Then let's stay focused--Bill1978 wrote:Not sure why you need to attack me for wishing movie critics didn't fawn all over everything Pixar. I had the same problem with The Lion King and original Shrek. Good movies that were elevated to outstanding by the critics. Hell, I watched Despicable Me for the firswt time on the weekend and walked away wondering why all the love for a good movie.
I will repeat again I'm not anti-Pixar. I'm anti the critics who gloss over the minor pitfalls of Pixar movies but are happy to poke out thesame pitfalls in other movies.
Yes, I can roll a few eyes too at critics who "discover" that they happen to like what they call "a kids' movie" (which brings up the obvious question of what they themselves stereotypically thought a "kids movie" was, if they happen to like this one on even ground)...And overreact in their attempt to give it official grownup "validation", to prove how it must be something NEW AND DIFFERENT, if adults like it too: Any animated movie can be good, but a Pixar must win Best Picture, or else they'd look like immature fools for liking a "cartoon"!
The same--the exact same--alibi can be applied to the false manias for Lion King, Beauty&Beast, Shrek 1, Finding Nemo (although those two also had historical context working in their favor at the time), Happy Feet, and yes, Despicable Me. (Credit the "Every good movie is Pixar" factor for influencing that, and Dragon.)
That said, I keep my anger nicely managed, and DON'T blame the studio for its fans--I blame the grownup fans for being fanboys with other issues than the movie (and for not coming clean that they just liked a darn good movie with good story and characters), and I also realize it got that way from being made by a studio who knows what good story and characters look like.
Frankly, I didn't think TS3 was better than TS2 (Jessie's broken-dreams flashback was better than Lotso's), but I was still rooting for it to beat the Facebook movie for Best Picture--Just so we'd HAVE that final epiphany, grownups could come out of the "kiddie-movie" closet, and we'd be a little more open about what posturing fools we'd been for the last twenty years since Mermaid. I'll admit rooting for Up to finish the whole campaign too, and suspect it's not going to happen with Cars 2 or Brave. (Although Brave would be nice, if it can manage.)
Yes, Cars 1 was a tad predictable, and so Doc Hollywood right down the line, you wonder why they didn't just cast Woody Harrelson as Mater...But even though I didn't warm to it, I also didn't jump on the bandwagon to wish for the Mythical Flop just because it "would've been more interesting". And the fact that I'm on an animation board means I'm relatively used to the idea of seeing one, and not putting up some veneer to falsely credit some "mysterious factor" in the movie for my liking it, rather than my naturally liking it.
It's frustrating to not be a neurotic posturing, self-defensive grownup, I know--and have to watch all those others go through their circus act--but I simply take the honest approach and say what I said walking out of Nemo: A "bad" Pixar is still better than the best movies other CGI studios make in their entire career.
Think it has something to do with their knowing what they're doing, and as long as that's in play, I'm not going to take the sucker bet that their next "flop" is around the corner, or that they've suddenly decided to jump after the sequel buck. That's just too easy to be plausible.
