The Overlap Blog

Review from the New York Times

With his machine world, however, Mr. Lasseter appears to have tried to do an end run around the vexing problem of the human body with cars that might as well have come out of a Chevron advertisement. Even stranger, the film turns Detroit’s paving over of America into an occasion for some nostalgic historical revisionism. Surreal isn’t the word.

Over the last two decades Pixar has invigorated American mainstream animation with charming stories and sterling technique, reaching a company best with the consecutively released “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles.” The age of Pixar may not be as golden as that of 1930’s and 40’s Disney, but it’s an estimable run, especially since each new Pixar feature has reached deeper and higher in thematic and aesthetic preoccupations.

Like classic Disney, Pixar films are invariably traditionalist, with stories of familial and social retrenchment, but they’re also witty and playful, fresh in both graphic and written line. One clunker won’t shut down or even threaten the factory line, but here’s hoping that as this onetime scrapper becomes increasingly entrenched and establishment, it keeps its geeks-and-freaks flag flying.

Given Conley’s presentation about Pixar’s process and Richard Farson’s musing aloud (aftewards, I believe) about where Pixar would be in 10 years, this is an interesting review. The movie will make money, I bet, but it seems like it stinks (not to mention may be slightly on the evil side), and this reviewer is looking at the studio for the reasons.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 12:45 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.