Guess what? I've watched two Pixar movies this week! AND I have things to say about both of them!!! Huzzah!
So, here are some words for you:
I watched Finding Nemo last Saturday. This movie makes me sad only because it is so good but it is so overplayed. It feels like every weekend it is on ABC Family or one of the five other stations that Disney owns. It really makes me not want to watch the movie.
The plot of this story is really what makes this movie. Although it's not much of an original story it's well told and that makes all the difference. Also, an odd amount of my oceanic knowledge comes from this movie, like how wales don't eat fish they eat krill and all about how to pronounce "anemone."
The color scheme of this entire movie could also be summed up in three colors: blue (duh), orange, and pink. If you put those three colors on a canvas Mark Rothko style and called it "Nemo" it would be a reasonable title to me.
Now, here's my one issue with this movie and, I'm realizing more and more, my issue with Pixar/computer animation in general. Realism. Computer animation has a tendency to want to try to make things look as close to reality as they possibly can. For example, take the recently released How to Train Your Dragon 2. Don't get me wrong, that was a stunningly beautiful movie but they tried to create such a heightened sense of reality in their character design that it was kind-of off putting.When a cartoon cries and the tears look real and you can see the pores of the skin on the character's face then what's the point of animating it? Why not just hire an actor to play the part? In any case, that's a tangent and isn't really at all the issue I have with Nemo. Nemo suffers from the problem that it attempts to mimic reality but is just slightly off. All the character design is just a little too flat. It seems to me that they put a lot of effort into creating a detailed and believable ocean and since they had to deal with the tricky lighting situations that water creates their characters suffer from it. Also, I'm a bit disappointed in their character designs as is. They're just too realistic. They just look like well...fish. Aside from a scar/gimpy fin these characters have no distinguishing features. You couldn't pick Marlin out of a crowd of clown fish. There's nothing interesting about the way he looks. Once again, if you're so stuck on creating reality what's the point in animating it? If you're going to draw a fish why not have fun doing it? Why not create something that's unique?
Whatever. I still like Finding Nemo. On to the next movie!
The Incredibles is an incredible movie. I always have a hard time remembering that I like this movie and convincing myself to sit down and watch it due to the unfortunate circumstance that I had the flu when I went and saw it and had a nasty experience with the toilet after the movie. (TMI?)
Anyways, I read an article online about how compositionally stunning this movie is and if I weren't so lazy I'd find it and post a link to it. It's also long which is why I didn't so much as read it as I did skimmed it briefly. But from what I could tell it was well researched and interesting!
What I love about Incredibles and what I think separates it from other computer animated movies is that they do not try to mimic reality. The character designs are interesting and although they are obviously human they are exaggerated enough that it doesn't give off that creepy "almost human" vibe.
Also, Brad Bird is a 1950's nostalgia nut. The Iron Giant deals so heavily with the Space Race and Communist fear and The Incredibles is an obvious homage to the fall from grace experienced by the super hero/comic book industry after World War II. If you haven't heard of the book "Seduction of the Innocent" by Fredric Wertham you should look into it. Although the topic of the book deals mostly with the violence of comic books and the subsequent delinquency it provoked in juveniles it had a hand in dealing out several mandates including very strict censorship in the comic book industry. Of course, the book was later debunked for using gross exaggerations and generally incorrect research practices. Unfortunately, the effects of the book were far reaching and in many ways the comic industry is still recovering from those allegations made 60 years ago.
This idea is made clear from the opening sequence as Mr. Incredible revels in the warm glow of admiration that comes from being a super hero and it all goes south in a matter of minutes when his apparently violent means of helping the innocent are unwanted and unappreciated. And now comes the hard reality of adjusting to a world that no longer wants you and tries to censor your very existence. It's actually a pretty sad premise if you think about it.
Another thing that's great in this movie is that it shows a fully functioning family with all it's flaws and arguments included. I always appreciate seeing a movie where both parents are present and actively involved in their children's lives. It's so rare in the media and so refreshing when it happens.
On a side note: Syndrome totally looks like Brad Bird.
Guess what?? Since this post has literally taken me two months to put together I actually watched Cars as well!! I don't have much to say about this movie because I strongly feel that the whole reason this movie was made (as well as its sequel/spin offs) was to sell merchandise to boys and that is disappointing to me. I also don't like movies where the premise is "rich guy living life in the fast lane learns life lessons from country folk in three days or less." Because sincere life changes happen over night (you can't see it but I'm rolling my eyes). Also, the idea of sentient cars raises too many questions that I'd rather not think about.
I do like the background imagery in this movie though.
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