merida, who, after being fed up with her mother forcing her to marry a suitor (now that is an original idea), finds a witch who gives her a potion that turns her mother into a bear. I don’t even have to tell you the rest of the story because you know exactly how it will go. The unfortunate fact about Brave is that, before becoming a generic kids movie at around the thirty minute mark, the film actually had potential. It set Merida up as a smart girl who learned how to use a bow really well and loved to explore the outdoors. It set the movie up as an adventure film, one that could be fun and enjoyable. The problem is that the film we actually got was so completely off from what the first half set it up to be that the film felt so uneven. Granted, the type of film that Brave chose to be can work, it’s just that the film rushes through plot points so quickly and crams in a ton of subplots that the film just didn’t have enough time to do anything justice. The film’s runtime is only about an hour and twenty five minutes (not including credits), unusually short for a Pixar film, and I feel like that was especially taxing with this film, because it cuts corners all over the place. Before I move on to the uneven tone and the originality of the film, I want to touch on two things, the only two things, this film does well: the animation and the humor. The animation in this film is quite amazing, making scenes set in the forest look real and making Merida’s hair look quite amazing. The humor in the film is done really well, and is done all over the place. Even during the far-inferior second half of the film, the humor keeps on going, strong as ever. Now, I stated before that this film is a mix of Pocahontas and Brother Bear. That is true, with Brave taking entire scenes from the latter film. If you read my review of Brother Bear, you’ll learn that the film has a lot of dumbness in it. More specifically, that dumbness occurs during almost all of the bear scenes in the film. The bear scenes in Brave are really dumb too, and make the film feel like its target audience was under ten. However, these silly scenes strongly conflict with a certain subplot about an evil bear. These scenes are dark and scary, in a way that I think would really frighten said age group. Sometimes they work well as pieces of suspense, but only because they are so random that you, as a viewer, have no idea what’s going on. Not only are they scary, but they’re unnecessary, and are shoved into the movie to force the film to cover and explain more in the already short amount of time. At the end of the day, Brave is a well-animated and humorous children’s film filled with overdone messages, unoriginality, a sloppy story, and a conflicting tone.
Total: 4
Monsters University Review
Grand Total: 7 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (human world) +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8 ½
Overall impression
Monsters University is Pixar’s first ever prequel film that tells the origins of Mike and Sully and how they got to work together at the scare company Monsters, Inc. Mike is a brainiac monster whose biggest obstacle is that he isn’t scary. Sully is James P. Sullivan, from a dynasty of Sullivans who rides his name through school; he’s a scary monster but doesn’t try in school. Both are attending the Scare School at Monsters University, but are struggling for the reasons mentioned before. During the final exam, the Dean kicks them both out, neither of them knowing what to do next. Mike finds a scaring tournament and makes a deal with the Dean: if Mike finds a team and they win the tournament, the entire school gets admitted into the Scare School. The movie then just goes through the tournament and how the team has to work together; it’s really formulaic and generic. But before expanding on that, I want to mention just how well this movie ties in various college staples into the story. Examples include the requirement that teams in the scaring tournament be fraternities, the various college stereotypes are present in the other teams, enthusiastic RAs, orientation, tours, an activity fair, and college dorming. The movie does a good job of making the plot feature these but not depend on them; too often writers use the film setting in everything they can possibly get away with. In general, the characters and the generic story drive the film. In general, I think the writing, both of the story and of the dialogue between the characters, is the weakest point of the film. It’s definitely inferior to that of the first film, which featured a fantastic idea for a story and hilarious dialogue. A lot of the time, I felt that the writers relied a lot on the pre-established characters to keep the audience engaged. While this worked pretty well because the story formula is a decent one, throughout this film I was just hoping that it would give me a little bit more or something new. And then it did. Toward the end of the film there is a scene that involves the human world, something that was barely explored in the first film. While I can’t spoil what happens in the scene, I just want to say that everything is done right. The lighting and sound design in the scene work amazingly well to convey the scariness and uncertainty a monster in the human world would feel. Imagine, for a second, that you are in a place where there exist creatures who could kill you if they touched you. Imagine that you have no way out of this world. This scene works so much better than anything else in the film because, in addition to setting the tone, it allows the characters some breathing space to actually develop. Mike talks about whether or not it’s fair to be born as a monster that isn’t scary, talking about how much work could be done fighting a battle you were born to lose. Sully talks about the weight of expectation on somebody born with a name to live up to and the necessity to appear outwardly cool while constantly paranoid that you’ll let down your family’s legacy. The exploration of how two characters who couldn’t be more different having similar disadvantages is an amazing thought that the movie gives you; I only wish this was consistent throughout the movie and not just in this one scene. The scene elevates the otherwise average film quite a bit, and is certainly what I took away from the film each time I’ve watched it. Apart from that, the other aspects of the film are pretty unremarkable. The music is almost a carbon copy of the music from the original and the animation steps it up a few notches but is probably less impressive than what was featured in Brave, the previous Pixar film. That having been said, Pixar always produces dazzling animation, and this film’s animation is far better than that of non-Pixar animated features. Overall, a fantastic scene elevates an otherwise average film with likable characters but a formulaic story.
Total: 7
Inside Out Review
Grand Total: 8 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (Joy skating) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Anger) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 10
Overall impression
Inside Out is about the emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Fear) in Riley’s head and how they work together to get her through life. Riley is a young girl who has just moved from Minnesota to San Francisco. The move is very difficult for her because she had to leave behind her hockey team, her old house, and all of her friends. On top of that, her new house is revolting. I don’t want to reveal much of the story, because it unwraps itself really neatly in the movie, but let’s just say that Joy and Sadness get separated from the other three emotions. Without them, Riley’s situation begins to get the better of her and the movie really starts to get going. Now, the movie has five emotions in it, where all of the emotions have valuable purposes. Joy keeps Riley positive, Disgust is the reason Riley doesn’t get sick, Fear keeps Riley safe, and Anger keeps Riley pumped up. But what about Sadness? What purpose does an emotion that makes someone sad have? For most of the movie, Joy wrestles with that question, and the film does a pretty good job of presenting the answer. The characters in the movie have amazing chemistry, and even the emotions of the parents are utilized to produce huge laughs. More laughs come from creative ways the movie explains memories and how they work. A lot of the jokes repeat, but are repeated in unexpected ways that keep them fresh. The entirety of the film feels so creative in that it utilizes so many different aspects of the mind in clever ways; the whole movie just feels smart. The beginning of the film focuses mostly on establishing all of the characters and some of the rules. Most of this works really well and the colorful nature of the film makes for a few really beautiful moments, especially in a particular ice skating sequence. Now, the story itself is mostly found in the middle part of the film and begins to get a little childish and slow. We’re introduced to a character that I just couldn’t buy into. This character is an interesting idea, but the voice attached and the ways in which the character begins to drive the story just didn’t work very well for me. The story does capitalize on his character, but that doesn’t erase the twenty minutes of rather dull storytelling. The ending of the film incorporates the role of Sadness a lot and features a lot of new choices Riley makes. The way in which the film shows how this all plays out is done really well, but leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Overall, and this is a common problem in original movies, there are a lot of things that go unexplained and unmentioned because the film gets a little overblown in its originality and forgets to fill in the gaps. However, the film pulls a lot of the heartstrings throughout its run and really uses the circumstances of Riley’s move to make you feel for her and all that she goes through. Moving is really hard, but not fitting in is worse. Restarting life is hard, but leaving back all of the amazing memories is worse. All of these situations and circumstances are shown through Riley and you really feel for her. You feel for the emotions too, as they struggle to keep her under control. The beautiful animation brings all of this to life. Overall, the great characters, humor, and the empathy I felt for Riley overwhelm the many narrative issues in the film. It’s still a great time.
Total: 7
The Good Dinosaur Review
Grand Total: 5
Technical
Watchable 4
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (lightning bugs) +½
Amazing animation +½
Overly predictable -1
Uneven tone -½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 5
Overall impression
The Good Dinosaur tells the story of Arlo, a cowardly dinosaur living in some prehistoric era, who is separated from his family and has to get back to them. He meets up with Spot, a human who is also missing a family. That’s the premise. Not really a whole lot of originality or complexity there. The Good Dinosaur is like Brave in that it can be technically considered an original movie, but takes a lot of its story from other sources. This time around, the sources are Ice Age and Finding Nemo, leaning more heavily on the former. Given the simplicity of the story, it’s hard to actually point out any new angles or new concepts that this film has to offer. It’s just a story that we’ve seen so many times before. It has its moments of heart and weight here and there, but often can’t seem to figure out whether or not it should be a movie geared towards adults or geared towards kids. That’s not to say that you have to pick one, but if you decide to gear it towards everyone, you end up having to accommodate the adults far more; some material is only good for kids, while almost all material in an animated film can at least be entertaining for kids. Take The Incredibles for example. It is definitely geared towards adults, with quite a lot of its content far too sophisticated for kids to understand. That having been said, kids will still be really entertained by the action and humor the movie has to offer, so the film works towards both audiences, even though it’s definitely aimed more at adults. In The Good Dinosaur, however, there was definitely a lot that was geared only towards kids. Let’s start with the characters. The main character, Arlo, has the voice of a very young kid. Think of Russell’s voice from Up and you’ll have a general idea of what Arlo sounds like. The other main character, Spot, doesn’t talk. The lack of a significant adult character makes the film seem like it was geared more towards kids. Secondary characters have adult voices, but they come and go very quickly, which is another problem in this film: there are a ton of secondary characters, but they never last for more than one or two scenes; they come, do their thing, and then are never seen again. They only distract from the overall story and it screws up the tone of the film. By that, I mean that some of the characters are unnecessarily scary, in their animation and in what they do, and I just don’t think they work with the general tone of the movie. I mentioned the animation here, and it’s something definitely worth expanding upon, as it’s the film’s greatest positive. The backgrounds in this film look like real photos. The animation of the surroundings looks completely real, in ways that continue to amaze me. The animation on the characters is cartoony (which is another reason the film seems geared towards kids), contrasting with the realistic-looking backgrounds. Some of the scenes this movie paints are absolutely beautiful. As amazing as the animation was, though, it couldn’t save this film. The story feels unoriginal, the message about fear is a little lost in the side-plots and brief secondary characters in the film that ultimately don’t add anything to the movie. At the end of the day, The Good Dinosaur is definitely not among Pixar’s best, but it’s still not a bad movie. It just doesn’t do anything new.
Total: 5
Finding Dory Review
Grand Total: 7 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (seals) +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8 ½
Overall impression
Finding Dory is the sequel to the 2003 Pixar Animation hit Finding Nemo. Dory, a regal tang fish with short-term memory loss, suddenly has a flashback of her earlier life, a life with her parents. She immediately sets out to find them, not knowing how to do so or even where to start.
Now, Dory was the only part of Finding Nemo that I didn’t love; she started off incredibly annoying but gradually got better and found her place in the movie. The same thing happens in this film. The first twenty minutes or so of this film involving Dory as an adult (because there are many flashback scenes) were everything I feared this movie would be: unrelentless and annoying Dory. My patience was just about ready to break when Dory began to calm down and became the emotional character that I wanted from this film. The problem then became everyone else.
First: what was good. The story about her searching for parents is very touching, bolstered by the many flashback scenes I mentioned. These scenes feature a practically infantile Dory, who is possibly the cutest thing ever created by Pixar. Each scene introduces something that is eventually paid off in the rest of the film, which I thought was clever and well-done. The animation is also really great. Not that this is any surprise to anyone, but Pixar has yet again made a fantastic-looking film. One shot in particular that really amazed me was of marine life swimming around a pillar of coral in an aquarium.
But as much as there was plenty to like about this film, there was also a lot that just seemed to miss the mark. Something that just did not work for me were the roles of Nemo and Marlin (you know, the main characters in the first film). While they are featured a lot, Nemo and Marlin are pretty much sidelined in this film; they don’t really develop or have any chance to really bond a lot. That leads me to my biggest issue with this film: its pace. Finding Dory is a really fast movie; I don’t remember any point where it slows down. That is a huge problem. This film isn’t really allowed to build up scenes or lead to some emotional catharsis the way many other Pixar films, Finding Nemo included, do. As a result, this entire film is full of things that are good but not great; no particular scene stands out as particularly impactful. Sure, there are some scenes that have a lot of heart and some scenes that are really funny (one involving seals comes to mind), but most of the movie feels like it’s just chugging along without a lot of focus or buildup.
Overall, Finding Dory had some good moments, looked dazzling as all Pixar films do, but was hindered by some character problems and its fast pace which didn’t allow it the time it needed to build scenes and make things as emotionally satisfying as they needed to be.
Total: 6
Cars 3 Review
Grand Total: 3 ¼
Technical
Watchable 4
Kids movie +1
Amazing animation +½
Uneven tone -½
Unfunny -½
Overly predictable -1
Total: 3 ½
Overall impression
Cars 3 is the unnecessary sequel to the much-maligned Cars 2, a similarly unnecessary sequel to Cars. Pixar Animation decided to take Cars, it’s least critically-successful movie, and make sequels. Though the merchandising was probably profitable for the company, these sequels have devastated its quality brand. Cars 2 was easily the worst film in Pixar history up to that point. Now, with the release of Cars 3, Cars 2 is still the worst film in Pixar history, but not by as wide a margin.
Cars 3 tells the story of Lightning McQueen, the aging racecar who, in the first race of the film, is defeated by Jackson Storm, a new kind of technologically-advanced racecar. Worried that he’s losing his step, and with many calling for his retirement, Lightning finds Cruz Ramirez, an energetic trainer, to get him back into shape. Even as he trains for the next race, Lightning must face the prospect that perhaps he doesn’t have it anymore and that perhaps he should find some other way to be involved in racing.
To the film’s credit, it opens pretty effectively and you genuinely feel for Lightning McQueen and the state of older racers in general as they are beat out by new blood. It even puts you in the shoes (or is it, tires?) of the older racers from the original Cars, when they are all defeated by Lightning himself. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really maintain this tone for much longer than fifteen minutes, opting instead to mix in kiddy humor and over-the-top secondary characters to remind you that the film you’re watching is supposed to be also aimed at children. Pixar films often walk a fine line between targeting adults and kids. While it worked really well in all of the Toy Story films and not as well in Up and The Good Dinosaur, it is perhaps the most jarring in this film. I mean, the central story here is about retirement and aging, but it’s told by way of a bunch of ridiculous sketch-comedy scenes that barely connect together. And the worst part is that almost none of the jokes land. Characters that are supposed to be funny just come off as annoying and the jokes from the main characters aren’t any better. One recurring joke in the film is that Lightning McQueen is getting old. It’s used at least twenty times in the film and just negates any of the emotion you might have about his situation - poor humor actually took away from the film’s story! Speaking of the story, I found this to be the most predictable story I’ve seen in a long time. As soon as a character was introduced, I knew exactly where they were going to end up.
The only real positives here are in the first couple scenes and in the animation. Pixar knows how to make impressive visuals. One scene in particular about cross-country driving was just stunning. The racing scenes looked pretty realistic, as did many of the landscape backgrounds. But beyond that, this film has little to offer. It spoils its mature story with terrible jokes and features an incredibly predictable plot that you can see coming, beat for beat, almost an hour in advance. I just hope this franchise is done now - it has permanently damaged the Pixar brand.
Total: 3