The main character is so fucking annoying and unfunny that I shut it off after 10 minutes before I wanted to blow my brains out
sharei get the impression that now that pixar has covered all the mass coverage bases, they will focus on specific niches to make films for: specific ages or groups. because they can't just invent another all pleasing Toy Story thing, so gobble up all the races, ages, etc individually.
shareAnd you were right to do so. It's so bad.
shareI enjoyed it. Excellent film.
shareInteresting because the film's first half is definitely better than the second.
shareReally? I'm about 20 minutes in, and if it gets worse, I'm out of here!
Seriously, WTF is going on at Pixar? It's been ages since they've made a movie that was... enjoyable!
They had such a great track record, but lately it's been total crap. What happened?
shareWhat was their last fun film? "Up"? Even that one bordered on being too serious and sentimental!
But they've decided to chuck entertainment value and go whole hog with being serious and sentimental, and nobody there has any talent for either. It's so bizarre.
PS: I take that back, the last film of theirs I liked was "Incredibles 2", which had some action and laughs.
I think the last truly great Pixar film was Ratatouille. WALL-E and Up had moments, but neither was on par with the previous films. I haven't watched many of their films since Up, and those I have watched have been major disappointments. There may be a gem in there that I've missed. Incredibles 2 had some moments, but it was nowhere near as good as its predecessor; same with Finding Dory.
I'd call "Ratatouille" good rather than great, like all the Pixar films of 5-15 years ago, it was enjoyable but flawed. I don't think there's a single Pixar film that I don't have some gripe about, usually about excess sentimentality or scenes that drag, but the more laughs a film has the more I'm willing to forgive scenes that are slow or sticky. But now, it's all slow and sticky!
The only possible exception would be "Toy Story 2", which I found hilarious from beginning to end, and if you don't agree then I never argue about other people's personal favorites. But really - what the hell happened to that sense of humor!
I've never seen any of the Toy Story films, so I can't comment. Monsters, Inc. was the first I saw. I was dragged along by a friend who insisted it was going to be great. I'd seen the trailer and thought it looked awful, but I gave it a try. I was amazed by how great it was. The same thing happened with Finding Nemo. Trailer looked terrible, but based on how good Monsters, Inc. was I went to see it and loved it. By the time the Incredibles trailer came around, which also looked like it was going to be utter crap, I knew better, and went to see it. Of course I loved it. Oddly, the trailer for Cars looked so bad I didn't see it. Maybe it's good, too?
Ratatouille wasn't as good as the other three I'd seen, but I did go see it. WALL-E didn't look very good to me, but I ended up seeing it when a group of friends rented it. I thought it was worse than Ratatouille. And then Up came out, and a bunch of us went to see it. It was my least favorite Pixar film yet, and I didn't watch another one until Finding Dory.
I guess the moral to this story is I haven't seen all that many Pixar films. The first three I saw were outstanding, the next three got progressively worse, and I've only watched three since then and those three were only okay. Then I saw some of Turning Red the other day because my kids turned it on, and what I saw was terrible.
Well, I'd recommend "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2", which are fun movies that anyone can enjoy, they're just fun movies that don't take themselves too seriously.
And that's the problem, I think, some of the good earlier films worked because there were moments of profundity or deep feeling, like the restaurant critic's change of heart at the end of "Ratatouille". But apparently some dipshit at Pixar decided that since those scenes were praised, they ought to try to fill whole movies with that kind of deep feeling, and they've got no clue that that sort of thing only works in tiny doses. IMHO a good family film needs 85 minutes of fun and adventure, and maybe 5 minutes of serious deep feeling.