Pixar Cars / Adult jokes in Pixar movies..

[Lazybones]

So I finally saw Cars... and like all Pixar movies I felt it was good..

I was struck by a few seemingly adult jokes in the movie however.
1) A pair of "TWINS" who are big fans of the main character flash their headlights at him before being taken away by police
2) The main female character has a "Tramp Stamp" and is actually called out on it by the Main character, although they call it something else.
3) The VW hippy van sells "natural fuel" and looks stoned....

Other Pixar movies clearly have adult in jokes however these stood out to me for some reason...

[Thorin]

I couldn't remember the "tramp stamp".  So I googled.  Then I followed some links.  Then I saw this (it's Barbie!):



source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1175039/Chav-Barbie-gets-tattoos-mimic-high-profile-celebs-like-Amy-Winehouse.html

Back to the movie, yes, it's a funny movie.  Lots of boys that were three or four when it came out loved it.

[Tom]

I couldn't remember the "tramp stamp".  So I googled.  Then I followed some links.  Then I saw this (it's Barbie!):



source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1175039/Chav-Barbie-gets-tattoos-mimic-high-profile-celebs-like-Amy-Winehouse.html

Back to the movie, yes, it's a funny movie.  Lots of boys that were three or four when it came out loved it.

I loved it too I guess I'm a toddler

[Lazybones]

Fixed the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrxdJggjypo

Pinstriping tattoo.

[Mr. Analog]

One of the things I rather like about Pixar is that they don't seem to talk down to kids and they always take a jab at the contemporary without going overboard and dating themselves with overly specific clich?s (something Dreamworks never figured out and consequently makes their library look dated).

I don't recall any merch before they were acquired by Disney Corp, that is the main thing I think they are doing wrong lately, not to mention the schmaltz.

I wasn't all that happy with Wall-E lots of schmaltz (and lots of eye candy with no story, like 2001: A Space Odyssey), I never saw Ratatouille from what I hear it's pretty good, Up was very schmaltzy, Cars was like a commercial; flashy but no impact whatsoever.

I am quite impressed with how they tied up the Toy Story trilogy. If you look at it as a complete work it seems to tell the story of life, death and renewal within relationships, each film treats change as both challenging and essential even if it is not beneficial...

Anyway, I think the most common misunderstanding a lot of people make between the relationship of Pixar and success is not so much the medium with which they chose to tell their stories but the stories they told.

That said, I want to see some hand drawn cartoons again!

[Darren Dirt]

That said, I want to see some hand drawn cartoons again!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Frog

FANTASTIC movie, my son is actually wanting to get the soundtrack, and there's a lot of unexpected twists in the story, it harkens back to "classic Disney", but with a modern feel to it as well.

[Tom]

I enjoyed that one as well

[Mr. Analog]

That said, I want to see some hand drawn cartoons again!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Frog

FANTASTIC movie, my son is actually wanting to get the soundtrack, and there's a lot of unexpected twists in the story, it harkens back to "classic Disney", but with a modern feel to it as well.

!! Did you see some other Princess and the Frog that I missed?

That was torture!

[Darren Dirt]

!! Did you see some other Princess and the Frog that I missed?

That was inaccessible to anyone without a daughter maybe?

lol, sorry man, ^ my guess.

It took me a while to get into it, but once the gator came on the scene, and the prince character starting show some extra dimensions, I enjoyed the ride.

[Mr. Analog]

!! Did you see some other Princess and the Frog that I missed?

That was inaccessible to anyone without a daughter maybe?

lol, sorry man, ^ my guess.

It took me a while to get into it, but once the gator came on the scene, and the prince character starting show some extra dimensions, I enjoyed the ride.

Well, I guess I should defend my statement then

Recently I went on a Disney retrospective, going through their library of feature animation and I found so much retreaded material and measured direction in Princess and the Frog I found it difficult to watch all the way through. The saddest part is that though many elements were culled from previous Disney sources the transferral somehow sapped all the usual charm and left a shadow play of a good animated feature behind. It was all about selling calculated, maybe comforting similarity.

Personally speaking I think that Disney studios hasn't really had a really solid picture since Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin. Not to say that any films can't be enjoyed, I've enjoyed a few myself, but many lack the solidity of previous works. You can't compare Atlantis with Alice directly but I can tell you which film will still be seen 50 years from now. Err, anyway, back on topic...

To me this film seemed like a mish-mash of stuff that worked well in the past, weaved into the pattern that so many better films followed during the Michael Eisner "Disney Renaissance", of course tinged with tired old concepts of 'tude from the 90s and a cavalcade of stock expressions, predictable design choices, poses and of course the litany of forgettable songs. I found it to be far too calculated and precise to be enjoyable.

But hey, to each his own, right?

[Tom]

For me I'd say Lilo and Stitch may have been the cut off point.

[Darren Dirt]

Was Lion King before or after Aladdin?

and I forgot Lilo & Stitch was Disney...

Nice summary of reasons for the eye-rolling btw, I agree with your points, but sometimes I guess I'm just in the right mood for cheese or re-hashing of formula, so often a "family movie" is lacking even the elements you described, so I'd rather have a "modernized" classicdisney-esque 90 minute experience to share with the kids over Shrek The Ninth anyday...

[Thorin]

Lion King was two years after Aladdin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_feature_films#1990s

[Darren Dirt]

some folks ITT might find it interesting to seek out this film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_Sleeping_Beauty
(IMDB tagline "From 1984 to 1994 a perfect storm of people and circumstances changed the face of animation forever...")

[Mr. Analog]

Lion King was two years after Aladdin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_feature_films#1990s

And quite evil: http://www.confusedmatthew.com/The-Lion-King.php

[Darren Dirt]

And quite evil: http://www.confusedmatthew.com/The-Lion-King.php

Viewed that along with a few others, and omG Matthew definitely nailed it ... a whole lot of darkness in that film. Kid-inappropriate darkness. Deliciously evil darkness.

[Mr. Analog]

And quite evil: http://www.confusedmatthew.com/The-Lion-King.php

Viewed that along with a few others, and omG Matthew definitely nailed it ... a whole lot of darkness in that film. Kid-inappropriate darkness. Deliciously evil darkness.

I remember having a weird feeling coming out of that one, now I know why.