First of all, I'm not pleased with Pixar being in the business of producing Disney-fied sequels. Toy Story becoming a trilogy was appropriate, and I love it - because it has artistic merit. I defy anyone to compile a convincing list of attributes supporting the artistic merit of Cars 2…and I'm one of the apparent minority who truly enjoy and appreciate Cars the first. So when I heard they were making another Monsters, I was disappointed. The quality of their storytelling has suffered lately - I had been looking forward to Brave, which turned out to be a wreck of good intentions - and putting all this effort into sequels & prequels is part of the reason why. It's tough to do good work when spread so thin.
I realize there's already tons of garbage online about this, but I have to address it, and by the time I'm done I sincerely hope you'll see why: "You've been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade, pal." Mike's throwaway line from Monsters Inc. Implying he & Sully have been friends since they were kids, or least knew each other…yet the trailer for Monsters U clearly shows them meeting in college, as does the film itself. Apparently the filmmakers tried to include a scene of them together in fourth grade, just to explain the line, but it didn't fit into the story - which I'm sure I would agree with. Then they decided to simply ignore it and hope people wouldn't remember Mike had said that…a very stupid move, obviously, as the issue is rather glaring with the contradictory information right there in the original film and the new trailer. So, in a lame attempt to quell the backlash, the director claimed "since the fourth grade" is a monster expression that simply means "for a long time" and shouldn't be taken literally. Please. Nice try.
Why is this such a big deal to me, those of you both sane and rational may ask? Because it isn't about the detail itself, or the timeline, or the Monsters canon…it's Pixar's dismissal of all that. They just left it, like it doesn't matter. But it does matter, and fixing it would have been easy if they'd kept at it. Look at the problem: in Inc, Mike and Sully knew each other in fourth grade; in U they meet in college. Can't change Inc, so change U! Who says they have to meet for the first time here? You wanna know how to address a throwaway line? With another throwaway line! Mike arrives on campus, sees a crowd of admirers around Sully, says to Randy: "Sullivan…that guy's been the bane of my existence since the fourth grade." Or something like that, only better.
One simple line of dialogue would:
- Imply they've known each other, or have at least known the other exists, but have not been friends.
- Set up their forthcoming relationship, how they compete and don't get along.
- Be a callback to the line in the first movie.
- Have avoided anyone needing to complain about this!
It all comes back to my issue with Pixar not making the same effort in terms of story that has made their earlier films so amazingly good. They saw a problem, they tried to deal with it, they dropped it. They dropped it. That's just wrong, folks. Pixar is better than that. At least they used to be.
Finally, the biggest issue with this film, and yes, I'm still talking about objections formed well in advance of actually viewing it: a prequel in the Monster world was the wrong choice. And in such a big way, I am absolutely bewildered as to why I haven't seen more disapproval. Maybe I'm avoiding it because it's just too sad. Anyway: what was the major change in Monsters Inc? What was it the entire story served to teach the main characters, and everyone else in the monster world? Scaring is wrong. Laughter is more powerful than Scream. And even though lots of people are going to have to change jobs, we're still going to save the world and make everybody happy. Great lesson, great movie. Now here we are years earlier, so what is nearly every single character in the story focused on? Scaring! Which we know will prove to be not only insufficient but emotionally destructive! How can anyone, having seen the first movie, watch this one with empathy for the characters? No one who truly cares about such things, that's for sure.
I realize some people may think I'm taking all this way too seriously. But it's all about how storytelling works, and that's what I do. It's what I am, it's what I am about. If I don't take that seriously, I don't exist. And it seems that I do actually exist, so, as long as that remains apparent and true, I'm going to take all storytelling seriously.
I won't, however, get into whether or not they created another timeline blunder by bringing back the Yeti in a scene with Mike & Sully, even though they don't seem to know each other when they meet up in the human world in Monsters Inc. - because one could argue they don't specifically not know each other, or maybe the Yeti was banished soon after this and they only met that one time instead of working together for a while…it's messy, and isn't as much of a problem as the whole fourth grade issue. It's even acknowledged on the commentary, so, I can let it go. Yes, I can let things go.
Moving on.
Having actually watched the movie, now - and confirming every conclusion I'd reached prior was indeed correct - added to the negative impressions are the lack of development in Randy the college student becoming Randall the villain (they covered the basics but he needed a bigger part) and not enough being done with the fraternity/sorority competitors, whom we're told are skilled scarers but never really shown much of what they can supposedly do. Remember the old adage, show don't tell…
I'll tell you one thing, though: Pixar is still far and away the best in terms of artistry with their animation - and even though the story here isn't what it needs to be, they made the most of it and made it work. It is funny, and fun to watch, and the voice performances are excellent as always…they're still phenomenal filmmakers, they just need to get back to pounding out that story until it's right. Because when they don't, there's just not much depth or meaning to it. And that's always what I'm looking for - from Pixar, from any and every movie I see - a story and an experience that feels complete. It all has to work together, to create that sense of wonder and amazement that only a great movie can.
No comments:
Post a Comment