It is no secret that one of the most successful film companies operating today is Pixar. They have firmly established themselves as a film company to respect and admire. When you watch a Pixar film you know you are guaranteed a quality film.
'Toy Story' was the start of their success story and continues today. They took a very simple premise of toys coming to life when people were not looking and created a wonderful story and brilliant characters. They then continued that with the sequel and did the rare thing of making a sequel that was better than the original. Pixar are very proud of the fact that they work hard on the story in their films and it shows. Other animated film seem more determined to create a wacky character or characters ans stick them in a weird situation and then see how they survive. That's all well and good but their journey to that weird situation has to be truthful to the characters and be a journey worth taking. It is no good having a series of situations in the hope of finding a story. I think Pixar focus more on their characters internal journey as opposed to their external journey. Pixar is also brilliant at creating the best characters. They were able to make us care about a group of in-animate objects that we don't consider to have feelings or thoughts. I think they have been successful at making us think twice about our toys. As adults we have lost the child-like ability to use our imagination to give personality to our toys. I like to think these films revive that. My all time favourite Pixar film is 'Toy Story 2'. Not only is it funny and have a really good story but has one of the best moments in all their films and is played during one of their best songs. 'When Somebody Loves Me'. This song is pretty much guaranteed to make me cry every time I hear it. Even when not watching the film I can't help but think about the scene and it makes me cry. That is the moment you realise that toys are real.
Woody the cowboy is such a wonderfully complex character. In the first film he is quickly established as the leader of Andy's toys and soon has this leadership threatened by the arrival of Buzz Lightyear. While on the surface he may seem ruthless in his attempts to get rid of Buzz, he does feel remorse when an accident happens. In the second film he becomes incredibly arrogant when he finds out where he really came from. In the end though he comes to realise the importance of his true family. I think part of the charm is the brilliant vocal work of Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is a very popular actor in live-action films but I think his best work comes in these films. The brilliant part being that you don't think about it being Tom Hanks providing his voice to a character but you really believe it is Woody. It is the same for Buzz. Tim Allen give his greatest ever performance as Buzz. The fact that you see such a dramatic change in his character after he realises he's not a toy is so profound and Tim's vocal acting is amazing ('I am Mrs. Nesbet').
Just because these films are screening in 3D should not be your excuse to go see them. They are incredibly brilliant films that need to be seen regardless of the the format they are shown. I don't think you will find many people who do not like these movies. Which means the release of the third film in June is going to be HUGE!
No comments:
Post a Comment