Pixar: Are the glory days over?

[Dominicboo1]

Just for fun I'll do it!
Up
Toy Story 3
Finding Nemo
Toy Story 2
Monsters Inc.
Toy Story
Wall.e
A Bug's Life
Ratatouille
Brave
The Incredibles
Cars
Cars 2
(Yes I put Brave and A Bug's Life before The Incredibles....please don't kill me fans I like them all it's just not my favorite.)

 

[D'Snowth]

I really can't rank the Pixar movies from best to worst, I just can't, but what I CAN do is rate each and everyone one of them with the traditional four-star rating system:

• TOY STORY ****
• A BUG'S LIFE *
• TOY STORY 2 ****
• MONSTER'S, INC. ****
• FINDING NEMO ****
• THE INCREDIBLES ****
• CARS *
• RATATOUILLE ****
• WALL-E ***
• CARS 2 *
• UP (I honestly still have not seen this one)
• TOY STORY 3 ****
• BRAVE ** 1/2

I feel bad for not seeing UP, because everybody really seems to gawk over that one as being Pixar's best movie of all time, so I'm sure I'm probably missing something really great.

 

[Drtooth]

I remember "A Bug's Life" competing at the box office with DreamWorks "Antz". Both were decent. One hysterical by-product of these two films: a few months later there was a dollar-store knock-off called "An Ant's Life". Never saw it, but I bet the cast of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 would've had a field day watching that.

This following insight from TV Tropes:

The Antz/A Bugs Life controversy actually does have some basis in fact, as opposed to just being the usual fan rivalry. DreamWorks knew early on pretty much exactly what Pixar was planning on doing with A Bugs Life... but only because Pixar's John Lasseter had told DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg all about it. To elaborate: Katzenberg was the one who'd set up the contract with between Pixar and Disney when he still worked at the Disney Studios, and he was also a strong supporter of Toy Story during its development. Because of this Lasseter considered Katzenberg a close friend, and when Katzenberg left the studio to form DreamWorks Lasseter called him up to wish him luck. During the call, he told Katzenberg about Pixar's latest film about a colony of ants and that it would be released in late 1998. A few months later, Lasseter found out that DreamWorks had fast tracked into production a CGI film about ants, and that it would be released two months before Pixar's film. Lasseter angrily called up Katzenberg and confronted him. Katzenberg explained that A Bug's Life was set to be released around the same time as DreamWorks' The Prince Of Egypt, a major project that the studio had spent years making. Apparently, then-Disney CEO and Katzenberg's archenemy Michael Eisner had purposely picked that date to steal DreamWorks' thunder and spite Katzenberg. Katzenberg told Lasseter that he'd cancel production on Antz if Lasseter convinced Eisner to move A Bugs Life's premiere. Furious that his studio was being used as cannon fodder in Eisner and Katzenberg's ego war, Lasseter hung up on him. The relationship between DreamWorks and Pixar has been downhill ever since.

As you can see, it's a very passive aggressive story as to why we have 2 similar films (though not in tone).

I really did enjoy Bug's Life, but Antz went to darker places with a similar concept. It actually managed to be the more memorable movie out of the two. Bug's Life was more fun, though...

 

[Scooterforever]

This following insight from TV Tropes:


As you can see, it's a very passive aggressive story as to why we have 2 similar films (though not in tone).

I really did enjoy Bug's Life, but Antz went to darker places with a similar concept. It actually managed to be the more memorable movie out of the two. Bug's Life was more fun, though...

Yes, I saw (and enjoyed) both as well. The war scene in Antz (fighting beetles or something) was quite terrifying to me as a kid. But even as a kid I remember thinking "it seems strange that two films with a similar story should be released so close together." Now I know why.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think there was a similar case with BABE and GORDY, wasn't there? BABE was already in the works, but then they started working on GORDY and raced to release it before BABE... or at least, that's what Nostalgia Critic said.

Both are good movies for different reasons, BABE is more poignant and heartwarming, while GORDY was more humorous and lighthearted.

Lil trivia for ya: did you know that GORDY was originally conceived by the creators of GREEN ACRES? Matter of fact, the character Cousin Jake was played by Tom Lester, better known as Eb from GREEN ACRES.

 

[DannyRWW]

Armageddon and Deep impact.....for a while I think Dreamworks was using spies or something when they first started....

 

[DannyRWW]

Those always come to mind when I think of the antz and Bugs Life thing...it just seemed like for a while dream works had their own version of whatever big movie was coming out.....at least I think it was dreamworks...but at any rate copy cat movies always seemk to be around...coicidence or stolen ideas? sometimes we will never know...unless its those cheap ones that come out on video....

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

Meh, A Bug's Life if ANY BUG film or TV show, Has NEVER EVER EVER EVER been favorites of mine, HECK I'm not even excited for EPIC, mainly cause I think of it as the most boring genre, (sorry bug fans), Anyways, most hated PIXAR film, that would have to be CARS 2.

 

[Drtooth]

I actually liked Cars 2 more than the first. Not so much for the story, but for the visuals. Cars had a nice heartfelt story, but it took place in a muddy, grouchy looking dustbowl. While the characters were bright and colorful, the background was so uninteresting and dull. The one advantage to the whole Saturday morning cartoonish plot in the second film? The around the world plotline gave us some great scenery porn. The neon colored Tokyo streets, the Car-ified architecture... that Italian villa... It's a beautiful looking film. You have to admit that.

 

[beatnikchick300]

Heck, the freaking singing talking kitchen appliances only want to ship Belle and the Beast so they can become human again. They could care less about the master's happiness.

Not to get off the main topic, but if I was somehow turned into a candelabra, a clock, a teapot, or whatever by a sorceress, I think my boss' happiness would be pretty low on my list of priorities, too, in favor of doing whatever it took to get me out of that form. Just saying, it doesn't make them "jerks."


I haven't seen all of the Pixar movies, to get back on topic, but the ones I've seen have left me greatly underwhelmed. I thought the characters in the first Toy Story movie ranged from obnoxious, to silly, to just plain nasty (if we want to talk about characters being jerks), though I was 8 when I saw that, so maybe that was just me being a sensitive kid. I though A Bug's Life was annoying, and the first Cars wasn't much to write home about (although I have some fondness for it being one of George Carlin's last films). The only Pixar movies I've seen that I can say I actually like are Finding Nemo and Up. Heck, I think the first ten minutes of Up could have been just a nice little short film in themselves. I haven't seen Brave yet, though I've wanted to; I just haven't got around to it yet.