Comments on: Pass the Popcorn: Pixar as Art and Commerce http://jaypgreene.com/2008/06/27/pass-the-popcorn-pixar-as-art-and-commerce/ With Help From Some Friends Fri, 25 May 2012 01:01:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Greg Forster http://jaypgreene.com/2008/06/27/pass-the-popcorn-pixar-as-art-and-commerce/#comment-1116 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:15:04 +0000 http://jaypgreene.wordpress.com/?p=223#comment-1116 That dovetails to some extent with my take; you say you’d rather see the people blamed instead of “corporations,” and I say I’d rather see the emphasis on the fact that when people choose to live for nothing but pleasure, they will be fit for nothing but slavery.

And (spoiler alert) I will make this one concession to the green-green-lima-bean crowd: When the captain says to the little plant, “You just needed someone to take care of you,” and then turns around and sees the picture of the globe, that was a good moment. It gave expression to the best of the many impulses (not all of them good) that lie behind environmentalism.

]]> By: Brian Kisida http://jaypgreene.com/2008/06/27/pass-the-popcorn-pixar-as-art-and-commerce/#comment-1115 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:55:15 +0000 http://jaypgreene.wordpress.com/?p=223#comment-1115 I pretty much agree. I would add that the score was particularly effective, as it needed to be with a movie that had such little dialogue. I disagree ever so slightly about your thoughts on the preachy aspects of the movie. To me the problem wasn’t the environmental slant; that can be made into a worthy message. The problem was that the corporations were held responsible for the mess and the people were not. Had the movie placed more balanced blame on the part of the people who had allowed/caused their society to decline I would have been content. They should have watched the South Park episode that took on Wal-Mart. That episode had a very good treatment of the “we have met the enemy and he is us” concept.

That aside, I really enjoyed the movie and will surely own it as well.

]]> By: Greg Forster http://jaypgreene.com/2008/06/27/pass-the-popcorn-pixar-as-art-and-commerce/#comment-1114 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:53:24 +0000 http://jaypgreene.wordpress.com/?p=223#comment-1114 Insightful? You be the judge.

It’s basically two movies: a fantastic story about a lonely robot who discovers that he needs, and then discovers, companionship; and a somewhat preachy treatise on how greedy corporations are taking over the world and destroying the planet. I’d give the first movie an A+ and the second movie a C. The second movie does have redeeming qualities; there’s a strong element of Tocqueville and Aldous Huxley, to the effect that when people live for nothing but pleasure, they will be fit for nothing but slavery. If they’d focused on that rather than on the environmental stuff, they could have had a movie that would have been a breakthrough even by Pixar’s lofty standards. As it is, it’s a good movie and I’m sure I’ll buy it when it comes out. I’m not ashamed to say that I teared up a little at the finale, during which the A+ movie about companionship was ascendent. But it’s not what it could have been.

]]> By: Brian Kisida http://jaypgreene.com/2008/06/27/pass-the-popcorn-pixar-as-art-and-commerce/#comment-1112 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:07:01 +0000 http://jaypgreene.wordpress.com/?p=223#comment-1112 I do hope we can look forwrard to Greg providing an insightful review of Wall-E when time permits.

]]>