Opinions on Pixar

[Dopples]

I'm curious of what people thought of the style of animation and quality of the 3-D movies they make. I recently saw The Incredibles, and while the movie itself was pretty bad (In my opinion anyways), I thought the animation and quality of the graphics were superb. Any thoughts on them?

 

[Marcus]

You thought THE INCREDIBLES was bad?

Well, your profile doesn't give details on your age but I'm hoping you were old enough to atleast understand it, its constant references and satires, as well as the dark humor in general. tI wasn't a Pixar kids film; it had schizophrenic action scenes to keep the younger ones at bay but the entire thing was about clinging on to our old fashioned ways instead of moving forward as well as how quick we, as a modern society are to act without thinking and throw ourselves into a catch 22 (how the man who jumped off the building sued Mr. Incredible but if Mr.I didn't save him he would have failed as a superhero; catch 22). I'm not going to off into one of my Rants(tm) because I'm pretty tired but I'll voice a quick opinion:

To me, Pixar is the greatest combination of writers, artists, and developers in an animation studio. Every movie they've made (except for A Bug's Life which I thought was a generic Disney flop) has been a hit in my eyes. Their movies contain top of the line animation, superb and ingeniously witty writing (built upon a family friendly base while still containing darkly humerous anecdotes), and the movies themselves are incredibly well paced and just "fun to watch." Pixar is an excellent company and I'm glad others like Dreamworks are presenting some competition because we've been seeing some amazing advances in CGI film quality. The whole Shrek vs. Finding Nemo juxtaposition was great and other non-pixar movies like Over the Hedge and Monster House are equally as entertaining and well written.

 

[The Cry of Fallen Angels]

Don't go for an actual story when watching the incredibles. Seriously, it's just fun to watch. Remember the scene where mister incredible yells ONE MINUTE, to his wife when she calls him for diner? That's brilliant. Everyone could recognise that scene. It's the casual family life with a family of retired superheroes. Doesn't sound too great, I must admit, but there's quite some good humour in the movie. Even the little things. And for childeren, it has some morals too. Just think about it.

 

[Durastik]

^I believe that door scene had some computerized placement in it, so that group had a slightly easier job.

I think Pixar is a great team of animators, if THEY made FF movies, then I might actually watch one with complain about it.

Incredibles was a good movie, it's got an image of the modern family saterized almost perfectly, and still presents and intresting movie.

Peace

 

[Lene]

The Incredibles was actually pretty deep if you just stopped to think about it. It reminded me of that one science fiction short story, where they were deliberately handicapping above average individuals so that they'd confirm with the average joe, to be equal.

I'd go into this more but I am tired :D.

 

[Marcus]

The Incredibles was actually pretty deep if you just stopped to think about it. It reminded me of that one science fiction short story, where they were deliberately handicapping above average individuals so that they'd confirm with the average joe, to be equal.

I'd go into this more but I am tired :D.

Harrison Bergeron; one of Vonnegut's best works.

 

[ryanwh]

Their movies are mostly good, but they played a huge part in the death of full length traditionally animated features so screw em.

 

[Marcus]

Their movies are mostly good, but they played a huge part in the death of full length traditionally animated features so screw em.

Nah, I think the liquidation of cel-studios did that. Even before Pixar became famous and Disney fired all of their animators after the Treasure Planet flop, most animated movies weren't that good. Besides the obvious Aladdin and Lion King, most Disney movies in the 90s were pretty average (Hunchback was a bit too much for the little tykes and Mulan didn't know what it's target audience was). The only animated movies I really care about were the 1980s ones by Don Bluth like Land Before Time (not the multiple BAD sequels), Secret of NIMH, and The Black Cauldron which I'm still waiting patiently for an UNCUT dvd release.

They cut like... 20 minutes out of The Black Cauldron because it was "too much" for the little ones but it was a PG movie for a reason.

 

[ryanwh]

I dont see pixar films having a higher quality consistancey. And films like Doogal which maybe cost like 100 dollars to make prettymuch summerize the kind of trend I was hoping wouldnt happen. Back in the day an animated feature required a lot of talent and foresight so there was more pressure to only do something they knew would be quality. But CGI is so cheap to make the market's flooded with mediocre films that, had CGI not become commonplace, would never of been made into movies(and that would of been a good thing). Its not an evolution of the form because traditional animation isnt inferior, just a different medium. But movies are opting always to go with the cheaper method even if the film would probably of been better quality as a traditionally animated feature(like monster house or really any movie with humans as the lead). Its stupid, pixar's a big part of that because they were under contract with disney but its also disney's fault for digging themselves into a financial hole making them afraid to do anything animated WITHOUT pixar's invovlement.

 

[Dopples]

Maybe I should watch it again without having a mentally retarded kid to watch over while...erm...watching. I had to get up every 5 minutes to clean something or anything else of the sort.


One thing I noticed though, was the brilliant models for the plants and buildings. Like in the Jungle, the backgrounds looked VERY realistic. The human's weren't bad either, they fit the type of character they were (example:Mr. Incredible's giant size fits his power, Dash's small size fits him being super fast). I'm sure they can make more human like characters, but the cartoony models fit for this kind of movie.

 

[Fafnir]

Secret of NIMH, and The Black Cauldron which I'm still waiting patiently for an UNCUT dvd release.

Two of the best animated movies ever. That alone is why disney should go back to 2D animation. Although it's been forever since I've seen them, I still remember them as being great movies.

 

[ryanwh]

Just for the record, disney did NOT make the following movies:
Land Before Time
Secret of NIMH
Fergully
All Dogs Go To Heaven

So disney killed traditional animation for a lot of promising subsidiaries by flooding the market with that CGI "day in the life of _____" bs that got old REALLY quick. CGI is uniform, so it'll never be able to fully harness the cartoon-like exxageration of emotion that makes animated characters so easy to read emotionally. Now all we have is anime, yuck. A new Miyazaki every 4 years isnt cutting it.

 

[Marcus]

All Dogs Go To Heaven was way ahead of its time. I remember it being such a dark movie with a bunch of satanic references and I stopped watching it after the BURN IN HELL hallucination scene. It was a good movie but for the kiddies it is not.

As far as CGI being uniform, I think the problem is that new styles aren't sought after. Videogame graphics have distinctive styles to them. Look at Wind Waker, Killer 7, or Okami. Even traditional animation is becoming more stylish like Amazing Screw On Head and even shows aimed at children on Cartoon Network like Life and Times of Juniper Lee try new forms of artistic contrast and lighting. A Scanner Darkly was rotoscopped but the characters were still modeled with a paint program. Why CG films can't try new animation styles is beyond me but I guess it just has to do with fear of losing sales.

I'm a big fan of animation in general so I'm just as pissed off at its death as you ryan but atleast all of the old classics will continue to exist in DVD form. I can't wait for the release of Darkwing Duck DVD later this year as well Animaniacs this tuesday.

Yea, I'm a big kid at heart

 

[Volrath]

Personally, I think the decline of 2-D animated films had more to do with an overall decline of story quality. Think about the great animated films of the 80s and early 90s, some of which have been mentioned here. In particular, I think that The Land Before Time (the first one, NOT the awful AWFUL video sequels) is one of the finest animated films I've seen. That dark imagery, that beautiful James Horner score, the amazingly grim and sad story.

It seems to me that from Pocahontas onward, Disney stopped trying. They realized they could make money by just slapping something together with talking animals that can be easily turned into toys and put in McDonalds meals. I suppose it's worth mentioning that Pixar's first film, Toy Story, came out in the exact same year as Pocahontas. Quite the contrast.

I think that if a 2-D film with a really great story came along, it would do well. It's a shame that Don Bluth, who directed Land Before Time, Secret of Nimh, and others for Universal, has been inactive for about ten years now. Brad Bird made The Iron Giant in 1999, which I loved, but Pixar snatched him up fast for The Incredibles.

As for Miyazaki, he's been on the cusp of retirement for years now..the only other anime director who I really respect is Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers). So the playing field will be pretty empty, unfortunately. Personally, I'm glad that Pixar has been putting so much effort into its stories (though Cars was much more formulaic than the others have been).

I've rambled on for a while, haven't I? I guess the point I really meant to make was this: It's not the medium, it's the story.

 

[ryanwh]

The difference between us Marcus is I actually had a plan since 6th grade of feilding in traditional studio animation features. And by 11th grade, the dream died and I had no clue what the hell I was gonna do. In other words, disney's the reason I started smoking weed constantly
Those jerks
I guess Im in the minority of thinking Pixar has been incredibly lazy with their stories. Like, they're just walking around the house and picking up objects and going "WHAT IF THEY HAD A SECRET WORLD AND SPOKE THE ENGLISH". The goldfish, the ant farm, the toys in the attic, the car out front, the monsters in the closet....its just so boring. And even as other companies fill in the gaps with the same exact fomula(birds, farm animals, fairy tale story people(again), ants(again again), fish again...ugh. The Incredibles is really the only movie of theres I liked a lot because it wasnt that lame formula. Lilo and Stitch was better than any one of the above mentioned.

Here's what I wish would happen but wont.
Disney would suddenly see a decline in these lame CGI movies and start going back to basics(because by this time it'll be "refreshing"). They'll revive an old classic with a traditionally animated sequal. "Alice Beyond the Looking Glass" anyone? A boy can dream.

 

[Marcus]

The difference between us Marcus is I actually had a plan since 6th grade of feilding in traditional studio animation features. And by 11th grade, the dream died and I had no clue what the hell I was gonna do.

Actually, I originally wanted to be an animator but that dream died when I started goofing off in High School, never took an SAT, couldn't get into college, started making plans to go to Canada and becoming a Lumberjack (I'm serious... I always wanted to be a Pirate or a Lumberjack), and then joined the Navy to become an electrician. I don't regret doing that because I enjoy being an electrician, but if I don't stay in the Navy a full 20 years at retire at 38, I'm going to use my government college funds to find a nice film/art school.

Speaking of which, what do you recommend? I want to start looking into it if I decide to leave after my 6 year term.

I doodle a lot and I pray every night SOMEONE notices CG reaches that point of "enough is enough" is releases this amazing piece of animated goodness.

A man can dream...

 

[ryanwh]

It happened in games already. For whatever reason even though the feilds are different CGI is still viewed as an evolution of animation, which it isnt. They're completely different feilds, with different strengths and different kinds of talent required to make them work.