"This weird, rusty, lonely little guy? We'd die for him."
July 12, 2023 12:34 PM Subscribe
I understand why they placed Up further down the list but I still feel like based on the first 8-10 minutes alone that it should be higher up b/c god damn, that film fucks you up.
posted by Fizz at 12:37 PM on July 12, 2023 [31 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 12:37 PM on July 12, 2023 [31 favorites]
Up ftw not Coco for Pete sake
posted by BlunderingArtist at 12:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by BlunderingArtist at 12:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I understand why they placed Up further down the list but I still feel like based on the first 8-10 minutes alone that it should be higher up
Well, they actually address that in the article; they say that look, if we were judging this only on that first sequence it'd win hands down. But it's just that after that first sequence, it's just kind of...okay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:43 PM on July 12, 2023 [13 favorites]
Well, they actually address that in the article; they say that look, if we were judging this only on that first sequence it'd win hands down. But it's just that after that first sequence, it's just kind of...okay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:43 PM on July 12, 2023 [13 favorites]
I cried watching Coco, never having seen it before, without sound, watching it over someone else's shoulder, on their iPad on a plane.
posted by potrzebie at 12:43 PM on July 12, 2023 [44 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 12:43 PM on July 12, 2023 [44 favorites]
very few of their films reflect my experience as an immigrant with abusive parents aside from Coco and only vaguely which didn't result in any tears because of how softened the emotional abuse was since of course you have kids watching and you wouldn't ever want to traumatize kids (ie reflect real trauma experienced by real children)
and of course the film is already getting hate in these comments for not reflecting a white enough nuclear family experience lol
also, just so we're not too brand-worshipping Pixar, a wholly owned corporate subsidiary of Disney, remember that time
posted by paimapi at 12:45 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
and of course the film is already getting hate in these comments for not reflecting a white enough nuclear family experience lol
also, just so we're not too brand-worshipping Pixar, a wholly owned corporate subsidiary of Disney, remember that time
posted by paimapi at 12:45 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
But it's just that after that first sequence, it's just kind of...okay.
well no one even watched the rest of it, ever, did they?
i mean most people watch the first part over and over, don't they?
or at least once a year?
posted by chavenet at 12:46 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
well no one even watched the rest of it, ever, did they?
i mean most people watch the first part over and over, don't they?
or at least once a year?
posted by chavenet at 12:46 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
I saw this and I just couldn't figure out what I was more upset by so I had to walk away. The candidates were:
1. The order is all wrong.
2. The author doesn't understand how probability* works.
#2 is the clear culprit in the mis-ranking of Up. Look, if a movie makes everyone cry... at all...then the probability that it makes you cry is 1. The fact that it does not make you cry later in the film, does not lower that number at all. So while other movies might tie this, none can beat it.
*OK, I know it says "likelihood", not "probability", and there is some technical difference between the meaning of the two words, which I've never understood. But note that though epistemologists want to quibble about the meaning of the words, the probability and likelihood of a thing always seem to be exact same number. So I stand by my view that this ranking is flawed because 1 is the highest this can go and so really there should just be like a 15 way tie at the top or something (and it wouldn't necessarily be the top 13 on this list, because WTF is wrong with this list anyway???).
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:49 PM on July 12, 2023 [25 favorites]
1. The order is all wrong.
2. The author doesn't understand how probability* works.
#2 is the clear culprit in the mis-ranking of Up. Look, if a movie makes everyone cry... at all...then the probability that it makes you cry is 1. The fact that it does not make you cry later in the film, does not lower that number at all. So while other movies might tie this, none can beat it.
*OK, I know it says "likelihood", not "probability", and there is some technical difference between the meaning of the two words, which I've never understood. But note that though epistemologists want to quibble about the meaning of the words, the probability and likelihood of a thing always seem to be exact same number. So I stand by my view that this ranking is flawed because 1 is the highest this can go and so really there should just be like a 15 way tie at the top or something (and it wouldn't necessarily be the top 13 on this list, because WTF is wrong with this list anyway???).
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:49 PM on July 12, 2023 [25 favorites]
But I will try to watch Coco, and it sounds like the probability I will cry is 1.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:50 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:50 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
A few pixar scenes guaranteed to make me cry:
- The opening of Up, because seriously you're made of sterner stuff if you don't.
- Miguel and his abuelita singing Remember Me in Coco.
- The whole "India Golf Niner-Niner is buddy spiked" piece from the Incredibles and Mr. Incredible's reaction
- "When She Loved Me" in Toy Story 2
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:56 PM on July 12, 2023 [18 favorites]
- The opening of Up, because seriously you're made of sterner stuff if you don't.
- Miguel and his abuelita singing Remember Me in Coco.
- The whole "India Golf Niner-Niner is buddy spiked" piece from the Incredibles and Mr. Incredible's reaction
- "When She Loved Me" in Toy Story 2
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:56 PM on July 12, 2023 [18 favorites]
Up and Coco and tied for number one. If I tried to watch the beginning of Up immediately followed by the scene near the end of Coco where Miguel sings to Mamá Coco, I would never stop crying.
posted by amarynth at 12:59 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by amarynth at 12:59 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
Up had me crying at points, and left me able to go about my day. Coco did DAMAGE. Some of that was the fact that my Dad, who is a gifted, passionate guitar player and musician, was always there for me as much as circumstances allowed. But circumstances being circumstances, I didn't get to see him as much as I would've loved to as a child, and I don't get to see him much as an adult, and one day I won't get to see him at all and I have to stop writing this comment because I don't feel like being a man-puddle right now.
posted by Philipschall at 1:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [19 favorites]
posted by Philipschall at 1:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [19 favorites]
I went into Up prepared for the opening sequence.
What no one prepared me for was “I hid under the porch because I LOVE you,” and that was what absolutely killed me.
Up thoroughly belongs at #1.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [17 favorites]
What no one prepared me for was “I hid under the porch because I LOVE you,” and that was what absolutely killed me.
Up thoroughly belongs at #1.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [17 favorites]
Onward is ranked too low.
Soul is ranked too high.
Coco is ranked juuust right!
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Soul is ranked too high.
Coco is ranked juuust right!
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh yeah Mr. Incredible saying “I’m not strong enough” is another knife in my eye I’m tearing up just writing this
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:02 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:02 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
The whole "India Golf Niner-Niner is buddy spiked" piece form the Incredibles and Mr. Incredible's reaction
For me it's the argument after, where Mr. Incredible says "I'm not strong enough" and his voice breaks a little.
For some reason that works on me where a lot of the slow build saccharine/maudlin stuff doesn't. The whole Up opening sequence is legendary for its sadness but it's custom built for the purpose, where this kind of sneaks up on you.
posted by JDHarper at 1:03 PM on July 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
For me it's the argument after, where Mr. Incredible says "I'm not strong enough" and his voice breaks a little.
For some reason that works on me where a lot of the slow build saccharine/maudlin stuff doesn't. The whole Up opening sequence is legendary for its sadness but it's custom built for the purpose, where this kind of sneaks up on you.
posted by JDHarper at 1:03 PM on July 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
Well, they actually address that in the article; they say that look, if we were judging this only on that first sequence it'd win hands down. But it's just that after that first sequence, it's just kind of...okay.
Five words: Stuff I'm Going to Do
posted by Rhaomi at 1:05 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Five words: Stuff I'm Going to Do
posted by Rhaomi at 1:05 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
This list is garbage. Up. End of discussion. I'm crying now just thinking about it.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:07 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:07 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
well no one even watched the rest of [Up], ever, did they?
i mean most people watch the first part over and over, don't they?
or at least once a year?
Hell, I've only watched it once. I was totally unprepared for that first bit and it was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen, ever. The rest of the movie isn't worth putting myself through that again. Though I don't mind watching clips of the scenes with Dug in them.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:08 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
i mean most people watch the first part over and over, don't they?
or at least once a year?
Hell, I've only watched it once. I was totally unprepared for that first bit and it was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen, ever. The rest of the movie isn't worth putting myself through that again. Though I don't mind watching clips of the scenes with Dug in them.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:08 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
They say that look, if we were judging this only on that first sequence it'd win hands down. But it's just that after that first sequence, it's just kind of...okay.
But that's not what the list claims it set out to be. It didn't say "Here are all 27 Pixar films ranked by how good/rewatchable they might be overall and then how sad the saddest movement in it made you" That's a different list.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:11 PM on July 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
But that's not what the list claims it set out to be. It didn't say "Here are all 27 Pixar films ranked by how good/rewatchable they might be overall and then how sad the saddest movement in it made you" That's a different list.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:11 PM on July 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
(List posts don't normally rile me up but, how, this one sure did activate me.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:13 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:13 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
There’s another Mr. Incredible line reading that makes my nose burn and my eyes run, and it’s really a hell of a thing.
He threatens Mirage, to try to get to Buddy. He manages to grab her even in his restraints, and says “I’ll crush her! It’ll be easy, like breaking a toothpick.”
It’s not a sad line as such, but like, while he physically can do that, it’s never in doubt, it won’t actually be easy for him. It would probably be the hardest thing he ever did. And he can’t do it. It breaks my heart every time, that scene, because it feels like it breaks his heart even to say it.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:25 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
He threatens Mirage, to try to get to Buddy. He manages to grab her even in his restraints, and says “I’ll crush her! It’ll be easy, like breaking a toothpick.”
It’s not a sad line as such, but like, while he physically can do that, it’s never in doubt, it won’t actually be easy for him. It would probably be the hardest thing he ever did. And he can’t do it. It breaks my heart every time, that scene, because it feels like it breaks his heart even to say it.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:25 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I might've ranked Up a bit higher, but honestly I don't think it'd rank in the top 3 for me. Coco absolutely deserves its spot, and my personal list would probably put Finding Nemo and Wall-E up there as well.
Everyone has their tastes and their own experiences to draw on, and there's no way to make an objective list like this, clickbaity headline notwithstanding.
posted by Aleyn at 1:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Everyone has their tastes and their own experiences to draw on, and there's no way to make an objective list like this, clickbaity headline notwithstanding.
posted by Aleyn at 1:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I get mad at movies that try to make me cry. How DARE you force me to have feelings!! UNACCEPTABLE
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:49 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:49 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
I haven't seen all the films, but while going to a movie with a group of my young 20-something IT apprentices in 2018, the Toy Story 4 trailer opened with Judy Collin's "Both Sides Now."
I lost my shit, gasped,"Oh god," and burst into tears. The kids were worried, "Abehammerb, are you ok?" "Yep, yep. That song's just aimed right at my generation. I'm fine."
PS the interns were paid and got benefits. I'm not a monster.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I lost my shit, gasped,"Oh god," and burst into tears. The kids were worried, "Abehammerb, are you ok?" "Yep, yep. That song's just aimed right at my generation. I'm fine."
PS the interns were paid and got benefits. I'm not a monster.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Everything about this list is objectively wrong. If you’re trying to get me to cry, the organization of this list will do it.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:59 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by blue_beetle at 1:59 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
What even is the purvey of Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine anymore? It used to be Fashion and How To Be A Guy. A list of movies about how much they make you cry is well outside of that.*
I welcome a new masculinity because the old one is toxic, but this isn't the right way to go about doing it, IMO.
*unless it's a list of "avoid this movies" or "take your date to these movies if you want to get laid", which I'm sure are articles they've had in the past.
posted by hippybear at 2:06 PM on July 12, 2023
I welcome a new masculinity because the old one is toxic, but this isn't the right way to go about doing it, IMO.
*unless it's a list of "avoid this movies" or "take your date to these movies if you want to get laid", which I'm sure are articles they've had in the past.
posted by hippybear at 2:06 PM on July 12, 2023
My main complaint of the list is that it attempts to address this subjectively; different movies will hit people differently depending on their experience.
I was caught unawares when I watched Inside Out. I'd parted ways with a group of friends I'd had for a couple decades, as I'd grown to realize how messed up they were. I thought I'd made my peace with it. But then I saw that scene where the girl's memory jars changed color - with a whole set of her golden happy memories changing to be shadowed by blue of sadness - and cried like a baby.
posted by microscone at 2:07 PM on July 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
I was caught unawares when I watched Inside Out. I'd parted ways with a group of friends I'd had for a couple decades, as I'd grown to realize how messed up they were. I thought I'd made my peace with it. But then I saw that scene where the girl's memory jars changed color - with a whole set of her golden happy memories changing to be shadowed by blue of sadness - and cried like a baby.
posted by microscone at 2:07 PM on July 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
Everyone has their tastes and their own experiences to draw on, and there's no way to make an objective list like this, clickbaity headline notwithstanding.
I disagree. Weirdly, given the clickbaity title, there is at least the possibility of an objective list. Here's how that goes: Interpret "likelihood that you'll cry" in terms of relative frequency of people in the population who cry at some point when watching the film. That means there is an objective fact. So, now to make our list, we just need a good estimate of the relative frequency. Take a reasonably large, random sample of people and have them watch the films; count how many cry at some point during each film; divide by the total number of people in your sample; order the films by the resulting ratios. BOOM! There's a solid estimate of the objective fact that allegedly motivates the list.
I predict that if such an experiment were conducted, the resulting list would look nothing like that ... attempt. In fact, the list looks so bonkers to me given the headline criterion that I don't think you would do much worse at approximating the result of the proposed experiment if you picked Pixar films at random. If we're ordering the films on some other basis, such as how good it is overall or how much it makes the audience think or how clear its message is or how artistic it is or how many rats it has in it or the like, then the list might or might not be reasonable. But someone should perform the experiment and find out.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 2:08 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I disagree. Weirdly, given the clickbaity title, there is at least the possibility of an objective list. Here's how that goes: Interpret "likelihood that you'll cry" in terms of relative frequency of people in the population who cry at some point when watching the film. That means there is an objective fact. So, now to make our list, we just need a good estimate of the relative frequency. Take a reasonably large, random sample of people and have them watch the films; count how many cry at some point during each film; divide by the total number of people in your sample; order the films by the resulting ratios. BOOM! There's a solid estimate of the objective fact that allegedly motivates the list.
I predict that if such an experiment were conducted, the resulting list would look nothing like that ... attempt. In fact, the list looks so bonkers to me given the headline criterion that I don't think you would do much worse at approximating the result of the proposed experiment if you picked Pixar films at random. If we're ordering the films on some other basis, such as how good it is overall or how much it makes the audience think or how clear its message is or how artistic it is or how many rats it has in it or the like, then the list might or might not be reasonable. But someone should perform the experiment and find out.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 2:08 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Only two movies on that list had me shedding a tear: Up and Toy Story 3. To be fair, I haven't seen all 27, so I can't objectively say those are the only 2. Coco had a moment there, as did Wall-E, but those 2 movies did the thing, and it really surprises me that the movies that *actually made me cry* weren't even in the top 10.
posted by Chuffy at 2:17 PM on July 12, 2023
posted by Chuffy at 2:17 PM on July 12, 2023
Inside Out was robbed. I wonder if the author doesn’t have kids, because it hits *hard*
posted by leotrotsky at 2:18 PM on July 12, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 2:18 PM on July 12, 2023 [10 favorites]
I don't have kids and three of the movies on the list made me cry, that I can remember: Up!, Toy Story 3, and Inside Out. Two of those I could use to help me cry if I was an actor. They should have been much higher on the list.
posted by exolstice at 2:20 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by exolstice at 2:20 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Jonathan Livengood , I like your experiment, but want it conducted in the manner of Alex's therapy from Clockwork Orange.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:21 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:21 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm glad they addressed the Up ranking in the text, but I just can't get behind their reasoning, in the same way that I would have a bone to pick with a list of Animals Most Likely To Fuck You Up that had the blue ringed octopus at 14 because you just die instantly and then after that it pretty much leaves you alone
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2023 [28 favorites]
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2023 [28 favorites]
conducted in the manner of Alex's therapy from Clockwork Orange.
Well, yeah, I mean, you gotta have controls. :)
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Well, yeah, I mean, you gotta have controls. :)
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
When I saw the title I thought, "Coco better be #1." It's a beautiful film and the incredibly resonant ending with grandma is earned. It is a perfect ending to the full narrative. Everyone talks about the opening 15 minutes of Up, and that's what you guys are arguing about, but the article is right: after that it's diminishing returns with Up. Almost makes that opening feel like a cheat. (I feel I am in a somewhat unique position as a teacher, in which I showed Up to multiple classes at one point and saw it at least a dozen times in as many days. See a movie enough times and you can detect every bit of brilliance and every flaw.)
posted by zardoz at 2:26 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by zardoz at 2:26 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I haven't seen half of these movies, but the one that made me well up out of nowhere was Inside Out, in the scene in which bossy Joy is trying futilely to cheerlead imaginary friend Bing-Bong out of his grief over losing his rocket (and thus his importance in Riley's mind), and then dumpy, mopey, pushed-aside Sadness just...sits down with him and quietly acknowledges his pain, and that helps him move forward.
posted by praemunire at 2:30 PM on July 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 2:30 PM on July 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
I remember the thing that made me sad about Coco was how the afterlife was just more capitalism grind shit, and you could fade away from that too. I think I came out of the theater more depressed than sad.
I would never consider crying at anything in Incredibles, that's interesting that it stuck the knife in for some people.
I think what got me most in any Pixar movie is the claw scene in Toy Story 3 because I'm such a sucker for mercy. Soul gets some points for me too, even though it's oddly put together and all that... but, mercy...
posted by fleacircus at 2:31 PM on July 12, 2023
I would never consider crying at anything in Incredibles, that's interesting that it stuck the knife in for some people.
I think what got me most in any Pixar movie is the claw scene in Toy Story 3 because I'm such a sucker for mercy. Soul gets some points for me too, even though it's oddly put together and all that... but, mercy...
posted by fleacircus at 2:31 PM on July 12, 2023
A few years ago I did a Nerd Nite talk on the formula Pixar uses to make you cry. I won't go into it here (at least right now) but suffice it to say that I have studied Pixar vis-a-vis causing tears. So trust me when I say that this is definitely a pretty-subjective list of someone's "best Pixar movies" that had "Uh, ranked by how much they'll make you cry, I guess?" slapped on it post-facto because by "make you cry" criteria all the Cars movies would be at the bottom, which they are not in this case. Arguably, in a straight-up quality ranking, all three Cars movies should be at the bottom, but no matter. The Incredibles movies? They both slap ass. Neither one is a tearjerker. This list is a bit compromised and confused and whatever. That's fine.
They're absolutely right about Up shooting the canon indoors w/r/t that first ten minutes followed by nothing even nearly as memorable as what happens in those first ten minutes. (Yes there was a cut talking dog. Fine.)
Coco is probably correctly at the top. That movie is astounding and also will wreck you. Soul being so high seemed like a big stretch to me. (Like, I enjoyed it, but it was several drafts away from making sense, let alone being on par with most of these movies.) Turning Red cracking the top ten was a nice surprise, though, since that one hit me much harder than any of the other pandemic-era Pixar movies have (I love how devoted it is to the specifics of its universe. It's not just girls in puberty, but specifically centered on a girl from a strict Chinese family in Toronto in 2004 and yes all of these things contribute and matter. It's hilarious and unique and awesome. Anyway...)
Agreed with them that Finding Dory has no need to exist but I still like it anyway because its third act is some of the wildest shit ever, with the characters running into one impossible obstacle after another at a breakneck pace and continually hitting the "MOAR CHAOS" button in response and it's perfectly keeping in character for Dory to subscribe to the Jason Mendoza school of problem-solving.
Onward is sweet and fine and I want to go to the mat for it but it's not one of their best. Luca is beautiful and slight yeah, you have to really try to not read it as a queer coming of age story. Inside Out is, indeed, both one of their best and one of the likeliest to make you cry (I would have accepted it at #1, but Coco is correct there.)
Oh, and apparently I lack a crucial gene or something because the Toy Story movies simply do not effect me, at least not nearly as much as they seem to effect everyone else. And y'all, it's easy to make me tear up at a movie. So I'll just accept that I'm apparently wrong about those but seriously... I don't get it.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:34 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
They're absolutely right about Up shooting the canon indoors w/r/t that first ten minutes followed by nothing even nearly as memorable as what happens in those first ten minutes. (Yes there was a cut talking dog. Fine.)
Coco is probably correctly at the top. That movie is astounding and also will wreck you. Soul being so high seemed like a big stretch to me. (Like, I enjoyed it, but it was several drafts away from making sense, let alone being on par with most of these movies.) Turning Red cracking the top ten was a nice surprise, though, since that one hit me much harder than any of the other pandemic-era Pixar movies have (I love how devoted it is to the specifics of its universe. It's not just girls in puberty, but specifically centered on a girl from a strict Chinese family in Toronto in 2004 and yes all of these things contribute and matter. It's hilarious and unique and awesome. Anyway...)
Agreed with them that Finding Dory has no need to exist but I still like it anyway because its third act is some of the wildest shit ever, with the characters running into one impossible obstacle after another at a breakneck pace and continually hitting the "MOAR CHAOS" button in response and it's perfectly keeping in character for Dory to subscribe to the Jason Mendoza school of problem-solving.
Onward is sweet and fine and I want to go to the mat for it but it's not one of their best. Luca is beautiful and slight yeah, you have to really try to not read it as a queer coming of age story. Inside Out is, indeed, both one of their best and one of the likeliest to make you cry (I would have accepted it at #1, but Coco is correct there.)
Oh, and apparently I lack a crucial gene or something because the Toy Story movies simply do not effect me, at least not nearly as much as they seem to effect everyone else. And y'all, it's easy to make me tear up at a movie. So I'll just accept that I'm apparently wrong about those but seriously... I don't get it.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:34 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
I think what got me most in any Pixar movie is the claw scene in Toy Story 3 because I'm such a sucker for mercy.
That one I'll give you, though. That scene, when they reach out their arms to be together in their doom... that bit worked.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:35 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
That one I'll give you, though. That scene, when they reach out their arms to be together in their doom... that bit worked.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:35 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I didn't have the reaction most people have to the beginning of Up. The ending was more touching for me. I didn't really understand Inside Out because my brain is wired so very differently than whatever we were supposed to get from it. I haven't seen Coco or Elemental and I should.
A Bug's Life is guaranteed to make me cry and I've seen it many times due to the ages of my kids. I was really shocked it was so low on the list. The friend I went to see it with when it came out said to me after "they made that movie exactly for you" and she was right. The fact that no one else has the same reaction to A Bug's Life, now that might make me cry more than most of the movies on this list.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
A Bug's Life is guaranteed to make me cry and I've seen it many times due to the ages of my kids. I was really shocked it was so low on the list. The friend I went to see it with when it came out said to me after "they made that movie exactly for you" and she was right. The fact that no one else has the same reaction to A Bug's Life, now that might make me cry more than most of the movies on this list.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think Elemental, which I haven't seen but which is a meaningful story about immigrants, was entirely robbed by the marketing. They didn't play up what the actual story was about and probably lost a lot of their audience to their "let's aim for the middle" marketing campaign.
And the previous Disney film, Strange World, was so poorly marketed that I didn't even know it was coming out until after it had been declared a bomb at the box office.
I don't know what is failing at Disney, but marketing seems to be a major failure of these as of late.
I only knew Elemental was being released because I follow a Pixar artist on twitter who had been posting about it. I didn't learn about it through any Disney marketing at all.
posted by hippybear at 2:44 PM on July 12, 2023
And the previous Disney film, Strange World, was so poorly marketed that I didn't even know it was coming out until after it had been declared a bomb at the box office.
I don't know what is failing at Disney, but marketing seems to be a major failure of these as of late.
I only knew Elemental was being released because I follow a Pixar artist on twitter who had been posting about it. I didn't learn about it through any Disney marketing at all.
posted by hippybear at 2:44 PM on July 12, 2023
The bubble iMac I bought back in the day was the first DVD iMac and it came with a DVD of A Bug's Life. It's a brilliant, perfect movie and it's weird to me how much it has been overlooked in the Pixar catalog since its release.
posted by hippybear at 2:46 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 2:46 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Your favorite tears suck.
posted by fairmettle at 2:46 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by fairmettle at 2:46 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
All right, since we're listing... we're listing, right?
3. Toy Story 3 - when they're about to be incinerated and she reaches out to take the struggling horse's hoof. Jesus.
2. Coco - when Coco sings for the last time. It all comes together... in your tear ducts.
1. Wall-E - when he watches the video of two people holding hands and looks down and tries to hold his own hand. Good night!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
3. Toy Story 3 - when they're about to be incinerated and she reaches out to take the struggling horse's hoof. Jesus.
2. Coco - when Coco sings for the last time. It all comes together... in your tear ducts.
1. Wall-E - when he watches the video of two people holding hands and looks down and tries to hold his own hand. Good night!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
or how many rats it has in it
They say you're never more than six feet away from a cartoon rat.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
They say you're never more than six feet away from a cartoon rat.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
It's a clickbait title. The line of copy that immediately precedes the list is: "Here is our ranking of Pixar films from worst to best."
Inside Out should be higher, it's a masterpiece. A story about the importance of not suppressing negative emotions and how acting sad is a bat signal to our support network(!) I'm still learning these lessons (and crying).
I've missed some of the recent Pixars, my takeaway from this list is I need to check out Turning Red.
posted by macrael at 2:59 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Inside Out should be higher, it's a masterpiece. A story about the importance of not suppressing negative emotions and how acting sad is a bat signal to our support network(!) I'm still learning these lessons (and crying).
I've missed some of the recent Pixars, my takeaway from this list is I need to check out Turning Red.
posted by macrael at 2:59 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
They say you're never more than six feet away from a cartoon rat.
And that's even if you're NOT in the furry fandom!
posted by hippybear at 2:59 PM on July 12, 2023
And that's even if you're NOT in the furry fandom!
posted by hippybear at 2:59 PM on July 12, 2023
If they wanted to put Up at #14 then they should've have called the list "All 27 Pixar films ranked by their likelihood to make you cry." Hilariously, the article slug is "every-pixar-film-ranked-from-best-to-worst" implying that even GQ isn't quite sure what this list is supposed to be.
posted by chrominance at 3:04 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by chrominance at 3:04 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
And yes, the beginning of Up is really hard, but the moment that really broke me? Was when the house sat down on the top of the cliff after its balloon flight like it was in the drawing, only she wasn't there so what was the point of the imagined journey anyway? THAT moment makes me cry even just thinking about it.
posted by hippybear at 3:05 PM on July 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:05 PM on July 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
Because It's There?
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:21 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:21 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Ultimately this is all so personal. I was going through a rough patch in my life at the time and Incredibles made me cry like a baby. I identified deeply with Violet from the jump and when she came into her power I was emotionally THERE FOR IT. I actually went back and saw it again in the theater by myself and just cried from the beginning to the end. Whereas a bunch of the other movies higher on the list really didn't move me at all.
posted by potrzebie at 3:48 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 3:48 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
potrzebie: It's interesting. Incredibles (and to a lesser extent, Incredibles 2) are near the top of my list for Pixar favorites, and affect me deeply, but neither makes me teary. But in both cases, it's identifying with Violet that does it. They just nail that character, both in the ingenuity of her animation and in Sarah Vowell's voice work. I love it so much.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 3:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Onward is ranked too low.
YES. THIS. Onward is not just "a buddy comedy about brothers"; it's about grief and missing fathers and a realization that father figures don't necessarily have to be fathers -- and I think this is not just Ian realizing that his brother has been in a parental role to him, and note that although Barley's introduced as a boorish doofus everything he does and says to Ian throughout the movie is positive and supportive -- but also them both realizing that mom's boyfriend Colt may well also be quietly struggling with how to handle a parental role; and it makes me cry from the moment Ian starts checking off his list and I love it and I think it may well be the great overlooked Pixar movie because it opened into the pandemic and nobody saw it.
On the "makes you cry" scale I think Monsters Inc is ranked a little too high; Ratatouille is ranked way too high.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 3:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
YES. THIS. Onward is not just "a buddy comedy about brothers"; it's about grief and missing fathers and a realization that father figures don't necessarily have to be fathers -- and I think this is not just Ian realizing that his brother has been in a parental role to him, and note that although Barley's introduced as a boorish doofus everything he does and says to Ian throughout the movie is positive and supportive -- but also them both realizing that mom's boyfriend Colt may well also be quietly struggling with how to handle a parental role; and it makes me cry from the moment Ian starts checking off his list and I love it and I think it may well be the great overlooked Pixar movie because it opened into the pandemic and nobody saw it.
On the "makes you cry" scale I think Monsters Inc is ranked a little too high; Ratatouille is ranked way too high.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 3:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
the ice skating dream in inside out is one of my top go-tos for when i need a cry, which is something i increasingly need as i get older, that and the first half of wall-e. wait, no, the first half of wall-e plus the end credits, but none of the stuff in-between.
i’m increasingly convinced that those two movies, or i guess that movie-and-a-half-plus-credits, are the only things worth a damn that pixar’s ever done.
other things that make me cry: that one picture of neil armstrong that buzz aldrin took right after he got back in the lem after the first moonwalk, which i guess is a pretty idiosyncratic thing to have on one’s list of things that make one reliably cry but that’s what i’ve got to work with. oh and there’s a long passage i’ve memorized from the end of a book that i’m not going to name, and when i recite it to myself in my head, or god save me out loud, the waterworks start up in earnest when i hit the phrase “thine excellent apprentice,” every single time, and turn on full force at “the seeds have flown” and i have trouble turning them off again. like, just typing that made me mist up. if i ever for whatever reason need to cry on command, well, all i have to do is think “thine excellent apprentice” and then off we go.
oh, and spider-man: across the spiderverse. yeah, i know. i didn’t pick the things that make me cry, they picked me, and among the things that have picked me one can find every single frame of a movie about too many spider-mans. it’s just too beautiful to take without bawling. gratuitously beautiful, as gratuitously beautiful as the inside out ice skating scene but it’s an entire movie of gratuitous beauty. and it’s about spider-mans for some reason? which i guess makes the beauty extra gratuitous.
that ten minutes of up, on the other hand, call me a sociopath but they did nothing for me; i felt a little manipulated. “here is a thing that is sad,” the movie says, “cry at the sad thing, cry about how sad life is,” and the part of my brain or heart or soul or whatever that makes tears when exposed to certain affects shrugs because it feels told-not-shown, and then the dogs stuff that follows feels tinny and weak because nothing in the dogs part is commensurable to the pain that is life. makes it seem like the animators didn’t really mean all that true sad stuff from the first ten minutes. they set up something that requires something heavy after it, like some theodicy or some shit like that, but gave us a light adventure instead, and it felt like someone had thrown out all of riley from inside out’s beautiful melancholy yellow-and-blue core memories and dropped in pure yellow ones in their place.
in conclusion: space makes me cry, gratuitous beauty makes me cry, messages from thine excellent apprentice make me cry, seeds flying makes me cry, and up does not (though no shade or whatever for people who love it — if you are annoyed at me i give you full permission to laugh at me for crying about neil armstrong and every second that gwen stacy is on screen.)
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 3:57 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
i’m increasingly convinced that those two movies, or i guess that movie-and-a-half-plus-credits, are the only things worth a damn that pixar’s ever done.
other things that make me cry: that one picture of neil armstrong that buzz aldrin took right after he got back in the lem after the first moonwalk, which i guess is a pretty idiosyncratic thing to have on one’s list of things that make one reliably cry but that’s what i’ve got to work with. oh and there’s a long passage i’ve memorized from the end of a book that i’m not going to name, and when i recite it to myself in my head, or god save me out loud, the waterworks start up in earnest when i hit the phrase “thine excellent apprentice,” every single time, and turn on full force at “the seeds have flown” and i have trouble turning them off again. like, just typing that made me mist up. if i ever for whatever reason need to cry on command, well, all i have to do is think “thine excellent apprentice” and then off we go.
oh, and spider-man: across the spiderverse. yeah, i know. i didn’t pick the things that make me cry, they picked me, and among the things that have picked me one can find every single frame of a movie about too many spider-mans. it’s just too beautiful to take without bawling. gratuitously beautiful, as gratuitously beautiful as the inside out ice skating scene but it’s an entire movie of gratuitous beauty. and it’s about spider-mans for some reason? which i guess makes the beauty extra gratuitous.
that ten minutes of up, on the other hand, call me a sociopath but they did nothing for me; i felt a little manipulated. “here is a thing that is sad,” the movie says, “cry at the sad thing, cry about how sad life is,” and the part of my brain or heart or soul or whatever that makes tears when exposed to certain affects shrugs because it feels told-not-shown, and then the dogs stuff that follows feels tinny and weak because nothing in the dogs part is commensurable to the pain that is life. makes it seem like the animators didn’t really mean all that true sad stuff from the first ten minutes. they set up something that requires something heavy after it, like some theodicy or some shit like that, but gave us a light adventure instead, and it felt like someone had thrown out all of riley from inside out’s beautiful melancholy yellow-and-blue core memories and dropped in pure yellow ones in their place.
in conclusion: space makes me cry, gratuitous beauty makes me cry, messages from thine excellent apprentice make me cry, seeds flying makes me cry, and up does not (though no shade or whatever for people who love it — if you are annoyed at me i give you full permission to laugh at me for crying about neil armstrong and every second that gwen stacy is on screen.)
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 3:57 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Incredibles is widely regarded as the Best Pixar Movie, based on what I've gathered across years online. Toy Story is in hot contention, but the needle refuses to move.
I might make a post about The Incredibles as The Best Pixar Movie if I can find the things I read earlier about it that convinced me.
posted by hippybear at 3:58 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I might make a post about The Incredibles as The Best Pixar Movie if I can find the things I read earlier about it that convinced me.
posted by hippybear at 3:58 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't know what is going on with this list but I tell you what. As a new parent, watching Inside Out fucked me up. Time to watch it again!
posted by tmt at 4:22 PM on July 12, 2023
posted by tmt at 4:22 PM on July 12, 2023
Ok I will be that person. Cars makes me a little weepy.
posted by Mchelly at 4:23 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 4:23 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ok I will be that person.
And I thought I knew you a bit.
posted by hippybear at 4:25 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
And I thought I knew you a bit.
posted by hippybear at 4:25 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Inside Out should be higher, it's a masterpiece.
Most definitely. Even in the top three. Inside Out is the rare film that can actually teach you something about yourself. This list is rather odd, as it's ostensibly about the Pixar movies that make you cry, but did anyone really cry watching The Incredibles? It's one of the top tier Pixar movies, no doubt, but I'm trying to think of any scene that made me cry.
posted by zardoz at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Most definitely. Even in the top three. Inside Out is the rare film that can actually teach you something about yourself. This list is rather odd, as it's ostensibly about the Pixar movies that make you cry, but did anyone really cry watching The Incredibles? It's one of the top tier Pixar movies, no doubt, but I'm trying to think of any scene that made me cry.
posted by zardoz at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
zardoz: I was surprised too, but there are a number of folks in this thread who cried at The Incredibles (which I'm rewatching now as I work! Thanks, thread!) so what do I know?
posted by Navelgazer at 4:30 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Navelgazer at 4:30 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
not to brag, but they all make me cry 😎
posted by seraphine at 4:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by seraphine at 4:39 PM on July 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
Hell, as I get older, everything makes me cry.
Yes, kids, this is what you get to look forward to. Crying at sunsets and sleeping cats and even Pixar movies like Cars.
posted by hippybear at 4:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [14 favorites]
Yes, kids, this is what you get to look forward to. Crying at sunsets and sleeping cats and even Pixar movies like Cars.
posted by hippybear at 4:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [14 favorites]
Up isn't subtle, but neither are Charlotte's Web, or Terms of Endearment or Where The Red Fern Grows, which all work pretty well on me too.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
seeds flying makes me cry
Yeah, I hate allergy season too.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:54 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I hate allergy season too.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:54 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Now, Bluey?
posted by BlunderingArtist at 5:08 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by BlunderingArtist at 5:08 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm crying right now, but it's because of work, not Pixar. I thus join Crying Club anyway.
That said, I concur that the first ten minutes of Up are a big cry-fest and the rest of it is more cheerful than that, will not argue ranking over that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:20 PM on July 12, 2023
That said, I concur that the first ten minutes of Up are a big cry-fest and the rest of it is more cheerful than that, will not argue ranking over that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:20 PM on July 12, 2023
I remember seeing Onward in the theater with my wife, and seeing the scene where the older brother talked about running from seeing his dad in the ICU...and then going to the car and having a nice, long cry over my own struggles with going to see my mother in the ICU when she was fighting terminal cancer.
So yeah, this list misses the mark.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:58 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
So yeah, this list misses the mark.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:58 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Coco definitely hits the top spot for me. I tend to like most Pixar films and there have definitely been some beautiful moments in other Pixar movies (WALL-E watching the old classic movie, the first part of Up, etc) but by the end of Coco I was just sobbing. I ended up calling my dad after the credits ended because it made me think of him. I've only been able to manage to see it once because it was a lot of emotions going on. Someday I'll revisit.
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:16 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:16 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's a clickbait title. The line of copy that immediately precedes the list is: "Here is our ranking of Pixar films from worst to best."
This. Almost none of the write ups mention tearing up or the most touching moments; the rankings are justified on the overall merits of the film. An extremely annoying misdirect. It completely changes the ranking! I found Up as tearjerking as they come, but totally agree it's not overall the best movie.
Incredibles is widely regarded as the Best Pixar Movie, based on what I've gathered across years online.
This is true in terms of the reception, but I simply can't get past its commitment to the a natural hierarchy, with the people born talented deserve to be at the top. The government and the whiny kids at school are the ones holding them back!
The evil plot revolves around the risk that the benefits the supers got by accident of birth might be more widely shared among the general population. There is one character who in the movie who got where they were by hard work, and its not the supers, and his sin is thinking he's cool enough to hang around with supers. (Well, thinking he's cool and multiple murders, TBF.)
It's a perfectly entertaining Pixar movie otherwise, but I still remain puzzled by the relative indifference of progressive, egalitarian types to the Randian overtones in the plot. Both online and in my real life circle.
posted by mark k at 6:25 PM on July 12, 2023 [13 favorites]
This. Almost none of the write ups mention tearing up or the most touching moments; the rankings are justified on the overall merits of the film. An extremely annoying misdirect. It completely changes the ranking! I found Up as tearjerking as they come, but totally agree it's not overall the best movie.
Incredibles is widely regarded as the Best Pixar Movie, based on what I've gathered across years online.
This is true in terms of the reception, but I simply can't get past its commitment to the a natural hierarchy, with the people born talented deserve to be at the top. The government and the whiny kids at school are the ones holding them back!
The evil plot revolves around the risk that the benefits the supers got by accident of birth might be more widely shared among the general population. There is one character who in the movie who got where they were by hard work, and its not the supers, and his sin is thinking he's cool enough to hang around with supers. (Well, thinking he's cool and multiple murders, TBF.)
It's a perfectly entertaining Pixar movie otherwise, but I still remain puzzled by the relative indifference of progressive, egalitarian types to the Randian overtones in the plot. Both online and in my real life circle.
posted by mark k at 6:25 PM on July 12, 2023 [13 favorites]
🎵 just a spoonful of Supers helps the fascism go down 🎵
posted by logicpunk at 6:49 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by logicpunk at 6:49 PM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm just amazed they got to make 27 movies.
Of the ones I've seen, though, Ratatouille.
posted by grobstein at 7:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Of the ones I've seen, though, Ratatouille.
posted by grobstein at 7:00 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is true in terms of the reception, but I simply can't get past its commitment to the a natural hierarchy, with the people born talented deserve to be at the top. The government and the whiny kids at school are the ones holding them back!
I've always loved The Incredibles despite this bit kind of always itching at the back of my head, but this afternoon's rewatch made me realize how much it's really an allegory for the way life can knock back everyone from their dreams, passions and talents. Really, it put me in mind of a recurring theme in Discworld about what a tragedy it is for people not to be able to practice their gifts, and I think that's a universal feeling.
That said, there's still Dash's bit about "another way of saying no one is [[special]]", echoed later with Syndrome's "when everyone's super, no one will be," which definitely read badly. I think (hope?) that the intent was for Dash's bit to be demonstrative of his act-one immaturity, and Syndrome's line to show, like, "damn, this dude is so pissed off at Mr. Incredible that he's arming rogue states with WMDs!" but instead it just comes across as a troubling theme.
Which sucks, because the ending at the track meet shows them successfully managing to both be superheroes and just be members of their community, and be okay with that. Like, that synthesis is the actual target that the story is pointing at, IMO. But those two lines mentioned above really do seem to push things thematically too much towards "Just let the better people be better, lesser person!"
posted by Navelgazer at 7:01 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've always loved The Incredibles despite this bit kind of always itching at the back of my head, but this afternoon's rewatch made me realize how much it's really an allegory for the way life can knock back everyone from their dreams, passions and talents. Really, it put me in mind of a recurring theme in Discworld about what a tragedy it is for people not to be able to practice their gifts, and I think that's a universal feeling.
That said, there's still Dash's bit about "another way of saying no one is [[special]]", echoed later with Syndrome's "when everyone's super, no one will be," which definitely read badly. I think (hope?) that the intent was for Dash's bit to be demonstrative of his act-one immaturity, and Syndrome's line to show, like, "damn, this dude is so pissed off at Mr. Incredible that he's arming rogue states with WMDs!" but instead it just comes across as a troubling theme.
Which sucks, because the ending at the track meet shows them successfully managing to both be superheroes and just be members of their community, and be okay with that. Like, that synthesis is the actual target that the story is pointing at, IMO. But those two lines mentioned above really do seem to push things thematically too much towards "Just let the better people be better, lesser person!"
posted by Navelgazer at 7:01 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
(Also it's always seemed weird that "inventing functional rocket-boots at age ten" Syndrome is considered to not be a Super. He's clearly got super-intelligence going on. Maybe I'm just learning that it's better not to think about this movie too hard.)
posted by Navelgazer at 7:04 PM on July 12, 2023
posted by Navelgazer at 7:04 PM on July 12, 2023
There are some movies on this list that get to me and some that don't, but Coco.... good grief. I've seen it 4 or 5 times and every time, I cry so much I have to change into a dry shirt. Forget Pixar movies. Coco might be my number one cry movie, period.
posted by silverstatue at 7:11 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by silverstatue at 7:11 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
As far as crying during the Incredibles--the scene where Mr. Incredible is tied up, listening to the radio transmissions as the missiles home in on the plane...I'm sobbing every time. I first saw it shortly after becoming a father, so that might have something to do with it, but it destroys me.
posted by Four Ds at 7:22 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Four Ds at 7:22 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: I first saw it shortly after becoming a father ... it destroys me.
posted by hippybear at 7:30 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 7:30 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
My ex-partner has a friend who works at Pixar and I saw Up in their auditorium before it was released. At our NYE party a year or two earlier they came out to our smoking porch and said something like “do you know a chubby Asian child?!”
posted by bendy at 7:31 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 7:31 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Hell, as I get older, everything makes me cry.
Oh hell yeah. I'm a grown-ass man, but When She Loved Me hits different when your own kids are growing up and moving away. Absolutely destroys me 100 times out of 100. I'm crying right now.
And it's fucking Randy Newman. The shame of it all.
posted by The Bellman at 8:13 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
Oh hell yeah. I'm a grown-ass man, but When She Loved Me hits different when your own kids are growing up and moving away. Absolutely destroys me 100 times out of 100. I'm crying right now.
And it's fucking Randy Newman. The shame of it all.
posted by The Bellman at 8:13 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
I talked above about the Toy Story movies just for some unknown reason not landing with me (when other Pixar movies and, hell, just the annual John Lewis ads can make me weepy-eyed) and "When She Loved Me" is like the pinnacle of that phenomenon. Maybe if I had kids it would be different, but there's something about that scene that makes my brain just say "Nope, uh-uh. Sittin' this one out." No idea why. All the elements are there. No idea. But I'm glad I'm the odd man out there.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:42 PM on July 12, 2023
posted by Navelgazer at 8:42 PM on July 12, 2023
I cry at movies at the drop of a hat. FFS, Trolls made me cry when Poppy was at her nadir and Branch (spoilers).
As far as I'm aware, the only Pixar movies that haven't made me cry are the ones I haven't seen. I have a feeling this will remain true so long as I keep avoiding the Cars series. Coco and Inside Out ("Come on Joy, one more time... I got a feeling about this one...") are the ones that I can summon tears with just by thinking about them.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:03 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
As far as I'm aware, the only Pixar movies that haven't made me cry are the ones I haven't seen. I have a feeling this will remain true so long as I keep avoiding the Cars series. Coco and Inside Out ("Come on Joy, one more time... I got a feeling about this one...") are the ones that I can summon tears with just by thinking about them.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:03 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I just don't get how anyone can see The Incredibles as Randian. All the Randian lines are either the supervillain justifying his selfish evil plans or the naughty kid trying to rationalize why he should be allowed to misbehave in class. Mr. Incredible didn't reject Buddy for having no powers but for being a kid wanting to interrupt serious adult business to play with a loaded gun.
The happy ending is that instead of people being allowed to use superpowers however they want with no accountability (and in comic book terms, Syndrome's tech wizardry is every bit as much a super power as Dash's speed—Iron Man is subject to the Sokovia Accords just like Wanda), the supers get to come back under government supervision. Dash puts his speed on a leash so his family can blend in with the community, his focus not on winning but getting to participate with the other kids.
I don't know how The Incredibles could be more blatantly rejecting the Randian idea that superior ability puts you in a superior moral category, unaccountable to your lessers. Syndrome is the Übermensch in this story.
posted by straight at 9:26 PM on July 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
The happy ending is that instead of people being allowed to use superpowers however they want with no accountability (and in comic book terms, Syndrome's tech wizardry is every bit as much a super power as Dash's speed—Iron Man is subject to the Sokovia Accords just like Wanda), the supers get to come back under government supervision. Dash puts his speed on a leash so his family can blend in with the community, his focus not on winning but getting to participate with the other kids.
I don't know how The Incredibles could be more blatantly rejecting the Randian idea that superior ability puts you in a superior moral category, unaccountable to your lessers. Syndrome is the Übermensch in this story.
posted by straight at 9:26 PM on July 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
Agree with many comments here. Bad list. Did not really like Up after the first bit. But hands down team Wall-E first half. The cockroach, Hello Dolly, the shopping carts, the name exchange, the lighter, the umbrella. And even in the second half, the misfit robots, Mo, the trash heap, the dancing. Which reminds me, time to watch again. Also, a chance to link my favorite comment ever, which is about crying and Pixar and Wall-E.
posted by Glinn at 9:27 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Glinn at 9:27 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
And it's fucking Randy Newman. The shame of it all.
Randy Newman is goated.
posted by grobstein at 9:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
Randy Newman is goated.
posted by grobstein at 9:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
The whole "India Golf Niner-Niner is buddy spiked" piece from the Incredibles and Mr. Incredible's reaction
It doesn't make me cry, but Helen responding to the missile attack is electrifying. Holly Hunter does an amazing combination of thrilling hyper-competence with an edge of parent whose kids are in danger. She's a mom hitting her daughter with the full on Captain-America-says-you-can-do-the-impossible-because-you-have-to speech, up to the last moment when she realizes she has to do the impossible herself, and does.
posted by straight at 10:03 PM on July 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
It doesn't make me cry, but Helen responding to the missile attack is electrifying. Holly Hunter does an amazing combination of thrilling hyper-competence with an edge of parent whose kids are in danger. She's a mom hitting her daughter with the full on Captain-America-says-you-can-do-the-impossible-because-you-have-to speech, up to the last moment when she realizes she has to do the impossible herself, and does.
posted by straight at 10:03 PM on July 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
Ok, because Brad Bird later ended up at Pixar, I am reaching back through the decades and pulling The Iron Giant onto this list.
That scene where he closes his eyes so peacefully and Vin Diesel rumbles his way through “Suuuuuperman…” as we fade to white slays me every time. I did a mini sob just typing it out.
posted by FallibleHuman at 10:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
That scene where he closes his eyes so peacefully and Vin Diesel rumbles his way through “Suuuuuperman…” as we fade to white slays me every time. I did a mini sob just typing it out.
posted by FallibleHuman at 10:44 PM on July 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
Inside Out and Up made me cry, but Coco had me, my daughter, and her husband in full on stay-past-the-ending-credits-to-compose-ourselves sobbing mode.
Not sure how I'll survive the grandbaby's Pixar stage!
posted by Space Kitty at 10:47 PM on July 12, 2023
Not sure how I'll survive the grandbaby's Pixar stage!
posted by Space Kitty at 10:47 PM on July 12, 2023
Toy Story 3, not just because the conveyor belt to the incinerator was so vivid that you forgot you were watching a cartoon but the ending too, when college-age Andy brought the box of toys to Bonnie and he sat down with her to play with them one last time. It seemed like just yesterday he was a kid himself, but it was 15 years since the first Toy Story and you don’t often see characters grow up in cartoons.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:51 PM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
How do we get funding to run “likelihood of” ranking studies. I want “movies most likely to reveal an important plot point just when you had to go to the bathroom after trying to hold it in for as long as possible, waiting for what felt like a quiet part of the movie where nothing important is going to happen”
I am relieved to find out that I am not the only one that thinks Up’s opening is the jump scare of tear jerking. Still makes me cry, but I can see exactly how I am being manipulated.
A Bug’s Life does it for me, maybe it resonates with miswired brain having people. I think it is underrated when Pixar comes up. But I need to take a few deep breaths and numb the pedant in my brain to enjoy it. Atta ants are mushroom farmers! The forever happy ending? After giving literally a single flying fuck Flik would be dead on the floor with his genitals shredded to bits and Atta would be ripping off her own wings and digging a hole to spend the rest of her life laying several eggs per minute until the day she dies. (We just had a big Atta sp. nuptial flight 2 weeks ago and a smaller one yesterday. I picked 4 queens that were wandering down the middle of the asphalt street and put them in clay nests I made. They all have started their mushroom farm and 3 have eggs. I feed a lot of doomed drones to the lizards)
For some reason talking cars don’t bother me as much as bad arthropod biology.
Coco is definitely #1 for me. The tears are well earned with a solid story and characters. My father’s nickname was Coco, he died when my daughter was 1, every year since we make an altar for Abuelo Coco and we watch the movie in November. The movie makes my daughter very happy, and she cries a little. I on the other hand just give up and let the tears and snot flow. This year we are adding Abuelo Ernesto to the altar.
I cried a little bit with Inside Out, and was surprised that Pixar had made such a psychedelic movie. I thought it was very trippy, like it had a mushroom trip kind of vibe. I have been informed by several people that the movie is realistic than surrealistic.
I also need to read book four of the series alluded to above, I’ll try to forget the apprentice line.
posted by Dr. Curare at 11:34 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I am relieved to find out that I am not the only one that thinks Up’s opening is the jump scare of tear jerking. Still makes me cry, but I can see exactly how I am being manipulated.
A Bug’s Life does it for me, maybe it resonates with miswired brain having people. I think it is underrated when Pixar comes up. But I need to take a few deep breaths and numb the pedant in my brain to enjoy it. Atta ants are mushroom farmers! The forever happy ending? After giving literally a single flying fuck Flik would be dead on the floor with his genitals shredded to bits and Atta would be ripping off her own wings and digging a hole to spend the rest of her life laying several eggs per minute until the day she dies. (We just had a big Atta sp. nuptial flight 2 weeks ago and a smaller one yesterday. I picked 4 queens that were wandering down the middle of the asphalt street and put them in clay nests I made. They all have started their mushroom farm and 3 have eggs. I feed a lot of doomed drones to the lizards)
For some reason talking cars don’t bother me as much as bad arthropod biology.
Coco is definitely #1 for me. The tears are well earned with a solid story and characters. My father’s nickname was Coco, he died when my daughter was 1, every year since we make an altar for Abuelo Coco and we watch the movie in November. The movie makes my daughter very happy, and she cries a little. I on the other hand just give up and let the tears and snot flow. This year we are adding Abuelo Ernesto to the altar.
I cried a little bit with Inside Out, and was surprised that Pixar had made such a psychedelic movie. I thought it was very trippy, like it had a mushroom trip kind of vibe. I have been informed by several people that the movie is realistic than surrealistic.
I also need to read book four of the series alluded to above, I’ll try to forget the apprentice line.
posted by Dr. Curare at 11:34 PM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
That scene where he closes his eyes so peacefully and Vin Diesel rumbles his way through “Suuuuuperman…” as we fade to white slays me every time. I did a mini sob just typing it out.I got the Blu-ray as a birthday present for myself a week or two ago and even watching it with the commentary track on and having just watched it the day before didn't do much to blunt the effect.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 12:40 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
While we're at it, it’s worth mentioning non-Pixar movies that make you cry. I was utterly surprised to get a little teary at the end of Wreck-It Ralph, when he does his “I’m bad, and that’s good…” mantra as he’s falling to his apparent demise. It’s either a ripoff of or homage to The Iron Giant, but it’s so well done I don’t care if it's the former. Great scene, great movie.
posted by zardoz at 1:40 AM on July 13, 2023
posted by zardoz at 1:40 AM on July 13, 2023
When She Loved Me is literally the only time I've cried in the cinema. I would have been a very young wman taking one of my school aged sisters and it fucking gutted me. I'd moved 200km away from home to study and was struggling to maintain my high school friendships, and while I wouldn't say I was lonely by any stretch there was enough tender tissue to hit.
posted by Jilder at 2:02 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Jilder at 2:02 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Inside Out absolutely murders me every time, because the impact on Riley of the loss of her emotions is a near pitch perfect rendition of what falling into depression feels like, literally the only film I can think of that gets it right.
With Joy badgering and trying to hide Sadness away, and Riley's mum asking her to just be that happy little girl again, as the allegory for how society and well, everyone just expects you to pick up yourself up by your emotional bootstraps and go be an extrovert and MAKE yourself happy, while your inner structures and sense of self are collapsing, your past memories all become viewed through a sadness filter, the nightmares, how there's just no joy to be found in anything, no matter how hard you try, and you find yourself withdrawing more and more, and nobody seems to really notice or care, and you collapse into the grey fog of not feeling anything at all apart from bursts of pain and irrational anger. The whole bing bong plot, where he's become irrelevant and unneeded and is just trying to bear it as he literally faces fading away into nothingness. When he knowingly sacrifices his own life to save Joy, and by extension Riley... that makes me cry just thinking about it.
And that you end up doing impulsive, stupid things to try and find something that will get you some kind of feeling again. Riley sat on the bus, trying to run away from her problems with some vague goal, while just emotionally flat inside... that's depression in a nutshell, right there, and it hits me every time.
Of course, she does just snap out of it when she works out how to process her sadness and grief and loss of what-was and let it go, so she can move on and be with her loved ones again. But maybe being able to just recover on your own and not have it drastically impact on your life long-term, IS how normal people avoid depression in the first place.
Also, in the end credits sequence, someone at Pixar has clearly owned a cat.
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 2:18 AM on July 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
With Joy badgering and trying to hide Sadness away, and Riley's mum asking her to just be that happy little girl again, as the allegory for how society and well, everyone just expects you to pick up yourself up by your emotional bootstraps and go be an extrovert and MAKE yourself happy, while your inner structures and sense of self are collapsing, your past memories all become viewed through a sadness filter, the nightmares, how there's just no joy to be found in anything, no matter how hard you try, and you find yourself withdrawing more and more, and nobody seems to really notice or care, and you collapse into the grey fog of not feeling anything at all apart from bursts of pain and irrational anger. The whole bing bong plot, where he's become irrelevant and unneeded and is just trying to bear it as he literally faces fading away into nothingness. When he knowingly sacrifices his own life to save Joy, and by extension Riley... that makes me cry just thinking about it.
And that you end up doing impulsive, stupid things to try and find something that will get you some kind of feeling again. Riley sat on the bus, trying to run away from her problems with some vague goal, while just emotionally flat inside... that's depression in a nutshell, right there, and it hits me every time.
Of course, she does just snap out of it when she works out how to process her sadness and grief and loss of what-was and let it go, so she can move on and be with her loved ones again. But maybe being able to just recover on your own and not have it drastically impact on your life long-term, IS how normal people avoid depression in the first place.
Also, in the end credits sequence, someone at Pixar has clearly owned a cat.
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 2:18 AM on July 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
| But note that though epistemologists want to quibble about the meaning of the words, the probability and likelihood of a thing always seem to be exact same number.
What are the odds of that?!
posted by rickw at 2:59 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
What are the odds of that?!
posted by rickw at 2:59 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I went to see Up with my now-ex-wife. We had recently gone through a miscarriage. The short cartoon before the movie was about storks delivering babies. And then the opening to Up was... yeah.
It's the only Pixar movie I have only seen a single time.
Fortunately, a couple of years later, we were able to have Fleebnork Jr. So the beginning of Inside Out with the being born sequence guts me now, as well as any of the stuff around kids in the other movies. Damnit, I used to not cry at anything before becoming a Dad.
Cars really gets short shrift on Metafilter. My dad is a car guy and I have fond memories of going on drives and stopping by a cruise in and checking out classic cars. He bought me hot wheels. Fond memories of the time before he turned into a Fox News zombie.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:59 AM on July 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's the only Pixar movie I have only seen a single time.
Fortunately, a couple of years later, we were able to have Fleebnork Jr. So the beginning of Inside Out with the being born sequence guts me now, as well as any of the stuff around kids in the other movies. Damnit, I used to not cry at anything before becoming a Dad.
Cars really gets short shrift on Metafilter. My dad is a car guy and I have fond memories of going on drives and stopping by a cruise in and checking out classic cars. He bought me hot wheels. Fond memories of the time before he turned into a Fox News zombie.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:59 AM on July 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I wept openly during Up at least four times, mostly during the opening, but also throughout the rest of the film. Incredibles gets me, in the same moment ("I'm not strong enough...") as others here. I realize I haven't really see a lot of Pixar movies, sadly. Ratatouille didn't really make me cry so much as amaze me at a near perfect visual explanation of how much food can mean to someone, when the critic takes a bite and is instantly transported back. Perfect moments like that are transportation, and that movie did it as well as anything I've ever seen.
For animation that absolutely destroys me, that is difficult to even talk about rationally, it has to be Pom Poko (The Heisei Tanuki War), by Isao Takahata, who also directed Grave of the Fireflies. There's just enough actual history (to ease the postwar housing crisis, Tama New Town was built on the largest remaining tanuki habitat in Japan) connected to such amazing what-if-ness that it hurts inside to even think about how badly these brave little magical creatures fail, utterly and completely to protect their homes and ways of life, and by extension, the culture and way of life of much of rural Japan.
I'm thinking of the scene, that one scene, and my throat is burning and fucking hell, yeah, my nose is running, my eyes are full of tears. If you haven't seen it, try to find it. It's astoundingly good. Just, you know, be ready for the moment when they work their magic to turn the valley back into what it used to be.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:52 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
For animation that absolutely destroys me, that is difficult to even talk about rationally, it has to be Pom Poko (The Heisei Tanuki War), by Isao Takahata, who also directed Grave of the Fireflies. There's just enough actual history (to ease the postwar housing crisis, Tama New Town was built on the largest remaining tanuki habitat in Japan) connected to such amazing what-if-ness that it hurts inside to even think about how badly these brave little magical creatures fail, utterly and completely to protect their homes and ways of life, and by extension, the culture and way of life of much of rural Japan.
I'm thinking of the scene, that one scene, and my throat is burning and fucking hell, yeah, my nose is running, my eyes are full of tears. If you haven't seen it, try to find it. It's astoundingly good. Just, you know, be ready for the moment when they work their magic to turn the valley back into what it used to be.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:52 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I still tear up every time I hear "bing bong bing bong" fading away into the darkness
Turning Red hits me in the feels the same as Everything Everywhere All at Once, being an Asian immigrant, but it's not as sobby.
Coco is my all time sobbiest Pixar movie
posted by numaner at 6:16 AM on July 13, 2023
Turning Red hits me in the feels the same as Everything Everywhere All at Once, being an Asian immigrant, but it's not as sobby.
Coco is my all time sobbiest Pixar movie
posted by numaner at 6:16 AM on July 13, 2023
and of course [Coco] is already getting hate in these comments for not reflecting a white enough nuclear family experience lol
I don't see a single person doing this.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:39 AM on July 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I don't see a single person doing this.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:39 AM on July 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
You know how you can be driving along a highway and every once in a while you encounter some emergency vehicles with lights flashing and people standing around and a car or two in a ditch or up against the median with either its front end, rear end or one side or the other smashed in and you just have to slow down and look?
Yea, well, list posts are the car crashes of metafilter.
It's a shame when they happen and you hope that no one is seriously hurt, but in the end it is best to just drive on and get about your day.
posted by MorgansAmoebas at 7:15 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yea, well, list posts are the car crashes of metafilter.
It's a shame when they happen and you hope that no one is seriously hurt, but in the end it is best to just drive on and get about your day.
posted by MorgansAmoebas at 7:15 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Up is just about the only movie that made me cry in the first 10 minutes, and then actively pissed me off how bad it craps all over its characters towards the end to turn it into a stupid action movie. Saving Private Ryan almost qualifies.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:25 AM on July 13, 2023
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:25 AM on July 13, 2023
when college-age Andy brought the box of toys to Bonnie and he sat down with her to play with them one last time.
I burst into tears just now thinking of that scene. My eldest child was 13 when Toy Story 3 was released and time was already on fast-forward and I could see and feel the end of active parenting on the horizon so Toy Story 3 just completely wrecked me. And just talking about it still does, apparently. Also, the Toy Story franchise was my kid's favorite thing in the world when he was little, so yeah. I'm glad I'm working from home today. Ugly crying in the office is not a great look.
It just all goes by so fast.
posted by cooker girl at 7:36 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I burst into tears just now thinking of that scene. My eldest child was 13 when Toy Story 3 was released and time was already on fast-forward and I could see and feel the end of active parenting on the horizon so Toy Story 3 just completely wrecked me. And just talking about it still does, apparently. Also, the Toy Story franchise was my kid's favorite thing in the world when he was little, so yeah. I'm glad I'm working from home today. Ugly crying in the office is not a great look.
It just all goes by so fast.
posted by cooker girl at 7:36 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I cried just being told there would be a Cars 3.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:02 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:02 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
We have the Coco soundtrack in the car and listening to it makes me cry so I have to skip that one if I'm the driver. Inside Out absolutely wrecked me, but I'm also a father of a young girl so YMMV. Up rounds out my top 3, and I'd be hard pressed to put those three in any order that I still felt confident about next week.
And all I was left with by the animated movies of my youth was a fear of my mom getting eaten by a T-Rex and a thing for red-heads and seashell bras.
posted by jermsplan at 8:52 AM on July 13, 2023
And all I was left with by the animated movies of my youth was a fear of my mom getting eaten by a T-Rex and a thing for red-heads and seashell bras.
posted by jermsplan at 8:52 AM on July 13, 2023
she realizes she has to do the impossible herself, and does.
Not impossible, just Incredible.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:08 AM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Not impossible, just Incredible.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:08 AM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have never ugly-cried like I ugly-cried at Bing Bong's sacrifice in Inside Out. Absolutely devastating, and one of the most perfect moments in any Pixar film. In my opinion, Inside Out is the most emotionally effective movie, Wall-E is the most technically impressive, and Incredibles is the best overall.
To be fair, I also ugly cried at (a) the entirety of Finding Nemo, which I saw when my own son was less than a month old, and (b) the last third of Toy Story 3, which I saw when that same son was beginning to give up his own toys, but those were more about where I was in life at the time.
I purposely have never watched Coco because whenever it comes up, people say, "oh you'll cry so much." And it turns out I am never in the mood to see a movie that I *know* is going to make me cry.
Up is fine, and the first 10 minutes is a masterpiece. But it's so tonally disconnected from the remainder of the movie (which I thought was just ok) that I'm fine having it ranked lower on the list.
YMMV.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 9:27 AM on July 13, 2023
To be fair, I also ugly cried at (a) the entirety of Finding Nemo, which I saw when my own son was less than a month old, and (b) the last third of Toy Story 3, which I saw when that same son was beginning to give up his own toys, but those were more about where I was in life at the time.
I purposely have never watched Coco because whenever it comes up, people say, "oh you'll cry so much." And it turns out I am never in the mood to see a movie that I *know* is going to make me cry.
Up is fine, and the first 10 minutes is a masterpiece. But it's so tonally disconnected from the remainder of the movie (which I thought was just ok) that I'm fine having it ranked lower on the list.
YMMV.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 9:27 AM on July 13, 2023
So much of the effect of Pixar movies depends on a) if you’re a parent and b) how old your kids are
posted by gottabefunky at 9:36 AM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by gottabefunky at 9:36 AM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I still tear up every time I hear "bing bong bing bong" fading away into the darkness
I just learned a moment ago: Bing Bong's last words were actually to Joy, about Riley: "Take her to the moon for me, okay?" And I learned that when they were recording the voiceover, Richard Kind teared up at this every single time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:51 AM on July 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I just learned a moment ago: Bing Bong's last words were actually to Joy, about Riley: "Take her to the moon for me, okay?" And I learned that when they were recording the voiceover, Richard Kind teared up at this every single time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:51 AM on July 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
Richard Kind teared up at this every single time.
That's because he's the best of us.
posted by DigDoug at 9:56 AM on July 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
That's because he's the best of us.
posted by DigDoug at 9:56 AM on July 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I purposely have never watched Coco because whenever it comes up, people say, "oh you'll cry so much." And it turns out I am never in the mood to see a movie that I *know* is going to make me cry.
Ben Trismegistus: You should know that Coco is also outstandingly joyous and gorgeous and funny. Just an amazing film through and through. Yes, you'll cry, but they'll largely be happy tears.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:04 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ben Trismegistus: You should know that Coco is also outstandingly joyous and gorgeous and funny. Just an amazing film through and through. Yes, you'll cry, but they'll largely be happy tears.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:04 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I only knew Elemental was being released because I follow a Pixar artist on twitter who had been posting about it. I didn't learn about it through any Disney marketing at all.
Oh my god, every second commercial on my TV has been for Elemental for like 3 months now. (The other commercials are exclusively the Burger King one that yells WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER.)
I just learned a moment ago: Bing Bong's last words were actually to Joy, about Riley: "Take her to the moon for me, okay?" And I learned that when they were recording the voiceover, Richard Kind teared up at this every single time.
I have had entire therapy sessions that just consisted of crying about Bing Bong.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:11 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
Oh my god, every second commercial on my TV has been for Elemental for like 3 months now. (The other commercials are exclusively the Burger King one that yells WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER.)
I just learned a moment ago: Bing Bong's last words were actually to Joy, about Riley: "Take her to the moon for me, okay?" And I learned that when they were recording the voiceover, Richard Kind teared up at this every single time.
I have had entire therapy sessions that just consisted of crying about Bing Bong.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:11 AM on July 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I disagree. Weirdly, given the clickbaity title, there is at least the possibility of an objective list. ...Somehow I think a peer-reviewed scientific survey might be asking a bit much of a GQ writer.
posted by Aleyn at 11:03 AM on July 13, 2023
A Bug's Life is more likely to make you cry than Onward? Get out. Onward--where we never get to meet the father we only know as legs, even when the spell finally works, just like Ian never does--because he he sacrifices his chance so that his brother will finally get to say goodbye? Not as weep-inducing as a film about ants?
posted by ceejaytee at 11:25 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ceejaytee at 11:25 AM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Oh my god, every second commercial on my TV has been for Elemental for like 3 months now.
Really terrible ad, though; I mean, I genuinely wondered if it was AI-scripted, it was so intensely mediocre and cliched.
posted by praemunire at 12:02 PM on July 13, 2023
Really terrible ad, though; I mean, I genuinely wondered if it was AI-scripted, it was so intensely mediocre and cliched.
posted by praemunire at 12:02 PM on July 13, 2023
during the pandemic my partner and i watched a bunch of disney and pixar films we'd never seen. we hated coco the most. just hate it.
moana on the other hand was a joy, and i wish i'd been watching it for years.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:18 PM on July 13, 2023
moana on the other hand was a joy, and i wish i'd been watching it for years.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:18 PM on July 13, 2023
Somehow I think a peer-reviewed scientific survey might be asking a bit much of a GQ writer.
We regret to inform you....
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:39 PM on July 13, 2023
We regret to inform you....
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:39 PM on July 13, 2023
Oh my god, every second commercial on my TV has been for Elemental for like 3 months now. (The other commercials are exclusively the Burger King one that yells WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER.)
Tripledent Gum… 🎶
posted by Mchelly at 1:47 PM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Tripledent Gum… 🎶
posted by Mchelly at 1:47 PM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
whopper whopper whopper whopper
whopper whopper whopper whopper
whopper whopper whopper whopper
have it your way...🎶
posted by praemunire at 2:21 PM on July 13, 2023
whopper whopper whopper whopper
whopper whopper whopper whopper
have it your way...🎶
posted by praemunire at 2:21 PM on July 13, 2023
What do they mean the second half of Up is by the numbers... maybe if you're reading a summary of the plot on wikipedia, but the imagery is surreal and deeply, deeply sad. Like the balloon house is all by itself in this surreal landscape and just looking at it makes you feel deep sadness regardless of what the plot is doing.
posted by subdee at 7:07 PM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by subdee at 7:07 PM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Listicle, yeah yeah, been there, outraged that.
What really gets my goat - and I see it more and more lately - is the last sentence,
Just wait 'til you for the startlingly intimate last act.
This garbled language salad I abide when it's in an SMS/DM whatever (or here, I know I've auto-corrected myself into many an indecipherable sentence) but GQ, a publication that employs editors, should be able to do better than this very, very low threshold.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:12 AM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
What really gets my goat - and I see it more and more lately - is the last sentence,
Just wait 'til you for the startlingly intimate last act.
This garbled language salad I abide when it's in an SMS/DM whatever (or here, I know I've auto-corrected myself into many an indecipherable sentence) but GQ, a publication that employs editors, should be able to do better than this very, very low threshold.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:12 AM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
but the imagery is surreal and deeply, deeply sad
Have you seen the movie? A bunch of talking dogs and formerly feeble old men ninja fighting might be surreal, but it's not sad.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:47 AM on July 14, 2023
Have you seen the movie? A bunch of talking dogs and formerly feeble old men ninja fighting might be surreal, but it's not sad.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:47 AM on July 14, 2023
So much of the effect of Pixar movies depends on a) if you’re a parent and b) how old your kids are
I'm pretty sure it was a Pixar film I was watching shortly after my kids were born and realizing I now had an entirely new button for Hollywood to press. "I'm sure this is fine," my memory anachronistically pictures myself thinking.
posted by straight at 7:47 AM on July 14, 2023
I'm pretty sure it was a Pixar film I was watching shortly after my kids were born and realizing I now had an entirely new button for Hollywood to press. "I'm sure this is fine," my memory anachronistically pictures myself thinking.
posted by straight at 7:47 AM on July 14, 2023
I think my thing with Up (and mind you, I think Up is a very good movie that accomplishes a hell of a lot, but just isn't in my upper echelon of Pixar movies) is that between the marketing, title, and those indelible first ten minutes, it doesn't give you a very good initial concept of the shape of the story. In retrospect, I can run story theory all over it and see what it was about, and it all holds together (again, it's a good movie!) as being about Carl's accepting Ellie's loss, seeing the mirror of himself in Charles Muntz and knowing why he doesn't want to go that path, opening him heart up to Russell and Dug, etc.
But (for me anyway) that's not the movie I was expecting. The trailers, posters, and title all foregrounded the "Balloon House on an Adventure" aspect, which is basically a quick inciting incident to get us to Paradise Falls, where the majority of the story actually takes place. So instead of the Carl-and-Russell road-trip through the skies that the movie seemed to promise, we get intrigue around an even older, even more crotchety dude, and that's just not what I signed up for going into the movie. Which is fine - I like it when movies go places I don't expect - but 1.) there's always a risk in subverting audience expectations, and 2.) I don't think the subversion in this case was intentional. That all leads to a feeling, rightly or wrongly, that the movie doesn't hold together as well as other Pixar joints do, and when combined with such a stellar and powerful opening, it does make the rest of the movie suffer by comparison. (still good though!)
This is very similar to what happened with Brave (another one I like a lot, but feel more of a need to defend rather than criticize because its reputation hasn't fared nearly as well.) The trailers and posters all showed off the breathtaking scenery (and Merida's breathtaking hair rendering) but didn't really give audiences much to go on aside from "Scottish Princess wants to break societal norms and goes on a mythic quest for her independence." But that's not really the story, since there's not really a quest, per se, so much like we're expecting "floating house adventure" and land unexpectedly at Paradise Falls for the majority of Up, in Brave we're expecting a trek through the highlands and end up mostly at and around the castle with a lot of bear stuff.
BUT! Within that bear stuff we still get a very touching story leading us to Merida, who reveres her dad and resents her mom, standing up to her dad to protect her mom, and forcing herself to be heard by those who, however well-intentioned about her they were, however much they doted on her, still didn't respect what she had to say. It's a good story! Just, you know, a lot more about bears than marketing would have had us believe. (Plus Brave, unlike Up, had the issue of changing directors partway through the process, which couldn't have helped with how it feels kind of disjointed even if you know where the story is going.)
posted by Navelgazer at 12:42 PM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
But (for me anyway) that's not the movie I was expecting. The trailers, posters, and title all foregrounded the "Balloon House on an Adventure" aspect, which is basically a quick inciting incident to get us to Paradise Falls, where the majority of the story actually takes place. So instead of the Carl-and-Russell road-trip through the skies that the movie seemed to promise, we get intrigue around an even older, even more crotchety dude, and that's just not what I signed up for going into the movie. Which is fine - I like it when movies go places I don't expect - but 1.) there's always a risk in subverting audience expectations, and 2.) I don't think the subversion in this case was intentional. That all leads to a feeling, rightly or wrongly, that the movie doesn't hold together as well as other Pixar joints do, and when combined with such a stellar and powerful opening, it does make the rest of the movie suffer by comparison. (still good though!)
This is very similar to what happened with Brave (another one I like a lot, but feel more of a need to defend rather than criticize because its reputation hasn't fared nearly as well.) The trailers and posters all showed off the breathtaking scenery (and Merida's breathtaking hair rendering) but didn't really give audiences much to go on aside from "Scottish Princess wants to break societal norms and goes on a mythic quest for her independence." But that's not really the story, since there's not really a quest, per se, so much like we're expecting "floating house adventure" and land unexpectedly at Paradise Falls for the majority of Up, in Brave we're expecting a trek through the highlands and end up mostly at and around the castle with a lot of bear stuff.
BUT! Within that bear stuff we still get a very touching story leading us to Merida, who reveres her dad and resents her mom, standing up to her dad to protect her mom, and forcing herself to be heard by those who, however well-intentioned about her they were, however much they doted on her, still didn't respect what she had to say. It's a good story! Just, you know, a lot more about bears than marketing would have had us believe. (Plus Brave, unlike Up, had the issue of changing directors partway through the process, which couldn't have helped with how it feels kind of disjointed even if you know where the story is going.)
posted by Navelgazer at 12:42 PM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think most of life should be more about bears than marketing would lead you to believe.
posted by hippybear at 12:47 PM on July 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 12:47 PM on July 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
ut the imagery is surreal and deeply, deeply sad
Have you seen the movie? A bunch of talking dogs and formerly feeble old men ninja fightin
See, you're again describing the plot. But I'm not talking about the plot, I'm talking about the vibes.
posted by subdee at 6:41 PM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
Have you seen the movie? A bunch of talking dogs and formerly feeble old men ninja fightin
See, you're again describing the plot. But I'm not talking about the plot, I'm talking about the vibes.
posted by subdee at 6:41 PM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm surprised at the lack of comments regarding the films directed by John Lasseter (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, Cars 2), given the comments regarding the films of Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.
posted by fairmettle at 10:25 PM on July 22, 2023
posted by fairmettle at 10:25 PM on July 22, 2023
I think the problem with Brave is pretty simple, and it's also the problem with Onward, and perhaps other Pixar movies like Turning Red -- the problem is: painfully direct & sincere "kid struggling with their relationship with their parents who Love Them Very Much" simply isn't very fun or interesting. They can try to dress it up with fun and cuteness... though Brave doesn't... but it's still a heavy load to carry. Nothing can distract from the altar that demands its sacrifice, the big juicy payoff.
Brave is a fucking drag. They made bears boring.
I just saw Are You There God? It's Me Margaret and I want to say this class of Pixar films are like an infantilized Judy Blume, which is to say they are aimed at a developmental category that barely exists. They are like if you could age from an 8 year old to a 28 year-old instantly, just an attempt to mush Calvin together with his dad like fusing two nuclei, to annihilate all life outside FAMBLY. They have an aspect of an aggressive, smothering, patronizing hug. It makes their characters feel more fake; it makes the dramatic load even heavier.
but the imagery is surreal and deeply, deeply sad. Like the balloon house is all by itself in this surreal landscape and just looking at it makes you feel deep sadness regardless of what the plot is doing.
Oh good point. The surreal landscapes are not a human scale, they are a place "civilized" people shouldn't be. It's fantastic, yet nothing stands out as anything of interest. There's nowhere to go there, nothing to do. There is one weird bird, an utterly wild x factor. The big thing they find is Christoper Plummer and his dogs, who also don't belong there, and could be anywhere. Ultimately, they are just action scene fodder anyway.
The big vibe is, "Is that it???" and it's unsettling. It's not an adventure. There's a very colorful nothingness that they find. I felt the vibe as disappointment because I don't think it's quite deliberate. I think if it was paint by numbers it would be more coherent lol. I think both Up and WALL-E are kind of narratively malformed in that they have some great beginnings, but after the first ten minutes, the end is all set up, and everything between those two points is just... not worth any emotional investment at all, and so the end doesn't land either.
posted by fleacircus at 1:09 AM on July 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Brave is a fucking drag. They made bears boring.
I just saw Are You There God? It's Me Margaret and I want to say this class of Pixar films are like an infantilized Judy Blume, which is to say they are aimed at a developmental category that barely exists. They are like if you could age from an 8 year old to a 28 year-old instantly, just an attempt to mush Calvin together with his dad like fusing two nuclei, to annihilate all life outside FAMBLY. They have an aspect of an aggressive, smothering, patronizing hug. It makes their characters feel more fake; it makes the dramatic load even heavier.
but the imagery is surreal and deeply, deeply sad. Like the balloon house is all by itself in this surreal landscape and just looking at it makes you feel deep sadness regardless of what the plot is doing.
Oh good point. The surreal landscapes are not a human scale, they are a place "civilized" people shouldn't be. It's fantastic, yet nothing stands out as anything of interest. There's nowhere to go there, nothing to do. There is one weird bird, an utterly wild x factor. The big thing they find is Christoper Plummer and his dogs, who also don't belong there, and could be anywhere. Ultimately, they are just action scene fodder anyway.
The big vibe is, "Is that it???" and it's unsettling. It's not an adventure. There's a very colorful nothingness that they find. I felt the vibe as disappointment because I don't think it's quite deliberate. I think if it was paint by numbers it would be more coherent lol. I think both Up and WALL-E are kind of narratively malformed in that they have some great beginnings, but after the first ten minutes, the end is all set up, and everything between those two points is just... not worth any emotional investment at all, and so the end doesn't land either.
posted by fleacircus at 1:09 AM on July 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
No time to listen to the full discussion before the thread closes, but:
Which Pixar Movie Is The Most Fascist? (Tier List)
(Beginning with a review of Umberto Edo's fourteen general properties of fascist ideology)
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 11:16 AM on August 12, 2023
Which Pixar Movie Is The Most Fascist? (Tier List)
(Beginning with a review of Umberto Edo's fourteen general properties of fascist ideology)
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 11:16 AM on August 12, 2023
More people who can't figure out what a movie is saying unless a character looks at the camera and says THE VILLAIN IS WRONG AND YOU SHOULDN'T TAKE HIS SELF-JUSTIFYING RHETORIC AT FACE VALUE.
posted by straight at 11:45 AM on August 12, 2023
posted by straight at 11:45 AM on August 12, 2023
Still only an hour into it but so far they have been making the effort to avoid reproducing that classic misanalysis (and they are clearly doing this to have a fun discussion rather than to produce an actual Good Pixar versus Banned Pixar list).
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 12:17 PM on August 12, 2023
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 12:17 PM on August 12, 2023
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"Up" at fourteen?!?
whaaaaaaaat
posted by chavenet at 12:37 PM on July 12, 2023 [35 favorites]