Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling

Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by klmadfejno on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @08:00AM (#26165819)

Hmm, no I disagree strongly. I quite like Pixar's stories. In particular I appreciate how differently they come off to adults vs. children in ways that feel meaningful to both. As a kid, I completely missed what were obviously concerns of Mr. Incredible's infidelity. In the emotions one, kids see the obvious narrative that the emotions control the child, whereas adults are likely to see the emotions as a metaphor for feelings and growth rather than zany cartoon accidents.

Up's primary theme was the importance of letting go of the past to focus on the future. Soul was that you don't have a divinely foretold purpose in life other than living your best life. Inside out was about recognizing the importance of negative emotions- and that while joy is good, sadness is not bad. A lot of these are heavier and more mature than you'll find in a randomly chosen piece of fiction intended for adults, but I wouldn't say they're sad so much as thought provoking.

Some of it is really bleak. I mean, a fair bit of soul is a guy realizing he wasted his life, and then died right before doing the thing he thought would give his life meaning. But like... Grappling with that feels like a really meaningful conversation to have.

edit: although I don't feel as strongly for their sequels. To some extent I find they phone some of them in...

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by kop316 on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @08:21AM (#26165977)

Recently I have been watching a bunch of pixar movies that have been blockbusters, but I really haven't seen before. I like their themes and story telling, but something that bothers me for their major pictures is it feels like they all follow a very similar overall narrative:

- some sort of "buddy" movie

- some sort of "we only have x amount of time to solve our crisis we got into"

- the two buddies have some sort of big fight

- the two buddies make up

- stronger than ever, they overcome this crisis right just before the buzzer.

Maybe its because they don't do it in their shorts (or its because they can explore ideas more), but I think their shorts they have are really some of their best story telling.

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by klmadfejno on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @09:23AM (#26166548)

Tropey story beats do get a bit tiresome, but they're there because they work. Fiction that flaunts defying these tropes tends to be pretty great, but its still rare, and probably doesn't feel very good unless the viewer is already tired of the original.

Buddies fight and, having acknowledged their primary character fault, reconcile, is one that is everywhere in children's fiction. I also find it boring.

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by Closi on Thursday February 18, 2021 @02:08AM (#26176888)

Fiction that flaunts the tropes are a good example of “you have to know the rules before you can break them”.

These tropes aren’t new inventions, they go back into thousand year old myths, so it does seem like they really do appeal to the human brain, ie the Campbell monomyth/hero’s journey.

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by kinghtown on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @11:40AM (#26168337)

I like Pixar a lot. But maybe it’s just a matter of personal taste.

Letting go is a unifying theme in Up but my problem with the movie isn’t that it’s bad but that you had a table of all the guys at Pixar spitballing scene ideas and then glueing them all together. The result just feels episodic, in a bad way, and commercially manufactured. Up is a really good movie but I don’t want every CG film to have the Pixar preproduction process. (And I still think they are a bit overrated and that the technical side of their creative teams are doing most of the heavy lifting.)

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by sdenton4 on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @12:11PM (#26168710)

'Up' is one of the best films of all time, followed by an additional hour and twenty minutes of pretty-decent movie.

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by notvplez on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @06:03PM (#26173042)

I like this. The feature film brings me to tears every single I watch it without fail, and then I am always thoroughly entertained back to a pretty good moood by the following movie.

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by vlunkr on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @02:02PM (#26170121)

This is how I've felt about Disney and Pixar for a long time. As a kid, I liked them for action, adventure and comedy. But as an adult I like them for the animation, storytelling, and good emotional/moral lessons on top of everything else. As a parent who sees lots of content for kids, it's not easy to find things that legitimately appeal to multiple age groups like that.

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Re:Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling by orsenthil on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @06:44PM (#26173464)

I cried after watching Soul. It made me go through my own life when I was a "lost soul" and I somehow recovered. I loved the person who was carrying the sign board and kept a photo of him for me to recollect.

That's the impact that I recognize with Pixar, a movie a like Soul and an Auteur like Pete Doctor.

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