PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 11: Toy Story 3

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 11 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Toy Story 3
Release: June 18, 2010
Running Time: 103 minutes
Estimated Cost: $200 million
Estimated Revenue: $1.063 billion (yes, Billion with a “B” – $1,063,171,911)
Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
Andy has grown up, as boys tend to do, but his toys remain ever faithful that one day he will play with them. But due to a mix-up the toys (other than Woody, who has been saved to go to college) believe they have been thrown away. They decide that being donated to a day-care is a better fate. Woody follows them to right their error.

All seems to be going well at the day-care, Buzz, Woody and the gang (Mr. and Mrs. Patato Head, Slink, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Ham, three aliens and Barbie) meet a charming bear, Lots-O-Huggin’ (Lots-O), a Ken doll, and a Big Baby. Woody escapes to return to Andy, but is taken by a young child, Bonnie. Things turn worse for the gang left behind as all new toys are placed with the two year olds. Buzz seeks Lots-O to remedy this, and he is reset to factory settings, and now polices his former friends. Lots-O rules the day care with an iron paw.

After a fun day with Bonnie, Woody tries to head back to Andy, but finds out that Lots-O is a dictator, due to the fact that he lost his child and was replaced. Woody sneaks back into the day care and begins the plot to save his friends.

After an elaborate plan, Woody and the gang make their way to the dumpster, only to be stopped once again by Lots-O. Big Baby, tired of being bossed by Lots-O, pushes the bear into the dumpster, but he pulls Woody in with him, just as the garbage truck takes the trash. Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Ham, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Rex and the three aliens jump on to the truck to rescue Woody (Barbie stays with the new reformed Ken).

At the dump, the toys meet with certain fate several times, only to be clever enough to save themselves. However, once they trusted Lots-O to turn off the conveyor belt, things looked bleak as Lots-O double cross puts the toys in a collision with an incinerator. Thanks to the dues-ex-machina of the aliens controlling the “Claw” the toys are safe.

Lots-O is fated to spend the rest of his life on the front grill of a garbage truck, as the toys head back to Andy’s. Woody, changes the label of the box from attic to that of Bonnie’s house. Andy brings the toys to Bonnie, including Woody, and spends his last day before college playing with his old friends.

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5
This movie continues the wonderful plot of the previous two. This picture can explain the entire plot rating:

Who hasn't had to get rid of beloved toys?
Tear.

Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
I know that it’s been 10 years since the last Toy Story, but it doesn’t look like that. The only thing that looks different (more advanced) is the hair.

Final Thoughts: I don’t know if I want a fourth movie. The toys clearly have more adventures to tell, but this movie wrapped up such a large chapter of their life.

Next Up:
Cars 2

PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 10: Up

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 10 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Up
Release: May 29, 2009
Running Time: 96 minutes
Estimated Cost: $175 million
Estimated Revenue: $731.34 million
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
A young boy, Carl, falls in love with a young girl. We watch a montage of them growing up, getting married, growing old and the girl (Ellie) dies, never getting to Venezuela – her life long dream. Carl, still living in their honeymoon house, is staying in the house, despite a huge construction project around his house. Then after an incident, Carl is sent to live at a retirement community. He has other plans. A former balloon salesmen, he blows up hundreds of helium balloons and makes his house float away, his ultimate goal is Paradise Falls, Venezuela. To Carl, the house represents Ellie.

Along the way, Carl picks up a Wilderness Explorer, Russell. Russell tries his best to help Carl make it to Paradise Falls. Along the way, they encounter Kevin, a large female bird with a penchant for chocolate, and Dug a dimwitted dog with the ability to talk due to a device around his neck.

Carl and Russell drag the floating house around the jungle surrounding Paradise Falls and meet up with Carl’s childhood hero explorer Charles F. Muntz; owner of Dug and the troop of talking dogs. Muntz turns out to be hunting Kevin and chases Carl, Russell and Dug around the jungle and up onto his blimp. Carl chooses to save Kevin, Russell and Dug and let his house (nee: Ellie) go.

Kevin returns to her children and Carl takes Russell back home (and adopts Dug). Carl and Russell have a lot of fun together, doing all the things Carl and Ellie did together.

The house landed exactly where Ellie had wanted to live.

Plot Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
There are a few plot holes that I’ll talk about below.

Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
The characters looked like they where traditional stop motion characters. They had a wonderful “real” feel. The character designs were refreshing and enjoyable. However, they didn’t quite match their environment. They stood out. There were moments when this was reminiscent of WDAS’ use of CG in hand drawn movies like Treasure Planet or the opening of Tarzan.

The Test of Time:
I’d like to take this moment to note that the events of this movie have Carl and Russell in South America for three days. For the length of this part of the movie, I couldn’t help imagine Russell’s mother back at home. Were there no missing persons’ reports? And when they return, there were no questions asked, Mom was just sitting happily at the merit badge ceremony. Although it had already been established that his dad was not a part of his life, nothing was said about his mom. I just couldn’t get past this point for most of the movie.

As far as its test of time. not much seems to have happened with this movie.


Next Up:
Toy Story 3

PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 9: Wall-E

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 9 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Wall-E
Release: June 23, 2008
Running Time: 98 minutes
Estimated Cost: $180 million
Estimated Revenue: $521.31
Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:(Abridged)
Wall-E is the lone “living” creature (nee: Robot) left on Earth. That is until Eve comes and the two seem to fall in love. Eve finds a living plant and her robot instincts take over. Wall-E hitches a ride to her home; where obese people never leave their seats as robots do everything for them. Wall-E and the ship have a huge battle about Eve and the plant, until finally, the ship returns to Earth. Wall-E and Eve live happily-ever-after.

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Much better than the last few! I enjoyed the fun joking of Wall-E and the hard nosed, rule following of Eve. My favorite part would have been the use of Hello Dolly!

Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
PIXAR continues to up its game, however, I’m not sure I can see any difference.

The Test of Time:
Wall-E seems like it’s lost in limbo. It was such a fabulous movie, but I’m not seeing much of it around. I don’t even think my Kindergarteners would know who he was.


Next Up:
Up

PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 8: Ratatouille

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 8 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Ratatouille
Release: June 29, 2007
Running Time: 111
Estimated Cost: $150 million
Estimated Revenue: $623.72
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:(Abridged)
A rat, Remi, doesn’t feel like he belongs with the other rats, so after an accident, he strikes out on his own. He meets inept chef, Linguini, and together they become one of the best chefs in Paris. Until their restaurant is closed because of rats in the kitchen.

Plot Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Again, the movie was fine, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that a rat was cooking. I was a bit grossed out most of the time.

Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
Nothing stood out as amazing. PIXAR just continues to make wonderfully animated movies.

The Test of Time:
Remi makes appearances in at Disneyland Paris and has his own restaurants on the Disney cruise ships The Dream and The Fantasy. I hate to say this, but this movie was just a run-of-the-mill PIXAR!


Next Up:
Wall-E

PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 7: Cars

Share

Tweet

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 7 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Cars
Release: June 9, 2006
Running Time: 117 minutes (another long “kids” movie)
Estimated Cost: $120 million
Estimated Revenue: $461.98 million (about $150 million less than The Incredibles)
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
Hotshot, rookie race-car, Lighting McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), ties for first with two other cars in a huge race. But on his way to the tie-breaking race, he gets pulled over and arrested for speeding, in a backwoods, former Route 66 glory town, Radiator Springs. The residents of Radiator Springs are proud of their depressed town and force McQueen to stay and repair the road he tore up when trying to escape his prison sentence. Being a racing-car he wasn’t built for hauling loads and finds this task very difficult. As he, begrudgingly, fixes the road, he becomes friends with the eclectic residents and possibly falls in love with Sally Carrera. But Doc Hudson, former race car champ himself, sees through McQueen and tells the media where to find him. McQueen makes it to the race on time, without saying “good-bye” to his new friends. During the race, the residents arrive to be McQueen’s pit crew (fulfilling some of their dreams). One of the race-cars, Chick Hicks, cheats his way to the finish line, by crashing into forerunner Strip “The King” Weathers. McQueen refuses to cross the finish line first as The King is unable to finish the race. Hicks crosses first, to boos from the audience, while McQueen (thinking of Doc) helps The King cross the line – McQueen coming in third. Dinoco, who was to sponsor the winner of the race, refuses to sponsor Hicks, but offers the job to McQueen. McQueen turns it down to return to Radiator Springs and put it back on the map!

Plot Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Overall, it was an excellent movie, but I hated McQueen for over half the movie. He was just a jerk. I was routing for him to be arrested and enjoyed watching him struggle in Radiator Springs. This is generally not what one wants from a hero.


Animation Rating: 5 out of 5
PIXAR has done it again, there were moments that I truly forgot this was a cartoon, as some of the cars looked real (except of the anthropomorphic aspect)!

The Test of Time:
A new land in Disney’s California Adventure, a sequel, a possible tv series in the works plus my Kindergarteners still carrying Cars lunch boxes. I believe Cars has stood the short test of time it has faced.


Next Up:
Ratatouille

PIXAR Animation: Part 6: The Incredibles

Share

Tweet

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 6 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: The Incredibles
Release: November 5, 2004
Running Time: 115 minutes (pushing two hours!)
Estimated Cost: $92 million (about $10 million less than Home On The Range
Estimated Revenue: $631.44 million (about$500 million more than Home on The Range
Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
The movie opens in the 1920s, the heyday of the superhero! However, times change (as times often do) and the “Supers” are no longer allowed to practice vigilante justice, as ordered by federal law. Mr. Incredible (the hottests “Super” of the day, settles down for a civilian life with his new bride, Elastagirl, and they have a few kids. Times continues to move forward and Mr. Incredible, now just Bob, finds himself itching to be a Super again. And he takes a highly suspicious job that requires him to fight robots on a tropical island. The job turns sour as it is revealed that Mr. Incredible’s new “boss” is really a spurned lacky who has now turned evil, wanting to be the only and most power Super – he goes by the name, Syndrome. Mrs. Incredible discovers that Bob is in trouble and she hauls to the island to find him (with the older children as stowaways – these children also have super powers). The family works together to escape the island, and back in the city they work together to defeat the robot (who is no longer under Syndrome’s control). After defeating the robot, they return home to find that Syndrome has kidnapped the baby (who up until now has not shown any super powers). The baby, saves himself, with the newfound powers and Supers are welcome back into society.

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Wow! What a great movie! The story was enthralling, and the characters were three dimensional (and I’m not talking about the animation). One of the best parts of this movie, were how real the characters are – Mr. and Mrs. Incredible have a domestic dispute!


Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
The hair, the faces… all wonderful. The movie really pushed the envelope for animation. It’s going to be really interesting watching what Disney will do with their first CGI movie as compared to this.

The Test of Time:
A few years ago, when I was at WDW, the Incredibles characters has one of the longest waits (just about the same as the Up characters. However, I don’t see continued use of the franchise since the movie’s ended.



Next Up:
Cars

Pixar Animation: Part 5: Finding Nemo

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 5 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Finding Nemo
Release: May 30, 2003
Running Time: 100 minutes
Estimated Cost: $94 million
Estimated Revenue: $867.89 million
Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Plot Summary
Nemo, an Australian clown fish, doesn’t like being controlled and reprimanded by his farther on the first day of school. Marlin, Nemo’s dad, is over protective of his only child because Nemo’s mom and all of the eggs were killed before Nemo’s birth.

Nemo, showing off to his new friends, goes to touch a boat, but is captured by “P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. Scared for the fate of his son, Marlin sets out to find Nemo.

Along the way, he meets a regal tang named Dori, who has an incredibly short memory. Dori and Marlin have several misadventures while Nemo discovers a new group of adult fish friends in a dentist office. Nemo and his friends try to escape so Nemo doesn’t do home with the dentist’s fish-killing niece. After several failed attempts, they are able to free Nemo back to the ocean.

Dori and Marlin, after successfully avoiding sharks, jelly fish and being eaten by a whale, meet up with Nemo, only to be caught by a commercial fishing ship. Nemo takes what he learned with his friends “just swim down together” to save Dori.

Dori, Marlin and Nemo successfully make it back to the reef, and begin a new, less protective life.

A cut scene shows the fish from the dentist’s tank escaping, but soon they realize they are trapped in plastic bags.

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5

This movie has everything that one can ask for: comedy, drama, action, suspense and Ellen DeGeneres! From the moment the movie begins until it ends, I was actively engaged in the plot.

Animation Rating: 5 out of 5

The way the fish moved, the colors, the different ways the water moved/reflected. Once again, PIXAR uses 3D animation nearly flawlessly to tell a story.

The Test of Time:
Multiple theme park attractions – including the rethemed EPCOT pavilion, millions of dollars in merchandize, and my favorite reason to go to Animal Kingdom (Find Nemo the Musical) shows that Nemo is with us for the long hall!

Final Thoughts
Nemo was awesome!

Next Up:
The Incredibles

Share

Pixar Animation: Part 4: Monsters Inc.

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 4 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Monsters, Inc.
Release: November 2, 2001
Running Time: 92 minutes
Estimated Cost: $150 million
Estimated Revenue: $525.37 million
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary
The monsters in our closets are real. They come into our children’s rooms at night to scare them and collect the energy of the scream to power their city. And the number one scare-er, Sully, is about to a mile-stone at Monsters Inc.

After doing so he and his partner find themselves in a hilarious situation where a small child (who Sully calls “Boo”) enters Monstropolis. Knowing that monsters at terrified of the germs on children Sully and Mike try to find a way to safely return Boo back to her world.

However, in doing so, they discover a secret plan to steal the screams from children, and hurt them in the process. After a long chase scene through many closet doors, Sully and Mike successfully evade capture from Randle (Sully’s work rival); and leave him stuck in the real world. The manager of Monsters Inc., Waternoose, is also revealed to be the mastermind of the scream stealing.

Boo returns home and her door is destroyed in a tear jerking moment between her and Sully.

Roz, who up until now was just there for a gag, is revealed to be a agent for the CDA and remove Waternoose into custody.

Throughout this ordeal, Sully learns that children’s laughter makes for better energy. He converts the Scare Floor to a Laugh Floor, where Monsters Inc. is more successful than ever.

Mike gives Sully a present. He put Boo’s door back together!

Plot Rating: 4 stars out of 5

PIXAR seemed to missed a bit with this movie. It had everything one could ask for, but I was left wanting something. Perhaps an ending a bit further in the future, where Boo can be a bit older. Also how long was Boo missing in her world?

Animation Rating: 5 out of 5

Sully’s hair rocked. I was pleased to see such great animation here. Most of the animation was great. I think PIXAR has taken their game to a new level.

The Test of Time:
Three theme park attractions and a Prequel due out next Summer ’13. Again PIXAR makes movies that stand the test of time. I don’t find myself watching a dated movie with outdated ideas of equality.

Final Thoughts
This is was a fun movie. But my final thoughts have to deal with the most recent time I visited WDW. When I met Sully, he silently raised his hand above my head to signify that I’m tall. I took that to mean that he was commenting on how old I was to be so excited to meet these monsters.

Next Up:
Finding Nemo.

Share

Pixar Animation Studios: Part 3: Toy Story 2

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 3 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Toy Story 2
Release: November 24, 1999 (Only one year after Bugs Life)
Running Time: 92 minutes
Estimated Cost: $90 million
Estimated Revenue: $485.015 million
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary
Andy is still in love with his toys and furiously plays with them, so much so that right before leaving for cowboy camp, he rips Woody’s arm. Through a series of unfortunate events Woody winds up in the clutches of a toy collector instead of the loving arms of Andy.

The toys: Buzz, Rex, Hamm, Slinky Dog and Mr. Potato Head figure out where to find Woody. As they are heading to save him, Woody meets his fellow cast mates from his old TV show: Jessie, Prospector and Bullseye.

The collector fixes Woody and sells him and his mates to a toy museum in Japan. Jessie and Prospector are excited to be in use again after years in storage. Woody goes back and forth between wanting to go with them or return to Andy. Whenever he tries to leave, he finds something [one] stopping him.

Buzz and the toys enter a toy store and get separated, and the rest of the toys find a new Buzz toy (and it takes them a long time to realize that he is not their Buzz). They meet back up in the apartment building where Woody is. And just as they are going to leave with Woody, the Prospector reveals that he is not Mint in Box and has been trying to keep Woody there.

Woody and his mates get separated once again from Buzz and crew on the way to the airport. Woody, Jessie and Bullseye escape from the Prospector and return to Andy’s room with Buzz and the crew just in time for Andy to see the new toys and thank his mom.

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5

PIXAR has once again, hit it out of the park. The toys are back for another adventure and it was great. What makes a PIXAR film great is not the animation it is the story.

Animation Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The only thing that looked weird in the movie was the dog, Buster. Andy’s dog just looked odd. PIXAR hasn’t yet mastered the look of fur. While Andy’s hair remains as one unit (or several large units), the dog’s fur is short and in many different strands. Buster’s discourse with his surroundings reminded me of Tarzan’s parents during the tempest; beautiful animation against CG that’s not as great. Hopefully when I return to the toy in TS3, PIXAR will have advanced enough.

The Test of Time:
One more sequel 10 years later… I don’t think I even need to further talk about the Toy Story series’ Test of Time

Final Thoughts
TS2 was a great follow up, and a wonderful sequel. I surely hope other PIXAR sequels are just as wonderful.

Next Up:
Monsters, Inc.

Share

Pixar Animation Studios: Part 2: Bugs Life

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 2 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: A Bugs Life
Release: November 25, 1998 (Three years after Toy Story)
Running Time: 96 minutes
Estimated Cost: $60 million (double that of Toy Story)
Estimated Revenue: $363.40 million
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary
Flik, inventor ant, has inventions that go awry and cause the oppressive Grass Hopper Army to become angry and force the ants to work double time before the winter comes in. He is forced to go find other bugs to help the ants fight against the grass hoppers. He mistakenly returns with circus bugs.

After several mishaps, the ants successfully defeat the grass hoppers. Flik is celebrated for his inventions and is chosen as a mate for the new ant queen!

Plot Rating: 4 stars out of 5

PIXAR has outdone themselves with this movie. It has the loveable characters that made Toy Story great. It has comedy and laughs (reminding me of Walt’s movies that had a lot of comedy to help relieve the tension of the plot). I had moments of tears and moments of giggle fits. I like that PIXAR has focused on male leads, where WDAS focused on female leads.

Animation Rating: 5 out of 5

OMG, the background art was the most fantastic piece of art I’ve seen yet! It was so life like, but yet the characters truly belonged in the world. The character art was great too, for the leads, but not for the hundreds of ants. Even PIXAR made fun of the fact that all the filler ants looked the same (one of the extras of the BluRay has one character talking to the card board cut out of the same ant).

The Test of Time:

Eric, Flik and I at Disney's Animal Kingdom in WDW

Kind of slid into PIXAR vaults, not to say anything was really wrong with the movie, but just not much has been happening in it.

Final Thoughts
Aside from the Toy Story series, I have not seen any PIXAR movie in theatres. And many not at all. I do have a problem with CG movies (as you might have be able to tell with my WDAS reviews and I highly criticize the CG effects). I truly miss hand drawn animation and hope to see a return to it. However, knowing that PIXAR has dedicated itself to CG animation, I can appreciate the art and characters they have created.

Next Up:
Toy Story 2

Share

Pixar Animation Studios: Part 1: Toy Story

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 1 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Toy Story
Release: November 22, 1995
Running Time: 81 minutes
Estimated Cost: $30 million ($25 million less than Pocahontas which was released by WDAS earlier in ’95).
Estimated Revenue: $361.99 million
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary
Andy is having a birthday, when he receives a new toy: Buzz. All of Andy’s other toys are happy about Buzz, except Woody. Woody is being replaced as Andy’s favorite and is not happy about it.

After Buzz and Woody are held hostage by a toy destroying creep – Sid – they become best friends and work together to make Andy happy (and the rest of the toys trust Woody again).

Songs:

Unlike WDAS, PIXAR does not create musicals, so this section will no longer be used.

Plot Rating: 4 stars out of 5

What do toys do when you are not playing with them? Where do they go when you can’t find them? This movie “answers” all the questions children might have about the fabulous world of toys. It has heart breaking scenes and high comedy and sight gags in the tradition of hand drawn animation.

Animation Rating: 5 out of 5

Completely ground breaking, a fully computer animated movie! Walt himself would have been proud. With nothing before it to compare to, I must only compare to the use of CG in traditional animation. Of course this was obviously CG! In former WDAS endevours they would try to disguise the CG in a more traditional style, however it hasn’t worked yet. But Toy Story doesn’t try to mask the effects and just goes all out in an ubber cartoon style. The eyes and bright colors hearken back to Snow White.

The Test of Time:

A second sequel was released 15 years later to become the highest grossing animated feature of all time! Right there, it proves it’s test of time.

Toy Story has inspired theme park attractions (Toy Story Mania in WDW’s Hollywood Studio and Disneyland’s California Adventure; and many other) and entire lands (Toy Story Playland in Disneyland Paris and Disneyland Hong Kong). Buzz has even had his own TV series.

Final Thoughts
Toy Story was a huge success when it first came out, and truly opened the door to some great animation and animation techniques (although I know these words will bite me when WDAS starts creating CGI movies).

I saw this movie three times in theatres. It was the first of only 3 movies I seen that many times in theatres.

Next Up:
A Bug’s Life

Share