This started as a comment on Bill’s post in which she says she will not see the third Toy Story movie, because it is not by Pixar. Then it turned into a rant so I thought it best to rant on my own page.

The fact of the matter is that with the notable exception of the Toy Story movies, Pixar is fantastic at one thing and one thing only: pushing the technical envelope in animation. Whenever I see Luxo the lamp in their logo sequence, I’m amazed by how they manage to have an object like a lamp convey so many emotions, by simply moving it (watch the short here, it’s worth it). And they’ve moved ahead by lightyears since then.

But their scripts often leave much to be desired (especially in the laughs department). And personally, I go to animated movies to see some great visuals, yes, but mostly to laugh and be entertained by the story.

Script-wise, A Bug’s Life (Pixar) was okay, but Antz (non-Pixar) was better. Monsters Inc and Nemo (Pixar Pixar), same thing: animation that makes my jaw drop (and there isn’t much tech these days that does that for me), but gave me at most a chuckle. Shrek (non-Pixar), on the other hand, had me in tears of laughter. Ice Age (non-Pixar) was pretty funny too.

Don’t get me wrong; I really want to like Pixar wholeheartedly. I so want to like The Incredibles, I so want it to make me laugh, that I have deliberately not watched any previews, to give it the best chance of surprising and entertaining me.

But I’m a little annoyed that Pixar are so popular that they constantly get away with scripts that are just “somewhat funny”, especially since I know they can do better (eg. Toy Story). Mike’s New Car (their short based on Monsters Inc) was the epitome of this. It got the automatic Pixar Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short, though it was quite craptacular, even according to my Pixar-ho friends. When you’re aware of the sweat and love that goes into indie animated shorts (like The Cathedral of the same year), and you see Pixar’s little brainfart garner the Oscar, it’s frustrating.

Anyway, as far as Toy Story 3 is concerned, it will probably suck as sequels of anim features usually do. But in my opinion, it’s wrong to suggest that anything is automatically crap when it is not Pixar, or automatically great when it is.