Incredibles 2 (2018)

What do you do in Bangkok? Go see a 4D movie! The 4D is super unnecessary, but it was kind of novel. During the Bao short and the first thirty minutes of the movie, there are 4D effects that are unexpected because they are mundane, but that kind of makes it fun and funny. It did make me smile. The latter half of the movie did not have as many effects. They and we maybe forgot about it.

The movie is brilliant. It is a modern day superhero movie. We needed to wait over a decade for this movie and it was well worth the wait to see our contemporary debates featured prominently. There is a dining table argument the family has over civil disobedience. A main theme of the movie is body cameras, a contemporary policing/vigilante proposal. And of course, you can't ignore the working mom and stay-at-home dad narrative. To top it off, the movie is hilarious. Brad Bird is an excellent director. But this film doesn't feel like a Pixar movie (nothing wrong with that) because it never reaches that emotional climax (nothing wrong with that either). The movie does throw a curveball by casting Bob Odenkirk, whose most famous role leads us to believe he was typecast. Spoiler alert, he's not. Michael Giacchino's music is lots of fun, kind of jazzy.

Coco (2017)

Coco is the latest Pixar film, its first non-sequel since Inside Out. Pixar is excellent as usual when running with original ideas. This one has gotten comparisons with The Book of Life (similar theme of Day of the Dead) and Spirited Away (similar plot points). I haven't seen The Book of Life, but Coco is something special. First of all, it's beautiful. The world of the dead is stunningly complex and vibrant and colorful. The animation is just amazing to look at. The first scene with the paper cuts is brilliant. It's beautiful on another level too. Pixar is historically white on the diversity front. They've only featured two three characters of color before: Frozone in The Incredibles, Russell in Up, and Mindy Kaling's Disgust in Inside Out. All of the characters in Coco are Mexican, and the Mexican traditions and culture are conveyed with the utmost respect--they clearly did their research.  The characters' commitment to keeping these traditions and preserving their heritage is beautiful.  Why is this necessary? Because minorities contend with more than just feelings, and family, and parenthood, and obesity...heritage is crucial to our lives and it's important that kids be able to see themselves on screen in our popular culture.

We know Pixar is full of masterful storytellers, but the little things are really clever too.  The interpretation of the process of how the dead return to the world of the living is really brilliantly imaginative, and in line with tradition. Names are really important.The movie is named for the great grandmother Coco. Ask why that is. Ask why the Xoloitzcuintli is named Dante. Yeah, like Dante's Divine Comedy in which Dante tours the afterlife.

My biggest gripe is the Disney-fication of Pixar. There was no Pixar short preceding the film. Instead, we got a 20 minute Frozen "short" that was completely unnecessary. It was very clearly made for TV. And it had no business preceding this Pixar work of art. 

Finding Dory (2016)

This is Pixar's long promised sequel to the classic Finding Nemo. The film is actually very similar to its predecessor; similar but not a copy like the new Star Wars. This movie makes much more use of flashbacks. This is partially due to the nature of Dory's short term memory loss, but it also capitalizes on cute baby Dory whose eyes make up more than half of the entire fish. The story is familiar but very well executed by once again moving from the open ocean to the an aquatic environment in a human context. Ellen is fantastic as a forgetful fish. But Ed O'Neill steals the show, essentially playing his usual curmudgeon character as an octopus. And there's a great cameo by Sigourney Weaver's voice.

What is so incredible about this movie is the advances in animation made over at Pixar. The octopus is such an intricate character to animate. Movement and camouflage involve several moving tentacles and a body that moves like nothing else does. Further, the under water scenes better reflect the lighting of the ocean. The sea floor is dark and scary and murky and the effect that you would normally get with a camera comes through in the animation.

As with all Pixar movies, it preys on emotion. There is always that moment about three-fourths in to the movie that is supposed to make you cry. But I felt like that moment, in comparison to other Pixar movies, is a little too predictable and a bit too cutesy to be as powerful. It relies on you feeling bad for baby Dory, rather than stemming from pure emotion.

The short film preceding Finding Dory was Piper. The animation is incredible, it looks absolutely real. The birds and the sand and the beach and the water are so lifelike. The story is simple and sweet. It makes you smile. And what more can you ask for from a short film than to evoke genuine emotion.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

This is a solid family film, but as far as Pixar films go, this movie pales in comparison to Inside Out earlier this year.  The reason is that the movie lacks heart.  Pixar is known for drawing out emotions from its viewers but The Good Dinosaur was a little tame. The story is kind of typical for the genre and a little simple and shallow for Pixar's standards. It seems to hearken back to other classic animated films.  It is very much like Lion King, in which the father dinosaur dies tragically early on (very typical Disney).  Then there are three pterodactyls that try to make a meal of Arlo, like the hyenas from Lion King.

The premise of the film is interesting. What if the dinosaurs never went extinct? Then they would have evolved... to learn to domesticate agriculture and livestock, like humans did.  There is some charm and some genuine laughs. The movie is visually stunning, animating different species of dinosaurs in a friendly way that looks a lot better than The Land Before Time.  Those lightning bugs and the actual lightning and thunder that storm up trouble for the protagonist.  The animation is actually quite different. The computer images are not evocative of the same visuals we're used to from Pixar, but this was the kind of animation that this movie needed.

Inside Out (2015)

Much like emotions themselves, this movie is quite complex. Perhaps a little too complex for children, but if you think the target audience is children, then you don't know Pixar, which has consistently made high quality animated films that resonate best with adults who might accompany children to the theater.  Pixar adds to its canon of masterpieces, and perhaps outdoes itself once and for all with this brilliant return to form after a year off.  As always, Pixar finds the right balance between comedy, drama and pure emotion, never failing to illicit a tearful response or two or .several from the audience.

The premise is so novel and creative and clever. It is pure genius.  It is at once a story about growing up, about memories and dreams, and about learning to grapple with our feelings, our emotions and personalities.  And it does so literally from the inside out, telling stories from inside Riley's mind.  It is a story that only the world of animation could bring to life.  It is very beautifully animated.  It uses imagination to envision what imagination looks like.  It envisions an expansive library of memories sitting in storage.

The characters are extreme caricatures, all cast perfectly.  Amy Poehler plays Joy, a hyped up version of Leslie Knope.  Likewise, Lewis Black plays Anger, an extreme version of his own persona.  But it is the character of Sadness voiced by Phyllis Smith that shares the spotlight with Joy, or stands in the shadow of Joy's aura.  I really appreciated Pete Docter's attention to sadness, an emotion for which the child-minded Joy sees no use; but our emotions are complex and sadness is not an inherently bad thing, and the real heart of the film is this interplay between these two characters learning what it means to be sad and learning to embrace it.

I also think that it is great that the main character is a little girl (a la Brave).  Perhaps girls are a little more in touch with their emotions at a young age. But in any case, it is important for girls to see themselves portrayed on screen, and in Pixar's fifteen productions, this is only the second to feature a female protagonist.  And she plays hockey!  Take that, gender stereotypes.

PS. Did you catch the reference to Chinatown? "Forget it, Jake. It's Cloudtown"
PPS. Did you see the film poster at Dream Productions referencing Vertigo?