Anyone else not feeling it?

[Warp Coil]

Pixar, IMO, is hit-or-miss. Sometimes their movies are great. Sometimes their movies have a great premise, but a not-that-great execution. Sometimes I just don't care for them at all.

Toy Story - loved it
A Bug's Life - meh
Toy Story 2 - loved it
Monsters, Inc - could have been better
Finding Nemo - pretty good
The Incredibles - pretty good
Cars - could have been better
Ratatouille - meh
Wall-E - could have been better

Up doesn't really interest me.

 

[TheArsenal]

This one looks good to me. Ratatouille was the one that didn't grab me from previews, and I ended up enjoying that one a good deal.

Edit: Just found the numbers. Worldwide Cars made about $0.5 billion in the theater. Since then, they've sold about $5 billion in merchandise.

Chew on THAT fact for a minute.

No kidding. Right this moment, walk straight out of your front door, stop the very first boy you see between ages 3 and 12 and ask him who Lightning McQueen is. You will not only get an answer, but an answer that has to do with some piece of merchandise he owns.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

The ironic thing is that now that John Lasseter is Chief Creative Officer at Disney, they're returning to traditional animation, with a couple of films in the works.

 

[Timby]

Wall-E - could have been better

You shut your foul mouth.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

My Pixar breakdown:

Toy Story. Brilliant! A revelation! It's a great kids movie, a great animated movie, and a great buddy movie.

A Bug's Life. Decent, but I guess this is what you would call the "sophomore slump."

Toy Story 2. No one ever expected them to top the 1st one, and yet they did!

Monsters Inc. Great.

Finding Nemo. I kinda found it depressing. It never really grabbed me. Although I thought Dory was cute.

The Incredibles. A great action movie and one of the few films in this day & age to deal with the nuclear family without making it dysfunctional.

Cars. Way too long. Plus, it pisses me off that so few people realize that this movie is a blatant rip-off of the Michael J. Fox movie Doc Hollywood.

Ratatouille. This was the big surprise for me. When I saw the trailers, I thought, "OK, this is the point where Pixar movies are going to start feeling more like average, mundane kids movies." But instead, it ended up being really clever and probably better than anything that Pixar had done since Toy Story 2.

Wall-E. It's a cute, sweet movie. But it loses points for being an eco-guilt trip movie. (Although, it's a far better movie than Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest.)

I'll admit that I'm not wowed by the trailers for Up. The movie just can't stick in my head, but maybe that's because the title is too short. Nevertheless, I'll see it. Ratatouille has taught me to trust Pixar. "But the rat! He... stole my documents..."

I have noticed that my tastes in Pixar movies tend to differ from the public at large. The 2 highest grossing Pixar films, Cars & Finding Nemo, are my 2 least favorite movies in the Pixar canon.

Ranking:
1. Toy Story 2
2. Toy Story
3. Ratatouille
4. The Incredibles
5. Monsters Inc.
6. Wall-E
7. A Bug's Life
8. Finding Nemo
9. Cars

 

[Trekker4747]

Cars. Way too long. Plus, it pisses me off that so few people realize that this movie is a blatant rip-off of the Michael J. Fox movie Doc Hollywood.

I don't recall Michael J. Fox's character been a pig-headed city dweller who need to learn the value of a slower way of life and understand the destruction of small town America due to the Interstate Highway System.



Kidding aside, I notice the similarities too.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

Never saw the "Up" trailer or heard of it till this thread. Pixar is very hit or miss for me:

Toy Story - Good
A Bug's Life - Ok
Toy Story 2 - Good
Monsters, Inc - Got busy with a girl and never finished it
Finding Nemo - ok time killer in a theater on a date at the dollar theater only
The Incredibles - Fantastic!
Cars - I couldn't have less interest in this and will never see it
Ratatouille - I doubt I will see this
Wall-E - Everyone loved it - I fell asleep after the 100th time I heard "WAAAAALLLLLLEEEEE and EVVEEEE-UH"
Up - looks interesting and funny

 

[Amaris]

I watched the trailer again and am definitely feeling this movie. I want to see it.
That said, for previous movies, I thought:

Toy Story - Terrific! Great entry into mainstream animation.
A Bug's Life - Good. While not up to par with their previous outing, still fun.
Toy Story 2 - Wonderful! The sequel was just as fun and groundbreaking as the first.
Monsters, Inc - Delightful. A comedy duo romp that was sweet and well made.
Finding Nemo - Terrific! I love Dory, and the movie kept my attention from the start.
The Incredibles - Decent. It was an okay movie for me.
Cars - Good. It was better than I thought it was going to be. I like Doc Hudson most.
Ratatouille - Excellent! I wasn't interested in Ratatouille at all. I'm glad I watched it.
Wall-E - Phenomenal. This movie hit me in so many ways. I love this movie, and it ranks #1 in my top 10 favorite movies of all time.

So I have good prospects for UP!. The worst I could do is enjoy it!
Not many other movies can claim that honor right out of the gate, not even my beloved Star Trek or Star Wars.

J.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Monsters, Inc - Got busy with a girl and never finished it

Well... better this than Schindler's List I suppose.

Ratatouille - I doubt I will see this

I really recommend that you do. The ads just don't do it justice. It's the kind of comedy that only works in context, so you can't just chop out the best bits and string them together in a trailer.

 

[Trekker4747]

Monsters, Inc - Got busy with a girl and never finished it

Well... better this than Schindler's List I suppose.

Newman angry!