Pixar’s ‘ELEMENTAL’ a Derivative Love Story That’s Stuck in the Kiddie Pool

June 12, 2023 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Brenda Hsueh, Elemental, John Joberg, Kat Likkel, Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Peter Sohn, Pixar, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi 1 Comment

Until its acquisition by Disney in May of 2006, Pixar’s primary mandate was originality. The lifeblood of the Emeryville-based animation studio, every new picture was a tapestry of bold ideas, original characters, rich emotional complexity, and boundary-pushing digital animation. After being swallowed up by the House of Mouse, the studio’s focus shifted towards franchising, leading to a rise in Pixar sequels and a watering down of their “original” features. The conflagration of originality that once defined there every feature seemed to gradually wane into but a dim glow.

Pixar’s Existential ‘SOUL’ Sparks Curiosity, Purpose

December 7, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs, Jaime Foxx, Kemp Powers, Pete Docter, Pixar, Quest Love, Richard Ayoade, Soul, Tina Fey 1 Comment

As life-affirming and unabashedly profound as it is cerebrally curious and gorgeously animated, Pete Docter’s Soul is yet another Pixar masterwork. Easily the best output from the once-flawless studio since 2015’s Inside Out (also directed by Docter), Soul also ranks amongst Pixar’s best work to date, putting it in league with Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Up, and Wall-E. Since their acquisition by Disney, Pixar has placed an increased focus on franchising, churning out decent-enough sequels but letting the once limitless creativity that once defined them fall by the wayside. As sequels began to dominate their slate, that spark of creativity dimmed. Though he hadn’t changed, that little Pixar light had a little less bounce in him. Expectations of grandeur lowered in sync. With Inside Out, Pixar nouveau reasserted themselves as a house of bold choices that played to the adults in the audience just as much as the children and Soul affirms this direction with its every fiber. Read More

Pixar’s Quest To Pull the Heartstrings Continues With Solid But Unremarkable ‘ONWARD’

February 24, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ali Wong, Chris Pratt, Dan Scanlon, Jason Headley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Keith Bunin, Lena Waithe, Octavia Spencer, Onward, Out in Theaters, Pixar, Reviews, Tom Holland Leave a comment

I knew from the very onset that Onward was going to work my tear ducts like a German milkmaid squeezing at a bovine’s teat. It didn’t matter that the blue teenage elves looked more like the brainchildren of Dreamworks than Pixar, or that some of the comedy was a bit low-brow and slapstick, or even that Onward settles more in the mid-to-lower tier ranking of the once-unflappable animation studio’s filmography, this movie was always gonna turn me into a mushy adult sniveling away in a dark theater. And that it did. Read More

Pixar’s First ‘SOUL’ Trailer Asks What You Want to be Known For

November 7, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers Tagged Jamie Foxx, Pete Docter, Pixar, Trailers Leave a comment

Pixar took a big risk with Pete Docter’s Inside Out, a movie that explored how human emotions worked. Portraying our outlook on life as an effect of little creatures like Fear, Joy, Anger, and Disgust operating control panels somewhere in the human brain, the conceptual animated feature didn’t feel reigned in by tradition or normal narrative boundaries. Soul looks to follow in the bold footsteps of Inside Out, dealing within the metaphysical in a similar way to Inside Out and from this first peak, looks to be asking similarly bold questions about human existence.

Thematic ‘Toy Story 4’ Puts Big Radical Ideas Over Big Radical Plot

June 14, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Andrew Stanton, Annie Potts, Jordan Peele, Josh Cooley, Keanu Reeves, Keegan-Michael Key, Out in Theaters, Pixar, Reviews, Stephany Folsom, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, Tony Hale, Toy Story, Toy Story 4 Leave a comment

At the height of Pixar’s creative boon, Toy Story 3 threatened the impossible: a sequel would be the animation studio’s best movie to date. This on the heels of the triple-threat punch of Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up, to this day the finest consecutive output Pixar would manage. Toy Story, to this point in the studio’s history, was Pixar’s only ongoing franchise – Cars 2 would come along and bust their Fresh streak just one year later – but its sequels managed to keep pace with their starkly original one-off creations by diving deeper into the pathos of its collection of anthropomorphic toys and achieving an even greater sense of world-building. Woody, Buzz and the gang discovered things about themselves by exploring larger sandboxes and, accompanying them, we too saw the world with eyes renewed. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE INCREDIBLES 2’

June 12, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Brad Bird, Catherine Keener, Craig T. Nelson, Eli Fucile, Holly Hunter, Huck Milner, Incredibles 2, Pixar, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, The Incredibles 2 Leave a comment

The state of superhero films today can only be described as ubiquitous. In 2018, there’s a new superhero movie every month. Sometimes two. And with Marvel films like Black Panther and Infinity Wars doing absolute gangbusters at the box office, there is no sign of slowing for the super-charged genre. But before Iron Man ever suited up or Batman began again, Brad Bird and Pixar offered a family-friendly spin on the Golden Age of superheroes with 2004’s widely adored The Incredibles. Its sequel, Incredibles 2, may pick up right where its predecessor left off but its commentary about popular culture is as timely as can be. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘COCO’

November 20, 2017 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adrian Molina, Anthony Gonzalez, Benjamin Bratt, Coco, Gael Garcia Bernal, Lee Unkirk, Matthew Aldrich, Pixar, Review Leave a comment

Perhaps I am dead inside but I can’t scrub free the feeling that Coco hits all the right notes but still feels like the same old song. Pixar, the studio responsible for such masterpieces of modern animation as Wall-E, Toy Story, Up and Monsters Inc., appears more than ever to have sold out, peddling mediocre stories lathered in an admittedly marvelous coat of digital paint. We all knew this day was coming at some point, Disney’s acquisition of the once smallish, creatively independent studio renowned for delivering one stunner after another a warning sign of impending doom. I remember an age where I used to anticipate a new Pixar film just as much as a new Batman film. My how the times have changed. Pixar has quite simply become formulaic and Coco, while charming, loaded with delightful music and animated with the immaculate medium-pressing precision that Pixar is known for, just feels rote.

SXSW ’17 Review: ‘WIN IT ALL’

March 16, 2017 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Aisling Derbez, Jake Johnson, Joe Lo Truglio, Joe Swanberg, Keegan-Michael Key, Pixar, Reviews, SXSW '17, Win It All 2 Comments

A more lovable loser there may not be than Jake Johnson’s Eddie Garrett in Win It All. The 18th (!!!) feature from mumblecore originator Joe Swanberg, Win It All is the second “official” collaboration between Swanberg and Johnson, who paired up last year to middling success with Digging for Fire after previously working in a director-actor capacity on festival favorite Drinking Buddies. Swanberg’s brand of low-key, grounded comedy-drama has rarely been better than in Win It All as he and Johnson create an emotionally involving character study of a man whose addiction to gambling (and losing) has come back to bite him, just when life has started looking up. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE GOOD DINOSAUR’

November 25, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Jack Bright, Jeffrey Wright, Meg LeFauve, Out in Theaters, Peter Sohn, Pixar, Raymond Ochoa, Reviews, Sam Elliot, The Good Dinosaur Leave a comment

Semi-charmed The Good Dinosaur is slight Pixar but nonetheless a small triumph of wonder and good-nature. Its lack of the distinct creativity that so often characterizes Pixar’s products is overshadowed by a big heart and a resplendent aesthetic palette. Even though the narrative is admittedly quaint, thinly plotted and largely derivative (The Good Dinosaur is essentially a mild repackaging of The Lion King), the overwhelming sense of goodness emanating from the center of Pixar’s 16th feature film had it strike poignant blows at my admittedly exposed softer spots. As Pixar is known to do. Read More

Out in Theaters: INSIDE OUT

June 18, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Amy Poehler, Best of 2015, Bill Hader, Inside Out, Lewis Black, Out in Theaters, Pete Docter, Phyllis Smith, Pixar, Reviews, Richard Kind 3 Comments

It’s been five long years and three mediocre products since Pixar unleashed the beloved Toy Story 3, and years of bated breathe have contribution to the hot anticipation of their first original effort since 2012’s problematic Brave. The titanic mummer of Pixar’s throbbing heartbeat has been notably muted and palpably chunky over the last half-decade – the result of Disney dollars hierarchized above lush originality and narrative fervor. But with Inside Out, the Docter is in. Stethoscopes have been administered, a double bypass has been performed, the blockage has been loosened. In one fell blow, Pete Docter has served up a whopping Pixar masterpiece and restored the animation studio’s name to its former glory. All hail the king. All hail the Docter.