# Why do so many adults bash Pixar for making kids movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2014, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620 "2014-08-27T09:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/41 "2014-08-29T17:40:29Z")
I think the OP has his answer. The people who bash Pixar do so because they make “mediocre” award-winning movies that are universally loved by both critics and audiences. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/42 "2014-08-29T18:35:49Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I think the OP has his answer. The people who bash Pixar do so because they make “mediocre” award-winning movies that are universally loved by both critics and audiences. Right. Because somebody like me who says he thought six Pixar movies were great and eight Pixar movies were less than great is just bashing Pixar reflexively. The only thoughtful discerning evaluation of Pixar movies is to declare that each of them is the best movie Pixar ever made. And apparently the worst thing you can do is have a personal opinion about a movie. You should base your opinion of a movie on what everyone else is saying about it. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/43 "2014-08-29T18:40:34Z")
What? You said people bashed Pixar because they make mediocre movies, not me. I’m not accusing you of reflexively doing anything, I’m just reading the words you wrote up the page. I haven’t seen anyone declare every Pixar movie is the best they ever made. Kindly show me who is doing that. Your personal opinion about specific movies is irrelevant if you’re trying to explain to the OP why people bash Pixar, which is what you were doing. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/44 "2014-08-29T20:27:52Z")
I’m not convinced there is really much Pixar bashing other than recent complaints of diminished quality. The problem of American animation being pigeonholed into just-for-kids is much, much wider than Pixar. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/45 "2014-08-30T01:41:57Z")
Animation disproportionately accounts for the best movies of the last couple of decades. I think whether they are kids movies or for adults or fit in a genera takes a back seat to making movies that devoted to be entertaining. And they are entertaining for everyone. Live action movies aimed at adults don’t really want to be known as kid friendly and live action kids movies are embarrassingly kiddy. And then there is the state of comedies that are too often made for the frat boy crowd and have been lousy far more often then not. Animation is the brightest spot in the movie industry as far as I’m concerned. Pixar has set the bar high as far as animation and story telling go and even Disney has been challenged to keep-up. They’ve been great for the industry and I think we’ve become spoiled. Even their worst cartoons are still pretty decent. They may only be poor if you compare them to Pixar’s best. The big complaint I see is that they are doing sequels. There is really no need to make a “Finding Nemo” sequel except to get Ellen DeGeneres off their back. Ellen just would not let that go and she has ways of getting to you. But even though it’s not needed I’m confident Pixar is going to do a great job with it. Planes is kind of the B-side of the Cars franchise. It was taken over by Disney and I think if it was 10 years ago it would have been a direct to video. It plays better to kids but Even there though they went to a good deal of detail to get the planes right, even if they were talking and had faces. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > My favoirte comparison for this principle is the book **The Tale of Despereaux** and the terrible movie based on it. The book is lovely and rich. I read it to my students most years, and every single time I’ve read it, students burst into spontaneous applause on the last page. One year I made the mistake of renting the movie to show on the day before winter break. The movie is **horrible** , changes the complex characters from the book into wise-talking Indiana Jones knockoffs. I can see how the movie enjoyed modest success in the theater, but my kids who had just finished the book were perplexed and disappointed. > > So no, Pixar isn’t often criticized for making kids’ movies. All their movies are kids movies. They’re criticized occasionally for making not very good movies. I don’t think you are actually claiming “The Tale of Depereaux” was a Pixar movie, but just for the record, it’s not. It was done by one of the more anonymous studios. They did make “Ratatouille” though. I loved it but it wasn’t on everyone’s favorite list. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/46 "2014-08-31T03:21:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Monsters Univ isnt bad, but it’s hardly groundbreaking. It’s pretty good, not great. They can’t all be great. > > The fans have been loud in their request for Incredibles 2, many call it as the best Superhero film ever done. (I call it in the top 3, after Superman and the Avengers). Yeah, and I’ll certainly see Incredibles 2 – I’m one of the folks who think it’s a good idea. The point I was trying to make is that “a bunch of sequels and a few recent missteps” can be disheartening when you compare it to Pixar just a few years, when it seemed like every year or two they were releasing groundbreaking instant classics. I still like Pixar, but I certainly think the shine’s worn off a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/47 "2014-08-31T03:49:38Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > I don’t think you are actually claiming “The Tale of Depereaux” was a Pixar movie, but just for the record, it’s not. It was done by one of the more anonymous studios. > > They did make “Ratatouille” though. I loved it but it wasn’t on everyone’s favorite list. I didn’t even think of that interpretation of what I said. Sorry, no–I’m definitely not suggesting Pixar produced that lousy crapfest of a movie. And **Ratatouille** is one of my favorite Pixar movies, if only for a couple of very brief scenes ([this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXoJjgxMj9M) and [this slightly longer one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YG4h5GbTqU)). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/48 "2014-08-31T06:51:32Z")
I liked Cars. I mean, my wife and I make fun of it constantly because a lot of things about it are stupid. And I think Cars 2 was a better movie, just in terms of the absurd lengths they went to find another story to tell with these characters. My son happily rewatches these, and we have an ongoing discussion about how little sense the premise makes. But they’re amusing films. Planes, on the other hand, was not interesting even to my 2 year old son. Are they really going to manage to wring out a whole other story out of Cars? What, are they going to introduce next, time travel? Evil twins? Plucky child cars? A gritty reboot? What I’m finding as an adult now is that a lot of those classic Disney films sucked. Disney’s Robin Hood? Tedious, boring. Bedknobs & Broomsticks? Painful to watch. The Sword and the Stone? Mercy! ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/49 "2014-08-31T08:06:00Z")
> [@](#): > > … Finding Nemo 2 … The sequel is called Finding Dory ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/50 "2014-08-31T13:59:05Z")
About a year ago, when my nephew was 4, he loved Cars. He just adored it…Lightning McQueen stuffed animal, Cars coloring books, Cars video game, Cars toy cars. He’d talk at length about how great the movie was. So at least one kid liked it. (He’s into How To Train Your Dragon now). ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/51 "2014-08-31T15:35:04Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > About a year ago, when my nephew was 4, he loved Cars. He just adored it…Lightning McQueen stuffed animal, Cars coloring books, Cars video game, Cars toy cars. He’d talk at length about how great the movie was. So at least one kid liked it. (He’s into How To Train Your Dragon now). I know numerous parents with similar stories, including me. It is VERY, VERY hard to make a movie ages 3-99 will love. Easier to make a film ages 10-99 will love. I guess I’m saying I am cool with Pixar making movies I will hate, but my kid will love. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620/52 "2014-09-02T18:07:53Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > What I’m finding as an adult now is that a lot of those classic Disney films sucked. Disney’s Robin Hood? Tedious, boring. Bedknobs & Broomsticks? Painful to watch. The Sword and the Stone? Mercy! There’s a difference between “sucked” and “dated”. Those were fun films for there times. True, many Disney films are timeless, but not all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-adults-bash-pixar-for-making-kids-movies/696620.md?page=2)