Inside Out 2 (2024)

Why did I wait this long to see a well-received sequel I'd anticipated for nine years? Well, I've gotten squeamish about watching family fare in theaters, where kids might get noisy. Plus, my folks almost never join me at movie theaters anymore and are likely to be tired of Disney from looking after their grandkids. I opted for a Disney+ showing alone.

Shortly after Riley (Kensington Tallman) turns 13, a crew revamps the control center of her mind such that Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale, not Bill Hader), and Disgust (Liza Lapira, not Mindy Kaling) find the panel oversensitive to their touch. More importantly, a host of new emotions shows up: manic Anxiety (Maya Hawke), adorably tiny Envy (Ayo Edebiri), French-accented Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), near-mute galoot Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and elderly Nostalgia (June Squibb). Anxiety has a big plan to change Riley's behavior and sense of self, and when the first five emotions aren't on board, she literally bottles them up and banishes them to the vault of secrets. They spend most of the movie trying to get back before Riley's life is in shambles.

Elemental (2023)

This got such a lukewarm reception that I might have waited decades to watch if not for the Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination. Then I thought about how it's not reportedly controversial like Wish or Turning Red. At the very least, I knew it would be visually interesting in a way reminiscent of Inside Out.

Element City has long been home to beings made of liquid water, clouds, and a combination of soil and plants, but it has little accommodation or patience for its latest immigrants, the fire folk, who mostly live in a district on the outskirts. Protagonist Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a second-gen resident, expects to take over the general store that her ailing father, Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen), founded. But upon a surprise visit, Inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), obviously a water man, discovers enough plumbing violations that he feels obliged to have the place shut down. Ember's pleading changes his mind only after he's sent his report, and together they take it up with his employer, cloud woman Gale Cumulus (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who agrees to ignore the report as long as they can finish Wade's assigned project of fixing a canal leak within a few days.

Turning Red (2022)

After my previous viewing, I wanted something lighthearted, preferably with a bit more femininity. This was the first option to come to mind. I'd heard mixed things about it, but none of the downsides sounded like dealbreakers to me. Besides, I wanted an informed opinion of the controversies.

Mei (Rosalie Chiang), 13, likes to think she's her own woman despite consistently following her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh). Alas, Ming's protectiveness can get horribly embarrassing, which awakens a female-only family blessing/curse that turns Mei into an eight-foot red panda when her emotions get the better of her. Calming down restores her humanity and clothing in a puff of smoke. Her new shape doesn't affect her behavior or even her voice, but she still tries to hide if not get rid of it -- until her peers enlighten her to enough upsides. If only Ming and other relatives who have suppressed their pandas would respect Mei's feelings...

Luca (2021)

Some folks got the impression that this was a remake of The Little Mermaid. It is a Disney cartoon movie about an adolescent human-fish combo from off a European coast who takes great interest in the surface realm, especially human culture, despite parental insistence that humans are too deadly (and doesn't know what to do with a fork). But that's about where the similarity ends.

The title character (Jacob Tremblay) is not a merperson in the usual sense. He looks more like a cute distant cousin to the Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water, except that any part of him that gets dry (which happens ridiculously fast) looks perfectly human. We don't know a term for his species besides "sea monsters," and since they tend to call humans "land monsters," I'd expect them to use another term for themselves.

Anyway, Luca stops merely daydreaming about the surface after he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a slightly older sea monster who encourages a more adventurous lifestyle. When Luca's parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) plan to send him to live with his deep-sea uncle (Sacha Baron Cohen), he and Alberto decide to hide in the fictitious Italian coastal town of Portorosso, where it appears to be the late '50s. They'd love to get their hands on a Vespa motorscooter, and a possible way soon presents itself: win a local junior triathlon. Of course, the swimming segment won't be so easy when there's a longstanding tradition of spearing sea monsters on sight....

Soul (2020)

Finally, I can say once again that I've seen all the Academy Best Animated Features! Back when it was advertised, this flick didn't tempt me as much as Onward, but I learned long ago that ads are a poor gauge for Pixar quality.

When New York middle school band teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) has a fatal yet family-friendly accident, he's not ready to see what lies in store for him in "the Great Beyond." After all, his life just got a whole lot more promising when jazz sax diva Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) invited him to accompany her on piano. His only hope for getting his blobby blue soul back to his still operable body involves serving as a mentor to a not-yet-born soul in "the Great Before." The soul assigned to him (Tina Fey) is designated "22," and her low number hints at how long she's been failing to find the motivation to get born. Joe does find a workaround of sorts, but things go sideways: 22 inhabits his body, and his soul...well, you've likely seen the cat in posters....

Onward (2020)

This was probably the only movie I had been planning to see in a theater until the shutdown. I have since consoled myself by recalling how family fare tends to draw noisy kids.

The setting is populated entirely with the folk and fauna of European myths and legends, but the diverse civilization's modern technology has supplanted traditional wizardry, and the thirst for quests has given way to more secure living. On his 16th birthday, suburban elf Ian (Tom Holland) receives a posthumous set of gifts from his father, who died of an unspecified illness before they could meet: a staff, a phoenix gem, and instructions to cast a spell to let Dad materialize for 24 hours. Ian does turn out to possess an innate magical aptitude that his college-age brother, Barley (Chris Pratt), lacks, but something goes wrong with the spell, and only Dad's clad lower half appears, showing signs of intelligence but sensing the world only by touch. Unsatisfied, the brothers drive off with their leashed half-dad to hunt for a second phoenix gem before the next sunset, Ian half-trusting Barley's knowledge from a history-inspired role-playing game to have sufficient basis in their reality.

Toy Story 4 (2019)

To me, the Toy Story series has been almost the antithesis of the Cars series. TS1, while flawed, was destined for classic status. TS2, while not feeling necessary, outdid it in my book. TS3, which I had long assumed would never happen, became my all-time favorite animated feature (tho I may revise that assessment with further viewings). Could TS4 continue the pattern?

A mere two years after the events of TS3, old toy cowboy Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks) has lost favor with owner Bonnie, who's starting kindergarten. He's taking this decline better than he did in TS1, but his way of coping is to support Bonnie clandestinely against the advice of others; like the emotions in Inside Out, he prioritizes nothing over the happiness of "his kid." With his guidance, she makes an ugly yet fairly impressive arts-and-crafts toy named Forky (Tony Hale), who initially doesn't have the mindset for a sapient toy at all. By the time Forky's getting cooperative, Woody's eyes stray to a familiar sight in an antiques shop window, giving him a riskier new priority and prompting buddy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) to go on his own rescue mission....

Incredibles 2 (2018)

I always liked The Incredibles, even before I developed a major interest in the superhero subgenre. At the same time, I've never been sure how to rank it among Pixar flicks. It was more mature than previous entries, clearly earning its PG for better and worse. Before long, I understood that it owed a lot to both the Fantastic Four and Watchmen, also for better and worse. I had trouble buying and being patient with some of the character actions. But nothing else from Pixar had me more interested in a sequel (at least until Inside Out), even if we had to wait even longer than we did for Finding Dory.

Viewers who wanted to see the Parrs/Incredibles years down the line may be disappointed that the action in I2 picks up where TI left off and the ending might be less than a week later. Matters had been even less resolved than I remembered: While the family has reached an agreement to keep using their innate powers for good, they still lack the legal right. And good overall PR. And a house. Early herein, things start looking up for them when hero-worshiping billionaire Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) offers them a spare house and a sponsored mission, involving hi-tech equipment from his sister, Evelyn (Catherine Keener), that might just change public opinion on supers. Unfortunately for Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), his tendency toward collateral damage has cost him a favored spot in the mission, so for now, only Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) gets to do fieldwork; he'll have to make do as a househusband. But she might be in over her head when the Screenslaver, who specializes in hacking and mesmerism, singles her out for challenges in protecting the city.

Cars 3 (2017)

I question the wisdom of keeping this franchise going. The first Cars was possibly the least popular Pixar feature at the time. The second broke a long winning streak as the first Pixar entry not to score an Academy nomination since the Best Animated Feature category began. The offshoot Planes (not sporting the Pixar brand but made by a lot of the same people) was unusually panned for Disney, and it still got a sequel. I'd ask whether this is really the hill they want to die on, except that the company may never die. Regardless, C3 looked like one of the more promising viewing options on my plane ride, so I gave it a shot.

You may have seen that fairly shocking trailer in which pro racecar Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) has a major crash. Well, this isn't a story about life-threatening injury. The next time we see him, four months later, you'd think he never got a scratch. But there are widespread doubts of whether he can compete with newer challengers, especially record-breaking Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer). McQueen checks into a new training center, whose owner Sterling (Nathan Fillion) and prime trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) both admire his past but now see him as a geezer, probably fit for only one more race. Naturally, he aims to prove them wrong.

Coco (2017)

Whew, I almost finished 2017 without seeing any of its animated features. Honestly, it was awfully low on promising ones. Even Coco seemed iffy to me, given its conceptual similarity to The Book of Life. Further research assured me that Pixar was planning it before TBoL got started. My folks joined me for the former in a theater.

The title oddly refers to a character with little screen time: the senile great-grandma of 12-year-old protagonist Miguel. Her father abandoned the family to pursue a career in music, so her mother, Imelda, banned music from the household. In what I take to be the present, albeit in a Mexican town poor enough to pass for the '80s, Imelda's rule is still in full effect, but Miguel loves music and has no use for the family business of shoemaking. Hoping to enter a talent show, he swipes a guitar from the local tomb of a celebrated musician. But grave robbing on the Day of the Dead takes him straight to the realm of the dead, and only a blessing from a dead relative by dawn can return him. Since the first dead relatives he meets include Imelda and don't dare bless him without a promise that he give up music, he sets out to find his estranged great-great-granddad....

Finding Dory (2016)

Normally, I agree with the majority of viewers on which Pixar features are among the best and which are merely OK. Finding Nemo has been the glaring exception: I found it uncreative, overly simple, immature, and unwholesomely preachy. The humor, especially surrounding Dory's anterograde amnesia, is both predictable and politically incorrect. I almost declined my parents' invitation to see Finding Dory in a theater. But maybe my tastes had changed in 13 years. Besides, one reviewer intrigued me by talking about its special positive meaning for people with mental disorders and their families. Being such a person, I had to give it a shot.

Indeed, Dory's not so happy-go-lucky as a main character, nor is her problem played nearly so much for laughs. The movie begins with a look back at her early childhood, with parents lovingly compensating for her "short-term remembery loss." (Many in the theater awwed at the adoryble, strangely rotund, bug-eyed little blue tang voiced by a 7-year-old.) At some point, she got lost, which is 10 times worse with her condition. Fortunately, a young fish is much more self-suffishent than a young human, so she reached adulthood on her own, albeit still searching for her parents -- right up to the moment she met Marlon, whose more pressing search made her forget her own problems altogether. One year later, she suddenly remembers a big clue and heads off on her adventure anew. As more flashbacks come to her, the mystery unfolds.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

I'm not sure why Pixar decided to release two features in one year, after having finally taken a year off. It's as if they knew that only one would be particularly successful, so they wanted the greater to distract us from the lesser. In so doing, they could avoid talks of a not-so-hot year.

The title is a bit misleading, because several if not most of the semi-civilized dinosaurs are about as good as young protagonist Aldo. If there's one way he's better, it's in his refusal to kill the food supply-raiding human orphan he encounters -- tho he chalks it up to his usual failing, timidity. Dire straits force him to start relying on the nonverbal yet grateful boy, dubbed Spot, for help reuniting with his family.

Inside Out (2015)

From an early trailer, as glad as I was to see that Pixar had skipped a year in order to return to creativity, I had my doubts. Main characters based on emotions? I mean, Happy the dwarf wasn't happy at Snow White's funeral, but wouldn't Joy have to be joyful at all times? How can you build a plot around anyone so static and one-dimensional?

Well, they're not exactly like that, but I did surmise one thing correctly: how I would feel about each, um, feeling. Joy (Amy Poehler) makes an easy choice for a favorite, yet Sadness (Phyllis Smith) is about equally cute in a different way. Likable jerk Anger (Lewis Black) is probably the funniest, tho Fear (Bill Hader) might gain more traction with children. In fairness to Mindy Kaling, it's almost impossible to make much to enjoy out of Disgust, but at least she doesn't drag down the movie.