When Pixar Was Perfect
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Monsters Inc. is an outstanding movie with an intro that is so efficient and smooth, it's not even an intro, just the beginning part of the movie. Let's analyze that first 10 minutes and then see how New Pixar isn't living up to the old standards.
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Could you make a video recommending your favourite games? I'm getting a great PC soon. I'm looking for good game recommendations. I'll love trying out your suggestions.
Anyways, hope you're doing well.
Hope you have a great day.
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Minor critique: Waternoose stating the obvious makes perfect sense because he’s basically making a speech to trainees, pounding into their heads that what they’re doing is IMPORTANT. While not a speech, my workplace has a series of placards on the wall explaining what would happen if trucking (our business) stopped. The end result is not a pretty picture. It’s a reminder that our jobs serve a function more important than just generating a paycheck, and that’s basically what we’re seeing in the movie.
Same. I worked in a coal mine for a bit and the mine supervisor did a very similar speech on the new guys first day. I honestly didn’t realize how similar Waternoose’s speech was to the supervisor was until I watched the video.
I was thinking the same thing. While you could "technically" call it an "as you know moment", it does make sense/fit into the scene. There's a lot of CEOs out there that LOVE hearing themselves talk and telling you what you absolutely already know. It's the same speech he probably gives multiple new hires. If anything, you could use this type of thing to show what the character is like.
I left a comment similar to this before I saw yours, I’ve always interpreted it that way.
Honestly, I wish more companies did this. It would make employees feel less like cogs in a machine, and more like they are contributing to something that matters.
That’s a great point, actually. The company is a dynasty for him, so it’s more than just doing the work. Big missed opportunity to point out that it does tell us quite a bit about waternoose. DAMMIT
I really like the intro to The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
The Incredibles has TWO introductions, and both of them hook you like a fish.
At least Inside Out 2 had a solid intro. But part of that comes from being a sequel, so it didn't have as much to say. I'm so glad it didn't just recap the first movie.
I suppose 'The Incredibles' technically starts with an Info dump, but it serves the characters so perfectly and it was uniquely 'live action' esque in comparison to everything else being produced at the time.
I'd be curious to hear your take on the general drop in the quality from The Incredibles 1 - 2.
The extended cut of Tim Story’s Fantastic Four had a good intro.
Is failing because they are doing what a ton of companies have done before them, rely on old properties to carry them. Basically why come up with something fresh, when you can have Toy Story 8: The Search For More Money.
And of course the Pinnacle to all this is the intro to "Up" which shows us the wonderful relationship that frames the rest of the movie. Pixar peaked at "UP" everything else has been down hill from there.
Across The Spideyverse. You know Miles from Into The... and you kinda know Gwen, but by the end of the intro of AtSV is done, you know her a lot better, you know the position she's in, how she feels, and how and why she's torn between
1 -- what she's supposed to do
- and -
2 -- what she wants to do and what feels right for her to do.
ATM, my current top 5 US-Animated films are The Incredibles, Big Hero 6, Inside Out, AtSV, and ItSV. I am planning to integrate BtSV with AtSV and treat them as a single movie for general purposes, 'cause "continued next movie"... And if BtSV is as great as AtSV, I have no doubt it will supplant The Incredibles at #1.
Great video, thanks for creating and sharing. God bless.
Thank you so much!
Budgets are too high, stories are too safe. All their stores are what if blank could speak.
Yep fact is, us millennial's can't write and have no clue what nuance is apparently
Soul was a good movie
No, I can call Turning Red awful.
We all know what happened: Diversity hires!
They filmed the storyboards FIFTEEN times for Toy Story 3 to work out the story over the course of a couple of years. They basically filmed the movie fifteen times before producing a frame of actual animation. They allowed one of the writers 3 months to unknot a story problem. They DO NOT do that now. Especially when hiring is based on boxes, not merit. The talent simply isn't there any longer and Disney has no one to blame but themselves.
It should've just ended after Toy Story 3, then it probably would've been one of the best and most celebrated trilogies of all time.
@@NexusKin agreed. all the rest are just to keep the brand "fresh" and sell more merchandise.
They were "passion projects" back then...they were given the space to get "weird" and make great art.
Nowadays, you just can't beat the classics
Instead of learning what made them work, people just fail to replicate it or corrupt it
Exactly, it’s just remakes without understanding why
I think a major problem other than just lack of talent is purpose. Most old movies were made to tell a story. New movies are made to make a sequel. By their design they are left unfinished and open ended to make room for more movies or TV shows to spin off it.
Excellent point. Hollywood in general needs to remember that they are ultimately storytellers and relearn their craft accordingly. This does not preclude sequels and spinoffs, by the way - for example, 1001 Nights(Arabian Nights) is all about cliffhangers and recursive, near infinite fiction.
Yep, stand-alone movies need to come back
That’s a great point. These movies and shows aren’t stories first, they are content first. They are the hopeful beginning of a franchise or universe. Ugh
Talent is out there, but Disney is more concerned with quotas than quality.
Or they take a movie that was PERFECT as a standalone and turn it into a franchise, like Pirates of the Caribbean.
The first movie was the absolute BEST of the entire series. Solid ending and everything. Then they had to go muck it up after that, dragging on and on. The end of Curse of the Black Pearl had a sense of hope and adventure that was still "out there", but when they made the rest of the films, it drug it down, especially with what happens to Elizabeth and Will.
I remember how blown my mind was as a kid in the final act climax. As I got older I realized that the reason the suspense in the climax worked so well was because the stakes as well as the rules of what could happen were established so well throughout the movie, that my brain could just focus on the tension of the scene and how our heroes could get out of it. Monsters INC really raised the bar.
"Up" had a wonderful introduction. I remember getting my wife to watch that movie - after 15 minutes, she was literally crying. And barely a word was spoken!
i never saw it in theaters but i decided 2 watch it in 2014. i rented it & i loved it. i bought it sometime later & now i really wish i saw it in theaters. ive watched it a lot over the past couple years & still wanna like it so im taking a break from it. it made me decide if i ever get a golden retriever im gonna name him dug too
I don't know about Up. It has a wonderful intro, but a lot of the movie is quite meandering. People tend to think very highly of it because of that opening and a few other scenes with Carl and that kid but I'd argue that it's quite overrated.
@@chiangkai-shrek1575I understand where you're coming from - but the fact remains that the introduction is masterful.
@@maniravsadhur8409 Fair enough. I still like Up for what it is.
UP is pixar Peak intro
Pixar used to do something that disney seems to fail today.
"Show, don't tell".
Pixar in the past used to show us what the world is like, show characters in their world talking as they would; showing us what we need to know and when it was told, it was told from a perspective that was natural.
Disney today seems to think if you just tell the audience what they should know, they'll just accept it. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't care about Hercules if he said he did all those things. But show it to me and I'd believe it. That's what the montage was about, showing us that rise in a short amount of time. There's an old phrase that a lot of people instinctively follow:
Seeing is Believing.
Probably one of Pixar's crowning achievements was the introduction in _UP._ Barely any dialogue and you hear story after story about people being in tears.
The intro to _Wall-E_ is a close second when you consider how long it is until a character (not Wall-E's television, or a Buy n' Large Bigscreen) actually says a word.
[edit: and my third favorite is the moment in _Rattatouille_ when Ego takes a bite of the rat's (can't remember his name) food. I remember watching that scene with my extended family at Thanksgiving and all the mothers _LOVED_ the message it sent.]
but since Pixar is under Disney it was a matter of time until they got infected
Disney use to do that too.
Both got dragged down
Prince of Egypt and The Lion King intros are pretty much the best in my opinion. Great video btw
PoE’s intro is one of the greatest
Had a friend who worked for Disney at the time it bought Pixar. He said Disney came in and just poached a huge chunk of the creative staff. Some time later Pixar released _Brave_ and Disney released _Wreck-It Ralph._ Nearly everyone I knew who loved Pixar said _Wreck-it Ralph_ felt like a Pixar movie and _Brave_ felt like a Disney princess movie and I concur (and it was a middling princess movie at that - so freaking cliche and trope-y!). I see this moment as the beginning of Pixar's downward spiral.
...funny. Now that I think about it, I see Disney taking Star Wars as the same moment for Star Wars. (Well...considering the prequels, maybe it was a more sharp and dedicated downward spiral.)
John Lasseter was put in charge of both studios circa 2006, so perhaps that could be why you may feel what you feel about _Wreck-It-Ralph_ and _Brave,_ but the more important thing is that Lasseter's supervision, while not perfect, did its best to make sure that each Disney and Pixar film was filled with good writing, world building and characters, which is why the reception for both films is generally positive. To me, that's more important than the idea of Disney making a Pixar-like film and vice versa.
Lasseter's departure was the principal cause of the downfall of both studios, and IMO is one of the biggest mistakes in Disney history.
Pixar was best when they could present a frontier that you really wanted to explore either as a kid watching it for the first time or as an adult remembering what that first exploration felt like as a kid. And every movie had it's own frontier, either tangible (Finding Nemo with the sea to land, Wall-E with space to land) alternate universe (Cars), shared universe (Monsters Inc) or intangible with Toy Story/Inside Out being primarily about the horizon of growing up. Once they hit the literal final frontier in Coco, growing up but also grappling with mortality, there were no new frontiers to see and it has been all sequels or derivative fare ever since.
Well said. Pixar has simply not been the same without Lasseter.
I would argue that even Waternoose in the intro didn’t feel like an infodump. Because of his tone and inflection it came across more as he’s saying this to stress the importance of what they’re doing their to some new employees who might be a little naïve that, more than he’s telling information to someone who should already know it.
That’s a very good point. Also, since he’s the CEO, it fits that he just likes to hear himself give speeches, lol
Pixar in the early days would take years to make a film. Re-doing the storyboard multiple times to refine the script. I doubt they still have that process. On the animation side, during the creation of "Nemo," they went through three different versions of the water effects alone.
Art takes time, which is in direct conflict to the business. Sadly, the business heads never seem to get that extra time to make good art results in more money in the long run. That brings us to the modern Disney content machine.
I wonder if that was why the second film wasn't as good. It was darker, the water looked murky and the colors weren't bright, you know? Maybe it was more realistic but it didn't really make an impact on me.
Funny side note:
When we went to the theater to see it, it had that Pixar short where the Asian mom is raising a dumpling boy and at the end SHE EATS HIM, and while it was an allegory, all the little kids in the theater burst out crying, my son included. A lot of parents were like "WTF?!" and "...the HELL I just saw?!"
That made more of an impression on me than the actual movie did.
pixar still takes years to make a film, it's just that they've expanded enough to be able to increase the number of them they can work on at a time. They have entire subsets of people that don't even touch other movies other than the one they were assigned to. They still redo story boards, I don't think any studio out there does not. But maybe they did have to cut down on the number of iterations.
Pixar, 110%, still takes years to make a film
they spend more time now looking for diversity hires
Despicable Me also did the intro well. The best in recent years however is Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. No words necessary when the villain appears - we KNOW...he ain't to be messed with.
Pixar used to be a master at the "Show Don't Tell" formula of storytelling and using exposition in a natural way. Ever since Lasseter left, they have taken a huge dip in quality.
I'm still not clear: WAS Lasseter guilty?
Yeah, I realized that years ago, and it’s super uncomfortable to think about.
Your take on Monsters, Inc. and the tie-in to subversion is phenomenal. Great video, Greg.
Thank you so much!
It’s so unfortunate that we don’t get good subversion like this anymore
Another reason is a severe lack of originality. Lightyear stole it's villain plot from the Lego movie 2, Luca is basically just genderswapped little mermaid, turning red is basically teenage wolf and the hulk movie while stealing some animation scenes from Ninjago, etc
it makes the movies forgettable because we're basically watching the same thing again.
Stealing from ninjago? Dafuq 🤨
People want original movies, and when an original movie comes out, people like "It looks like this..."
I’m 47 years old and don’t care to admit that there are 2 scenes in Monster’s inc. that to this day continue to elicit strong genuine emotions from me. The first scene is when Sully is pressured by Waternoose to provide a scare demonstration,and in doing so Sully scares the living Jesus out of boo. The way her face went from happiness to absolute terror, and her subsequent sobbing will always jerk the tears out of my stupid eyes. Damnit I’m tearing up just thinking about it now.
The second scene is when they are in the door sorting and storage area. When they go through the opening and the vastness of the location is displayed, it always generates a sense of amazement in me. Yes I rewatch the movie with my kids - and sometimes on my own too!
I'm 47 too and I have the _exact_ same reactions to those scenes. (including the tears when I read your comment, lol)
@@613harbinger316 this is a classic example of "they just don't make them like they used to"!!!
@@locobob LOL. All we need now is a lawn, a couple of chairs, beers and some neighbor's kids to yell at.
It's easy to forget just how good these older Pixar movies were. It makes me sad that my little cousins might not get that same Pixar magic I did.
One of the best intros in a non-Disney movie, An American Tail. The fact that they had the guts to show a POGROM of all things. Really drives home the immigrant's desire to seek a better life in America.
🎶"There are no cats in America! And the streets are made of cheese!"🎶
Best intro? Raiders of the Lost Ark. Minimal dialogue because what you are watching tells you that you are going to have a lot of fun. The costume department is doing most of the exposition.
Just what I was thinking!
This was an excellent analysis. In my animation classes, the professor belabored the point that characters have to have reasons for movement. Even if they didnt understand them. But to have convincing dialogue, the audience has to believe the reason the character is thinking out loud.
I’d forgive the “as you know” from Mr Waternoose because it’s James Colburn’s voice. He can info dump all day in that baritone.
Lightyear was the biggest letdown I've ever seen from Pixar, Im gonna say it right now.
When we were introduced to Buzz in the first Toy Story movie, his character was told through his movements and actions, and the reason he said his catchphrases at all was to give us an idea of what kind of whacky adventures he went on as a space ranger. Not only that, but his reactions to things like him doing his command logs and pointing his laser indicated his character comes from a line of work where he's always facing off against alien threats and occasionally needs backup.
I went into watching the Lightyear movie expecting to be on the edge of my seat with what crazy scifi things he was going to experience based on how toy Buzz's actions were as the character of Buzz Lightyear, thinking oh yeah, this guy's gonna be a total badass and I can't wait to see how he will fight and face off against compelling dangers.
Instead, its a bland ass movie with his catchphrases shoehorned in unnaturally because he's "just being funny" or some shit with annoying human characters who keep messing up because they're "just being funny" or some shit, as well as the biggest villain in Buzz's universe being revealed to be "a twist villain" for some dumb reason, and to add insult to injury, Buzz did not feel like the exciteable, enjoyable hero we were promised. And him not wanting help from people in this movie contradicts toy Buzz's moments of talking in his log when he needs back up.
As you can tell, them trying to actually tell real Buzz Lightyear's story was the worst storytelling I've ever seen and the executives behind this particular movie are clearly out of touch with what made Buzz Lightyear so great as a character to begin with.
I love all your videos. Perhaps you can do a comparison of the Incredibles and Incredibles 2. An example of one of the very best, and one of the very worst. How did they lose their way so badly?
Oooh, that would be a great one!
Incredibles 2 is far from the worst of Pixar, it’s kind of just…average. Which is a shame because the original is my favorite movie ever, and having an average sequel hurts more than it really should because of it.
The only good part of Incredibles 2 was the rant about common core math. I felt that, man. I felt that.
Jurassic Park crushes the intro. Rain storm on tropical island, setting both the prophetic fallacy that this is not a happy scene, plus that storms are a problem on the island (that's going to be important later), straight away we have a velociraptor in a cage so we're already getting the dinosaurs we've come to see (but not too much because we only catch glimpses), we know this is going to be a horror movie, and when the industrial accident happens we have both of our villains, velocipraptors and corporate ineptitude. Then we go to a dig, and meet our hardworking everyman heroes, Dr Grant and Dr Sadler. We get an awkard relationship chemistry between them implying there are feelings but it's not a romantic relationship. We find out that in the modern world of hedonism, technology and thrills, dinosaurs are out of fashion as we find out they are having funding problems, and there's a fat kid who doesn't care about the dinosaur claw. Dr Grant terrifies the kid with the veliciraptor claw and talking about how it can brutally gut him and he'll die slowly while being eating, foreshadowing again the threat of the velociraptors, the fact that Dr Grant is passionate about his work, and how he hates kids, meaning his role of fatherly protector to Hammond's nephew and niece and his hero's journey to become ready to be a family man (absolutely destroyed in both Jurassic Park 3 and 6 because male heroes have to live miserable lives after the credit role in modern Hollywood). And all done in a very naturalistic way.
It continues with the helicopter scene, the reveal of the first dinosaurs, the sick triceratops that tells us that all is not right and the park owners don't know what they're doing, the Costa Rica cafe conspiracy, and all of it feels believable, organic and well-paced, telling us exactly who our characters are without tropes, stereotypes or attitude. It continues through the philosophical dinner conversation that doesn't come across as preachy, the fun exposition dump by making it a fair ground ride, then the tension when Dr Grant finds out they have velociraptors and the piranha-style cow eating, then the failed ride around the park where the dinosaurs don't show and we see that dinosaurs don't play ball, the tension and subversion with the goat, and finally the tension and slow build up of the T Rex. Then finally, the introduction is over and we're into act 2 and not a single scene has been wasted, cringeworthy, lazy, superfluous. Everything is tight, fun and well-developed.
It all starts with a halfway decent script with solid bones.
Their movies also used to be satisfying from start to finish. I recently watched Ratatouille and it's still just as good as it was when I saw it in theaters.
Hmmmm, you know, maybe I should find out what my boss has me emptying into the river at the end of each shift.
Great analysis Greg. Not to always go back to the same well, but Arcane establishes all the characters, plot premise, and emotional beats in about the first 5 minutes also if we are talking animation. For movies, you have to go with Kung Fu Panda and Last Wish for such tight intros.
Arcane is a well worth going back to again and again. I need to finish my belated review before season 2 comes out, but I probably need to watch it again to get the details right. Oh, darn…
Honestly even the scream = power speech could fit, having been through many speeches of that sort where they state the obvious
Monster’s ink also probably helped a lot of kids lose their fear of monsters under the bed.
I've recently been realizing the same thing about old Marvel movies. Less the intros and more just the writing. Iron Man 2 has great writing compared to what they put out now. Considering how little people cared for that movie, it's just sad
"Pixar lost their way..." Yeah, it's because they lost John Lasseter.
Monster's Inc and Incredibles are the two films that really shook me to my core as a kid, and it's the reason I went on to work in TV/Film.
The new batch of writers and creators are just imitating. So, they will generally land in a mediocre space.
They will use movie tropes, but often ineffectively or just for the sake of it. The film will feel "fine" or "adequate", and it will be hard to criticize, because you know you've seen other excellent movies do similar things.
Bad writing will be hidden to many people by generally good acting, good animation, and good production values.
Sequels that completely undo characters (like The Last Jedi or Ralph Breaks the Internet), and make them behave out of character, will be hard for many people to notice as the actors do their best to channel the original character in their performances.
The normie audience will never be compelled to strongly criticize any of this stuff. They won't even notice the decline in quality unless they decide to look back over a long span, and realize how forgettable and uninspiring most movies have been lately. And there will be some who notice it's bad, but who can't decide WHY it's bad. With them, it's like when Mr Plinkett says "You didn't notice it, but your brain did."
The mediocre writing is really a curse, and selfishly I hate it for video purposes. It’s really hard to make a video that says “this movie is ok, I guess”. However, I’m starting to change my view of that and I might be harder on them, because being “just good enough to not criticize” is killing entertainment. It’s a slow cancer where we are left with shows and movies that really are not enjoyable but we don’t want to sound mean by hating them. Entertainment is in a very low place
Love your comment but kinda hate you for reminding me that Wreck It Ralph 2 exists...😉
@@sarasunshinemt4444 oh. Ralph Breaks The Internet is banned in my house.
As a gregular... I'm actually super stoked that you got a sponsor. GET THAT BREAD, SENIOR.
Times when I would watch old Disney and Pixar movies, I absolutely forget how much I loved movies as a whole, no less these movies!
one movie I think nails the narration style intro is Hot Fuzz. It's one of my favorite movies ever in fact.
Such an outstanding movie. Some of the most efficient writing around
@@gregowen2022 100% agreed
OH! while I have your attention, thank you for putting Violet Evergarden on my radar. I have not NOT ( ;P ) cried like that in a long time. Masterpiece.
Modern Pixar films are just worse ideas poorly executed.
The film 'Drive' with Ryan Gosling has a phenomenal intro. I think it's closer to 5 minutes than 10 and it is as gripping as any scene from any film.
I see your 'Drive' and raise you a 'Desperado' (Antonio Banderas)
Steve Buscemi nailed it!
@@sarasunshinemt4444 great choice
Turning Red was a horrid abomination of character design, my god what were the artists smoking.
Also, my favorite movie intro ever is the Secret of NIMH
bro has 10x too few subscribers
I think about future kids and highly doubt they will find the same excitement and joy us millennials have from old Disney.
I could 100% see a future where Disney world is empty and a decaying relic of the past.
I give Onward a bit more of a pass because the opening narration is very reminiscent of the fantasy style. Fantasy movies often have opening narration as though an epic story is being set up. Onward does this, but follows it up with the subversion that magic is obsolete and everything is modern. It works for me (though I agree that some of it is a little forced).
But for PIxar movies with great intros, nothing surpasses Wall-E for me. The entire first third of the movie (up until Wall-E leaves the planet) is an absolute triumph of storytelling.
One movie that I think NAILS its intro is The Incredibles. Another really good option is Spirited Away.
All of the creatives were forced out of Pixar due to wokeness and laziness.
To be fair John Lasseter was “handsy”. He was definitely the heart and brains of Pixar, but there was an open joke about not bringing your wife around him, especially when he was drinking.
His leaving no doubt coincided with the DEI crap push that has destroyed the company, but he did make it easy for them.
Studies always did bad films and cartoons, noone just remember them
@@anti7257Jennifer Lee is in charge of Disney animation and demanded there now exist 50% females for the animation division.
Problem is i learned in another video that not many females have interest pursuing animation for a career
@@Thomasmemoryscentralrip my guess is the way animators are seen as a job to job basis and how that reflects on the person, personally I see animators as a droopy mess which I wouldn't think a majority of women wouldn't want to look like.
@@Thomasmemoryscentral That's why we have a meritocracy. Sometimes certain demographics are more attracted to certain careers and its not because something something patriarchy, that's just the way it is.
Very nice analysis, Greg!
Even if John Lasseter was a creep, he was undeniably the heart and brains of Pixar. He was the one who made his, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and the late Joe Ranft’s creative dreams a reality with wholesome heartwarming tales of personal growth/discovery, with a dash of childlike wonder.
It’s been soulless since he was fired in disgrace. The new CEO of Pixar, Jim Morris doesn’t have that creative spark, so he’s running the company like a cold businessman. Their products are now mostly hollow, and lack that creativity the originals had.
After Jim took Pixar over, we’ve had:
- The disgraceful Toy Story 4 (that shit all over TS3’s perfect ending)
- Onward (which was forgettable at best)
- Soul (another forgettable film)
- Luca (which was DECENT)
- Turning Red (which is laughably cringe/questionable)
- Lightyear (do I even have to say?)
- Elemental (which was another generic “interracial relationships are forbidden”/Zootopia reskin)
The creativity and childlike spirit of the original Pixar is gone with Lasseter. The strong storytelling is replaced with the same MESSAGE they’ve been stuffing into every other movie/series across the board for years now.
I don't get it, how was Soul and Onward forgettable? They were great, especially Soul?
@@ramarriblevinsjones5709 they were good, but compare them to the quality of Pixar from 1995 - 2016 roughly. It’s basically night and day. Pixar has had a couple good, to even great films since they fired Lasseter, but they haven’t had instant timeless classics like they did with Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., the Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars, Wall-E, and even Bugs Life. Those movies (as well as most of their sequels) had a spark that you don’t see with Pixar anymore. That spark was Lasseter. From at least 1995 - 2010 every film drop was banger after banger, instantly beloved by all. Even if his firing was 100% legitimately justified, there’s no doubt the company has suffered a massive quality drop since he was running Pixar..
And when Lassiter left for Disney, we got things like Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled.
John Lassiter was our modern day Disney. Everything has gone down hill since they got rid of him.
great video ! ^^ I personally LOVE the intro of Treasure Planet ! :)
It is obvious that talent has been forced out and checkboxes have been hired/promoted. All of Hollywood and especially Disney are a cautionary tale about diversity hiring.
All valid points. Helpful for my own writing!
Another movie that I think crushes the intro is A Bugs Life. Using comedy and what I consider to be groundbreaking animated character acting to tell the story while giving us our exposition
I was so enjoying your break down I almost audibly whined in disappointment when you said "that wraps up the intro"😊
Haha, thank you, and I had a fun time making it!
Cars was one of my and my son's favorites for several years and I still enjoy it from time to time. I don't drive much anymore and its very nostalgic both for the love of driving and the days when my son was young as he's going to be 18 this year.
I could honestly listen to you getting hyped and explaining why something is straight up awesome for hours. Its a welcome break from the usual negativity surrounding modern movie releases
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is one of those movie intros that was phenomenal in spite of laying the groundwork with an exposition dump. I think it worked as well as it did because it made sense in context, established the tone, and also and especially did an excellent job at showing what was being talked about as well.
Another example more like what you're talking about is the first Star Wars. Sure, it has the opening crawl, but you could remove it entirely, throw us into the opening scene with the Star Destroyer chasing Tantaive IV, and you wouldn't miss a beat because it so effectively introduces the world, the stakes, and the core conflict. The opening crawl could've seemed lazy and uninspired in the opening scene following C-3PO and R2-D2 wasn't so well executed.
So when I first clicked on the video I thought you were talking about the jazzy 2D title intro for Monsters, Inc. and I was legit nodding and going "yeah they stopped doing those, how come?" XD
But on to the meat of the topic...I remember getting my Master's for Creative Writing at Full Sail University (which focused on script writing) and the basic rule was TIGHT writing. Every line had to be in service to SOMETHING, be it character, plot, or setting, and if it didn't serve a point it needed to GO. I remember working with one of my teachers on one of my scripts because I had a scene that I thought was a cute set piece, and his main question was "Well what's the POINT?" Said set piece ended up axed in a rewrite because he was right, it served no point to the greater story.
And funnily enough, that's the point of the Monsters, Inc. intro--every second has a POINT to it, it gives us something relating to the three important storytelling things. Modern Pixar...kinda feels like that school of 'comedy' that I don't favor, where it's "if we keep talking then maybe something will work." It feels empty because it IS empty, it doesn't serve one of the three storytelling things so we're left with a disjointed, aimless experience. Like the intro to Onward you just described--it could have been the one brother narrating to be cut in by the other brother who got roped into the game, showing the one's into the game and their history and the other's kinda meh about it, the comment about the sweater could have been a passing one from the mom ("You look good in your dad's sweater") and then have the stepdad come in--much tighter, same info is delivered, but less meandering. Honestly...saying that, it feels like we're getting meandering first drafts instead of polished final results.
As for a movie I've watched recently that had a good tight intro...probably the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie or the 2003 Italian Job--because again, we're talking tight, compact movies that have a story to tell and don't have any time to waste in telling it. Also I don't think any scene in cinema history is ever going to top Captain Jack Sparrow's first appearance and entry into Port Royal. XD
Under John Lasseter, Pixar movies were something special, because he was big on story.
A non-Pixar, non-animated movie that I watched recently for the first time in years was "9 to 5" and I was blown away by how tight the script was, especially the introduction. Excellent writing is a rare quality.
Though, Monsters Inc is not without its basic writing flaws. I couldn't help but notice many sections of the film take place in real time, and yet hours pass in the time it takes them to walk down a couple short hallways.
Pixar shifted from movies driven by characters, to movies driven by characteristics.
Just a comment for the Al Gore rhythm section.
Part of me thinks Pixar just isn't as cool as it used to be. 3D animation was novel a while back but now all their movies looks more or less the same with slight tweaks, so from a visual perspective they can't really impress anymore, couple that with the mediocre to outright bad writing and it's no surprise they are doing poorly.
And Pixar turned our industry away from hand-drawn animation, so do I really care by this point? I haven't watched any of their movies since Monsters University.
Pixar is dead to me now. It's traditionally animated movies that are truly in need of saving here in the west, and everything that led to their gradual decline of being replaced by 3D only came about after what Pixar started for themselves.
Yes, I think the desire for 2D speaks to the continual rise and popularity of anime. Not to just jump on the bandwagon, but for past few years, I'm SO tired of 3D. Even if characters are designed differently, the final rendering is always the same globby, bright, sterile shiny metal-looking sheen. Which is why I'm already tired of AI- generated stolen art. Looks like crap because it is crap.
It doesn't reeeeaaally set up the plot beyond some cursory elements, to be fair, but at just under 4 and a half mins and a total of 0 words, there is no better character intro than Up...shut up, youre crying!
Crying? I’m SOBBING! And it doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I’m still never prepared
Miss Fearmonger is on vacation, would you like her voicemail? 😂😂😂 I love that line🤗
Robocop does an excellent job establishing the world, heroes, and villains in the first ten minutes. From the news reel, fake commercial, showing the state of the police, and introducing the mega Corp OCP. It ends on the reveal of ED 209 at exactly 10 minutes.
Nah fam, Emplemon beat you to it.
8:13 “The monsters think children are toxic and deadly.”
I mean…are they wrong?
Monsters Inc has always been my favorite PIXAR film and you nailed it as to why! Ratatouille and the first Incredibles film was also extremely well done.
When I was a little kid, I would always close my eyes and cover my ears during the beginning of monsters Inc because I was afraid of the intro 😂
Please do a similar breakdown of Dreamworks Puss N Boots: The Last Wish. especially on how amazing the wolf/death villain was, and how this villain compares to other animated villains!
Monster's Inc had a budget of $115 million and a runtime of 92 minutes. So, that means that every minute needed to deliver about a mil and a quarter of information. I feel that we would agree that was the case.
Elemental was $200 mil for 101 minutes, or $1.98 mil per minute. Did it deliver? I think we would say no.
I think it's similar to writing an argument. Everything has to tie back to your thesis in some way, shape, or form, or else you have a weak argument.
New Pixar is just cliche-ridden, bean-mouth animation mediocrity. I’ve seen 1990s made-for-TV Barbie movies that had more charm.
As I predicted, Disney buying Pixar would be their downfall. Quality would go down and Liberal politics would go up.
Waternoose is okay to monologue because he's LYING and he's trying to reinforce the idea. Also, his trying to keep people impressed by telling them what they should know in a dramatic way.
I think Mr. Waternoose is okay when he explains to the new recruits how they need scream to generate power, it sounds more like one of those pre-rehearsed mission statements that they tell you in meetings when everyone should be well aware. Having worked in a couple industries that provide services, the moment you make a slight error, you'll get a talking to as though you're a child, being reminded of the company's duty, expectation and mission statement as though you just popped into this world and barely muttered your first word.
What about the first ten minutes of “Up”?
Pixar made TOY STORY, MONSTERS INC, A BUGS LIFE, FINDING NEMO, *THE INCREDIBLES,* and so many other bangers knocking them out of the park! And then recently they crapped out one horrible forgettable mess after another. Turning Red, elemental, lightyear, strange worlds, etc. *THE TITANS HAVE FALLEN SO FAR!*
Pixar started going downhill since Brave I feel. I remember that movie being the first time I felt truly disappointed in Pixar's quality, and I haven't liked a single movie of theirs since (including Inside Out). Which is sad because Pixar used to be my ultimate gold standard for smart storytelling.
Pixar has not seen a single dollar from me since they METOO Cancel Cultured John Lasseter from his own company. Basically because he was a 'hugger'..
Even your weak point about the first scene isn’t that bad because the big boss telling new people stuff they already know in some sort of grandstanding introduction/presentation when you get started is a thing. Great movie
Obviously, not animated, but - Watchmen's opening credits' montage is simply perfection.
Not sure if those are comparable but the Mummy has a great Intro into the story. I also really like the "Kansas City Shuffle" Opening in Lucky Number Slevin aswell as quite a Number of Bond Film Intro's. I'm not sure though that it is necessarily a viable Criterium to judge how the rest of the Movie pans out. Die Hard starts pretty lame actually.
Watching this was depressing... I didn't realize how privileged we really were to have Pixar.
Any beloved Japanese animation films among Japanese (not by outsiders) does their intro segment better than any animation films the West has released in the past a few decades. My personal picks would be Summer Wars directed by Mamoru Hosada and Space Battleship Yamato (1977) directed by Masudasan and Ishigurosan
I don’t feel like Waternoose’s repeating to the new hires that they need to get the scream for power is that unnatural- I’ve worked for major corporations and it’s always annoyed me how you’ll constantly get emails or messages from the CEO or someone saying stuff like “we need to provide the best experience for our customers… blah blah blah” - yes we know, thank you
I wonder if that small bit with Waternoose that felt a bit out of place would've worked if it had been revealed, then or later (either when Mike and Sulley are watching TV or passing an employee instructional room in the plant) that they were filming for either a commercial or a work instructional video, so his sudden divergence into "the city relies on us" could've been covered by that. Though, it might've subtracted from the commercial gag they did. Who knows.