Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Inside Out 2: Pixar's Emotional Return and Our Pixar Hall of Fame
What if Pixar’s latest smash hit, "Inside Out 2," marks the beginning of a new golden era for the animation giant? Join us as we examine how this emotionally charged sequel not only shattered financial records but might also signal Pixar's triumphant return to its storytelling roots. We reflect on our own viewing experiences—from early morning screenings to packed afternoon shows—revealing the film's widespread appeal and discussing its impact compared to the original "Inside Out."
Explore the emotional rollercoaster of Riley's teenage years with us as we unpack the introduction of new emotions like anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, and boredom, brought to life by Adele Exarchopoulos. We delve into the film’s climactic scenes where all emotions unite to help Riley find herself, and contemplate the potential for a future PG-13 sequel. Through a balance of humor and poignant storytelling, "Inside Out 2" offers a realistic portrayal of modern teenage struggles that resonates deeply with audiences of all ages.
Finally, we journey through Pixar's storied history, comparing "Inside Out 2" to its predecessors and ranking our all-time favorite Pixar films. From the groundbreaking "Toy Story" to the emotionally rich "Coco," we discuss the timeless appeal of Pixar's storytelling. We also share personal anecdotes about the studio's broad cultural impact and reflect on what makes Pixar films special. Whether you’re a long-time fan or new to the magic of Pixar, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the heart and soul of one of animation's most beloved studios.
how's it? I'm alex mccauley and I'm max fosberg and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding feelings. Pixar's latest film, inside out 2, is number one at the box office and setting financial records across the board. Is this a return to form for pixar animation? Is inside out 2 one of pixar's best films to date? And and what are the best Pixar movies of all time? Those answers up next on the other side of this break.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by the Seattle Film Society. The Seattle Film Society is a filmmaker run project dedicated to organizing, cultivating and celebrating the region's filmmaking community Through screenings, educational opportunities and community initiatives. Seattle Film Society strives to be a centralizing force for Seattle-area filmmakers.
Speaker 1:Their monthly screening event, Locals Only, is held at 18th and Union in Seattle's Central District and spotlights local voices in independent filmmaking.
Speaker 2:Tickets start at $10 and are available at Seattle film societycom to keep up with the Seattle film society, Be sure to check them out on Instagram or letterbox at Seattle film society or on their website Seattle film societycom.
Speaker 1:Come be a part of the next generation of Seattle filmmaking today. All right Max, how are you doing today? Bud, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 2:What a delightful piece of homework we've had this week.
Speaker 1:This was a great week in prep for this episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I've seen 25 of 28 in this series Very impressive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pixar, it's wild. Here we go Once again. I sound like a broken record saying 200 plus episodes in and how have we never done this episode yet?
Speaker 2:Yeah it is kind of interesting that, because of how important this studio has been for you know since 95, that we've never really touched on this genre or this world of films and it's not like we haven't had a lack.
Speaker 1:There hasn't been a lack of opportunity. Right, I'm looking at our list right here and I think since we've started this podcast, there's been six Pixar releases, including Inside Out 2. But it does feel like this is more of a significant moment for the studio and for just animated films in general, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, especially when you look at the Pixar story too, right Like they needed a big win here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And yeah, we wouldn't have done this episode. No disrespect to Lightyear, but I don't think that the release of Lightyear would have warranted a big, grand scope discussion like this. But it but it really does start with Inside Out too, so let's kind of talk about that film here for a minute. Exceeded all sorts of expectations when it opened, with $155 million domestically and then another $140 million internationally for a 295 worldwide weekend opening. That's huge. You can say that it was a soft holiday weekend with Father's Day happening, so that might've drove families out to the theater more than usual. But you also had graduations happening. School is out across the country for the most part, so that may have helped as well. But this wasn't like a traditional 4th of July weekend or a Memorial Day weekend opening or anything like that. So it's really remarkable what the film was able to accomplish Second biggest opening for an animated film ever. I read, biggest opening since Barbie. I mean, we're talking huge significance here with the opening of this. So how do you respond to that?
Speaker 2:just in general, I think it really shows how important the first inside out meant to everyone who saw that movie back in 2015.
Speaker 1:That's a really good point to make.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like just the prestige that comes with that film and now that you have the sequel out, like people are are down to go see it, and I think the first one and we'll get to the history here and we'll do it chronologically a little bit later but I think the first inside out came at a really important time for Pixar as well, where, like it, comes out in the middle of films like Cars 2, brave Monsters, university, these sequels, and then it's followed up by things like Finding Dory, cars 3, more sequels Inside Out.
Speaker 1:The original one was a great piece of original filmmaking and now Inside Out, of course, is just going to double down on a lot of those themes. But it's been so long it's not like some of these other Pixar films that have been that have created this own IP of theirs that people were, you know, it's not like folks were sick of joy and anger and any of these characters. There was definitely the need and the want for more from this, from this world and I think to set the world we haven't talked about the film at all either I haven't even seen your letterbox review of it.
Speaker 1:Have you posted one? Yeah, I listen.
Speaker 2:Uh, just want to give a shout out to the people at Cinemark doing the. Lord's work. I saw this movie at 8 55 AM this morning. What a start time and it might be one of my favorite theater experiences of all time. Wow, I mean me and maybe like two other people in there but to get up at 8am and put some shoes on and go to the theater and be back home by 11.
Speaker 1:I've never heard of such thing and I'm so jealous.
Speaker 2:Unbelievable. Yeah, just thank you. Thank you, cinemark, for doing that. And listen, they had four theaters with Inside Out 2 in it and they had an 855. They had a 915. They had a 920. So they've got lots of times dedicated to this film, which again kind of shows how popular this was.
Speaker 1:The demand absolutely. Wow. I really wish I would have maybe accompanied you on that journey, because I myself went and saw this film on a Saturday at a 3 o'clock showing during the weekend. Looked like a psychopath there by myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you weren't arrested on site?
Speaker 1:I was not. I have enough street cred. That's true. That's true but, yes, but that's it. But I did see it in tacoma, it's not like I was over uh, you know at the galaxy uptown theater. Um, however, an incredible experience. Lots of laughing, I'm sure, um tears. I myself was getting choked up.
Speaker 2:I different times. Yeah, Well, but again you had the comfort of Well, and I even mentioned it Like I asked for the manager at Cinemark and I was like thank you so much for this early show time. And they're like yes, we will be open earlier throughout the whole summer. So I am going to Cinemark in the mornings now from now on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like our new, that can be our new gospel that's going to church. It's amazing Me, you Twisters like 920.
Speaker 2:Especially down at that Ruston area. Like usually, it's a zoo down there, right With parking and whatnot. 855,. You got a spot right up front, right next to the front door.
Speaker 1:Stop making me all itchy, me all else in the theater. Like it was spectacular. I can see why this is at the forefront of your mind when you think about greatest theater going experiences and popcorn for breakfast.
Speaker 2:It's nothing better.
Speaker 1:Breakfast the champions. Okay, so inside out to, we stay with Riley. We're going to get into some soft spoilers here. Yeah, I knew nothing going into this film. We stay with Riley. We're going to get into some soft spoilers here. Yeah, I knew nothing going into this film. We stay with Riley. The, the human who we've been introduced to in her family, voiced by Kyle McLaughlin is the dad, diane Lane is the mother. Just incredible voice casting in these films. So we stay with that family and with Riley specifically, which I think right away with that family and with Riley specifically, which I think right away, brilliant way to continue this story, as opposed to having another child or another infant, in this case really have the same kind of emotions, you know, and maybe it's just like, oh, every kid has the same kind of emotions, or whatever. So we stay with Riley. Riley is becoming a teenager and is a hockey player. This movie, low key, one of the best sports movies of 2024.
Speaker 1:Got some great sports action, really does Some good life lessons in the sports arena, not even really big picture speaking, but a really good and effective sports movie. So kudos to to Disney and to Pixar for choosing to to tell this story that way. Um, but I digress. I thought it was really good how the time jump seemed to make sense, friends, you know they talk about puberty. We don't get too, we don't get too into the weeds with that.
Speaker 1:Really, it's more just just about anxiety. This is really kind of like emotions. Yes, it's, it's like a good cop, bad cop movie with, with your emotions, joy, who we've been introduced to, and the first inside out, and now anxiety, voiced by maya hawk. Brilliantly, she's having it, she's having a year, she really is. And so how do you think Pixar handled telling this story through still a PG lens, but about teenagers? Because now I've read some things that and I like this idea, but it's like if Inside Out wants to continue this story, does Pixar maybe tell their first PG-13, do they maybe produce their first PG-13 movie and say in five or six years we get Riley, like graduating high school? Yeah, could be interesting, but how do you think they handled this teenage story of Riley?
Speaker 2:I mean I thought it was brilliantly done. I you know I was pretty blown away. These Inside Out movies really do such a good job of like showcasing the, the human experience through these emotions, right, and bringing in a character like anxiety into the fold, like it was almost like adult therapy, but through a teen lens, right, because I feel like anxiety has become a huge thing that 99.9% of the population deals with, and I thought it was brilliantly showcased throughout this movie and it tugged at my heartstrings and I love the overall message of like, yes, there's going to be anxiety, like we're not, there's not really a bad guy, right. Like no one, no one you know. No emotion's going to get left out because, at the end of the day, who you are as a person is a combination of all of these emotions together. And, yeah, I was blown away by it.
Speaker 1:I think what you just said there, that sentiment is demonstrated perfectly in like the climactic scene of the movie where it takes all the emotions coming together to give riley this new sense of self.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's when the waterworks were were turned up for me and I loved the animation of like crippling anxiety to where anxiety is frozen because they're just moving so fast and like, like. That is a very real thing when you have a panic attack, like you freeze up and you don't know what to do. Really, you know, I'm not watching a lot of these Pixar movies and watching a lot of the sequels and it is a little, you know, reheated in the microwave as far as like we get kicked out of headquarters and we got to go get something and get, then get back to headquarters.
Speaker 2:But I, I can I can look the other way on that because of how, how touching it was, uh, yeah, that, that final moment, and I love all four of the new emotions that they bring in because they are very like. Yes, at 13, at that age is when you start to really get embarrassed, is when you are or I can't even remember what the French woman was we, we can I clear out here for a second, yeah, please, adele Exarchopoulos voicing on we, on we.
Speaker 1:Who is also who is boredom? And on a tablet the entire time, a phone that has the same app as the emotions, like motherboard. Incredible stuff, adele, just killing it. I love it. Um so so.
Speaker 1:But yes, I agree, I thought that the new emotions that they brought in balanced out the balanced out the old emotions that we're already familiar with so perfectly, and they could have gone in a lot of different directions with those. I think, and I also think that setting this movie in present times, or at least making the film in 2024, that had to have been a difficult decision in the production rooms, in these meetings, while we're trying to map out this story, write the script, because there's a lot of different ways they could have taken it right. They could have maybe and I think this movie is getting a lot of praise and maybe folks aren't even aware really, because they didn't try to push the envelope with anything, but I really appreciate that that, like there doesn't. This movie doesn't have any sort of like hidden agenda. There's no. And with Disney you know, just look back at Disney's history that can. That can get a bit muddled sometimes.
Speaker 1:But I don't think that there's anything wrong with this movie, whereas they it could have easily had something happen. There could have been an emotion. There could have been a way in which they were trying to make Riley feel that I think could have upset a lot of people. There wasn't in this and I thought that was great. There was no wokeness to their this movie. There's nothing cliched about this movie. There's nothing shoehorned into this movie. It's just a girl who's turning 13, getting ready to go to like her last year of um, I guess she's getting ready to go to First year of high school.
Speaker 1:First, year of high school, because she's, yeah, talking about making the team as a freshman that's right, the hockey team and just navigating the friendships with her two best friends up until this point, great stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And you know I was a little worried. Some of the early things I read was like, oh, there's a lot more human stuff here, right, like we're outside of her head a lot more. And we are, and we are. But again, I never bumped on it, I felt great about it and I was in for the whole ride and it's really interesting that, like these movies about you know, the first one's about a 12-year-old girl, this one's about a 13-year-old girl, the first one's about a 12-year-old girl, this one's about a 13-year-old girl it can make a 34-year-old man sitting in the theater cry, cry his eyes out. And I think that has to go to the magic of the writing and the structure of these films and how they handle. They just make it so universal with all those emotions, and I love when we cut to other people's heads.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, and it's like it's the same lineup of emotion Because, like, really, when we get down to it, yes, we all kind of, you know, we all are connected, we all are the same. You know they come in different forms or different. The same, you know they come in different forms or different. We look different but like our emotions are, you know, our souls are all kind of together in this.
Speaker 1:Right. And so you have like the dad at the end, when he's like she was gone for three days and all we get is good, and then you know, you go into his head and the emotions are kind of like, yeah, that makes sense. And then the dad in real life is kind of like okay, cool, cool, turn on the game. Yeah, I do agree, that was. That was really good stuff. Something that I couldn't help but notice myself enjoying about this film as opposed to the first one. I didn't know this was interesting. I didn't know that I didn't need this until it wasn't there and I may catch some heat for this the absence of a character like Binging bong worked so well for me.
Speaker 2:How did you?
Speaker 1:relate to that yeah, I was fine with that and and ultimately, I think because we lose a lot of that childhood stuff and that's when we get a little bit of it, like with pouchy, and I forget who pouchy belongs to, but it's this blue type character yes yeah, and I I think that that kind of filled in.
Speaker 2:I in fact in that vault sequence, like the sequel is about the deep, dark secret yes like I mean because you don't learn anything other than like it's there, it's there and, uh, I thought maybe we were going to like more like it, we were going to figure, find out what that was, and they just kind of teased it, and I'm guessing that's kind of where they go next in the story Could be. Yeah, but yeah, I wasn't missing Bing Bong either, and I think if you would have tried to bring Bing Bong back, then we start feeling a little too recycled.
Speaker 1:And just too childish, whereas like that, first one was fun because we see right you're leaving your childhood right in that first one, because it starts with riley like as an infant, and then, as they're, you know, hitting adolescence and all that. So you understand, like leaving that behind and stuff. Whereas this one still touched on a little bit I loved, like the mount rushmore of crushes. I thought that was hilarious it's just so funny, like different anime characters and video game characters and everything all rolled into one.
Speaker 1:So poignant, like Pixar has always just been so, so good at directing their films towards children, marketing them towards children, but giving the adults in the room so much to relate to, like you said earlier, very, very universal. So, okay, I really enjoy this film. I have it as a four and a half on Letterboxd right now and I'd probably put that at like it's like a 91 or a 92 for me. So where where do you kind of sit with it?
Speaker 2:So I watched the original one last night in lieu of watching the second one this morning and I mean I walked out and I was like that's, I almost kind of liked it a little bit more than the than the first one. So I I had given the first one five stars last night because coming off, anything that like can get me like choked up and like really feeling stuff like I'm going to love it. I gave it five stars. It's going to be. I think it's definitely going to go into my top five of the year so far. I really think it's such an important movie, especially for Pixar right now, because, yeah, what were the last two, elemental and Lightyear? They really needed a win here and Inside Out 2 delivered that greatly. I adored this movie.
Speaker 1:I expect it to play really well throughout the rest of the early phases of summer.
Speaker 2:It'll be interesting to see how long it stays in theaters.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about that as well, because I was thinking about the box office performance of Elemental, where I don't want to say Pixar just left it out there to dry, but Elemental played in the theaters for I want to say like 10 weeks, 12 weeks, something like that, like almost three months, and you go back. So it's really interesting now too, because you can go back and look at the total worldwide gross for Elemental and you would think that that movie was a smash hit and everybody saw it Right, because I'm pretty sure it made close to like half a billion dollars Was not the case, we know this Whereas Inside Out 2, I think, is a lock for 500 million worldwide and it's going to be one that people are continuing to talk about for at least the rest of this month and probably into the 4th of July weekend.
Speaker 2:So it might be the biggest movie of the summer.
Speaker 1:It very well could be. I mean it very well could be. Yeah, because I don't as much as we are going to lament and just go crazy and go to 920 showings of Twister. I don't think Twister is making $155 million opening weekend. Yeah, it's my utopia.
Speaker 2:Who knows?
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk now about Pixar in a bigger way. Here Pixar found this out. This is very, very interesting. I wonder if you know this? Pixar was actually launched in 1979. Do you know what, under film, under what film branch, pixar was originally associated with? No idea, lucasfilms. It was part of their computer division. Well, of course, right. Then they branched out in 1986 to their own studio as part of apple.
Speaker 1:oh, with funding from steve jobs is like a key stakeholder. Wow, then it wasn't until they became their own like animation studio and then, of course, released their first feature film in 1995. But yeah, 1986 is when they had the first short film, where it's the little squeaky lamp that you know you now see in every single intro.
Speaker 1:So just thought that was two kind of like interesting tidbits, because you never hear about one george lucas or really steve jobs being associated with pixar and yet those are two pretty key stakeholders that we have to thank for what we have now.
Speaker 2:Well, I think Pixar is kind of considered, and always has been considered, a forward thinking company. So it makes sense that someone like Steve Jobs, a very forward thinking man, and George Lucas, creative For as much shit as we give him extremely forward thinking and such. Really, I think when George finally, you know, leaves this earth, we will go back and look at like a lot of where we are at technologically is because of George Lucas. I think that's very fair.
Speaker 1:The serialization of everything? Yeah, we have to think that too, we have to think, or you know, kind of Lament, yeah, just kind of tilt your head at and say, well, but no, it's George, he's responsible for a lot. Okay, so, pixar, before we get to our rankings, we're going to build a hall of fame here. So 10 entries Pixar makes movies. For who?
Speaker 2:So that's a really interesting question, because you know in the beginning, well, but not even Like really, I think for like three years they were making movies for kids and then they decided, actually we're going to make movies for adults, actually we're going to make movies for adults Almost to the. But then again, I don't want to spoil what's in our Hall of Fame, but we were just. I was just watching Ratatouille with my five-year-old nephew and he is obsessed with that movie I mean obsessed, and knows it beat by beat. And I'm sitting there watching him watch this, asking do you understand what's going on here? This is a very kind of yes, it's a rat cooking in a chef's hat and pulling his hair, and that's funny but there are some really complex themes going on here, so it's really interesting that they've really found a line to toe.
Speaker 2:I will say so. I've broken down the eras right. Okay, about 10 years, so 95 to 2005, 2006 to 2016, and then era three, which we are in, 2017 to 2027. I think that's a very, very good job of breaking them down I I think that in era three, you know, they, they almost kind of go away from kids content.
Speaker 1:Like in a two, they did it too heavy and too obvious yeah, and they have almost like a midlife crisis on their hands.
Speaker 2:Agreed Now Inside Out 2, maybe that's a sign of things realigning, but also you also have to think about in Era 3 is kind of when they lost Some key animators.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the people who started this company John Lassner, pete Docter, brad Bird A lot of those guys aren't Pixar people anymore. So, and for better or for worse, I do think in Era 3 you feel that shift of kind of like oh, we need to go after the kids who grew up with our original movies, so we're going to be more doing more adult stories, but we're still but we're, I feel like they're the line got a little blurry.
Speaker 1:And we're kind of going like deep in the playbook, I feel like, as far as some of their original content during that time, and we can get to it, but but ideas that had probably been sitting there for a while and just not made, and there's probably a reason why they weren't made back in, maybe like phase one or phase two, um, and those films all came out to to a varying degree of success.
Speaker 1:So as we're going through, I will at least be referencing um, this list that you helped me create. So thank you for that. You guys know, I love, I love data, I love list making. Max loves list making.
Speaker 2:Well, I, I enlisted you, you you get your own hall of fame in the list making data collection for this this project you've done.
Speaker 1:So I I took to the streets and and I I went to the people right, the people who these films we think are marketed towards, and so I collected about 40 to 45 ballots from the students at the school that I work at, and what these ballots had on them was every single Pixar film, so 28 different movies, and I asked them to rank them one through 28. If they hadn't seen them, then I just said start with one and then just go down until you reach the movies that you haven't seen yet. And so if you only have one through 14, then I'll take it at. 14 is your least favorite. Okay, there's no losers, really.
Speaker 1:And you helped me go through the numbers and I would say, for every single film on the Pixar roster there was at least one student who says that's my number one. So that's great, that's great to see.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. That really is amazing to when you're going through some of these films.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and so what? What we did then was we sat down and we took all the average rankings of the films and so I have and I'm going to do a good job here of trying to remain, you know, to have some level of anonymity to this. But the school that I work at I have its top 10 here and I'm not going to say that that's going to be my Hall of Fame, but I do want to do the students. I feel like there's going to be solid, it's pretty solid, and I feel like I may have a few listeners right now, and so I do want to do them a service by giving them a shout out and kind of trying to align their list with my list, and I think for the most part it falls in line with my thinking. There may be some nostalgia things here and in the sequels that I buck on a little bit, that we'll have to kind of bring back around, but for the most part I love what my students came up with here.
Speaker 1:I think the best way to do this, the only way to do this, really is to go chronologically, and if you've listened to a Hall of Fame episode before, we'll either go like this is an automatic green, it's a yellow, we're leaving it up for consideration. Or if the cards just don't fall in its favor, it's yellow, we're leaving it up for consideration. Or if the cards just don't fall in its favor, it's red, we take it out. But again, with these movies, pixar's really only struck out.
Speaker 2:I think they've only gone to the plate a couple of times and, you know, came up empty-handed yeah, and you know I, there are still three pixar movies I've watched and people will probably whine at me, but it is the Cars series. I've never watched Cars, cars 2 or Cars 3. It just has never interested me. I didn't get to it this week because I was filling it with a lot of other ones that I hadn't seen.
Speaker 1:What do you think that is, are you?
Speaker 2:against.
Speaker 1:NASCAR.
Speaker 2:What is it? I think a little bit american is nascar. I'm a huge communist and I, it's just really franklin the train to me to put faces on cars and I, for it, just does not work, franklin, the train, or?
Speaker 1:I'm familiar with Thomas the.
Speaker 2:Tank Engine.
Speaker 1:And some.
Speaker 2:Chevron commercials. Thomas the Tank Engine.
Speaker 1:Franklin the Train. Franklin the Train's the short film that played before.
Speaker 2:It was the Winco version that I was reading when I was a kid. Yeah, but so I don't know Cars is. It continues to elude me and I know some people ride hard for those movies, but just not my deal.
Speaker 1:So if I hit you with a ka-chow, you're not going to know what I'm talking about. Nope.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's too bad. I also think it is because I was working at a movie theater when the first cars came out and cleaning to life is a highway. Um, you know many, many, many, many times I'd turn anyone off to uh.
Speaker 1:I think was just like you know, never, never will I ever know only so many minutes of rascal flats that?
Speaker 2:one person can take in a lifetime, and I I now understand you've succeeded.
Speaker 1:You've exceeded your amount. Okay, well, that's fair. Um, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it then. Um, all right, so we'll. We'll start with the first film here. I think everyone knows. First Pixar movie, feature length film, toy story I think 95, I think it's got to be green wins a special achievement Oscar at the Academy Awards, because even the, the snootiest, most old-school cinephiles and people who gatekeep fun things in movies from people were like we have to recognize this. There's no animated feature award yet. We have nothing like that. But we need to give this movie its due, and I think we need to give it its due right now by saying that Toy Story, for everything that it means and for the history books, for Pixar, but also too, just like it's a great movie, it's a great story it really is and it is the starting block for this company, for this run of films, I mean in era one alone.
Speaker 2:You know they only made six movies in era one in those first 10 years, but I mean you could have four or five of those in in the hall of fame um, and it'd be real easy.
Speaker 1:It's, it's. It's easy to say that, like, the first of one thing is usually the skeleton key, kind of the thing that unlocks everything else. But Toy Story really is the skeleton key to Pixar, where, like you can trace every single movie that they've made back to this film in some way or another.
Speaker 2:Well, and it just it changed cinema right. All animation up to that point was 2D drawings and this was the beginning of a new age of technology. And yeah, toy, toy story has to be green, it has to go in, it's. It's the George Washington right Of Pixar.
Speaker 1:There it is All right. So, following toy story, we have a bug's life.
Speaker 2:So I know you're very high on a bug's life. I do, I do, I do like a bug's life. I rewatched it and I remember watching it as a kid. I rewatched it this week, you know. I thought it was kind of lame. I, I'm, I'm down to have it orange and like we can talk about it, but for me it's not automatic.
Speaker 1:green so is orange somewhere between yellow and red. Oh my God dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's right next to Franklin the train. Listen, I like this.
Speaker 1:I think I like orange because, honestly, I don't think that I would have just knowing it's not like I don't know what's coming up here. I think that, looking at the list and just kind of knowing where my feelings sit, at least I'm fine putting it orange, which is below yellow, cause I'm not even like I don't even really know if I'm on the fence about it yet. I mean, it's a great story. But also you had this weird thing and I think we've talked about this before as like a potential future episode, but kind of like movie siblings, where films that were so similar that came out at the exact same time. You have a bug's life and you have ants, and honestly I think that, like ants is a much more interesting and complex film.
Speaker 2:Listen again, again. As a kid I was much more of a fan of ants. Now, both movies have problems and problematic people in them. Um, but yeah, I don't know bugs life re-watching it this week, I just it didn't feel as rich as some of these other movies tend to feel when, especially when you watch them for the first time. But then even you know rewatching.
Speaker 1:I will say for the record, I want to give give my students shout out because they had a bug's life as their ninth favorite film out of 10. So the top 10 one. The kids are all right, the kids will go back and do the work if you ask them to, Okay. So A Bug's Life is orange for now. I like that, Okay. So again here we have Pixar and, of course, all movie studios. Anything that works. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Pixar decided to go back to the well, real early, and their third film ever was Toy Story 2. This is now A great movie. A great movie, a great sequel. It gets a little bit more complex. We're humanizing these toys a lot more in this film, giving them a lot more lore, especially the Buzz character. How do you feel about Toy Story 2? And also, too this makes a lot of sense now, knowing that george lucas had something to do with the launch of pixar that the character of zerg is very darth vader-esque super.
Speaker 2:I mean to the point where he's like I am your father, exactly. Um, yeah, no, toy story 2. And also, I think toy story 2 is the first time they unlock, like you know, the whole the jesse sequence with her owner.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's probably the first time you have adults crying in a animated, you know, pixar film yeah, so I think, that's where they first find out oh, we can, we can do a fun kids movie, but then also make it a lot, yeah, deeper and with these thematic elements, yeah, and. And tug on those heartstrings, yeah. For for me, if you know, if this is your, personal.
Speaker 1:This is my personal list.
Speaker 2:It is. It is not on the hall of fame.
Speaker 1:I'm cool putting it yellow Black. Yeah, right now. All right, you want to give the next couple here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, you want to give the next couple here? Yeah, the next one comes in 2001, which I always forget that this was before stuff like Finding Nemo and the Incredibles. But Monsters Inc is the fourth film in Pixar's history and their third original story.
Speaker 1:It does feel like the bag was already deeper when this came out, but it wasn't. It wasn't. Third original film. I like how you put that. Fourth film, third original.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know monsters Inc was a huge thing in my house growing up Uh, I think still looking back. You know all of these movies have amazing voice talent I mean the biggest of the biggest stars. But the pairing of Billy Crystal and John Goodman is a pretty dynamic duo, especially for comedy's sake.
Speaker 1:Like Billy, I don't know. I feel like Billy Crystal.
Speaker 2:It's reminiscent of what they did Tim Allen um and Tom Hanks with Buzz and Woody right, but I but almost a kid, would almost even know Tim Allen and Tom Hanks from some stuff. Well, maybe I don't know if Tom Hanks I guess big maybe, or hooch.
Speaker 1:I see the point that you're making, though. Children of the 90s, yeah, us. So we're 10, 11 years old when Monsters. Inc comes out. I know exactly what you're saying. I associated Billy Crystal with Mike Wazowski.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then that sends you into this amazing comedian who wasn't really doing movies anymore.
Speaker 1:But I'm like oh, that's Mike Wazowski hosting the Oscars Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I don't know. There's something about Monsters Inc that is just really, really amazing, and also the concept is just fantastic that there are monsters in the closet. But it's like a it's a whole it's a job.
Speaker 1:A job, it's an economic Listen Pixar loves examining corporate America Economic.
Speaker 2:Pixar loves examining corporate America. Yeah, yeah, I love Monsters Inc. I say it's green. I think you know again in this first era I think there are four stone cold like. These are some of the best movies of the 2000s.
Speaker 1:This is a first ballot. Hall of Famer Monsters Inc. Yeah, absolutely. And then, and for the record, students in my school had it fourth overall yeah, yeah, which.
Speaker 2:Hey, the kids know which. That's a 2001 movie. I'm so proud of them and your kids are how? How old are they?
Speaker 1:they're, they're like eight or nine now I will say, well, kindergarten through fifth grade. But but they're in. They're in an area right now where I'm and we'll get to the back half of this especially like phase three but where I expected there to be a lot of recency bias with phase three. But but they and their family. So kudos to the parents. They're raising these kids right. Yeah, they've gone back and they've shown them the important works. Yeah, yeah, definitely Including this next one. Yeah, yeah definitely. Including this next one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause yeah. The next one is is Finding Nemo, which the thing you have, monsters Inc. And then follow it up with Finding Nemo and then the next film after that, because I also think the Incredibles, I think both of these are stone cold green and I'm totally okay putting them green right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if we have to make changes later, it's not going to be with these films, no finding nemo is is still again like just an incredibly important movie and one that again feels like oh no, we must have gone through. You know some, you know cars, cars and cars two and toy story three, but by the time we got to Finding Nemo, but no, finding Nemo was right up there in the beginning and really the foundation here in era one of Toy Story A Bug's Life, toy Story 2, monsters Inc, finding Nemo and the Incredibles. I mean that is honestly six for six as far as like really good, good movies, that's six hits in a row.
Speaker 1:Oh, at this point, if the pixar name is attached to a film, yeah, in the early 2000s, there people are, they are expecting greatness. Yeah, and rightfully so. Yeah, which is, I think, what you're saying. I will also say the other important thing that happens with the release of maybe not so much monsters inc. But especially finding nemo, and the incredibles is, this is when the Internet is really starting to take off, and I feel like that was huge in the marketing for these films and just how you would see them everywhere. Like I would honestly probably wager that most children have learned about clownfish, or at least, like they would know to call a clownfish a Nemo fish, before they actually called a clownfish, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:And also, too, I've read a lot of interesting things about finding Nemo where, like this is, this is the kind of movie that is a gateway movie for them to then be like oh, I like shark movies, right. And a couple of years when I watched Jaws, I'm really going to be into it because of Bruce yeah. In a couple of years when I watch Jaws, I'm really going to be into it because of Bruce, yeah. And so I just feel like finding Nemo is so important and you know not to. We've already talked about the Incredibles being next, but we'll just to put a bow on Nemo, though. Like this was a film. So it comes out when we're adolescents, getting ready to be teenagers, getting ready to be teenagers. There was no, and maybe just I mean not maybe his simpler times back then, but like there was no shame in being a 13 year old kid trying to be tough and play sports and do this and do that or whatever. You could also just be like I love finding Nemo.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, I'm 13, 14 years old and I love Nemo.
Speaker 2:There's no problem with that Cause, it was like the shark or fucking turtle dude, it was just great. Or Crash is what his name is, crush, crush, yeah, yeah, and also like I love that they. You know, we've done toys, we've done bugs, we're underwater and then we do just a stone cold action superhero movie. Yeah, again, forward thinking. This is before Marvel, this is before the boom of superhero films and like the Incredibles, for a long time was like this is the greatest superhero content we've ever received and it's interesting that they wait so long for the sequel. But again, you have a great action director behind something like the Incredibles, like a Brad Bird who then goes on to do Mission Impossible movies. He also does Incredibles 2, but the Incredibles again just a very like important Pixar film to be like we can do it all. We can do the road movie in Finding Nemo. We can do a movie about friendship and opposing sides coming together in Toy.
Speaker 1:Story we can do like a monsters under the bed kind of movie.
Speaker 2:Almost like they're horror.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean, that's probably the movie that is the most horrific listen.
Speaker 1:Randall is still disturbing. Yeah, this day.
Speaker 2:Well, steve buscemi, what a brilliant choice for a voice. Uh, and then incredibles we're gonna do a straight up action movie and really spectacular action throughout so this is where, and now we know again that there's a slump coming.
Speaker 1:But we have six films with four greens so far, which is fine. Things are okay, this is fine. Six films Well, we've listed six films and we've put four greens. Yeah, yeah, I know it's crazy, yeah, it's wild. And now we follow up the Incredibles with Cars, up the incredibles with cars. Now this is going to be the first, I think, kind of impasse where we we're gonna have to circle back, I think, and discuss how much significance a certain film can hold true versus, like, personal taste and again as a hall of fame goes, because I'm right there with you, yeah this movie cars does not sing to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And yet at the same time, Lightning McQueen might be on like the Pixar characters Mount Rushmore. That's very true.
Speaker 2:He's in the Hall of Fame. It's an extremely popular. He's in the Hall of Fame. It's an extremely popular movie and series within this group of films.
Speaker 1:I mean just based on entries alone. You would say, with three films on the docket, it's their second most successful franchise. Yeah, you could make that argument Totally yeah.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately again haven't seen Cars the first one's really good.
Speaker 1:The first one is really really good, okay, I gotta watch it. I mean again we talk about Inside Out 2 being a really good sports movie. Cars is a sports movie. Yeah, it is. It's about this arrogant, cocky race car who gets humbled, and you know this is bad. I host a movie podcast and I can't think of, you know, like some live action film that I could equate this to, or whatever.
Speaker 1:But you know's like, it's almost like a Hoosiers or something. You know, like Gene Hackman has to come down and he humbles himself a little bit and he got to coach up this ragtag bunch of farm kids in Indiana. Kind of the same thing with cars, where, like lightning queen comes to this town of radiator Springs and he himself he has to be taught the lessons of, of humility by the people in this town and and it's great, it's really good. I I also don't want my resentment for the rest of this franchise to affect my feelings about cars One, because I do think that this is and it was funny.
Speaker 1:I was talking to one of the teachers at the school that I work at and they were saying how they were like, you know, it kind of just becomes like the scream franchise or these horror movies over and over again, where it's just like another big race. Yep, exactly, dude, exactly, we got another big race, um, but so again, that's not the first cars movies fault, though, yeah, so I think we put cars yellow right now. Okay, I like that and kind of like bright yellow, like we can't forget about it. Right, totally, all right.
Speaker 2:Next we have the number one rated disney pixar film, according to the students at the school that I work at unbelievable I was so proud of them when I saw this unbelievable that these next two films are one and one and two the kids are all right.
Speaker 1:We have Ratatouille coming in with a consensus ranking of 6.48 amongst my kiddos, which is good for the number one movie In their opinion of all time when it comes to Pixar Animation Studios. It's a Hall of Famer for me.
Speaker 2:It is for me as well. Okay, Solid green Ratatouille is amazing Again. Like I mean, it's a movie about critics, right, it's about loving something so much to where you're critical. It's about this podcast.
Speaker 1:It's a commentary on this podcast, exactly.
Speaker 2:So it is amazing and then it is a little, you know. Again, rewatching it recently I was a little grossed out. Like you know, I've had to deal with rats in real life and like we've got a bunch of rats in a kitchen preparing food. But you know what? Why can't a rat do it?
Speaker 1:And you know what? Here's the other thing too, and that's another great message behind the film, is that, like anybody can do anything, anyone can cook.
Speaker 2:Yep, right, yep, whatever you love in life, you can do it.
Speaker 1:You can do it. One of the students said something very interesting to me, super deep. They said it in the most general way, but they said basically the same thing that I said in my recent Letterboxd review of this film. They go I love this movie because it's so basic. That's all they said and I said yes. I looked this kid dead in the eye and I said yes, there's no like otherworldly adventure that we're going on. We're not going inside someone's brain and there's these different emotions, or we're not like you're not asking the audience to suspend their disbelief or be transported into a world other than the idea of we have talking rats that can cook, which is a lot. I get it. Saying that out loud sounds absurd, but really this movie is as simple as just like cooking, passion, love, like being unapologetically yourself. It's fantastic, it's so. The execution, I think, is the most simple of the entire Pixar slate and the fact that it may be its most effective film, I think, is a testament to just that simplicity.
Speaker 2:Well, and I mean doesn't, am I misremembering, but the restaurant gets shut down. It does, it does, it does get shut down.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, shut down, it does, it does get shut down. Oh yeah, and it's hilarious too, because in the narration, um, they're like I mean, we had to let the health inspector go, guess what. He shut us down. Yeah, yeah, um, but then they open, you know, their little like small, sure small kitchen, um little restaurant, like their 10 tabletop whatever. But it's awesome, it's great, and so ratatouille is going green yeah, absolutely paris, paris, vibes, and then here's wally at number two for your kids.
Speaker 1:Number two from the kids a very like this is a silent film, a silent film this is a throwback to old hollywood to experimental it's also a post-apocalyptic film?
Speaker 2:It sure is. We should have brought it up on that episode. Yeah, we should have On that episode, but like it is about the fall of man, yep, and yeah, it's really really good and now granted some of the stuff. Once we get to the humans and their chairs and stuff it loses the feel of of everything that had happened before but half of this movie is is near perfect.
Speaker 1:It's a, I mean hello. It's the only pixar film in the criterion collection yeah, it's only disney film, I believe, unless you want to look at like studio labeling, technically, you know, but like the, the prestige behind this film. Its reputation precedes itself in that regard and it's I mean. A lot of these other films talk, you know their character studies, but this is such a story of isolation and like how to just become okay with oneself and loving yourself, which is remarkable for a film that doesn't even you know. It's one thing to personify a toy or an animal we see that in other kids programming and other family programming, but the robot and and sure you can say the iron giant and other movies have done this as well. Those films are also extremely successful when done right.
Speaker 1:This is a. It's this weird line right to toe, as, like a filmmaker, when you have content out there, like the terminator or the matrix or something, where it's just like no, we care about these humans or care about the robots, about the ai. Now, obviously, this movie predates a lot of those thoughts that we now have in 2024, but another, just another interesting lens to look at the film through, because it's so effective. Like you don't rewatch this movie and think like, nah, I don't care about WALL-E, you're always going to care about WALL-E. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I also, like I'm going to be WALL-E when everyone leaves, like I will be rummaging through the garbage looking for physical media, collecting all the DVDs. So yeah, wall-e really connects with me. Does WALL-E go green? I have it as a green.
Speaker 1:I have it as green as well On my personal list. Yes, okay, one, two, three, four, five, six greens Okay, here's a very interesting one Up next. No pun intended.
Speaker 2:It is the movie Up from 2009. And this is interesting because Up again being in film school right now, up is like the only Pixar movie we have looked at. As for writing, but it's all about that that montage.
Speaker 1:in the beginning I was going to say the first 10 minutes of this movie. If I could induct the first 10 minutes of this movie, I would and, and and and it's a brilliant piece of 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:It really is because, again, silent film, no dialogue, but visually story. You know, telling a story visually perfectly extremely emotional Hits you right off the bat as opposed to letting you get into the story and then, but then I don't really remember any of the rest of the film.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's really the problem Other than maybe the balloons right, mm-hmm, and, and that's really Other than maybe the balloons Right and I I didn't revisit it, but I think, and I think it will be controversial, but I don't have it in my personal, I have it as yellow.
Speaker 1:Yellow, okay, where? So I would. I was going to. I was coming into this as flexible when, if we have room at the end or if you were going to make a real strong case for it, I think we push, but for now we're okay, leaving it yellow. Yeah, and I'm not going to underline it. Underline, here is my code for like bright yellow.
Speaker 2:We'll just leave it yellow for now. Then after that is Toy Story 3. Now, this is hard to talk about this, and I think you know. Toy story three, I think, comes at a really important time almost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry to interrupt yeah, I feel like we almost need to have the toy story three and toy story four conversation together right now you know what I'm, you know what I'm getting at by that.
Speaker 1:Totally, because I kind of want one of these in there, because there needs to be, like there needs to be. This is like the conversation that we have about horror movies all the time, where it's like you know what's actually great, right, halloween 3. Yeah, or you know what's actually great? The eighth sequel in the Paranormal Activity franchise? Because that's how Toy Story 3 and 4 both can feel, depending on what mood you're watching them in.
Speaker 2:For me it's Toy Story 3. I think Toy Story 4 is a fine movie, but the end of the Andy story you know that we've grown up with, and maybe that's just because, like I'm five years old in 1995. I'm you know, however, 10 years old or eight years old, these films where 2 comes out Paced along with our own experiences in life so perfectly yeah, and then I'm 20 when toy story 3 comes out. We were the target demo we are andy. We are andy, yeah, uh, and or andy is we.
Speaker 1:That's what your first tattoo was of right, you got it on the bottom of your foot, andy on my foot, yeah um you had our real friend andy uh, do the backwards lettering?
Speaker 2:yeah, so for me toy story 3 is green, like I, I I think it is a perfect just ending to to the toy story story. And again, toy story 4 is a good movie. But like I remember when toy story 4 was coming out and I was like why we don't need this. We've had the ending like we went to the toys went to bonnie, they went to a new person, like that is, we don't need to go. It was about as emotional as you could get. Yeah, falling down into the, into the, the fire, when we're the incinerinerator. The incinerator, I mean like everyone in the theater is crying yes, and you know, I remember that.
Speaker 1:That was an experience.
Speaker 2:Toy Story 3. Also, like it's probably maybe other than Inside Out 2, now, it's probably the best sequel I agree with that Of any of the Pixar films.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put it green right now. Yeah, I put a little box around it. Cool, just because if it comes down to it, and we decide we should only have one film from a franchise represented, then maybe it's on the chopping block. Green for now, though, which gives us one, two, three, four, five, six, seven greens.
Speaker 2:Okay, at least we've entered your phase two here yeah, era era two yeah, so then cars two comes out in 2010 or 2011, which, again, I can't speak of it's it's.
Speaker 1:I think this is our first red red, yes, straight red, brave which now Brave, doesn't speak to me. I'm also not the target demo for Brave. However, I will say, speaking on behalf of my students they got Brave, ranked 18 out of 28.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doesn't speak to the kids either. No, and listen. I watched it with an open heart this week and it just is kind of boring, honestly, unfortunately, I like all the Scottish accents that we get and it just is kind of boring, honestly, unfortunately, I like all the Scottish accents that we get, but I don't know, it just felt flat. Monsters University in 2013, which I actually think is good. I think it's a good movie. I think there's actually some really funny parts in it.
Speaker 2:Uh, don carlton the squid like guy don carlton sales I mean steals the show and almost every scene that he's in. Uh, in fact, he made me spit out my water at one point when, like he they're like doing like a hide and seek sequence or something. Like he's up in a tree and he's like did I do good Mike? And Mike's like yeah, and he's like I can't get down. And hilarious, absolutely hilarious, and I love that. This is like it's old school or Revenge of the Nerds. But Pixar, yes, pretty funny, but I don't think it gets up to the highs of the original Monsters Inc.
Speaker 1:Or some of these other movies were going to hit and again not to hold any of these other films achievements or lack thereof, Like just the notoriety behind Cars 2, Brave Monsters, U Like the time in which this movie came out. It felt like kind of that first big rut for Pixar, Totally so that works against it.
Speaker 2:But then they get lifted out of it by Inside Out in 2015, which To me, it's a Hall of Famer. Same, initially I was like duh green. And again it came at such an important time because I do think Cars 2, brave and Monsters University, you know, are all three misses. And so, yeah, inside Out which you know we talked about at the beginning of the show, like just again, to take an experience of a 12-year-old girl and make it so universal with those emotions and really connect to anyone who watches that film, is pretty special and I find that movie really, really, really good. And even going into it last night for the rewatch I was like, ah, this is going to be whatever, but it got me again. It's bing bong, it's really good in that film in that moment. But, yeah, I love Inside Out. So I think it is a Hall of Famer. Yep, agreed.
Speaker 1:Have you seen this next film? Not, since it came out, so that's a long time ago now.
Speaker 2:So I fired this up right after Inside Out. Okay.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the Good Dinosaur.
Speaker 2:The Good Dinosaur. Okay, we're talking about the good dinosaur, the good dinosaur. It's a john ford western and a beautiful vista. Yes, like shot like a western. I love that they make the dinosaurs, the characters and the humans kind of the animals, yep um, but like the whole time I'm watching it is like the one of the darkest, like sad, like violent movies.
Speaker 1:It's like well right, this friendship that is formed is like a doomed friendship totally uh, but I mean just just like the I.
Speaker 2:there's a part where, like the little critter guy, spot the boy, the wild boy, like bites the head off of a bug. We've got this weird triceratops who's like controlled by animals and seems like he's just like on drugs in the woods. And it seems like he's just like on drugs in the woods. We've got the dad just dying like yeah, through the flood. The main dinosaur.
Speaker 1:No one's nice to Arlo.
Speaker 2:Arlo is constantly getting beat up the pterodactyls, the raptor-like dinosaurs that are getting thrown around by the T-Rex dinosaurs that are getting thrown around by the T-Rex. I did love the T-Rex sequence throughout the film where they meet up with these longhorn wranglers, you know I mean, and Sam Elliott voicing the main T-Rex, so it is very like we're out in the prairie, you know, herding cows. It's very open range, Like I wonder if they went to Kevin Costner first.
Speaker 1:Uh, for that part, Um but yeah, I just can't wait for the Costner pod I can't.
Speaker 2:I bought another Costner movie today when I was out, um, the, the. I think that that marathon will begin soon. Um, but yeah, I, I, actually, I, actually, I, I really dug it because it, because it was so different. But the only thing is, the character of arlo is just pretty weak, and not that physically weak, but like I just was like a pixar leading character.
Speaker 1:Yes, I just was not as far as like a Pixar leading character goes. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I just was not in on that character. And also pretty simple, like but again it's trying to be a Western, so it's trying to be simple, where, like, arlo gets lost and has to get back home. I just wished maybe that Arlo was just a stronger written character and maybe a stronger voice actor we had behind it, Cause it, it. At times it did feel, um it, just it, just the voice at work, did not work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like the movie in general and, again, if it's trying to be a Western which I think that's a great comparison it the movie is missing kind of that, that flair that so many of these other movies have, that even something like a Cars has where Lightning McQueen is just like such an energized character, whereas Arlo's more of like he's almost like an Eeyore.
Speaker 2:He's very passive yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like you're making the argument though for like a light green.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm down to put it yellow Yellow. I would love to put it yellow Yellow. You know, I would love to Bright yellow. Yeah, maybe throw it in the conversation, because I do think it is kind of like, oddly like a. It's like a weird slept on, like if there was another Criterion Pixar movie, it might be the Good Dinosaur.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I do agree that it's a bit of an outlier. Yeah, yeah, all right. Finding of an outlier? Yeah, yeah, all right. Finding dory is next a legacy sequel that I did not think was going to work upon release.
Speaker 2:that works just fine, just fine again, though it's kind of the same story, oh yeah, but the comedy act like the amount of comedy talent in that film is like 20 people deep yeah, it's really and it's a very funny movie, um, and like the dory, the, the baby dory, stuff is like heartbreaking, um, but again I just I didn't find it as it's kind of like monsters. You were like exactly it's a perfectly good sequel, but it doesn't reach the highs of something like Inside Out or Ratatouille. It's just lacking that originality. It is.
Speaker 1:It really is. Sometimes we just got to call a spade a spade. I'm going to put it red I don't think there's any room for Dory in the picture.
Speaker 2:And your kiddos had it at 16.
Speaker 1:They did, they did, they can see, they see, they see what we see. All right, cars three we'll just, in the effort of saving a little time here, put cars three red. If somebody wants to get at us in the mentions and say that you know, that's actually like the, the one for the real pixar heads, please, we welcome it. Coco is next talk about another film that exists almost as like an outlier.
Speaker 2:it's this one yeah, interesting film visually there's actually one later on.
Speaker 2:That it kind of pairs nicely with visually I feel like, uh, you know, very different from any other pixar. Um, the visuals in it are very striking. You know, no fault of its own, I totally thought it was like a. I guess I thought it was a different movie than what it was. I thought it was in Kanto. I thought I kept waiting for the we don't talk about Bruno song, and it wasn't. And I don't know About Bruno song and it wasn't, and I don't know. And that's ignorance on my part, but a perfectly fine movie and I don't know. I love the music in it. A lot of these Pixar movies that's another interesting thing. A lot of these Pixar movies don't have big musical numbers another interesting thing.
Speaker 1:A lot of these pixar movies don't have big musical numbers, but this one is kind of maybe the only or one of the first to do that yeah, I would say that I would say that pixar movies either have a soundtrack that that will feature songs that go down in the disney vault is like some of the best disney movie songs ever. Like of course you have randy newman and all his work on toy story say what you will about kind of the country music and everything else on cars, but like that's kind of a beloved first soundtrack right there and then the a lot of the instrumental stuff on on wally and up right at two is really touching. But you're right, coco is like the first full blown musical.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, yeah, I on my list. I think I have Coco at 10. So just on the inside, the students, however, have it at 13. I'm inclined to decide with my kiddos and put it yellow. Yellow, For now just kind of looking at what's coming forward here and we are officially in era three we are.
Speaker 1:We are the current era, 2017 to 2027, and I do think, just kind of the way that I've sort of played this process out in my head, is that we're gonna have room for like one or two sort of like niche little eti picks, yeah, and so I like maybe it'd be the good dinosaur, I like maybe having it be Coco. So far, so I think there's one other. Oh, cars I also have as as yellow. That would be more objective, yeah, I think. All right. Next we have the Incredibles two and toy story four. We've already decided that toy story four is going to be out. Do you want to try Incredibles 2.?
Speaker 2:Again, a perfectly good sequel but confusing at times. Really amazing action. There is one sequence where Elastigirl is in Screenslaver's lair and where they fight for the first time and I was like, wow, this is like a David Fincher movie, like the colors of and the darkness and like just the look of screen slaver is really scary. But again, it, it, it, it's not. It's not something, it's not inside out too, Right, I feel like inside out too is like this new bar of sequel, you know, up there with toy story three and Incredibles two, doesn't get there.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's. That's very sound, concise reasoning. I like it. Onward is next. What a peculiar film, a movie that gets a lot of hate, oh, a ton of hate. My students have it at 25 out of 28.
Speaker 2:I think it's a really cool world that, for some reason, we don't see until 2020, when this movie comes out.
Speaker 1:I just exactly I, just because of the pandemic. I just think a ton of people haven't seen this movie.
Speaker 2:I think it's a pretty touching film about brothers and, you know, parents Also about, like you know, being brave and having confidence in yourself. I think honestly, you know this is probably the beginning of Chris Pratt's obsession with voice work, but him and Tom Holland, I think, are on a really good chemistry level as the two brothers and it's got good action in it For anyone who loves, like D&D.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say just kind of that it's one of the darker Pixar films.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, this is, this should be totally up your alley. Uh, I, I, I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this yellow then, yeah, yeah, I think this could be another like niche. You know, it's like in the good dinosaur cocoa. You know realm where it's like they're a little off the beaten path, but they're actually.
Speaker 1:These are actually really good films which is weird, because you wouldn't, I wouldn't. When I look at phase three, I don't consider it to be Pixar's strong. It's certainly not their strongest right, but but the chances that they take with a movie like onward, yeah. And then with this next one, with the next couple of really huge swings. So up next, in succession, here we have Soul, luca and Turning Red, perhaps the most divisive of the Pixar films, yeah. Now my students have Soul at 26, which I totally understand, because soul is about existentialism and where do we go when we die, and it's about an old man who plays jazz?
Speaker 2:Yep, but again I will say there's a talking cat adding up the adding up the numbers.
Speaker 1:A couple of students had it as their number one. Incredible, too. I need to figure out who they were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they're the next president.
Speaker 1:Also too. Hey, trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, john Baptiste, oscar winning score.
Speaker 2:We went crazy over this, yeah this is when we started potting right. It was the soul, yep. And yeah, I mean the music is fantastic, that it is like the most adult movie of of the bunch and pretty easily, pretty easily and it has. It's weird because it does kind of like have a little. I think a lot of people kind of push it off just because, like it's a little in inside outs. You know, playground there. Because with emotions and your soul and going inside and all that Kind of have these blobby things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be honest, I haven't watched it since 2020, when it came out.
Speaker 1:Neither have I.
Speaker 2:But I don't have it in the Hall of Fame, but I'm open to considering it. I love the messaging.
Speaker 1:I love the fact that this, this movie exists. Yeah, um, and they it. Because of the pandemic and because of those years for movies being rather weak, it got a lot of attention, yeah, and so soul, one more shout out to you, um, but, but I think, I think we just put it red. Yeah, just put it red, luca. Same kind of deal. So forgettable, but really forgettable, I think. Maybe even I don't want to say as forgettable as Soul, I think, especially to the youth, it's higher, it's higher for the kids.
Speaker 2:It's a lot higher. They have it just outside the top 10 at 11.
Speaker 1:And I think this was the Pixar movie that came out during the pandemic that families could just put on Disney Plus on repeat. I know people who watched Luca like four times in a day. And now you want to read into the subtext of Luca? Go ahead. I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 1:I think, again really brave and a really cool choice by Pixar to make a movie like this. On the surface, it's kind of about a kid that turns into a merfolk yeah, I was going to say a water creature, I don't even really know, but yes, like a merfolk. Huge movie for Italy. You know I love when Pixar movies actually like go on location. I think that that's probably one of the most successful parts about this film. It's what really works well in Ratatouille as well, where you're actually like abroad and it feels like okay, this is in our world. Um, I, I do really really enjoy luca. I think putting luca yellow for now, out of respect for it, is the right thing to do, and I want to do the same for turning red, and this is the one, though, that I'm almost most inclined to fight for just because this is like this is the.
Speaker 1:I think this is of phase three. This is like you're lost. Really well done, Well made, beautifully told Pixar film. You have it in.
Speaker 2:I have it in, I have a green, I think out of phase three, and now you know, I think inside out too is is is a little bit more successful.
Speaker 1:I think inside out, too, is more successful than turning red.
Speaker 2:Turning red, I think, is one of the funnier movies and and again, like great messaging without you know really, you know being woke or whatever you want to say, right like. I think it has a really good story and a good message behind it and it's extremely entertaining.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're tackling the exact same subject matter as inside out 2 is. It's about a young girl hitting puberty and trying to become comfortable with this new sense of self. Yeah, it turns into this red Panda all sorts of allegories that you can make for young women and the things that happen. But also the cultural significance of this film I think is incredible. You okay, you have it as green. What happens if we put a green also to just the fact this movie? I loved how much controversy this movie stirred up. This movie was big on. I remember people sending me screenshots of like mom's groups. They were outraged that that this movie contained some of the the material that it did my students. It has not resonated with them. It's 22 out of 28. But again, this is. This is the kind of movie that I think kids in high school, young adults, folks of our age um, maybe not parents who have younger children they need to worry about having.
Speaker 1:You know, just like sensitive conversations earlier than they're prepared to have with with their families. But I I think that this is kind of the first pixar film that you could have made. This pg-13, this, this movie is. This movie, I feel like, is very respectful of its material and content, while giving adults just something more to to appreciate in in its execution. So if we put turning red green, which I will do right now we then have do you have the number? I think it's eight, we're sitting at eight, okay. So turning red can comfortably which I will do right now we then have do you have the number? I think it's eight, we're sitting at eight right now. So turning red can comfortably go in right now.
Speaker 2:No, excuse me, Nine, nine, that would be nine Two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, okay, nine.
Speaker 1:Well, that's easy, because we're not putting light year in. Nope, we're not putting like urine. Nope, we're not putting elemental in.
Speaker 2:No you want to talk about riding inside outs coattails.
Speaker 1:Without having you know these. These elements are just existing in their own world, but it is basically inside out where your different feelings are just the different elements. Right, and we need to learn to work together. Sadness and joy need to work together.
Speaker 2:Fire and water need to work together, like but then it's also trying to be like a romantic oh yeah comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, elemental does not work red.
Speaker 1:Um, perhaps in my opinion, I think elemental may be the most, like it's in the bottom four. No for sure as far as overall, yeah, light year, you know and and shout out, to shout out to the students at school 28 out of 28 for light year, love it. And that's one where I thought these kids recency bias that you know that's their quote-unquote. That's their toy story movie they're gonna love it.
Speaker 1:They're just like it's an action, sci-fi, you know they said miss us with that, please, yeah, no thanks, so love it. Okay. So Lightyear Elemental Red Red Inside Out 2? Inside Out 2. We don't have a repeat yet, oh, we have Toy Story and Toy Story 3.
Speaker 1:We have Toy Story and Toy Story 3. We also have. Let's do this. I'm going to put inside out two as bright yellow, yeah, which then leaves us with nine hall of famers. We can go through those real quick. We have toy story, monsters inc. Finding nemo, the incredibles, ratatouille, wally, toy story 3, for now inside out and turning red as hall of famers. I feel really good about all of those with one spot left. There's cars, there's the good dinosaur, there's coco and there's inside out too yeah.
Speaker 2:So if we're making it, I you know, I think we're making it for the general public. If it's something that we want to be representative of, pixar, then I think you have to go cars right, it is like the most popular yes, but if we want to make it more representative of ETI, you know, I think, coco, the Good Dinosaur, I think those are kind of like, almost like you know, our film bro-y, you know picks.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, Even though you know we've got WALL-E in there and that's definitely, you know, Criterion. That's the film, nerd.
Speaker 1:Listen. Just going back to Ratatouille, I know you've always really liked ratatouille. I've always really really liked ratatouille. I had no idea that ratatouille had this reputation, not only amongst the kids right now, but like of my friends on letterboxd who are logging pixar films this week, the one that I see people going back to and giving like five stars repeatedly is Ratatouille and I'm like where has this hive been? I had no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, and like all the jokes of, like Josh O'Connor from Challengers should play yes.
Speaker 1:So funny.
Speaker 2:And a live action Ratatouille. Like Ratatouille is just it's in the culture, it is, it is in the zeitgeist and apparently, you know, I don't know, I guess it's kind of a new thing, but like it's one that like, has stuck around.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. When I rewatched it this past week, I was eating a bowl of ramen and I was like what is wrong with me?
Speaker 1:I need to go prepare like a three-course meal for myself or something on tiny plates, um, tiny portions, tiny plates, um. So okay, I I do agree with you. The good dinosaur or coco would be more eti inside out two. Here's the problem. I don't want to get caught up in the recency bias, totally, because we know that something like toy story 3 has resonated and still means what it meant when we saw it. Now, that's not to say that inside out two, in five years we still won't look back on like we very easily could look back on it and be like that's maybe just one of the best sequels of the 21st century yeah it's an incredible film.
Speaker 2:Do you think, yeah, this again recency bias. I mean, do you think Inside Out 2 goes in and knocks out Inside Out?
Speaker 1:It's funny because I had the exact same leaving my theater. I had the exact same thought that you did when I'm like, did I like instantly you did where I'm like, did I like instantly the first thing I asked myself did I like that better than the first one? Now, the first one I didn't see in theaters, that's true.
Speaker 1:I didn't have this sort of relationship to it, where I feel like now, here I am watching a movie about a 13 year old girl trying out for a hockey team and in an attempt to keep her two best friends, and I'm like that's my inside out movie, which is so not fair. But so how I feel about it, and so I'm very tempted to yeah, sure, maybe make that move, because I'm not the biggest bing bong guy.
Speaker 2:Honestly, when after seeing Inside Out 2 features Adela X Archopolis. After seeing Inside Out 2 and like, yeah, inside Out all of a sudden becomes, it becomes the child version.
Speaker 1:It's safer, right? Yeah, like telling that story is the safer thing to do, whereas Inside Out 2 presented more challenges. And I mean you can make the argument maybe we're doing it right now that the task at hand was accomplished better with inside out too, as opposed to inside out, because it just wasn't as safe of a film. You had to, you had to be more delicate, you had to be more careful with the material, and you can say that. So Inside Out 2, then that's better filmmaking, it's a better movie. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know either, because then also, but then also like Inside Out, it coming out in 2015.
Speaker 1:Was so important to Pixar, yeah, historically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, Like it. And it goes on to win best animated.
Speaker 1:I think right that year I don't know about that, maybe, perhaps I think so, I think, yeah, I think so. We're kind of over complicating, we're making our job harder for ourselves. One of the inside out movies is going to go in as of right now. Maybe we just keep it the original. Yeah, just do that, just for historical purposes. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Then I say we don't put Inside Out 2.
Speaker 1:No, okay, so Inside Out 2 is not in. I think that goes right. Which now, I think we've had a Hall of Fame in the past where we decided that for history purposes, for creating an objective list, that we take something that maybe we don't personally align with and put that in, which is what we would be doing with cars, and that's not to say that we need to do that again, but I think that thought process has made sense to us in the past. I think it makes a little bit of sense to do right now. I kind of just wish that you made a great case for the Good Dinosaur. It's really good. Coco is there as a. I kind of just wish that you made a great case for the good dinosaur. It's really good.
Speaker 1:Coco is there as a musical. Coco is there as a piece of culture. Yeah, it is. It's an extremely important piece of culture, of heritage. It's a great film. Coco. Coco does a lot that none of these other movies even attempt to do. Turning red does, and I think that we have turning red green for a lot of those same reasons that none of these other movies even attempt to do. Turning Red does, and I think that we have Turning Red green for a lot of those same reasons. So I kind of want to leave Cars off this list, yeah, and I want to do Coco or the Good Dinosaur Okay, and that really helps make it our list, because I think Cars is such a safe pick.
Speaker 2:It is, it is, it is. And again, if we're doing this as the general public, it would be cars right Like cars.
Speaker 1:Guess what? My kid's got cars at 14. They say get it out of here.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's get it out. Then let's make cars red. Cars is out, cars is out. So then, yeah, it really comes down to Coco or the good dinosaur, you know. Again, I think the good dinosaur is like much more experimental, whereas, like we are taking a genre and we are plugging it into this style of filmmaking. I also think it's, like you know, it's lesser seen, probably, oh, absolutely. And then all the reasons you said earlier for Coco being an important piece of cultural diversity, uh, in the Pixar, canon, canon, right, uh, and it is really interesting that it really is the only musical, uh, maybe other than soul, I guess, but they don't sing, they're not singing. And it is really interesting that it really is the only musical, maybe other than Soul, I guess.
Speaker 1:But they don't sing in Soul. They're not singing in Soul, do they?
Speaker 2:sing in Luca. I don't remember. They read Vespas.
Speaker 1:They do.
Speaker 2:I do remember Vespas, so I'm kind of.
Speaker 1:Here's the other fun thing If we put Coco in, that leaves the good dinosaur is still kind of like your.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna say I'm feeling selfish and I kind of want to put coco in and then I'll hold on, I'll hold on to the good dinosaur stock and, uh yeah, I'll start the fan club over here okay, let's do that.
Speaker 1:Then I think, do that. Then I think that's great, Okay, I think that's great. So then Coco joins Toy Story Monsters Inc Finding Nemo, the Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Toy Story 3, Inside Out the first one and Turning Red in our Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2:Pretty great in our Hall of Fame, Pretty great, I think you know. It shows that Era 3, with only two films.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two films from Era 3. Because you count Coco as Era 3. Coco is 2017.
Speaker 2:Yep, okay, yeah, yeah. It shows that they really needed Inside Out 2.
Speaker 1:Absolutely the pandemic. Not that it wasn't hard on everyone, but the pandemic and just the leadership change there at the top. For Pixar that was a really rough stretch for them, but again really interesting movies. Go back or at least maybe watch Onward. Yeah, watch Soul. Give Turning Red another shot if you were turned off the first time around send me your application for the good dinosaur fan club in the mail.
Speaker 2:I want a piece of paper with your application on it.
Speaker 1:Go watch this um, maybe people can come to you. Okay, so that does it for our pixar conversation first off, just to put a bow on that. Super fun, love talking about these movies. Go rewatch these movies.
Speaker 2:They're great. It's a really good time Like we watch a lot of movies and like there are some hard weeks. This was definitely an easy week. How much.
Speaker 1:How much money would you be willing to spend on a Pixar box set of Blu-rays?
Speaker 2:Oh so you got 28?
Speaker 1:28, right here I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm trying to remember, so I have the. I think it was like at 24 when I bought the box set of the James Bond movies, okay, and I think that was like $120. Okay, and now, granted, that's a book with no cases. But if you're going to give me cases and cover art and all this stuff, man, I'd probably pay one, 50 for it and I picked up the Miyazaki box set last year.
Speaker 1:That's a good comparison which is about half of these films, maybe a little less than half of these films, um, but somewhere right around there 13 or 14, I believe and I would. I would pay, I think, probably twice what I paid for that. Yeah For for this. So brand new, like if you told me I could get 28 Pixar films for like $200, I think I'd do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And then you know, I don't know if you and I will ever have kids, or?
Speaker 1:Oh, what a thing to pass on, though.
Speaker 2:But, man, if you have this in your these in your collection.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute. Now here's the real plug. Right, just go out and get these movies now, because the Disney vault is no longer a thing as far as their, their physical media, it's true, their physical media group. So you have to find what's been put out into circulation already. And then again, you just never know with the streaming wars and now Disney+, they're a huge conglomerate. You can find all these movies on the service, of course, but that's not to say that in five years, 10 years, they'll still be there.
Speaker 1:So, yes, if you have a young family, if you're thinking about one day starting your own family, these are such important pieces of of history, really, when it comes to filmmaking and pop culture, like own them. Yeah, these most of these movies are worth owning. You will watch them multiple times in a year. Okay, there's our. There's our big soapbox. Bow on on Pixar. I want you to tell everybody about something that we teased a little bit on our Instagram this week. You have more information on it than I do, but we are about to sound test next week for a very fun event that will be happening in July.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so July 11th mark your calendars for July 11th, thursday 1230 to two. Eti is going to be live on stage during your wonderful lunch hour. Come spend lunch with Alex and I as we do a live ETI episode which is going to be exclusively released on our Patreon. It won't be on this public feed, so you can either come see us in person or you can subscribe to the Patreon and get it that way. We're going to have a film crew there, so we're going to be filming the podcast. We're going to be at Edison Square on South Tacoma Way in Tacoma, washington. Great venue, great venue, great venue Really cool event space.
Speaker 2:Huge. We want to fill it up. It's right next door to this awesome new burger place that just opened up with Smash Burgers, so come, get yourself some lunch, come in and sit down and we will talk movies.
Speaker 1:Now we've been throwing around some games, some ideas that we could do for this episode, because we do want it to almost be like a kind of like a get to know you event, interactive Exactly. And so a lot of the games I think that we've played on some of our anniversary episodes, some of our birthday episodes, some of our like we did some recently on our 200th episode celebration that were really fun and if we can have, what we would like to do is have like a visual component so that people in the audience there's a really good projector at Edison square Um and so so come down, there'll be a lot to do, good food right next door and and yeah, we're just we're letting you guys know now because we understand 1230 to two on a Thursday might take a little bit of planning, but July 11th, that's enough time. Take an extra long lunch break, come down and see us If you're fortunate enough to me like you don't got to work in the summer.
Speaker 2:Get out of that office. It's going to be probably beautiful out.
Speaker 1:It should be, yeah, and then we can hang out the rest of the day. Man Plenty to do down in South, to come away Totally, um. So, yeah, come on down, that's going to be awesome. We're sound testing next week, yes, so we'll try to film a little bit of content, let you guys know what it looks like, what more that you can expect. Um, we're really excited about that. And and to be um invited down. We were invited to do this.
Speaker 2:Thank you to the good folks at Edison square. So, um, but yeah, please, please, come out and support.
Speaker 1:Really exciting. Um, so that's going to do it for us this week. We will be back next week celebrating our favorite films of 2024 so far. How, how much is your top five changed throughout the year, Max?
Speaker 2:Uh, you know it was holding really strong. Uh, probably until like this last week, I would say last couple of weeks. And you know it was holding really strong probably until like this last week, I would say Last couple of weeks. And you know we've got a couple more movies coming here this weekend that we'll be able to see, but yeah, the top two have been extremely strong, I know you just rewatched the first Omen dog. It's so interesting to watch that within the Pixar marathon that I was going through.
Speaker 1:Just took yourself back to Rome, Italy.
Speaker 2:That movie is just other than the last five minutes, it is just perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say it really is. Use the P word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just such a good movie. Please go watch the First Omen if you haven't it is Available on Disney Plus, just kidding. Hulu.
Speaker 1:But it is available on disney plus. Just kidding hulu, but it is a disney film, it is.
Speaker 2:It is. Yeah, maybe they'll do a pixar version of the first.
Speaker 1:I would love that. That would be awesome, all right, so in the meantime, follow excuse the intermission on instagram the two of us on letterboxd to track what we're watching between shows, and we will talk to you next time on eti, where movies still matter.
