The Pixar juggernaut

Hollywood is stupid.

I'll grant that studios, producers and directors might have scoffed the success of Pixar's first picture (and first smash hit), Toy Story.  They might have considered it dumb luck when the Pixar artisans struck gold twice.  A Bug's Life lit up the screen a week after Antz, Dreamworks' attempt to match Pixar's charm, was released.  The head-to-head proved only that folks enjoy a feel-good flick over Woody Allen's neuroses and melancholia any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Box office take, A Bug's Life $162 million, Antz $91 million.

Pixar double-dipped into the Toy Story well with the no-pretense title, Toy Story 2.  Come now, TS1 was great, Bug's Life amazing, surely, TS2 will bring us Pixar's first clunk.  Um, no.  Think Steve Austin, astronaut, a man barely alive.  Think better, stronger, faster. 

"Okay, okay, okay," thinks Hollywood, wringing it's miserly knuckles.  "There can't be that many stories to animate.  Pixar's had it's run."  Little did the jaded west coast realize that a group of real people had begun to tell stories that would resonate with real America, not a utopia in the addled minds of Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga.  Pixar mesmerized a nation with a tale about the monster in every child's closet, Monsters, Inc.

I think of the film industry as the man who keeps hitting himself in the head and complaining to the doctor that it hurts when he does so.  Not only that, the idiot looks upon a delighted child enjoying a playground and wonders why that child isn't in pain, too.  The masochistic man watches from the street as the child climbs upon the swings.  Surely, this time the child will find ruin and disaster!  Nope, more laughter and wonder got churned out when Finding Nemo turned it up a notch yet again.

Five for five.  What's the secret?  Big Hollywood's Cam Cameron summed it up nicely.

These are not cartoons, they’re real movies told through animation. They’re not kids’ movies and they’re not grown-up movies. They’re just fun, clean, well-crafted films with great stories that people want to see. They don’t talk down to kids and they don’t punch adults in the ribs with inside jokes.

Pixar's telling stories, timeless stories that resonate from age eight to eighteen to eighty-eight.  Good is rewarded.  Evil meets its demise.  You can relate to the characters the moment they appear on the screen.  Nobody feels like they've been morally assaulted from the entrance of the prancing lamp logo to the run of the always wondrous credits.

Last weekend's release of the third and final dip into the Toy Story well, Toy Story 3, points to a Pixar that hasn't lost its stride.  I don't think they're even breathing hard.  They haven't "matured."  They haven't come to terms with "the real world."  They just keep telling stories you and I can get our arms around and ignoring the crotchety old man outside the fence who keeps hitting himself in the head (no, it's not Mr. Fredricksen).

Here's the list of the magic Pixar has crafted.  What's your top 5 look like?  Do you have a "least favorite?"  Funny, my least favorite Pixar flick pretty much blows away the lion's share of the movies I've seen in the last five years.  Is there one you haven't seen in awhile?  Rent it and treat yourself to one of the best reruns you'll see.

1. Toy Story
2. A Bug's Life
3. Toy Story 2
4. Monster's Inc.
5. Finding Nemo
6. The Incredibles
7. Cars
8. Ratatouille
9. WALL*E
10. Up
11. Toy Story 3

You can't help but wonder what's next.  I'm aching for The Incredibles 2, but that's just me.