Disney Countdown

Let's finish up the Pixar films with the final movie of the Cars trilogy, Cars 3. The Movie: Cars 3 is the 17th movie from Pixar.  It received much more positive reviews than the previous Cars 2, with a reception more in line with the original Cars.  However, it did not do as well at the box-office, having a smaller opening weekend and overall gross than the previous film.  Nonetheless, most fans felt it was a return to form for the franchise. In the beginning of Cars 3, Lightning McQueen and his fellow racers are surprised when a younger, next-generation rookie by the name of Jackson Storm takes the checkered flag in a race.  Soon, all of the old guard is replaced by the next-generation racers, with only Lightning remaining.  Trying to push himself as much as he can, Lightning suffers a terrible accident.  After hiding out back in Radiator Springs for the off-season, Sally and Mater (and the memories of Doc Hudson) convince Lightning to jump back ...

I guess it has to be done.  Let's take a look at Cars 2. The Movie: Cars 2 is the 12th movie from Pixar, and the final film directed by John Lasseter before he moved exclusively to producing.  (Lasseter has recently stepped away from Disney and Pixar.)  With this movie, Cars became only the 2nd Pixar movie to have a sequel, after Toy Story, which had already had two sequels.  Cars 2 came after a string of successful Pixar films, including four straight winners of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature (Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3), with the last two having received Best Picture nominations.  Given all this, Cars 2 was seen as a big let down.  Some fans felt that there were several other Pixar movies more deserving of a sequel.  Some people viewed it as a cash grab by Disney, since Cars merchandise was among their biggest sellers, but that was more likely just another reason Disney was ok with the movie.  In reality, Cars was the pet p...

Let's wrap up the Pixar films by taking a look with their second trilogy, beginning with Cars. The Movie: Cars is the 7th movie from Pixar.  If Pixar hadn't been purchased by Disney, it would have been their last movie together.  As it is, it was the first film released following that merger, though it was already in production.  Cars was partially inspired by the Pixar animators' love of cars and a trip director John Lasseter took with his family down Route 66 following working on A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2.  It was also the final film for co-director Joe Ranft, who died in a car accident a year before the movie's release.  Cars is dedicated to Joe Ranft.  Cars was met with generally positive reviews, though it was not as well-received as the previous Pixar movies.  However, Cars was a box-office success, being the third highest grossing film in the US in 2006 and the sixth highest world-wide.  It was nominated for two Oscars (Animated F...

Let's continue with another film from Pixar, Ratatouille. The Movie: Ratatouille is the 8th film from Pixar, and the first of their three critically acclaimed yet more experimental films, along with WALL-E and Up.  It is also Brad Bird's second Pixar movie as director and writer, and it was based on an idea by Jan Pinkava, who Bird replaced as director.  Ratatouille was critically praised and performed well at the box-office.  It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for four other Oscars (Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Screenplay). The main character in Ratatouille is the rat Remy, who lives with a colony of rats in a French farmhouse.  Remy's strong sense of smell has helped him develop and more discerning taste than other rats, and he enjoys cooking.  When the rats are forced to flee, Remy gets separated from his family, and finds himself in the kitchen of the famous Parisian restaurant Gusteau's.  There he sees Linguini...

Today we return to CGI films, beginning with Pixar's A Bug's Life. The Movie: A Bug's Life is the 2nd movie from Pixar.  Notably, the movie was caught in the feud between Disney and Dreamworks, as Jeffery Katenzberg, who had still been at Disney while A Bug's Life was still in production, pushed the movie Antz as the first CGI film from Dreamworks.  Dreamworks even pushed the release date of Antz to before that of A Bug's Life, but A Bug's Life ended up crushing Antz at the box-office.  The movie received positive reviews from critics and audiences. A Bug's Life is an original story inspired by the Aesop fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.  A colony of ants led by the Queen and her daughter, Princess Atta, are preparing an offering of food for the grasshoppers.  Flik, an inventive but awkward ant, tries to help by creating a device to harvest grain faster, but he inadvertently knocks the entire offering of food off their island.  The grasshoppers...

Let's complete the trilogy with Toy Story 3. The Movie: Toy Story 3 is the 11th movie from Pixar and their first part 3.  Like it's two predecessors, it was very highly received, even garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and winning Best Animated Feature. In Toy Story 3, Andy is grown up and heading off to college.  He places his toys in a bag to take them to the attic, but they are accidentally taken to the curb instead.  Thinking they are no long wanted, the toys, with the exception of Woody, allow themselves to be donated to a daycare, where they hope to be played with again.  Woody, though learns that all is not as it seems at the daycare, and sets out to rescue his friends. Once again, a Toy Story movie hits all the right notes, telling a great heartfelt story.  It is also amazing to see just how far Pixar has taken the technology of computer animation between the first movie and this one.  Storywise, the climax starts to get a bit...

Next lets look at the second movie in the franchise, Toy Story 2. The Movie: Toy Story 2 is the 3rd movie from Pixar.  During the 1990s, while Disney was producing many highly received theatrical films, they were also producing many direct to video sequels to those and other earlier films.  Following the success of Toy Story, Disney began to do so with that movie, since their agreement with Pixar gave them the rights to the characters.  During production, Disney felt the movie could be strong enough to get a theatrical release, but Pixar was unhappy with the direction of the movie, and they took over the project.  Upon release, Toy Story 2 was as well received as the first movie.  It was also the only Pixar movie to win the Golden Globe for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy before animated films became ineligible upon being given their own category. Toy Story 2 starts off shortly after the first movie, with Andy's toys still enjoying a fun life of play....

From one pioneering film series with dinosaurs to another, today we look at Pixar's signature trilogy, beginning with Toy Story. The Movie: Toy Story is the 1st film from Pixar and the first feature length animated film ever.  It was immediately heralded as a milestone in animation and movie history for its technological achievement, but it also received positive reviews for its story, and was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Toy Story tells the tale of Woody, a cowboy toy who is the favorite of his owner Andy.  When Andy gets a new Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday, Woody's position as favorite is placed in jeopardy.  A series of events lands Woody and Buzz both stranded out in the world, and they have to work together to make it home to Andy before his family's impending move. Toy Story really is a great movie and well-deserving of its accolades.  While the animation quality does now come across as dated, the movie still holds ...

The second of today's movies is the prequel to Monsters, Inc., Monsters University. The Movie: Monsters University is the 14th film from Pixar.  Though it wasn't as highly acclaimed as the first movie, it received generally positive reviews and outperformed the first film at the box office. Monster University begins with the childhood of Mike Wazowski, who commits himself to being accepted at the title school and becoming a scarer.  Mike succeeds in the first goal, and works hard to be the best student in the program.  However, Mike's work effort contrasts with that of his classmate, Sulley, who has all the physical makings of a scarer but not the grades.  When both Mike and Sulley are kicked out of the program by Dean Hardscrabble, they must find a way to prove themselves to her and their fellow students. While the idea of a sequel to Monsters, Inc. has potential, this was once again not a movie people were necessarily asking for.  That being said, d...

Today we wrap up Pixar week with a double dose of monsters.  First up is Monster, Inc. The Movie: Monsters, Inc. is the 4th movie from Pixar.  It was released to positive reviews and critical acclaim.  At the time it became Pixar's highest grossing film and was nominated for multiple Oscars. Monsters, Inc. tells the story of James P. Sullivan, aka Sulley, and Mike Wazowski, two monsters who work at the title factory in the city of Monstropolis, which is run on power produced by the screams of children.  Sulley is the top "scarer" at the factory, a job in which monsters travel from the monster world to the human world via doors that function as portals to the rooms of sleeping children.  When a little girl is accidentally brought into the monster world, Mike and Sulley have to find a way to get her back to her room while avoiding agents of the Child Detection Agency and Sulley's rival Randall, who is hatching his own schemes. Monsters, Inc. has always ...

Pixar week continues with one of their more recent films, The Good Dinosaur. The Movie: The Good Dinosaur is the 16th movie from Pixar, and the second released in 2015 (after Inside Out), the first time Pixar released two movies in the same year.  The movie had a somewhat troubled production, going through a director change and a complete story re-write.  Though The Good Dinosaur received generally positive reviews, it was not praised on the same level as many other Pixar films.  It has the lowest box-office earnings of any Pixar film. The Good Dinosaur takes place in an alternate history in which the dinosaurs did not go extinct 65 million years ago, but instead continued to evolve into a more structured society,  The title dinosaur is Arlo, a young Apatosaurus who lives on a farm with his family.  Arlo is the runt of his siblings, and he wants to find a way to prove himself and "make his mark."  When he finds a young human boy stealing corn from ...

The second movie of the day is the one just released, Incredibles 2. The Movie: Incredibles 2 is the 20th Pixar movie and the sequel 14 years in the making.  Officially opening in theaters today, the movie is getting a mostly positive reaction from critics and fans alike. Incredibles 2 picks up with the battle against the Underminer teased at the end of the first movie, which was set three months after the main story of that film.  "Supers" are still illegal though, and as a result of the battle, the entire Parr family is arrested.  Though they are released, the government shuts down its support for "Super Relocation," leaving the Parrs just two weeks in a motel an no means of income for the family.  Along with Frozone, they are approached by tycoon Winston Deavor, who wants to use a targeted public relations campaign to rehabilitate the supers' image and make them legal again.  He chooses Elastigirl to be the face of this campaign, leaving Bob to tend ...

With the sequel opening in theaters today, first let's take a look at the first film, The Incredibles. The Movie: The Incredibles is the 6th movie to come out of Pixar and the first to be directed by someone who was previously not affiliated with Pixar.  This director was Brad Bird, who also wrote the movie, and had previously directed the highly acclaimed by financially unsuccessful The Iron Giant for Warner Bros.  The Incredibles was also Pixar's first movie with human protagonists.  It went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Film and the Hugo Award, the first animated movie to do so. In the movie's opening, "supers" are outlawed due to the rising cost of lawsuits and public backlash against their collateral damage.  Fifteen years later, the former Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl are living the married, suburban life as Bob and Helen Parr, with three kids, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack.  Bob has had a tough time adjusting to life as a regular person, a...

Pixar week continues with their most recent film, at least until tomorrow, Coco. The Movie: Coco is the 19th Pixar film.  It was highly praised by critics and performed well at the box office.  Notably, Coco featured a Latino voice cast, befitting the setting of the movie, and it became the highest grossing movie in Mexican history.  It won numerous honors including the Oscar for Best Animated Film. The main character in Coco is 12-year-old Miguel Rivera.  Miguel is the fifth generation in a family of shoemakers, a tradition begun by his great-great-grandmother  Mamá Imelda, who started the career after being abandoned by her husband, a musician, and left with their daughter Coco (Miguel's still-living great-grandmother).  While his family hates music because of how it once tore them apart, Miguel secretly longs to be a musician like his idol, legendary singer Ernesto de la Cruz.  When Miguel steals de la Cruz's guitar to perform in a talent c...

Next up in Pixar week is another movie listed amongst their best, WALL-E. The Movie: WALL-E is the 9th film in the Pixar library and the middle of their three "prestige" films.  The movie was well-received, landing on many film-of-the-year lists.  Time Magazine would eventually name it the best film of the decade.  WALL-E did win the Oscar for Best Animated Film, but many observers felt it was robbed of a Best Picture nomination.  (The omission of this movie and The Dark Knight was one of the driving forces behind the expanded Best Picture slate beginning the following year.) Set 800 years in the future, the title robot WALL-E is the last functioning unit of a fleet of trash compacting robots left behind to clean up Earth after it was abandoned by humans.  WALL-E has gained sentience, and has begun collecting a variety of items, including a small plant.  EVE, a probe droid sent out by the ship Axiom to find life, discovers WALL-E's plant, and her p...

We continue Pixar week with one of Pixar's most critically acclaimed films, Up. The Movie: Up is Pixar's 10th movie, and the third and final of its prestigious experimental films that were planned as potential post-Disney projects had the two companies parted ways.  It was the second animated film ever nominated for the Oscar for best picture, albeit part of an expanded field of nominees.  It did win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Up tells the story of Carl Fredrickson, an elderly widower who, along with his wife Ellie, always dreamed of traveling to Paradise Falls in South America.  Determined to fulfill their dream, Carl lifts his entire house using balloons to travel.  However, he inadvertently brings along Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer who was just trying to earn his badge for assisting the elderly. Ok, first off, the opening of this movie may just be the sadness opening to an animated film ever, if not any film.  In fact, the montage...

With the latest Pixar film opening this Friday, today kicks off a week of Pixar.  And since yesterday's movie featured Disney's feisty redheaded princess, today's movie, Brave, features Pixar's feisty redheaded princess. The Movie: Brave is the 13th Pixar animated film, the first Pixar film with a female protagonist, and the first to have a female director.  (That director was Brenda Chapman, who was somewhat controversially replaced during the making of the film, although she was still credited as a director as well as given the story credit.)  For the most part the movie was well-received critically, though Pixar fans tend to rank it among the lesser of the Pixar films.  Brave did receive the Oscar for Best Animated Film in what many believed to be an upset over Wreck-It Ralph. The protagonist of Brave is the Merida, a Scottish princess of the highland clan Dunbroch.  Merida is very free-spirited and would rather be exploring and practicing archery th...