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Nov 2, 2004, 11:40 PM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I go to every Pixar movie with really high expectations for some reason and am always disappointed. Looking back, there is only one Pixar movie that I liked much at all and that's their very first two minute one before Steve Jobs got involved with the company. I don't know why people find their stuff so irresistible. And it's not the genre that's a problem for me either, because I loved Shrek and even some normal Disney flix. I will go to this one one opening day with high expectations again, but I am realizing that they aren't going to be as high as last time.

Perhaps because you like one-time sight gags and pop culture references over a good story? Seriously, that's the big difference - Pixar starts with a story and refines it and then does the production. Dreamworks seems to slap together a quick story and flesh it out with sight gags and pop culture references.

mrtew · Nov 3, 2004, 12:08 AM

Originally posted by hayesk:
Perhaps because you like one-time sight gags and pop culture references over a good story? Seriously, that's the big difference - Pixar starts with a story and refines it and then does the production. Dreamworks seems to slap together a quick story and flesh it out with sight gags and pop culture references.

I don't think that's it. In fact I think the Pixar stories seem a little thin. And again, I really WANT to like their movies since I love SJ and Apple and computers and graphics etc so much but they just seem to be missing something.

Nov 3, 2004, 12:16 AM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I don't think that's it. In fact I think the Pixar stories seem a little thin. And again, I really WANT to like their movies since I love SJ and Apple and computers and graphics etc so much but they just seem to be missing something.

I really don't make the connection between SJ/Apple and the Pixar films. It isn't SJ - it's John Lasseter and his crew. After seeing their production processes, I think my opinion is justified. They work to refine the story and the jokes far more than the other studios. I'm not sure what you mean by "thin" - they're not supposed to be ultra-complex plots - just good ones that are entertaining over and over again. I can watch any Pixar film over and over again - I was bored of Shrek after the second viewing.

Eug Wanker · Nov 4, 2004, 01:24 PM

Originally posted by hayesk:
I can watch any Pixar film over and over again - I was bored of Shrek after the second viewing.

Hey I like Shrek, and prefer it to Finding Nemo actually. In fact, I bought Shrek, and didn't buy Finding Nemo. However, both are good movies, as are all of the rest of Pixar's movies. OTOH, I DON'T think of any of Pixar's movies (or Shrek) as being in my top 10 faves though. Face it, they're kids' movies, even if they're kids' movies that adults (like me) can enjoy immensely.

Anyways, there are lots of reviews rolling in now for The Incredibles, and they confirm the initial impressions... It rocks. And once again it's gonna make a gazillion bux for Pixar/Disney.

Eug Wanker · Nov 5, 2004, 10:22 AM

The Incredibles opens today.

Metacritic: Average rating 89/100
Rotten Tomatoes: 96% positive reviews, Average rating 8.4/10

So who is going to see it today? I can't go until Saturday.

scottiB · Nov 5, 2004, 11:12 AM

I was going to see it today, but I'm babysitting a friend's 9 year-old tomorrow, so I'll take him to it then.

Nebagakid · Nov 5, 2004, 12:57 PM

Originally posted by scottiB:
I was going to see it today, but I'm babysitting a friend's 9 year-old tomorrow, so I'll take him to it then.

don't forget to bring him back...

you will all lurve it, i have seen it, and it spectulous.

Eug Wanker · Nov 6, 2004, 12:43 AM

Pixar Stock Hits Record on 'Incredibles'

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pixar Animation Studios Inc.'s stock rose to an all-time high on Friday, lifted by expectations for the success for its latest computer-animated film, "The Incredibles."

Shares in Pixar, whose films are released through a partnership with Walt Disney Co., rose 4.44 percent to $84.45 at the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier they touched $84.94.

Pixar, which is chaired and majority-owned by Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs, held previews of the film for Wall Street financial analysts earlier this week.

The buzz those previews generated, plus favorable reviews in national publications such as the New York Times, has helped lift the shares, said Jefferies analyst Robert Routh.

Routh expects the film to bring in about $610 million worldwide.

Just how frickin much is Steve Jobs worth these days?

fireside · Nov 6, 2004, 12:55 AM

i saw it today. it was entertaining. i liked it as much as the other Pixar movies, they're fun to watch, but not too great, besides Toy Story, Toy Story was great.

btw, 141/145 good reviews on RT.

ManOfSteal · Nov 6, 2004, 01:11 AM

Wow, Renderman has definitely been enhanced or something after seeing this phenomenal movie. The "wet hair" was chilling it was so real.

....and 1 more for extra measure:

Eug Wanker · Nov 6, 2004, 02:06 AM

MP3 of Ebert & Roeper review

Their conclusion:

RGB · Nov 6, 2004, 05:10 AM

Just got back from the theater. It Rocked.

Anyone else notice that the boy who Violet had a thing for was dressed like Steve Jobs?

Peter · Nov 6, 2004, 06:02 AM

when does it come out in the uk?

Hawkeye_a · Nov 6, 2004, 07:20 AM

damn it !!! i want to watch it now. It comes out on 26th of December here in Oz !!!

mrtew · Nov 6, 2004, 03:56 PM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I go to every Pixar movie with really high expectations for some reason and am always disappointed. Looking back, there is only one Pixar movie that I liked much at all and that's their very first two minute one before Steve Jobs got involved with the company. I don't know why people find their stuff so irresistible. And it's not the genre that's a problem for me either, because I loved Shrek and even some normal Disney flix. I will go to this one one opening day with high expectations again, but I am realizing that they aren't going to be as high as last time.

I take it all back! I saw it last night and it really was truly incredible. The design, the story, the animation, the humor etc... it was all perfect. I think it was 10x better than toy story, 5x better than Nemo, and 2x better than Shrek. Definitely the best animated kiddy movie I've ever seen. Pixar has finally done it!

Oneota · Nov 6, 2004, 04:19 PM

Today's been a good day.

Went to the Jordan Creek Apple Store opening (got me a free T-shirt!), and then on to an 11:30 showing of The Incredibles. Which, by the way, is indeed a kick-butt movie. Woo!

typoon · Nov 6, 2004, 04:25 PM

Just got back from seeing it in Digital. This Movie was GREAT!!!!! It was like a classic old style 50's type movie/story but with modern touches. Definiteily worth seeing.

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Nov 6, 2004, 04:29 PM

Ya the movie was very very cool. The whole thing looked like it was stuck in some campy 60's bond movie. I loved it.

Eug Wanker · Nov 6, 2004, 11:03 PM

Excellent movie! One of the top movies of this year. Definitely better than Finding Nemo.

BTW, it was interesting to see the credits including a blurb about Intel CPUs at the end. Heh.

xi_hyperon · Nov 6, 2004, 11:48 PM

Indeed it rocked. I will definitely be buying this on DVD when it's out.

itai195 · Nov 7, 2004, 04:00 AM

Movie is great... their best yet!

OwlBoy · Nov 7, 2004, 07:00 AM

It ****ing kicked so much ass!

-Owl

Gamoe · Nov 7, 2004, 09:42 AM

The movie was good. It had a distinct, atypical message, a solid story, was entertaining and funny, and was impressively animated. The animation was so flowing and natural, I found myself forgetting it was a computer animated movie at times. As for the commercialistic comments-- why pin that on this movie in particular? I see no particular reason why anyone would consider this movie more commercialistic or whatnot than any other cartoon film.

I find Pixar's films different, creative and driven by something real. Of course there are monetary concerns and contracts to fulfill, but within that there's a team of creative, passionate writers and animators making things happen. I definitely recommend the film.

scottiB · Nov 7, 2004, 10:21 AM

What Gabriel Morales said ^.

I really loved the soundtrack. I'm a sucker for that Mancini/Barry-esque 60s music, and I'll purchase this one (though it seems it's not on the iTMS, yet).

All the vocal work was strong, especially Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, and Spencer Fox (Dash).

Favorite little scenes (for now)-no spoilers:

The bank robbery scene with "Bomb Voyage".

The culmination of Bob and Lucius' "bowling night."

The family's "strike the pose" moment.

Any scene with Edna Mode.

Tremendous flick.

mrtew · Nov 7, 2004, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by scottiB:
I really loved the soundtrack. I'm a sucker for that Mancini/Barry-esque 60s music, and I'll purchase this one (though it seems it's not on the iTMS, yet).

Try this link to get the music from the iTunes music store... great price too!!!
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...istId=27462412
or if that doesn't work there is a link at the top right corner of the page at...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/

scottiB · Nov 7, 2004, 10:53 AM

Originally posted by mrtew:
Try this link to get the music from the iTunes music store... great price too!!!
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...istId=27462412
or if that doesn't work there is a link at the top right corner of the page at...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/

Thanks for the links. Unfortunately, those are for the "Remix EP" not the film's score.

Eug Wanker · Nov 7, 2004, 01:22 PM

Forecasts of the opening gross are around $70 million, right about the same amoung for Finding Nemo. That would put it behind Shrek 2, Harry Potter, Spiderman 2, and The Passion of the Christ for this year's highest opening w/e grosses.

I'm sure having the Star Wars: Episode III trailer can't hurt either. Brilliant marketing. Both sides benefit. Jobs gets people who want to see the trailer, and Lucas gets the bazillion people going to see The Incredibles.

I wonder whatever happened to Brad Bird's Iron Giant. The reviews of the movie were very good, but it bombed at the box office. It cost $70 million to make, and made only $23 million. I do remember the marketing for it was terrible though. I'll definitely look into the Special Edition DVD coming out next week.

BTW, in the theatre I was in, the response to the trailer for The Cars was almost universally "Meh". I really hope for Pixar's sake they can come up with something better even just for the trailer. It truly sucked.

CaseCom · Nov 7, 2004, 03:16 PM

Good flick. A little heavy on the explosions for my taste, but it's a superhero flick, so whaddaya gonna do.

"Edna Mode" (voiced by Brad Bird) = Edith Head

Mr. Incredible's government "handler" looked a lot to me like Abe Vigoda.

Apple Pro Underwear · Nov 7, 2004, 06:06 PM

have you noticed the commercials?

"A Disney presentation of a Pixar movie."

haha

also, what happens when Incredibles 2 is brought up after the apple contract ends?

RGB · Nov 7, 2004, 07:07 PM

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
have you noticed the commercials?

"A Disney presentation of a Pixar movie."

haha

also, what happens when Incredibles 2 is brought up after the apple contract ends?

Pixar and Disney have an Apple contract?

Eug Wanker · Nov 7, 2004, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by CaseCom:
"Edna Mode" (voiced by Brad Bird) = Edith Head

Heh, you may be right, but I thought of Linda Hunt:

bamburg dunes · Nov 7, 2004, 08:17 PM

Glad people are liking it, especially after some of the so-so reviews.

rezzi · Nov 7, 2004, 08:21 PM

To me she looked like Dr. Evil's female sidekick from Austin Powers. Nonetheless, I planned to buy this on DVD sight-unseen. But since I did get to see it theatrically, definitely a keeper.

Eug Wanker · Nov 7, 2004, 08:31 PM

Originally posted by bamburg dunes:
Glad people are liking it, especially after some of the so-so reviews.

So so reviews? It's one of the top reviewed major release movies of this year.

BTW, the best reviewed movie of 2004 is Dr. Strangelove. (It has been released again this year.)

bamburg dunes · Nov 7, 2004, 08:41 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
So so reviews? It's one of the top reviewed major release movies of this year.

Surprisingly, it did get some strangely bad reviews from some quarters; but now that it's out in general release, it's proving to be the opposite.

Eug Wanker · Nov 7, 2004, 09:00 PM

Originally posted by bamburg dunes:
Surprisingly, it did get some strangely bad reviews from some quarters; but now that it's out in general release, it's proving to be the opposite.

Links to the reviews? Most of the early reviews I saw were positive. There were several that said it was good but not great, or even just OK, but that's reasonable. There were very few that I have seen that gave it a thumbs down.

BTW, did you work on the movie?

jonasmac · Nov 7, 2004, 09:07 PM

Saw it at the premier. Loved it!

awaspaas · Nov 7, 2004, 10:05 PM

Fantastic! Production design was incredible - the whole retro-future thing makes it completely timeless, like something out of Disney World's Tomorrowland - hey, there's even a monorail!

Rendering was amazing - fire, water, fabric were all orders of magnitude better than the previous films.

Voices were great, I couldn't envision anybody but Craig T. Nelson playing this part. And Jason Lee was a tremendous villain.

So glad it wasn't a whole fat-guy-in-a-skinny-costume movie either - they didn't even have that scene in the movie! Yay!! No stupid pop-culture references like the ones that made me cringe in Shrek 2, no stupid one-liners. Genuinely funny action, and very exciting parts too. The chase scene through the jungle was one of the better chases I've ever seen.

The music was fantastic - I'm a trumpet player so I laughed out loud at every screaming horn riff. I enjoyed every minute - can't wait for the soundtrack, this Tuesday maybe?

nredman · Nov 7, 2004, 10:06 PM

Computer animated movie superheroes "The Incredibles" topped domestic box office charts over the weekend, raking in $70.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

Hawkeye_a · Nov 7, 2004, 10:12 PM

Yeah. i kinda noticed the pop-culture references and one-lines, in Shrek 2 and Shaark Tale... very cliche. SO bloody annoying..... it's like they threw them into the movie during editing. No love...no love whatsoever.