The Geek Beat: Just So Stories
Filed under: The Geek Beat
I'm not going to review UP because it would be the umpteenth review you've read in a handful of days, and it's not as though I'm going to be the one sour lemon of the bunch. Please. It's PIXAR. Hating one of their films is like hating your own mom.
But I think UP is more than a fantastic movie. I think it might go down as an important moment of animation, storytelling, film making, and even this nebulous thing called "geekdom." That's a lot to put on its helium-hoisted shoulders, I'll grant you, but the reaction surrounding the film isn't something I've seen from any PIXAR effort yet. This is something special, and my first thought when the credits rolled was "This wasn't for kids. PIXAR has grown up ... and this movie makes me cry because I've grown up."
I'm starting to see their films as the story of fandom, geekdom, and the painful march into true adulthood. I'm not saying it's an overt theme, but just a gentle interpretation that begins with Toy Story, a movie that's very much about being a kid, the thrill of having the newest and the best, and the fear of being uncool and left out. It's childhood. It's the purity of fandom, which sets the stage for the darker side of Toy Story 2. If Toy Story remembers how wonderful it is to see Star Wars for the first time, the sequel reminds you of how seductive and destructive nostalgia can be. This is the darker side of fandom, not only in its damning picture of the basement dwelling collector, but in its portrayal of those who would do anything to bottle up childhood. It's about being so obsessed with something that you would hermetically seal yourself. (Wait, did The 40 Year Old Virgin rip off Toy Story 2?)
But I think UP is more than a fantastic movie. I think it might go down as an important moment of animation, storytelling, film making, and even this nebulous thing called "geekdom." That's a lot to put on its helium-hoisted shoulders, I'll grant you, but the reaction surrounding the film isn't something I've seen from any PIXAR effort yet. This is something special, and my first thought when the credits rolled was "This wasn't for kids. PIXAR has grown up ... and this movie makes me cry because I've grown up."
I'm starting to see their films as the story of fandom, geekdom, and the painful march into true adulthood. I'm not saying it's an overt theme, but just a gentle interpretation that begins with Toy Story, a movie that's very much about being a kid, the thrill of having the newest and the best, and the fear of being uncool and left out. It's childhood. It's the purity of fandom, which sets the stage for the darker side of Toy Story 2. If Toy Story remembers how wonderful it is to see Star Wars for the first time, the sequel reminds you of how seductive and destructive nostalgia can be. This is the darker side of fandom, not only in its damning picture of the basement dwelling collector, but in its portrayal of those who would do anything to bottle up childhood. It's about being so obsessed with something that you would hermetically seal yourself. (Wait, did The 40 Year Old Virgin rip off Toy Story 2?)
Every subsequent PIXAR film has been a little more about growing up and facing reality. I think this is why a lot of adult fans have issues with A Bug's Life. It's cute, it's fun, but it's a step backward. It's the indulgent fan taking time to remake their Kurosawa because they can, and hey, there's nothing wrong with that once you've got the resources. (Plus, think of all the little kids who will be able to understand The Seven Samurai once they grow up!)
But the fanboys who produced A Bug's Life got all that Star Wars stuff out of their system. Instead of preserving themselves like a Prospector Pete (which I suspect is a little jab at Disney's ongoing hunger for the newest and youngest preteen), they've done a Remy the Rat, and used their love and fandom to produce something worthy of consumption. The geeks grew up, and they tackled parenthood, environmentalism, love, urban sprawl, destiny, aging, and death. Not all of these have been successes – a lot of people dismiss Finding Nemo (I don't), and few liked CARS. But not one of these is a terrible film, and none of them are pure, loud commercialism. They're all exploring and questioning something. That's more than you can say for a lot of films from any studio, be they live action or animated.
UP is the moment when PIXAR stopped, realized how old they are, and said "Wow. I need to sit down. I need to think about this a minute." They turned it into a movie with balloons, birds, and whimsy that disguised a story of scars, heartache, and the sum of a life's adventure. The fears of aging that were hinted at in all their previous efforts suddenly were tackled head on, accepted, and moved past. It's a lesson to all of us, and it's a rather powerful one to nostalgia-hungry audiences that hang onto what we love and beg for prequels and spin-offs. It's not as harsh as William Shatner's "Get a life!" but it's a gentle reminder to stop and enjoy the memories. It's just a house. It's just a movie.
But I'm not sure UP will ever just be a movie. What makes it important for film is that they've told this story through animation. Film and animation buffs have been clamoring for years for adult animation to become mainstream, and I think UP might be the movie that finally makes it palatable to the masses. This story is no less heartbreaking for being told through animation, no less identifiable because of its cute, appealing characters. Thanks to years of solid storytelling, adults aren't embarrassed to be seen going to a PIXAR movie, and they aren't scrambling for a kid to take along as cover. UP showings were sold out around the clock – morning, noon, and night, 3-D and 2-D. It's being treated like any other film. That's huge. But it's also no surprise, and it's old hat to those of us who are comfortable in the world of comic books, graphic novels, foreign animation, manga, and anime. We've known that real stories can be told in "cartoonish" ways for decades now. Just because the protagonist is a squashy, square guy like Carl or a vigilante in a skull t-shirt doesn't make the story any less authentic.
PIXAR will always make movies that are fun, and young at heart, but UP feels like the culmination of their youth. It's not the end of a journey, but they know who they are and what they want to do. They'll keep pushing the boundaries – and they are proof positive as to how mainstream "geekdom" can be, how mature it can be when it wants to, and what rich stories it can produce. I can't wait to see the next page in their adventure book.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-02-2009 @ 1:29PM
Joel said...
I want to see 'UP', looks like another good Pixar effort.
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6-02-2009 @ 1:57PM
darienWasabi@gmail.com said...
i concur.
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6-02-2009 @ 4:20PM
Ben said...
Wouldn't it be fantastic if Marvel and Pixar would team up to create all of these comic book characters in 3d?
I think making these movies entirely live action is very restrictive to the universe. There is just so much that they can't do.
Anyway, I think it would be pretty awesome.
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6-02-2009 @ 4:45PM
Stunbunny said...
No.
Pixar has a soul and I hope they retain that. Marvel, as the recent Wolverine has shown, not to mention many other previous efforts, has no soul. It's all about the cash.
I do, however, think it would be a brilliant idea to break away from the live action restriction and start doing some big-budget, 3D animated features. I've wondered for years why Marvel and other studios don't see animation as a viable format for big action set-pieces, other than the fact that it takes 10 times as long to make a movie that way. Today's comic book flicks are already made largely on a computer. Why not go all the way?
6-03-2009 @ 7:26PM
Bubbameister33 said...
Fox made the Wolverine movie not Marvel.
6-02-2009 @ 2:30PM
Joseph Finn said...
I'd just like to note that if you don't mist up a little during that sequence of Toy Story 2, you have no soul.
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6-04-2009 @ 2:11PM
Sandy said...
Absolutely. That scene makes me cry every time, because one day I realized that the toys in this movie are metaphors for parents. When the Prospector asks Woody how long it will last, asks if he expects Andy to take him to college, that was when it hit me. And since I have a young son of my own who is growing up way too fast, I really lost it that day. I get sniffly still, even after a few dozen viewings.
6-02-2009 @ 2:19PM
Andy said...
What a great analysis.
I think you're spot on, and I do think that is why 'UP' is really something special. It's larger themes are 100% targeted for adults in many stages of their lives.
Letting go of the things and people around you that you've come to depend on is one of the ultimate challenges of being an adult...and it's shocking that an animated movie took this on. 'UP' is amazing.
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6-02-2009 @ 2:30PM
Moo said...
Fantastic column. I still haven't seen UP (stupid sold out theaters) but I absolutely agree with your analysis of the rest of Pixar's films and their evolution over time in storytelling. Pixar hit the stage when Disney's regular animated features had become stale and overly familiar. Pixar's films were revolutionary not just in how they looked, but because they re-injected "heart" into animated storytelling. The best of the animated features of the past have had something to say. Maybe it's not something that the little ones will get, but they had something to say. It's easy to make kids laugh. Getting the parents interested in something deeper and giving those same kids a reason to watch these films again 10 or 15 years later...that's the real challenge. Pixar has taken that torch and carried it well.
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6-02-2009 @ 2:59PM
Julie said...
Great column. Some of your best work. I completely agree with your break down. As an adult watching Toy Story I , I laughed and identified with it as a parent, quietly smiling to myself remembering my own adventures trying to locate that special toy to make a special childhood memory for my own kids. Watching Toy Story II, I got all choked up thinking about my kids growing up but more so remembering my own childhood and the toys I tossed in a corner. Monsters INC was every parent and kids memory of the monster under the bed, sleepless nights and fear. Pixar captured the wisdom and innocence of little Boo so well. You sat there thinking, these animators are parents, they know kids. Finding Nemo brought home the difficulty of letting go. They grow up so fast. Now Up. Now I'm the Pixar audience member with no kids as cover, I'm also growing older myself and facing my own future with far fewer days ahead of me than behind. It was painful to watch, heart wrenching in the portrayal of love, life and death. I don't even think of it as animation anymore. Yes, Pixar has grown up and me and you along with it.
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6-02-2009 @ 10:34PM
Jake said...
I'm a huge animation fan but I'm a little critical of Pixar's efforts. Up was flawed -- the dogs were poorly animated and clashed with the rest of the film's style, the villian was underdeveloped, and the adventure was half-handed. I loved the beginning and the emotional flashbacks were done extremely well. But like WALL-E, I felt like the first half didn't make up for the second. I did love Ratatouille, the Toy Story movies, and Monsters Inc. They all have their merits but I think the "Pixar does no wrong" mentality is a little perplexing.
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6-02-2009 @ 4:33PM
cablebfg said...
PIXAR embodies what alot of films hope to accomplish. To have a surface that is full of laughs, but underneath to present ideas that you can talk about and relate to.
PIXAR are masters at giving you the option to take something more from the movie or just enjoying the exterior.
Great article. I can't wait to watch UP.
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6-02-2009 @ 5:14PM
Raven said...
Fantastic point, Elisabeth. I was lucky enough to catch a screening of this with a few of my friends this past weekend, and seeing the mix of people in the audience was almost as enjoyable as the film itself. We all just recently graduated college, and were desperate to see the movie, so we sat 2 rows behind a couple of different groups of families with children that had to be around 4 to 8 years old. And sure, the goofy moments with Kevin, Doug, Carl and Russell made everyone in the theater (regardless of age) crack up, but it was the reactions to the opening sequence that made the whole experience worthwhile. From the "aw" 's during the sweet times between Ellie and Carl, to the loud, and genuinely heartbroken gasps over the harsh times that they would weather together, we were all taken aback by just how "real" the guys at PIXAR were determined to make this film, and how seamlessly they did it.
After leaving the theater, we were all in agreement about two things: 1. This is PIXAR's best film to date, and 2. Just because you're a certain age, doesn't mean that the term "adventure" automatically loses its meaning or weight. The children that sat in front of us were wrapped up in Carl and Russell's high-flying adventure because it was funny, colorful and exciting. Their parents were simultaneously aiding them along on their adventure by bringing them to see the movie, and living their own adventure by combining who they were before becoming parents and who they are now. And for one evening, my friends and I were able to sit in the gray area between the adventure that we had all shared together for 4 years, and the adventures that we would soon embark on alone. And the fact that that level of emotion, heart and introspection could be derived from an animated movie with talking dogs, crazy birds and a flying house is just more proof that geeks can and do "grow up" just like everyone else does. It's all just a matter of how.
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6-02-2009 @ 5:21PM
ames said...
what a great article. i was 7 when toy story came out and i just bought the dvd last month along with the sequel, and i can't believe how different i look at those films now, as a young adult. with wall-e and up, i realised that Pixar doesn't make films for kids, and i love that about them; they're always a breath of fresh air.
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6-03-2009 @ 2:22AM
Dan said...
Elisabeth, as per usual, you absolutely nailed it. I'm not sure I can even give you any good feedback because you already summed up pretty much exactly how I feel, only much more articulately than I would have been able to.
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6-03-2009 @ 3:52PM
cablebfg said...
Stunbunny, some companies have cashed in on Marvel's franchises, but that doesnt mean the company itself has no soul. That is pretty harsh. To date, Marvel's production studios have made some pretty good flicks. Their worst has been the new Hulk, and that had been taken over with a poor script to begin with.
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