The new Pixar movie opened this weekend. I saw it and, well, it was fun and enjoyable, but not at all great. Frankly, if I hadn’t known it was actually made by Pixar I would have thought “hey, Disney didn’t do a bad job of making a prequel to a beloved Pixar movie. I mean, Pixar would have done it better, but this was fun and clever and entertaining”.
My favorite bits were Art (the fluffy U-shaped monster), the librarian, and the scene where Mike and Sully are scaring the grownups. And none of it was BAD or anything, but it didn’t have either a character as charming as Boo, or a scene as engrossing as the door chase from Monsters Inc.
So, I’d rank it below average for Pixar, but still vastly better than Cars 2.
The short that preceded the movie, “The Blue Umbrella”, was notable primary for a really striking animation style, but was disappointingly generic aside from that. I mean, not BAD, but again not quite up to the usual Pixar standards.
I agree with pretty much everything you said, MaxTheVool. I liked everything involving the Scare Games, but outside of those setpieces, there really wasn’t anything that memorable about the movie. Well, the scenes in the camp cabin were memorable, but more because they reminded me of Friday the 13th, which was a little weird. I did enjoy the other monsters in Oozma Kappa, so that’s something. But this is probably my least favorite Pixar outside of the Cars movies.
As for the short film, the animation is indeed impressive, but the story isn’t that memorable. It’s basically Paperman redux.
I was a bit disappointed to see the scare simulator, over and over again. From the original movie where it was used for new scarer training, to the scaring students, to the big final event of the Scare Games - just felt a bit overused.
Hmm, here’s a list of pixar movies with release years and current IMDB ratings (no rating for Monsters U, as it’s so new):
Toy Story 1995 8.3
A Bug’s Life 1998 7.2
Toy Story 2 1999 7.9
Monsters, Inc. 2001 8.0
Finding Nemo 2003 8.1
The Incredibles 2004 8.0
Cars 2006 7.3
Ratatouille 2007 8.0
WALL-E 2008 8.5
Up 2009 8.3
Toy Story 3 2010 8.5
Cars 2 2011 6.3
Brave 2012 7.2
Monsters University 2013
(No idea how to get the tabs to work right).
If there’s a pattern there other than “Cars 2 sucks” I’m not seeing it.
Is it weird I don’t base my own opinions on IMDB scores? :dubious:
Here’s how I rank them by order of release
Toy Story: Awesome
A Bug’s Life: Good
Toy Story 2: Awesome
Monsters, Inc: Great
Finding Nemo: Awesome
The Incredibles: Great
Cars : Sucked
Ratatouille: Average
WALL-E: 1st half: Great. 2nd Half: Sucked
Up: Great
Toy Story 3: Good
Cars 2: Suuuucked
Brave: Sucked
Monsters University: Good
Ever since Cars, there record has been a lot spottier for me personally. I really don’t care what IMDB thinks; no one will convince me the movies since Cars have been as good as those previous
To me the pattern is Joe Ranft’s death in 2005. He was the guy who focused on stories at Pixar and I think Pixar movies have declined in quality since his death.
I found this to be maybe a notch better than Cars 2. I wouldn’t say either movie sucked–it just wasn’t Pixar magic. It’s more, they’re typical Disney fare. The last truly imaginative Pixar movie to me was Up.
I loved the librarian, Dean, and Art. “I can’t go back to jail!” The biggest LOL moment we had was “I’ll just be in the car listening to my music,” even if I knew what it was going to be the moment she said it.
I will say I found the previews very telling as well. Despicable Me 2–which my kids and family are actually most eager to see–had the audience bursting out in laughter several times. The racing snail movie Turbo had a few good laughs, if not as much as DM2. Planes–“From the world of Cars”–didn’t get a single audible reaction from the packed movie theater. It looked, to me, completely uninspiring, uninteresting, and boring, and seemed like Disney is just trying to milk that merchandising cow as much as possible. My sons–who loved Cars–didn’t respond at all, and instead have been asking to see DM2 and Turbo.
What I hated about The Blue Umbrella, tired plot aside, was how awful the umbrella faces looked.
The rest of the characters are normal things come to live: the bolts are eyes, windows are mouths, etc. The umbrella faces looked awful in comparison because they were not a part of the umbrella. It ruined it for me.
You didn’t notice that every movie you listed as Very Good or below, excepting one, came out post Cars? It seems we largely agree on the order; I just think there’s a much bigger gap between the tiers than you do.
And just think… we now have Planes and Planes: Fire and Rescue to look forward to! (which, although based on the same universe as the Cars movies, are NOT being made by Pixar, but by DisneyToon. :smack: )
I don’t think MU is out here yet, although from what I’ve seen I have a suspicion that the preview (the one that looks like a college recruiting video) is funnier than the actual film. Unfortunately the child is a huge Mike Wazowski fan so I suspect we’ll see it at some point; likewise Despicable Me 2 which will probably be a notch down from the first film but still enjoyable if only because Steve Carrell’s Gru voice is funny all on its own.
The one I’m really waiting for is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 - we loved the original and the preview we saw made us laugh far more than a preview ought to.
For me, I don’t see Cars as a turning point for Pixar because I think Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3 are among the best of the Pixar films.
I think Cars 2 is the only bad movie they’ve made and (with all things being subjective) can’t fathom how Brave could be in the “sucked” category while a bug’s life is in the good category since before Cars 2 it was setting the low bar for Pixar.
Personally, I place the shift in general quality to the natural progression of Pixar having to move away from the first generation writers and directors and begin handing things over to the next.
As for Monsters University it was a perfectly fine children’s animated movie. It’s just that from Pixar I hope for perfectly fine movies, without the adjectives.
Toy Story 1995 8.3
A Bug's Life 1998 7.2
Toy Story 2 1999 7.9
Monsters, Inc. 2001 8.0
Finding Nemo 2003 8.1
The Incredibles 2004 8.0
Cars 2006 7.3
Ratatouille 2007 8.0
WALL-E 2008 8.5
Up 2009 8.3
Toy Story 3 2010 8.5
Cars 2 2011 6.3
Brave 2012 7.2
Monsters University 2013
Exactly. This was my feeling as soon as I saw the faces on the umbrellas- the other faces were made up of parts of the objects that were depicted as faces, but the umbrella faces looked like they were just drawn on with a magic marker. It was as if what we were watching was a rough cut of the short, where the director should have preceded it with a disclaimer “now understand, these aren’t really the faces you’ll see in the finished cut, this is just something we mocked up to give you an idea of the emotions and expressions the umbrellas will experience…”
As for MU, it was OK. My kids liked it, so mission accomplished I guess, but I thought it was lacking.
MU was okay. A few hearty chuckles here and there (my girlfriend thought the artist table at orientation was hilarious - I got a good laugh out of “But, Daddy, I LOVE HIM!” during the teenager game) but it wasn’t especially memorable. It’s like a 15th-season episode of The Simpsons - past its prime, but still better than almost everything else on.
Of course, if adult screams count as an energy source, it kinda makes me wonder why the Monsters don’t have doors specifically into human warzones and such. Heck, maybe terrorist bombings are being orchestrated by the Monsters! Did anyone do a door check in Boston?
1.) I suspect that would take the story into ookie territory a Pixar entertainment wouldn’t want to go.
2.) Coloful Fluffy monsters showing up in Boston or Cambridge wouldn’t scare anyone. We have MIT.
3.) I’ve long had a similar idea – vampires really ought to live and operate in war zones, where dead and bloodied bodies wouldn’t stand out. They just have to make sure the bodies don’t themselves vampirize – they don’t need the competition.
Kinda makes me wonder if adult laughter is also an energy source (in light of events from the original film), and if the Monsters should be building doors into comedy clubs and such.