I think I'm embargoed against telling you what I thought of "Brave" until Friday, but I will say that I think their investors are probably extremely happy that their next scheduled release is a follow-up to an established mega-hit a'la "Toy Story 3."
"Monster University" will be Pixar's first stab at the prequel game, featuring as it does James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski of "Monsters Inc." as college students. Admittedly, taking their ultimate "working class schmoe" characters and plunking them down into an Animal House/Revenge of The Nerds riff isn't exactly "How'd they think of THAT!!??" territory, but funny is funny.
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Monsters Inc. was my favorite PIXAR movie growing up. Hell, the DVD set kicked ass. I would spend hours watching and rewatching the "Air Show" easter egg.
Damn it, now I'm nervous about whether that opening line meant that Brave is not marketable enough or not good enough. My wife and I were REALLY looking forward to this one.
Faraci gave a positive but somewhat disappointed review last week. Paraphrasing: "Good but not quite Pixar Good".
Bob mentioned Brave positively in his recent junk drawer episode. Otherwise, it seems the pre-release buzz is that it's just another generic rebellious tomboy princess story that doesn't take any chances... not like Disney has ever been much about furthering the field of screenwriting. Their films are comfort food and they don't try to pretend otherwise.
Um... what was that thing about investors? Now I'm scare for Brave, seriously scared. Maybe it will be a case where I love it and nobody else does, like Tales From Earthsea. Or its just crap.
Oh dear...
Sigh. And so begins Pixar's inexorable descent into mediocrity. After the underwhelming Brave (which so far has been getting tepid reviews) and going back to the well with Monsters Inc. - on a "the early years" prequel no less - I think they're really starting to lose their touch.
I have zero problems with this. Zero. There are enough good sequels / prequels out there to make me not hate the idea itself, and besides, it's Monsters Inc. That's a really funny, charming movie. I'd say I'm pumped for it, we'll see how it develops.
I am a little nervous for Brave now, though. I know Bob can't tell us outright, but I think he means it's not going to pull in a wider demographic. As in, it's not going to be profitable enough. Or something. I mean, I still have no idea what the damn thing's actually ABOUT, so I can't say I'm that excited.
@ Dave
Knowing Disney's hostility towards innovation (which does seem to be affecting Pixar lately), I think I can tell you exactly what Brave is about just from the trailer:
* The red-head (for purity's sake, I refuse to even look up Wikipedia) is a princess, but doesn't want to be. Generic "I don't want to be a lady".
* There's an archery competition to marry her off. She plays and handily wins.
* (At this point, we're past the marketing I've seen). She either gets exiled or leaves on her own. Not long after going into the wild, she gets thrown into some kind of peril and barely emerges intact.
* She meets somebody that's wise, respectful, and (most importantly) male. She learns The Moral™ from him (probably family unity rather than self-actualization).
* Something she indirectly or directly caused screws up the kingdom. Dragon attack or something. It makes her family realize how important she was and how they've mistreated her.
* She comes back, saves the kingdom, repairs the rift in the family, and marries the guy she met in the wild. Everything's kept blandly heteronormative and she joins the Disney Princess toy line.
In two days, we'll see how right I am.
You wanna know what's funny?
Something Awful held a Photoshop Phriday contest several years ago called "Unlikely Movie Prequels," and a Monsters, Inc. poster was one of them.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/unlikely-movie-prequels.php?page=2
(Scroll to the bottom image.)
Unlikely, they said...
You're paying too much attention to tropes and not enough to the actual information available on the movie itself. Given the vague hints at magic goings on, the importance of the mother-daughter relationship, and certain aesthetic parallels, I'm guessing that the bears in the trailer are actually her Mother and Brothers, transformed by a spell she has the mysterious witch- who's voice we hear in the trailer- cast to "change her fate," meaning that the as-of-yet largely unseen majority of the film concerns Merida working to change them back. Now while this may not sound all that original either, I think that pixar can pull it off better than we've seen it done before, given their devotion to character focused writing and their proven ability to make well-worn family dynamics more touching and moving than they've been in a long time.
I liked Monsters Inc. It was a cute movie. Not entirely sold on Monsters University, though...
I hope Randall shows up, though. I've met quite a few obsessive fans who INSIST that Randall was just a hapless pawn in Mr. Waternoose's plans and has tons of evidence to back up these claims. Most of which stems from the fact that we're never told what his motivation is, we're left to judge by actions alone.
Though some fans go too far and say Sulley and Mike are the REAL jerks. Mike, maybe, but Sulley? Come on...
I guess there are worse things than seeing these two characters again. They're good enough that you can just plonk them in any situation and they'll probably work together (Dreamworks would be on Monsters 8 by now).
Disappointed to see the mediocre reviews of Brave though. I'm hoping it's "mediocre by Pixar standards" rather than just plain old mediocre.
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