Lightyear (2022) - Movie Review

On the surface, the idea behind this particular Pixar film makes a lot of sense. It’s an origin story for Buzz Lightyear, not the toy, but the film and TV character that the toy was based on in-universe. Toy Story 2 did the same thing with Woody and the Woody’s Roundup show, and Disney at large has been doing a lot of postmodern media exercises over the last several years; if nothing else, this should be more interesting than just the standard live-action remake. And yeah, it is interesting… but not in the way they intended.

Turning Red (2022) - Movie Review

There are quite a few things that are considered good sport to make fun of. Boy bands like One Direction, twee romance novels like Twilight, any number of chick flicks. And not only has it been openly acceptable to mock such things, their audiences are regularly caught in the cross-hairs. Not many people tend to take a step back and considering why it’s okay to mock the things that young girls and woman are interested in; it’s just… part of ‘the culture’.

And before this sounds like I’m getting all holier-than-thou, I did my fair share of this shit too. ‘Boy bands are gay’, ‘chick flicks are stupid’, ‘what kind of damaged freak could possibly enjoy Twilight?’; teenaged me was way more judgemental than the me that decided to make a career out of judging media. I can’t say that I don’t hold onto at least some of those opinions today, but the notion that it’s perfectly cool to mock people just because they find joy in something? Yeah, that’s unbelievably not okay.

Luca (2021) - Movie Review

The year just doesn’t feel complete without looking at what Pixar has to offer. I understand that looking forward to a Disney product nowadays is like looking forward to a sunset (it’s difficult to get too excited about something that happens with clockwork regularity), but outside of the first two Cars movies, Pixar has never really steered me wrong as an animation studio. And with their latest, they’ve offered one of their most uncomplicated stories of the last several years, which itself is part of what makes this work.

Onward (2020) - Movie Review

Even without bringing the cinema closures into the equation… I’ll admit, I was putting off watching this one. After the utter clusterfuck that was 2019 in Disney’s history, simultaneously one of their best and one of their worst in terms of both content control and financial reward, I’m a lot more hesitant about the House of Mouse than I used to be. And as I’ll get into, while that event lingering in the background does cut into the enjoyment a little, I still managed to have fun with it.

Toy Story 4 (2019) - Movie Review

I’ve been somewhat dreading this one. Not because I have any doubt about the latest iteration of the franchise that pointed the way forward for CGI-animated cinema, or that Disney/Pixar in its current postmodern phase isn’t capable of delivering. It’s more because, as I got into last year, Toy Story 3 is a very important film for me. It’s the film that served as a paradigm shift in how I viewed media meant for children from that point on, making me realise that the age-old excuse of ‘it’s just for kids’ is nothing more than the catchcry of lazy filmmakers.

In order for this film to measure up to that, it would have to pull an artistic feat that I doubt even Disney/Pixar is capable of. There’s no way this could be yet another improvement on the franchise’s kid-friendly existentialism; all it could do is be another good addition, in my eyes at least, and that’s thankfully what we get here.

Incredibles 2 (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Shortly after their battle with the villainous Syndrome, the superpowered Parr family comprised of father Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), mother Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) and their children Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile) are in trouble with the law once again. However, brother-sister tech magnates Winston (Bob Odenkirk) and Evelyn (Catherine Keener) want to change that and make superhero work legal once again. As they work with Elastigirl, Mr. Incredible and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) to change public perceptions of superheroes, a new villain waits in the wings to make an example of our heroes and make sure that they never take the spotlight again.

Coco (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) wants to become a famous musician like his hero Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), something made difficult by how Miguel’s family have expressly forbidden any of them getting involved in music. However, when Miguel finds himself in the Land Of The Dead on the night of Dia de los Muertos, his struggle between his dreams and his family is about to get even more complicated as he discovers that he and Ernesto might have a lot more in common than he first thought.

Cars 3 (2017) - Movie Review

For as illustrious and ground-breaking as Pixar’s legacy has been, the Cars franchise will likely always serve as the black sheep of the company paddock. Brought into existence by Pixar head honcho John Lasseter, Cars operates far more as a toy-centric marketing vehicle (heh) than as strict narrative. The first film is just okay; plenty annoying and rather plainly written compared to its contemporaries, but it’s at least serviceable for kids.

 

The sequel, however, is a bit more complicated. I say that because it is both leagues better and leagues worse than the original. Better, in that its Michael Caine-starring spy plot is visually inventive and quite engaging; worse, because it took the most annoying supporting character from the original (Tow “I will never forgive these people for this shit” Mater) and made him the lead, boosting the Southern hick annoyance levels tremendously in the process. Still, for as inconsistent as it is, I still like it just a little bit more overall.

 

So, a little over a decade since the original careened into cinemas, we have a threequel to deal with. Normally, I’d be rather worried about where this is going but, as I’ll get into, this film is in pretty safe hands.

Finding Dory (2016) - Movie Review

One of the brightest feathers in Pixar’s cap, 2003’s Finding Nemo is a film that I watched the hell out of as a kid. Hell, it was the first film where I actually took time out to watch the director’s commentary for, and this was all pre-Critic bear in mind. That said, looking back on it, I was rather perplexed at how much I adored this movie… until I watched it again recently for the first time in many years. Wow.

I seriously don’t recall the last time a film made me weep quite this much while watching it. A heart-warming story about family and the forces of nature, one without any real antagonist to it which is a serious rarity for family films, it holds up as one of Pixar’s genuine masterpieces. Naturally, with the studio in the process of making new instalments to some of their most popular works like Toy Story, The Incredibles and Cars (notice how I said “popular”, not “good” because of that last one), they also decided to make a follow-up to Finding Nemo. If this was any other studio but Pixar, I would question this decision; however, after seeing what utter perfection they could cook up for prolonged franchises like Toy Story 3, I have quite a bit of faith that this film could work out. Let’s dive right in and find out.

The Good Dinosaur (2015) - Movie Review

Since we’re at the point where Disney has such a monopoly on the world’s entertainment, making a statement like “They’re having a good year” would be rather redundant. It’d be like saying General Electric has made a profit; it sets off ‘no shit’ alarms pretty quickly. That said, even for a company as prolific as Disney, this has been an amazing year for them: The continuing success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Inside Out, the latest iteration of Cinderella and let’s not forget the hype singularity that is The Force Awakens. And even outside of their commercial write-ups, their average for quality has been far better than previous years; hell, my top two films of the year are both Disney properties. So, considering all that, I can think of no better way to close out the year than with a look at another release from the House of the Mouse. So, for the first part of the finale of my insane month of reviews, let’s take a look at Pixar’s second release for the year: This is The Good Dinosaur.

Inside Out (2015) - Movie Review