Instill Us With Your Daddy Issues

I babysit a lot, which means that, to keep the little turds quiet for an hour and a half, I mostly just pop in a movie for them. Of course I could do something like play games with them, but that requires effort and also I'm lazy and movies are sort of educational, right?

So after watching a good amount of children's animated films, I've kind of noticed that too many of them have characters who have, like, daddy issues (or pretty much just problems with their parent(s), but let's call those problems daddy issues because I've already got it in the title). These cause the film's main characters to go to extreme lengths of rebellion.

This one boy I babysit absolutely loves Despicable Me. He watches it about every time I go there and then will make me replay it again and again. I mean, whatever. It's a cute movie. The main character, a super-villain named Gru, has these little flash-backs to when he was younger and how his mom wouldn't pay any attention to him (mommy issues?). Because of his mother's lack of affection, Gru goes takes extreme measures to try and impress her, like attempting to steal “da moooooon”, which isn't very safe at all.

In Shrek, the princess Fiona's parents literally lock her up in some far away palace for years. There's definitely something wrong with that. To get back at them, she marries an ogre. I mean, you can't possibly believe that Fiona married Shrek for love. That thing is hideous. The marriage was obviously some crazy ploy to get back at her parents.

You already know how I feel about Brave. It still fits into this category, though. As Merida's mother's reigns pull tighter around her, she lashes out and goes into a dark forest alone and then just waltzes into a witch's cave. Like, so safe.

Now to some actual daddy issues: Hiccup, a smart, lonely, wimpy guy who only wants his dad's approval. To get it, though, he has to capture an extremely dangerous dragon. Well, he ends up deciding to raise it instead (okay?). (BTW this is about How to Train Your Dragon)

In the 2008 film Kung Fu Panda, Po becomes the chosen kung fu warrior and is told to defeat this crazy ass tiger that just escaped from prison. All of this after his father, who completely doesn't understand Po, tries to get him to take over the family business of selling noodles.

And lastly, Finding Nemo. You know the story. Nemo, a clownfish set on being independent, breaks away from his father's tight hold and touches the butt, then gets kidnapped by some scuba divers.

I don't know if these filmmakers are trying to instill some privy message about how, no matter how much you hate your parents and how they treat you now, as long as you fight back and screw something up really badly, it'll all turn out okay. Maybe this is why our generation is so effed up.

Pixar: The New Disney?

Between the years of 1995 and 2010 Pixar Animation Studios was known for its creative, original, funny, and critically-acclaimed films that attracted audiences both of children and the adults that took them to see the movies (it was a chore for no one). The geniuses behind the scenes pushed out ten films ranking between 92 and 99% on the popular critic review site, rottentomatoes.com. They even managed two sequels in this. Many wondered when the roll that Pixar was on would end. That day came on June 24, 2011 when Cars 2 was released.
In 1999 Toy Story 2, Pixar's first sequel, was released. It got great reviews (100% on Rotten Tomatoes) and even spawned Toy Story 3. That was a miracle. Not even the legendary Godfather trilogy did as well critically. Pixar should have quit making sequels while they were ahead, but instead they released Cars 2 (whose predecessor wasn't even that good of a movie; it maintains a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest before the sequel) in 2011.
To say the least, it tanked, even for a non-Pixar movie. Critics gave it an average of 38% (certified “rotten”).My sister, who hated Cars, cursed the movie's sequel for tarnishing her beloved Pixar's record. The studio had it's first chance to redeem itself in 2012 with Brave.
It seemed like this movie, set in old-Ireland about a young girl, Merida, wishing to change her fate, had a good chance to take back what Cars had lost Pixar. And while some (like my sister) say it did (it earned 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, a dismal for old Pixar), I was thoroughly disappointed.This studio was known for its incredibly original movies. They've had talking, mischievous toys, a war between insects and grasshoppers, and a monster-run power company collecting children's screams. They've even had a fish in search of his son, who's lost on land (you've heard about people lost at sea. Imagine what it's like for fish up here.)
The biggest problem I have with Brave is that it's just not original. Don't tell me it is, because it's not. The only slightly original aspect of the movie I can think of is that it takes place in Ireland (oh my gosh).
Merida makes a wish to change her life, it isn't what she expected, she regrets it, there's a race against time to change her life back before it's permanent. We've heard this all before.
It just wasn't the comeback movie I wanted Pixar to have. I mean, they're getting there at least.A note to the studio: stop making sequels. Just this past year it was announced that their next movie is going to be Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters, Inc. Rumors have been going around that Toy Story 4 and Finding Nemo 2 are in the early stages of development. I'm just afraid that our beloved old-Pixar movies are going to be ruined if these sequels suck ass. Maybe Pixar is the new Disney (while it is a part of Walt Disney Pictures). Maybe they've had their golden age and it's all c-list celebrities voicing animals and princesses from here.