Pixar and the Obsolete | Big Joel

so I watched cars 3 the other day and I liked it fine I mean it's cars it is what it is but toward the end of the movie thought occurred to me it was the sort of idea that seemed obvious when put into words but which hadn't occurred to me before at least not in such concrete language so this is the thought and also the topic of this video Pixar is obsessed with the idea of people things and machines no longer being useful or cared about Pixar is obsessed with the obsolete this isn't exactly a startling revelation after all Pixar is the studio that brought us Toy Story a film franchise devoted entirely to one characters fear that he is becoming obsolete the first film in a series is about woody worrying that he'll be useless when a new toy enters the mix couldn't handle buzz cutting in on your playtime could you would the second is about him realizing that he won't be played with forever because Andy is growing up you are a toy for how much longer and the third is about the toys desperately trying to find a purpose after Andy goes to college and their role in his life is over um no one's gonna want those old toy junk everything in these movies comes back to characters worrying about their relevance and usefulness and then there's cars that good in the first movie Lightning McQueen starts off at the top of the world only to be stranded in a town that's left its prime that can be understood as worthless he has to realize throughout the film that there's value in what he used to consider obsolete I fell in love with this name in the third film the roles reverse lightning is suddenly the old guy seen as outmoded technology by the new racers and much like Woody from Toy Story he's forced to come to terms with the fact that he won't always be able to have the function he has now this Charlie did you save Lightning McQueen was here because I don't see him anywhere but these would idea but it goes further than these two franchises because when you start looking for this theme in Pixar you find it everywhere The Incredibles a group of superheroes cope with a society that no longer considers them useful they keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity but if someone is genuinely exceptional they're not about you Bob Wally the earth is wrecked humans now live useless on labor lives and they have to return to the earth to be useful again even in those Pixar movies where themes of usefulness and obsolescence are in front and center they're usually still present up for instance it's a fun adventure buddy movie between an old guy and a kid but in the background there's all these images that evoke this theme for example Carl's home is this rundown old place surrounded by the impact of modern urban sprawl or inside-out a movie about dealing with complicated emotions and about the importance of being sad but it expresses its themes in terms of obsolete machinery at the end of the movie the panel that controls Riley's emotions is replaced with a new better more complicated panel there you go your new expanded console is up and running the old panel is presumably thrown out it's useless now [Music] so okay Pixar is fixated on this narrative of people and objects becoming obsolete but why is this important what does it say about them as a studio that they keep addressing this theme and what does it say about us as an audience that we keep watching it well in answering that question I think it's helpful to look at the other major children's animation studio in America [Music] because Disney could not be less invested in the idea of things becoming obsolete rather than telling stories about characters who have things and uses that they are terribly afraid of losing Disney goes for the exact opposite making movies about characters who want to get something new something better and who journey into the world to get it I mean just look at the last five Disney movies there's a character who wants to see the worlds past her Island a small-town rabbit who wants to be a cop in the big city a girl who wants to open the castle gates and find a prince a video game villain who wants to be a hero and a girl who's trapped in a tower and who wants to get out and during the Disney Renaissance of the 90s this thematic structure is even more pronounced I mean just look at all these characters saying how much they want more so if Disney fetishizes the idea of more then you can think of Pixar as a reaction against them thinking [Music] I wonder in the great far from understanding change as an unquestioned good the plots of these movies generally center on characters who are happy with things the way they are who are terrified of change because it might one day make them useless pictures use of obsolescence then can be understood as their way of going against Disney's obsession with progress and attainment but I don't think that's exactly right or at least it doesn't give the whole story because at the heart of it Pixar really isn't anti change or anti progress yes the characters and the movies are generally people afraid of becoming useless but by the end these characters cope they learned that change isn't all bad they think they're becoming obsolete but they're not they just have to find a new role this is as true in Toy Story where what he realizes that he can't be the only toy and he plays with something now but what could Andy possibly get that is worse than you to inside out where joy has to accept that she can't be Riley's only emotion he came home because it's true in cars and in the Incredibles and enough so this is how I think about it children in general have very little power and compacting it can be forced to eat sleep they can be forced to go to school they can be picked up and moved across the country without being asked fundamentally they get to decide very little about their lives and there's two basic ways to make a movie that deals with that feeling of powerlessness the first is knees way is to tell kids you're not powerless you can be and do whatever you want you're like Moana you're like Arielle the other way Pixar's way is to say no you're not powerful you don't always have agency and there are things about your life today rules you fill and things you do that won't be here forever it's up to you how to deal with it but whether or not you'd like it changes happening in order to express this message Pixar uses obsolescence as a sort of shorthand I mean what's a better way of making change undesirable and scary then to pose it as something that will take away the roles you love filling want to say one last goodbye the reinforced so besides making the film's relatable to kids what does obsolescence do to Pixar well I think it does a lot of things first it gives the studio a plot formula that simultaneously repetitive and distinctive I mean you can describe most of Pixar's work as a character worries about becoming obsolete they gained a new role and then they become happy and that may seem kind of boring but you don't see that story structure everywhere it's really specific to Pixar and it gives the studio a holistic vision second obsolescence allows Pixar to make movies about characters who don't get what they want so like in Disney the difference between the beginning and the end of the movie is that at the beginning the character wants something and at the end they have it [Music] but with Pixar that's thrown out the window characters in a Pixar movie wants something at the beginning want to stay in the role they're happy in but they fail to get that goal and the whole movie is about them coming to terms with that and that's the heart of character development like in Toy Story woody changes completely over the course of that film you're still worried about Andy it'll be fun while it lasts can you see the same about Moana or Ariel or Cinderella I look like princess and that leads me to my third point because Pixar is all about characters worried about becoming obsolete they are already fully formed people at the start of their movies no I'm just here to help they already have roles they enjoy occupying and they already have a history look it up with a 10-minute rewrite the movie could have basically started with Russell knocking on Carl's door vCard good after you but the movie doesn't start that way it starts with a 15 minute sequence telling us all about Carl's life the uses he used to have the roles he used to fill and wanted to fill and doesn't have the opportunity to fill anymore he wanted to adventure he wanted to have kids he wants to be Ellie's husband again by using obsolescence and the fear of becoming useless here Pixar is able to embed a lot of personality in its characters from minute one there the world outside of young I am worried that this video is coming off very Pro Pixar and very anti Disney and that's not my feeling at all I don't think that Pixar is better than Disney because of its engagement with obsolescence and all of the things that come with that rather I think their Disney and Pixar as two sides of the same coin two very different but equally resonate ways of dealing with the problems of childhood where Disney taps into a child's desire to grow up to get the things they want to be an agent was allowed to decide where to go and what to do fix our deals with basic childhood fears the fear of not having control over your life of not having an obvious place in the world the fear that everything can and will change it's about having those fears and overcoming them so I don't know I think both stories have a reason to be there one of those you pause draw an open car will be the show no monocle [Music] you

Channel: Big Joel

Views: 358,926

Keywords: Pixar, video essay, disney, up, toy story, analysis, cars, cars 3, review, wall-e, the little mermaid, the incredibles, funny, obsolete, media, animation, what's with this movie the room, pixar and the obsolete, pixar obsolete, what's with the studio pixar, big joel, nathan for you

Id: 5f_ReI8kxNw

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 28 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/RidicTheAnimator]

nice video man, I certainly enjoyed it and I'm glad I checked the Pixar subreddit when I did leading me to see this

[u/ElizaLanders]

Thank you Joel.very nice video. Subscribed