Pixar Hall of Fame

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I wish I saw this earlier, could have included my son in the viewings!!!
Yeah, I’m completely fine with a late nomination.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
No no no, it's okay. I need a rest from HoF's anyway.
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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
No no no, it's okay. I need a rest from HoF's anyway.
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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
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I watched Coco tonight. Will get a write up later.
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Originally Posted by Iroquois
To be fair, you have to have a fairly high IQ to understand MovieForums.com.



So you will be done by Thursday?
Possibly. Maybe even sooner, who knows. Two of the movies that are left are in my top ten, so might make them a double feature one night.





The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
Imdb

Date Watched: 3/4/19
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: Pixar Hall of Fame, nominated by Yam12
Rewatch: Yes


I don't like superhero movies. I don't like science fiction/fantasy in general. I don't like how black and white the characters tend to be. I roll my eyes when the heroes engage their superpowers and the over-the-top villains begin their monologuing and their sinister laughter. And yet, somehow, I love The Incredibles.

Don't get me wrong - my eyes still roll at those elements and they are absolutely my least favorite things about the movie - but the laughter and the tears greatly overshadow any annoyance. It's the scenes of the personal relationships between the characters that draw me in. It's Bob Parr standing in silent fury under bright florescent lighting as he is berated and belittled by his minuscule boss. It's little Edna Mode and her fierce refusal to accept BS and self pity. It's Honey telling Frozone that she's the greatest good he is ever going to get. It's Helen and Bob arguing about directions. And it's seeing the strong and stoic Mr. Incredible sobbing and broken when he thinks his family has been killed - and I sob right along with him. These are what make the film great. These are why I've watched it over and over again. These are why I count it among my all time favorites. Even so, of the 20 feature films Pixar has released to date, I'd rank it maybe #6.

-



Debating on whether to continue my alphabetical trend or skip over Monsters U and come back to it later.

I seem to recall rating it
after watching it in the theater and I don't think I've watched it since, even though I own it on DVD. Oh well, at least it's not Brave.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé



A Bug's Life

With my all time favorite already nominated and basically every other top, great film of PIxar to choose from, I, instead, went with their second film, a lesser known and sort of neglected film when people talk about PIxar: A Bug's Life.

Following Toy Story's success, A Bug's Life was, and is, a solid sophomore film from this company that ensured it's audience that they weren't a one hit wonder and caused a growing excitement to see what would come next. Which, as we all know, was and is a helluva list of animations with wit, charm and emotion.

Taking an old children's story; "The Ant and the Grasshopper" going generations past the initial story to the grasshopper's descendants(?) not only NOT learn it's lesson about saving for a rainy day, but instead come to insist, and downright aggressively DEMAND the ants to gather food for them -- or else.
With a slight tip of the hat to Seven Samurai and it's American version, The Magnificent Seven, our hero ant sets out to find "Warrior Bugs" to protect them from the Grasshoppers' return. The leader of which is voiced with excellent menace by Kevin Spacey.
There is also a great list, (like most PIxar films) of voice actors in this film in both major and secondary roles that are too long to mention but merit it all the same.

While A Bug's Life doesn't really deliver on the emotional impact that would make it one of the greats, it did follow the comedic route of the previous film that gave the adults that were dragged along to see this, something to watch, laugh at, and, even more importantly, find ourselves wandering back to childhood songs, nursery rhymes and things and memories we left behind and neglected when we became adults.
That is why, in that initial spirit and intention of this, then, budding animation company, to remind us of our childhood and all the memories we've forgotten and come to neglect, I chose a film that so often gets left behind.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé



Ratatouille

The eighth film out, PIxar had everything they were attempting to achieve down to an art form. Films that entertained both kids and adults, endearing characters and stories that made us laugh and, at times, get choked up, letting a tear tinged with joy, slip free.
Making this film, for me, one of the top greats out of PIxar.

Inspired by the Chef Gusteau's zest and love of cooking, our hero, a rat with an uncanny sense of smell and equal love for cooking finds a kind of marionette in a human named Linguine allowing him to pursue that love in Gusteau's restaurant.

Again, with a great list of actors lending their voice, including a few repeats from past films, we enjoy the staff and the antagonist, the imposing Anton Ego that inhabit this world of food, Paris and some beautiful life lessons such as


All wonderfully mixed and layered among the usual charm and wit of these characters we come to love and enjoy.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé




Monsters University

With the bar set extraordinarily HIGH for PIxar excellence by the time this film came out I guess I can understand it's initial lackluster acceptance by a lot of folks.

BUT,
It is still a worthwhile prequel to Monsters, Inc with the usual top notch list of actors and repeaters, we get to see Mike and Sully meet, despise one another and, in the end, become the team they are in the first film.
While it does lack the norm of emotional impact of other PIxar films, it still retains the ability to entertain and make us laugh on a number of points and situations.

Yes, yes, this is not a PIxar great, but it IS PIxar, and it is very much worthwhile and surprisingly fun to watch and enjoy.

I honestly feel pretty bad about waiting so long to finally judge and appreciate this film and will be adding it to the list of those I rewatch.





Monsters University (Dan Scanlon, 2013)
Imdb

Date Watched: 3/5/19
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: Pixar Hall of Fame, nominated by Siddon
Rewatch: Yes


Despite the disappointments that were Cars 2 and Brother Bear 2: Mother Bear... er... I mean Brave (Have I mentioned yet that I don't like that movie?), I went into my first viewing of Monsters University with high expectations. It was, after all, a Pixar movie and I really like Monsters, Inc. so it couldn't be bad, right? It couldn't possibly be another Brave, right?!

The trouble with watching Pixar's lesser films is that they've set the bar for excellence so damn high that what I'd consider a decently good movie from another studio is a major disappointment from them - and that's what Monsters University was for me that first time. I might've smirked a time or two but there was no genuine laughter and that emotional punch - that Pixar magic - just wasn't there.

Watching the movie again tonight I can't say that any of that has actually changed. It still didn't make me laugh. It still didn't make me cry. It still didn't trigger any sort of intense emotion. But this time I went in with low expectations and found myself being at least moderately entertained by it.




Women will be your undoing, Pépé



The Incredibles

You KNOW you're doing everything right when even someone who doesn't care for the genre STILL enjoys your movie. As stated in Miss Vicky's review a few posts above.
Because, as she's stated, of the relationships within the family and all the human content that draws us in.
When Bob re-dons his old suit and, while stretching, his big stomach sticks out, or Helen, seeing her butt in a mirrored door and the look of concern her face. . . there's all kinds of moment's such as these that endears us. Along with the comedic wit about super heroes in general, we have, once again, PIxar dipping into the child within us, adding the sarcasm of adulthood sans the bitterness and we have another great romp into the Pixar world.

Even for a two hour movie, it whizzes right by, but, with --


In short, another Pixar film that hits on all cylinders and one we watch again and again and again and again and again



Yahoo! I finally watched my 1st nom for the HoF the other night, it was a good one too!...I think I'll do something different this time around and use a format outline to write my reviews. That way I can more easily compare apples to apples...err I mean Pixar to Pixar. So instead of shooting from the hip and writing stream of consciousness I.E. babbling like I usually do, I'll try something different this time around.



I rewatched Ratatouille last night. Should have my write up posted sometime today. I might squeeze the remaining two in tonight.




Coco (2017)

Coco does world building par excellence! I've never seen another movie that was packed with so much rich detail in the background scenes that it felt like you were right there.

I've been to different parts of Mexico and a lot of what I seen in the film looked very familiar and that is one huge plus for Coco. I loved the whole look at the traditional Mexican families way of life. I was amazed not only with the detail that went into the animation but also with the details of the story. Loved the way the trucks parked halfway on the sidewalks, yup they do that alright!


I loved the fore mentioned street scenes, but even more I loved the village of the dead, that was world building done up right! Coco has such a richly developed story and superb animation that I think this will finish right towards the top of my list.

World Building:


Animation:


Character Development:
Nothing outstanding in the richness of the characters, but fore the scope of the
intended target audience they work fine.

Story Premise:
Had this just been about a boy who dreamed of being a musician in a family that hated music, then the story would have been OK average. But the whole world of the dead with the reverences for past family members who needed to be remembered to exist in the nether world was genius.


Believability:
I believed it.


Originality:
Yes I know Coco seems a lot like Spirited Away (another film I loved) but that's OK as no idea in art is completely original. All unique ideas are built on the back of other ideas.


Other Thoughts:
I disliked the way the dog was animated. With it's eyes bulging out and it's tongue flying around like a flag in the wind...it looked grotesque. It reminded me of Ren and Stimpy (which I did love for it's grotesqueness) but here I'd have liked the dog to be more enduring. Better yet the sidekick dog idea is overused, so I'd preferred it dog free.


Favorite Moments: Frieda! OMG that scene was so bizarrely surrealistic. I loved the art work so created, damn that was crazy stuff! I could've watched an entire film about Freida in skeltonville and been pleased as punch!


Nomination by: @Nathaniel