For much of my life I thought Toy Story 3 was the best one. It took Toy Story 4 for me to realize the the original was always the best. Pixar had so much to prove, really wanted to differentiate themselves from any other animation studio, and they absolutely did, with vision, talent, creativity and hard work. Their current team has completely lost this vision; Lightyear could just as easily been a Disney Animation movie.
only Pixar film made in the Katzenberg days. One of a kind masterpiece
To this day I cannot bring myself to watch 4 and I don't think I ever will
You're better off, unless (like me) you need it to remind you of how amazing early Pixar was by contrast.
Second. I can barely even remember what happened. There were no lessons to be learned, no memorable characters, no long lasting entertainment. It's like a TV special.
I agree with
4 absolutely assassinates the growth the characters have in the first three films. It feels like a Toy Story fanfiction somehow got greenlit. I don't consider it canon, as silly as that sounds for something like Toy Story.
I wish Pixar still had the same passion they did when they were founded. However, given how asinine their current storyboarding and scripting process is, literally every movie they make now has these weird story inconsistencies.
Each scene is reboarded over-and-over without regard to how it fits into the movie at large. Scenes are constantly switched around in the movie. These reasons are why Soul had a weird hackneyed ending scene that feels totally detached from the rest of the movie.
They've been storyboarding Lightyear since 2018 or 2019 I believe and they continued boarding it well throughout 2020 and beyond. This means they spend around 3 years essentially re-writing the script on an individual scene basis until it's a hodgepodge of vaguely connected scenes. I haven't seen Lightyear yet, but I assume that movie is probably victim of their storyboard mutilations too.
Source: I observed a Pixar storyboarding workshop webinar in college, run by one of the lead storyboard artists on Lightyear. It took place right as Disney first announced Lightyear during their public investor day, so the leader of the webinar explained some of this info about Lightyear to everyone.
Interesting, it sounds almost like writing by committee. Explains why everything feels so artificial and hackneyed. Do you have any info on how this might contrast with their earlier process and how/when it changed?
>I wish Pixar still had the same passion they did when they were founded.
Pixar's been so successful for so long they don't have to try anymore, on top of the fact that the people who made the movies what they were are probably retired or leaving the studio and being replaced by new people. If TS1 was bad it probably would have killed the studio and 3D animation might not have been a thing for years later.
Yeah, I absolutely agree with a lot of what you're saying here, I felt a lot of this when I was watching the incredibles 2, the whole damn movie felt like one giant slideshow with poor pacing, character inconsistencies and a bloated premise that made no utter sense. It was a day and night comparison watching the original and the sequel back to back. On one end was a clear vision for a story with consise characters with clear arks and storytelling with fast pacing that didn't wait for a buildup or grand reveal, but just kept punching and keeping the story alive at every second.
And on the other end was what felt like a shoestringed series of shorts that was trying way too hard to assemble everything into one grander narrative with the pacing going as slow as a snail to warp speeds making a rollercoaster look comfy in comparison. Pixar has become the very thing it set out to distance itself from, a bloated shell of a studio that tells stories purely for the profit and quantity of mediocrity.
The worst part is all of what you said is true and it still brings nothing new to the table, its plot is just 1's again.
After Up, they really didn't have to give a single shit. Hell, they phoned it in for everything that comes after the house landing from its journey through the sky.
Sometimes I forget I watched it. It's just a nothing movie, totally unnecessary sequel.
It's shit. Ruins Buzz's character. Ruins Bo Peep's character. Ruins Bonnie's character. Definitely ruins Woody's character.
Not helped that they kicked Lasseter out of his own company.
And Lasseter took him and his other crew at Disney with him at Skydance Animation which I think will destroy Pixar once their movies come out.
Reminds me of the DreamWorks and Disney situation.
what is skydance even making anyways
The original was always the best. It was a bit rough around the edges, but it had so much fricking wit and soul and rewatchability. I saw it in the theater with my dad and I've probably seen it a hundred times since and every single time it makes me laugh HARD. It's just an all-around terrific film.
>You're... mocking me, aren't you?
>Oh no! No no nononono- Buzz look an alien!
>Where?
>BHAHhhhhh... hahahha
There's just so much spark to the dialogue, both in terms of voice and animation. Hanks and Allen were REALLY having fun. Not that they were totally phoning it in later but it just wasn't the same.
>Hey look! I'm Picasso!
>>... I don't get it.
>You uncultured swine!
Having sat down and actually gone through the screenplay, it's a marvel of comedy writing when you break it down - it's like classic Simpsons-era writing where it's practically a joke/gag/pun/reference/wordplay almost every single page, many of them are multilayered, and the vast majority of them hit.
Ham and Potato hating Woody for no reason is a leftover from the movie's original concept of Woody being an butthole.
To be fair, Woody is kind of an insecure, sarcastic, full-of-himself jerk for most of TS1. Hamm and Potato's regard for him is kind of justified.
this scene would never make it into the final movie in today's pixar
Even their old commercials had soul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BH7AMbvwbI
The first one has a slight 90s edge to it that modern Pixar movies don't have. It's like they were allowed to get away with more things because they were independent from Disney. TS2 is still great too but the cracks started to show by 3.
3 is overrated honestly. The stuff with Andy is good, but all the prison break parody stuff is crap. And Lotso has almost the same motivation as Stinky Pete so it just feels like a retread.
Remember when all the mainstream journalists dogpiled on the one critic who gave Toy Story 3 a mediocre review, because it ruined the "perfect" Rotten Tomatoes score of the film? And how that one critic happened to be Chris-Chan's half-brother? Shit was insane.
Gotta love it when other continuities cross over with CWC's solo run.
The fact that the main plot has almost nothing to do with Andy was a bignhrsd letdown.
For me it's 4 >1 > 2 > 3
I know people hate 4 because Bo Peep became the generic independent stronk wamen, but I didn't mind that aspect. Whole movie felt like decent enough closure for the series. 3 takes the bottom because it just felt like 2 again and while I would have liked 2 over 1,there's a part of it where it just kind of meanders for like 10 minutes and 1 has a much tighter story.
what is life like as an insane person
I wouldn't know the difference from life as a sane person, I can only be myself and like what I like.
Are you special ed?
I like tater tots.