Disney Pixar's Cars

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Post by ShyViolet » November 6th, 2004, 8:12 pm

I really agree with Ben and George C. The problem (well, if you see it as a problem) is that Pixar is REALLY conservative and stoic about their "forumla" and that it stays within parameters (more or less) with every film. This can be good as well as bad.

They don't like taking too many risks, which is a shame, because their short films, IMO, have a lot more creativity story-wise than their feature-length films. Does anyone else feel this way? I LOVED Gerry's Game, I thought the whole split-personality (if that's what it was) was weird and twisted and had many meanings. Ditto for their other films, too-they had a "weird", and "funny" quality about them that felt like they were reaching for more than in the movies. That's just the way I see it. I think there is a lot of potential in those movies that Pixar is guilty of squandering some of it. I think they need something new that takes them in a new direction! I still think they should team up with Katzenberg! :roll:
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by mr. squarepants » November 6th, 2004, 8:26 pm

At the showing of The Incredibles that I went to, the crowd didn't respond too well to the Cars trailer... well, except for that quick last-minute shot of the redneck truck.

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Post by James » November 6th, 2004, 11:01 pm

Ben wrote:I'm just gonna stick with being disappointed and having the feeling that it's going to be the usual Pixar buddy fest...

...Then there's this "well, let's see how it turns out" lark. Have you guys not learned anything about teasers actually being more indicative of what a final project will turn out like?...

...The Incredibles had an awesome teaser that got us all excited. EVERYONE loved that first look at Mr Incredible...

It's just not happening with Cars, guys... :(
What's going on Ben? I'm disagreeing with you again!

After, The Incredibles it's really hard to say that Pixar is too formulaic. The Incredibles was probably the most unique animated film from a major studio in a long time.

And as for The Incredibles trailer, it ended up being absolutely NOTHING like the film!

As for the Cars trailer, I agree, it's the first Pixar trailer that doesn't jump off the screen as an automatic hit! But as Lassiter and Pixar have a perfect record so far, I'm willing to first assume it's the trailer that was poorly made rather than the film at this point.

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Post by Ben » November 7th, 2004, 5:08 am

Hmmm...

Yes, odd that we should be at odds over this one! :)

I was just hoping that the move away from straight buddy pictures, starting with Nemo (which Stanton admitted they knew they were getting into a rut with and were trying to move away from) and especially with the Incredibles, obviously.

But, with Cars, we're back in the old territory - the new flash character who interacts with an older, burnt out character (Buzz and Woody, Flik and the Circus bugs, Mike and Sully, Dory and Marlin)...

And though The Incredibles teaser was not like the film, it did create the world, the set up, and the family life perfectly.

Cars is just too suspect to work - if only they'd had humans and eyes in the headlights!

Reminds me too much of the Avery cartoon, Disney's Susie The Little Blue Coupe and Little Toot, plus the 1970s featurette Dad, Can I Borrow The Car?

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » November 7th, 2004, 9:53 am

Ben wrote:............
I was just hoping that the move away from straight buddy pictures, starting with Nemo (which Stanton admitted they knew they were getting into a rut with and were trying to move away from) and especially with the Incredibles, obviously.

But, with Cars, we're back in the old territory - the new flash character who interacts with an older, burnt out character (Buzz and Woody, Flik and the Circus bugs, Mike and Sully, Dory and Marlin)...

......................................
Reminds me too much of the Avery cartoon, Disney's Susie The Little Blue Coupe and Little Toot, plus the 1970s featurette Dad, Can I Borrow The Car?
Again, I agree about the basic story formula Pixar is using. It IS wearing thin.

As for the Avery short and all the others you mention, I've seen all of them except Dad, Can I Borrow the Car.

It really won't make much of a difference to the general audience because most of those cartoons haven't been seen on anything other than cable TV in years -- in the US, at least. Heck, last time I saw any of the shorts was on home video!

I suspect a lot of people that watch Cars will have a vague feeling they've seen films like it before but won't remember this isn't the first time an animated film has done anthromorphic cars.

It sounds too bad about the Cars design. They probably need more human characteristics for those character designs to work. Avery got that right in his animated short.

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » November 7th, 2004, 9:56 am

GeorgeC wrote:
I suspect a lot of people that watch Cars will have a vague feeling they've seen films like it before but won't remember this isn't the first time an animated film has done anthromorphic cars.

And here I forgot the most obvious anthromorphic car movie practically everybody under 35 has seen --

Herbie, The Love Bug!

And Disney's remaking that movie, too! LOL

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redneck car

Post by ShyViolet » November 7th, 2004, 9:34 pm

mr. squarepants wrote:At the showing of The Incredibles that I went to, the crowd didn't respond too well to the Cars trailer... well, except for that quick last-minute shot of the redneck truck.
Yeah that was SO cute. :lol:
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by Uli » November 8th, 2004, 7:41 am

Don't worry 'bout Ol' John - he knows what he's doing ;)

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Post by James » November 29th, 2004, 11:01 am

We have our first description of the plot now! From Cheech Marin: a "story about a little stock car racer...on his way to the big event and he breaks down in this little town that time forgot and it's like this time capsule of old cars".

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Post by James » November 29th, 2004, 11:04 am

BTW, now that this thread has become a discussion of the film, I have moved it to the Theatrical Features forum.

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Release date of Cars

Post by ShyViolet » December 8th, 2004, 12:02 am

I can't believe Disney changed it to June 1. Of course it's going to cut right into Madagascar. *Sigh* Another Pixar-DreamWorks-Disney battle coming up.....

:roll:
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

GeorgeC

Re: Release date of Cars

Post by GeorgeC » December 8th, 2004, 1:54 am

ShyViolet wrote:I can't believe Disney changed it to June 1. Of course it's going to cut right into Madagascar. *Sigh* Another Pixar-DreamWorks-Disney battle coming up.....

:roll:

Uh,

apparently you haven't read the update on the newspage.

Disney moved Chicken Little to Cars' old timeslot. Chicken Little is now being released in November.

You can get back to your DW sugar-induced fit, now! :lol:

GeorgeC

Re: Release date of Cars

Post by GeorgeC » December 8th, 2004, 2:14 am

ShyViolet wrote:I can't believe Disney changed it to June 1. Of course it's going to cut right into Madagascar. *Sigh* Another Pixar-DreamWorks-Disney battle coming up.....

:roll:
I realized something here.

I really don't follow this line of thinking. Is it just me, or is the USA still a capitalist society? It's not perfect, yes, but by no means does it have to be that companies have to play so fairly that they DON'T compete with each other!

When companies get together and decide NOT to compete with each other and arrange their schedules to be nice and spread the happiness all-around, you basically are only one or two steps away from monopoly. That's called oligopoly and it's the reason why it's so hard to find a good deal on gas prices in any town.

(Contrary to what many people believe, Disney did NOT have a monopoly on feature animation for several decades. Most other companies chose NOT to compete with Disney because they couldn't figure out the "magical formula" Disney used to create successful animated features. It's the same basic ingredients most successful enduring films have -- likeable characters and stories that stay with you. It's not enough just to have a pretty-looking picture.)

None of these companies owe the other a break. I'm sorry, but that's just not how it works.

If anything, if competition WORKS the way it's supposed to, it should encourage competitors to put out BETTER product.

Right now, most people believe Pixar is doing a better job making animated films with DECENT stories as opposed to doing films full of pop culture references and throw-away humor inserted to fill dead spaces ==> that's basically what writers did in the Family Guy TV series and I've noticed it more and more in theatrical features, too.

Somebody's going to be a loser in any competition and you may think that stinks, but that's life.

There is a difference, however, between losing one battle and calling off the war and completely surrendering because you think the rules aren't fair and the other guy's cheating. That's completely defeatist and the stupid line of logic both Disney and DreamWorks used to justify shutting down their traditional animation studios and laying off hundreds of people. They thought it was the technique (hand-drawn animation) that was killing their films' profitability and not the fact that the stories and characters in their last few hand-drawn films were forgettable.

Believe me, if the day comes that this CGI lovefest ends or Pixar expands into hand-drawn animation and proves once and for all that story trumps technique, we're going to hear Katzenberg and the next Disney CEO change their tunes quick about hand-drawn animation and rebuild their traditional animation studios. There's no question who's following whom here.

There's never going to be a situation where these guys decide to play fair because A) the people that run these companies are egotists who WANT to come out on top of their competition and B) the moment it appears they're operating an oligopoly, they SHOULD be investigated by the federal government.

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Post by Ben » December 8th, 2004, 7:15 am

No, there's perfect logic working here.

Steve Jobs recently was mooting a move to summer '06 for Cars anyway - after Nemo he's been on record as saying that that is the better model to run to: a summer movie hit followed by holiday DVD sales. He even says it in his press blurb.

In order for that to happen, Cars needs to move earlier to summer '05, thus putting pressure on its work schedule, or to '06, which is the way they've gone, meaning Rats will be out summer '07 (and also giving Pixar more time to re-up with Disney if they get on with Mr new CEO).

As for ChickLit, well, we all knew that was going to move, what with three other BIG movies out in th same time frame and competing for similar audiences.

Plus...it gives the filmmakers more time to have the 'micro-management' fiddle with it and mess it up some more, doesn't it? ;)

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Post by askmike1 » December 8th, 2004, 5:44 pm

Could this have been a huge plan by Disney to make Chicken Little succeed?
Just think, Disney puts Cars in the November timeslot, virtually scaring off any other family film (at least non-Shrek films). Then, in perfect timing, they move Cars to summer and moves Chicken Little to November, thus giving it a free date with little competition.
Anyway, I hope CL does great.
-Michael
[url=http://www.mainstreetword.com]MSW[/url]

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