Movies Disney-Pixar's Soul has reviews up, and....

[ort]

Soul was very good, but isn't among my Pixar favs. My wife cried and loved it though. Kids also really liked it.

 

Don't get me wrong, it is great, but it just didn't land all the punches for me personally. It sorta felt like a mash-up of Coco and Inside Out. I felt like everything worked better when they were on Earth, and all of the afterlife stuff just didn't move me. Whenever a movie goes to strange lands like this, I always feel like they are just making everything up as they go along. The stakes don't feel real, because they just keep introducing new rules for the setting and they always feel arbitrary.

 

Still a big thumbs up from me.

[EternallDarkness]

21 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I can see that. That may certainly be where he ends up, but my issue is that he doesn't get there until after his own dream is a disappointment. At the piano, he's reaching into his memories of his body's time as 22 and remembering what she felt and thought while in control. His memory of her zeal for life and just being a better person than him gives him pause since she sacrificed her chance for him. Up until that point he's been pretty self-centered the entire movie.

 

If he had that revelation while in the middle of the gig or before he had spoken to Dorothea, or at least an inkling of it, I think it would have landed better.

 

Maybe my perspective is just colored here, because I've totally been where he was. I went to college as a graphic design major and then when I got the taste that working in art and graphic design professionally is awful. It's just another day to day job, just with a lot less security than other careers. Yeah, I left that stuff in the background as a hobby...which I don't really touch anymore because kids and stuff.

 

This is one of those times where the movie could have breathed a bit.

 

All that said, this doesn't stop the movie from being very good. I'm being incredibly nit-picky here. Pixar doesn't really have much in the way of misses. There's Cars 2 and The Good Dinosaur. I mean, none of the Cars movies are really all that great, but at least I get what they're going for. Cars 2 was just plain bad and The Good Dinosaur is just so awkwardly paced. Every so often, I watch the movie because my youngest loves dinosaurs and everytime I think to myself "Well, shit, I forgot this entire chunk of film even exists." Like I forget that there are villains in this film and that it also features the most horrifying death in Pixar history.

 

I don't think any Pixar movies has truly been 'bad' yes Cars 2 was odd, though I still found some things to laugh about and Good Dino is definitely worst thing they've put out...though I can't say I hate it. Didn't draw enough emotion from me to feel one way or the other. It was mostly forgettable. I keep saying I'll give it another watch one of these days but I never do. 

[5timechamp]

...Bao and the Mater shorts are about the worst Pixar things. Cars 2 as mentioned still has its good moments (killing Bruce Campbell was heartless though, even in car form hes awesome).

 

might need to recheck my pixar film tiers once i catch up on all the films

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This video is well worth watching:

 

 

[EternallDarkness]

51 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

This video is well worth watching:

 

 

 

can't argue with any of his points. 

[SaysWho?]

On 12/27/2020 at 12:53 AM, Ghost_MH said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I can see that. That may certainly be where he ends up, but my issue is that he doesn't get there until after his own dream is a disappointment. At the piano, he's reaching into his memories of his body's time as 22 and remembering what she felt and thought while in control. His memory of her zeal for life and just being a better person than him gives him pause since she sacrificed her chance for him. Up until that point he's been pretty self-centered the entire movie.

 

If he had that revelation while in the middle of the gig or before he had spoken to Dorothea, or at least an inkling of it, I think it would have landed better.

 

Maybe my perspective is just colored here, because I've totally been where he was. I went to college as a graphic design major and then when I got the taste that working in art and graphic design professionally is awful. It's just another day to day job, just with a lot less security than other careers. Yeah, I left that stuff in the background as a hobby...which I don't really touch anymore because kids and stuff.

 

This is one of those times where the movie could have breathed a bit.

 

All that said, this doesn't stop the movie from being very good. I'm being incredibly nit-picky here. Pixar doesn't really have much in the way of misses. There's Cars 2 and The Good Dinosaur. I mean, none of the Cars movies are really all that great, but at least I get what they're going for. Cars 2 was just plain bad and The Good Dinosaur is just so awkwardly paced. Every so often, I watch the movie because my youngest loves dinosaurs and everytime I think to myself "Well, shit, I forgot this entire chunk of film even exists." Like I forget that there are villains in this film and that it also features the most horrifying death in Pixar history.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by Cars 3. Not great, but it was a good movie and an upgrade from Cars 2, which was just weird and felt out of place after Ratatouille/WALL-E/Up/Toy Story 3.

 

On 12/27/2020 at 8:28 AM, Joe said:

I hear Brave is not great either. I still want to see it.

 

I was bored by Brave. I looked forward to it for so long -- new IP, medieval times, and the synopsis of the plot made it seem like they were going to fire on all cylinders with the story's potential.

 

But it ended up feeling small. And not in an intimate way.

[Ghost_MH]

2 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

I was pleasantly surprised by Cars 3. Not great, but it was a good movie and an upgrade from Cars 2, which was just weird and felt out of place after Ratatouille/WALL-E/Up/Toy Story 3.

 

Cars 3 was great compared to Cars 2. I know a lot of people were hard on it, but I thought it was just as good as the first movie. That still puts it far below the likes of Ratatouille/WALL-E/Up/Toy Story 3, but still serviceable.

[ort]

I really disliked Cars 3. Not a fan of that series at all.

 

Brave felt like a movie that had been rewritten like 10 times. It was a mess. There are aspects of it that are truly great, but it always felt like a really great movie trapped inside of a mediocre one.

 

[Mercury33]

Well...that was good I guess.  I didn’t dislike it but I really didn’t like it either. I found the whole thing to be pretty unremarkable. Felt like an elongated version of one of their shorts. I also got zero emotion out of it. And I’m someone who cried in WallE when they’re flying in space because of how beautiful that scene is. Joe is completely unlikeable. I never cared if he got to live his dream. And 22 was meh. The captain of that dream ship was the most likeable character in the whole movie. But oddly enough I’m glad I saw it. I didn’t hate it. But I can honestly say, unlike almost every other Pixar film, I have zero desire to ever watch that again. 
 

Also my son got upset and asked what happened to the soul of the cat. Which I thought was funny given thats one of the criticisms of WW84. 

[Greatoneshere]

16 hours ago, Mercury33 said:

Well...that was good I guess.  I didn’t dislike it but I really didn’t like it either. I found the whole thing to be pretty unremarkable. Felt like an elongated version of one of their shorts. I also got zero emotion out of it. And I’m someone who cried in WallE when they’re flying in space because of how beautiful that scene is. Joe is completely unlikeable. I never cared if he got to live his dream. And 22 was meh. The captain of that dream ship was the most likeable character in the whole movie. But oddly enough I’m glad I saw it. I didn’t hate it. But I can honestly say, unlike almost every other Pixar film, I have zero desire to ever watch that again. 
 

Also my son got upset and asked what happened to the soul of the cat. Which I thought was funny given thats one of the criticisms of WW84. 

 

I felt the same way. Soul was good, but it felt like I could see all the strings in the Pixar formula. I had this problem with Coco as well (but not Toy Story 4). It feels like a remix rather than something new and fresh. I mean, Up and Inside Out floored me. This film barely registered. It was all well done, but I was ultimately not moved by much.