Rank the Pixar Movies

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vorpal blade
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by vorpal blade »

I haven't seen A Bug's Life. I watched WALL-E on an airplane, with the sound system broken. Apparently there is not much sound anyway. But I can't really rate it. Here is my list in order of preference (1 being best).
1. Up (Naturally; it's about an old guy hero)
2. The Incredibles
3. Cars
4. Toy Story 2
5. Toy Story
6. Toy Story 3
7. Finding Nemo
8. Monsters, Inc.
9. Ratatouille

All but the last one I really liked.
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Katya »

C is for wrote:. . . but since we're not supposed to watch movies with people we're dating anymore . . .
Wait—what?
Gimgimno
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Gimgimno »

Someone missed Elder Scott's fireside!

(hint: it was Katya)
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Katya »

Gimgimno wrote:Someone missed Elder Scott's fireside!

(hint: it was Katya)
Would anyone care to clue me in as to the context?
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Laser Jock »

They're talking about the CES fireside this last Sunday. However, I didn't interpret that as a blanket ban on watching movies on dates; rather, he pointed out that watching a movie with someone is generally a really bad way to get to know them (which I think we all already knew anyway, right?). So movies early on aren't a good idea, but I didn't think he was saying they were never appropriate.
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Katya »

Laser Jock wrote:They're talking about the CES fireside this last Sunday. However, I didn't interpret that as a blanket ban on watching movies on dates; rather, he pointed out that watching a movie with someone is generally a really bad way to get to know them (which I think we all already knew anyway, right?). So movies early on aren't a good idea, but I didn't think he was saying they were never appropriate.
Yeah, I can see that. (I think we've said as much in the Board archives regarding dating advice.) However, I find it troubling how quickly something like
watching a movie with someone is generally a really bad way to get to know them
gets turned into
we're not supposed to watch movies with people we're dating anymore
within Mormon culture. (No criticism of "C is for" intended.)
C is for
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by C is for »

*pouts*

I guess I do need to make a disclaimer every time I'm being facetious. I thought about it in this case. But then I'd be disclaiming every time I opened my mouth (or twiddled my fingers). Of course we can watch movies on dates. It's just stupid to.

(And I've turned into my acquaintance that told me she'd been "dating" a boy for like a month and meant that they'd gone a couple dates, spanning a month. I didn't mean that watching movies with a significant other isn't allowed.)

And if you're interested in watching the fireside, here is a link to the stream.
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Laser Jock »

Sorry for not catching that, C. :)
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Cognoscente »

I can't believe that some of you had such a strong negative reaction to Wall-E. I went back and re-watched it last night, and I submit that if you didn't see sublime beauty in that movie, you either weren't paying attention, or have a dessicated lump where your heart should be.

First of all, I can't speak for everyone involved in Pixar, but I never had the sense that the focus of the movie was environmentalism. I consider myself right-of-center, and I believe I have both a strong aversion to green-craziness and a keen sense of propaganda or pandering. If you watch the movie closely, the main theme of the movie was never specifically about taking care of or cleaning Earth. Those themes were simply the setting in which the focus of the conflict was the concept of human endeavor. Wall-E was about choice, about the courage to choose a difficult fulfilling existence instead of a tepid, effortless, shallow one. Earth's future pollution in Wall-E's world was not the product of disrespect towards the planet, just as the humans' return was not the product of any new-found reverence to it. The pollution was the result of laziness and apathy -- a comfortable status quo. Why attempt the Herculean effort to make life livable again when it's "easier" to simply sweep it under a cosmic rug and idle away the millenia in mindless hedonism? The progression of each character in the movie comes when they gain willingness to do things "not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Wall-E is the hero of the movie because, of all the characters, he embodies the virtues of hard work and courage more than anyone else.

The film itself is a work of staggering beauty, and I think a close examination of the direction of the movie shows just how beautiful it is. You know how they say, "show, don't tell" when you are writing a story? The first half of Wall-E shows you everything about the circumstances of the setting, the nature of the protagonists, and the evolution of their relationship without a single line of dialog. It's some of Pixar's finest expository work (until Up, anyway), and any other director working today would kill for that level of storytelling efficiency.

Watch the movie again, and during the first act, pay close attention to the sound. The whirring of his gyros and the grinding and banging of his work echo out into a vast, silent landscape. You implicitly get a sense of just how profoundly alone he is, and that's why his relationship with EVE is so moving. Both Wall-E and EVE's designs and expressions are enormously expressive, and compliment their personalities completely -- enough that the audience can get complete sense of a fully humanistic, deeply emotional three-dimensional developed character from a robot with only a handful of electronic grunts. I consider the love scene where Wall-E and EVE are dancing outside the spaceship to be, easily, in the top five moments of cinema of the last decade. It is beautiful.

I would argue that the second half of the movie, while not as wordlessly eloquent as the first, is still excellent and deserves all the accolades of the action-filled parts of Monsters Inc or Incredibles. I'm sure there are other elements worth appreciating that I forgot to include, but I've written enough for now. I hope the next time you get a chance to watch it, that you pay attention and give it another chance if you didn't love it the first time around. It's worth repeated viewings.
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Katya »

C is for wrote:I guess I do need to make a disclaimer every time I'm being facetious. I thought about it in this case. But then I'd be disclaiming every time I opened my mouth (or twiddled my fingers). Of course we can watch movies on dates. It's just stupid to.
Sorry. Bit of a knee jerk reaction on my part.
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Tao »

Katya wrote:
C is for wrote:I guess I do need to make a disclaimer every time I'm being facetious. I thought about it in this case. But then I'd be disclaiming every time I opened my mouth (or twiddled my fingers). Of course we can watch movies on dates. It's just stupid to.
Sorry. Bit of a knee jerk reaction on my part.
Heh, I was in the same boat. When I read the original line my impulse was to type in essentially word for word your response: Wait, what? Did I miss something?

I for one think that movies can be a great date, if done correctly. Going to see a movie in the dollar theatre when there is no one else there and you can be as vocal as you want to be while putting on your own MST2K; that's a blast.
He who knows others is clever;
He who knows himself has discernment.
He who overcomes others has force;
He who overcomes himself is strong. 33:1-4
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mic0
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by mic0 »

Cog, as great as your explanation of the movie is I still don't like it. I don't think that means I wasn't "really" watching it, or that I didn't "get" it. Sorry, friend. I accept it was well made, great art, and good storytelling. I just really did not like the story. :P So, whatevs.
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Re: Rank the Pixar Movies

Post by Katya »

Tao wrote:I for one think that movies can be a great date, if done correctly. Going to see a movie in the dollar theatre when there is no one else there and you can be as vocal as you want to be while putting on your own MST2K; that's a blast.
Sure. Or going on a date with someone who studies film / literature / art and who will have a lot of interesting things to say about the film when you're done. (Of course, that means you need to budget time for talking about it afterward.)
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