@AngryWhiteMale I forgot about the Cars movies. I have only seen the first one and while it was not groundbreaking, I found the story, the plotting and the visuals engaging enough not to dislike it. I would respectfully disagree with A Bug’s Life as a weak entry. I would label it quite good and this is maybe because I graded it in comparison with Dreamwork’s Antz.
I think there was a race between Pixar and Dreamworks in releasing each of their movies and there were accusations thrown around that someone stole the idea from the other. Anyhow, I find A Bug’s Life’s storytelling to be smart without being downright silly. And their animation was way superior than Dreamworks. Although, I would admit, Antz was not a disaster for me since they tapped Woody Allen and Sylvester’s Stallone’s voice talents. ( wondering what that says about me…lol. )
I guess Pixar’s approach is come up with a movie that both kids and their parents would enjoy and I understand pulling that off each time successfully would be quite difficult. I’m sure I’m being quite unfair. After Finding Nemo and Toy Story 1, I couldn’t help but to expect the same level of surprising creativity.
But UP wasn’t that. I don’t think a great montage in a movie saves and makes the whole movie. And if that montage is what people remember about that movie, then something is wrong. The whole second half was pretty weak, imo. The same part of the movie that didn’t work well with Wall-E, again, imo. None of that satisfied feeling and natural high that I got after watching Nemo and Toy Story 1 and its latest installment.
Brave to me was the worst, because each Pixar film takes what, at least two to three years to make and that movie, as their latest offering, was just bland, unimaginative and uninspired for a major film offering from Pixar. They dropped the ball big time.