Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

Oh, and for the record, it's widely reported that the Good Dinosaur trailer/teaser was not attached to any showing of MU.

 

[Oscarfan]

Saw Monsters U. today; loved it. I don't recall the last movie I laughed so much at. Sometimes it wasn't even jokes, it was just the designs. I would watch it again to catch some more of the in-jokes (missed the Pizza Planet truck, but caught the A113 and star-ball ones).

 

[Drtooth]

Anyone else note the sound the Ladybug that they were playing with made?

Same sound the Ladybug from A Bug's Life makes.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Wow! I can't believe I didn't pick up on that one!

I saw the A113 on the classroom door, but couldn't spot the Pizza Planet truck in this one. They must have hid it well in this one.

 

[Oscarfan]

Just saw This Is The End. It was good, but mostly comprised of humor I'm not really into.

 

[Drtooth]

I saw the A113 on the classroom door, but couldn't spot the Pizza Planet truck in this one. They must have hid it well in this one.

According to Pixar Wiki, it's parked out in front of the first party house.

Apparently there's also a poster that says Randall's line in the original movie about the Winds of Change... but I didn't see that one.

Anyway, I hear that so far, it won the weekend over World War Z. Really hoped it would. The zombie thing is so played that they actually hid all references to zombies from the trailers. Which, actually, makes things worse and "The Event" like.

 

[jvcarroll]

Monsters U, World War Z and Man of Steel fared very well this weekend!

I don't understand the criticism for World War Z. Pixar almost always wins its weekend and Z's $112 million world-wide opening weekend confirms its status as a blockbuster.

I felt Monsters U was good "Solid B" movie, but the humor really wasn't up to snuff for Pixar. It's time for them start innovating again and stop churning out sequels. T0 be honest, Ratatouille was the last Pixar film that I enjoyed from beginning to end. I liked the vignette in the middle of Up, yet found the rest of the story rather muddled. They should offer Brad Bird whatever he wants to get him back in the fold. I'd prefer to see the Incredibles, but will take whatever he decides to give us!

 

[Drtooth]

I'd say the humor was pretty much on par with the first film. It was certainly funnier than the last film (they really didn't give Craig Ferguson much to do there). But I tell you, it's one of those prequels were everything looks bigger, shinier and better than the predecessor that takes place in the future. Sully had more rendered hairs than ever before. It was really a beautiful looking film. The character designs were some of their best.

Seems this is their last sequel/prequel til Finding Dory, and they haven't announced another yet. They haven't announced anything past Dia de Los Muertos. And rumor has it they have to change the name because they wouldn't let Disney copyright the term. Yes... Disney tried to copyright a Holiday.

Somehow, Pixar seemed intent on sticking it to Eisner by making Toy Story 3, Monsters University and Finding Dory. After all, Circle 7 animation was supposed to make cheap DTV sequel versions of those films.

As for World War Z... it's probably a good film and all, but it came out at a time where zombies were on the way out. When commercials for PC processors start doing the zombie apocalypse thing, it's like someone's old uncle that just discovered a Rick Roll three years later in September. The trailers hid as many zombie references as possible, and it made the film look worse, actually.

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

So to get this thread up and running again, anyone up for Despicable Me 2.

 

[Drtooth]

I hope it has the same level of heart the first one has. Every preview I've seen has a far happier Gru. That's going to be interesting. Sounds like his old Mad Scientist won't be in the film, though.

And while I did complain about the price of the toys (Target has they for not that much cheaper, but not completely unreasonable), I'm glad you can finally get some Minion merchandise without trying to win a rigged crane machine game or get a million tickets at an arcade. Can't wait for the Happy Meal promotion. And yes, there is one.

Overall, very psyched. Not quite as much as I was for Monsters U, but now that I saw that one, I have residual excitement building back up. I also like how Steve Carell has BOTH a mainstream and indie film coming out at the same time. That's what I like. He's not a snob, but he's not someone who dumbs down his humor for kids. He's walks that thin line gracefully.

Still bummed Burt Wonderstone didn't get the audience it deserved.