As many of you know, I wrote the Pixar Theory several years ago, detailing why I think every Pixar movie might be connected and how they broadly tell an overarching story outside the movies.
A few weeks ago, Disney Pixar shared a video on social media that takes you through a sampling of their Easter eggs in many of their films, and since then, some have called this out as “confirmation” that the theory is totally true…even though that’s clearly not the case.
The video is a lot of fun and definitely celebrates the recent spike in interest over these easter eggs, but there’s no indication made by this video or Disney Pixar that the movies are “connected” or share the same universe. And honestly, it’s a lot more fun that way, in my opinion.
In this week’s episode of Pixar Detectives, Kayla Savage and I dug a bit deeper into this subject, answering a ton of Pixar Theory questions along the way and giving away copies of my book, which expands a great deal on the original blog post from 2013.
Hope you enjoy the show, and don’t forget to like Super News on Facebook to watch our show live, every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. (Pacific). If you tune in and comment with us live, you might be able to win our weekly giveaway, too!
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An “extended look” trailer for Cars 3 came out just this past week, so last night, the Pixar Detectives took to Super News on Facebook Live to talk about it. And of course, the question our minds is pretty obvious: will this movie be any good? Or should we prepare for another Cars 2 situation?
We discussed what we liked and didn’t like about the first two Cars films. We asked: Is Lightning a good protagonist? Do we need more new characters? Why do I hate the way these cars are designed and Kayla likes them? We covered all that and then some.
Be sure to join us live each week, so you can comment along and enter our weekly giveaways. This week, we gave out the Blu-Ray Digital Combo Pack for Inside Out! And as always, we’re open to any and all prize suggestions from you all. Just leave a comment a below or in the video.
We’ll be back next Wednesday at 7 p.m. pacific (our normal time), and let me know if you have any lingering Pixar or Disney questions you want answered and explored in future episodes.
Here are some of our top comments from the livestream:
The only good cars was the first one. Pixar should just move on from cars. – Ashley
You know what would be an interesting conflict? The rise of electric cars threatening to replace Lightning and the other racers. Have the villain be an Elon Musk type figure who wants to turn the main racetrack into a tesla dealership – Steve
I think it will be a suprise shocker that will leave everyone satisfied – Tyler
I don’t think they’re slipping with their designs, I mean The Good Dinosaur was visually gorgeous. Inside Out was insanely beautiful. – Alexia
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This week, we Pixar Detectives (Jon Negroni and Kayla Savage) took a close look at the animated movies coming out in 2017, and our live audience helped us decide which movie to be most excited about!
To catch our show live (and win our weekly giveaways), be sure to tune in to Super News on Facebook every Wednesday at 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
Thanks for watching, and here are all of the movies we talked about:
The Boss Baby – March 31
Lego Batman Movie – February 10
Despicable Me 3 – June 30
Cars 3 – June 16
Coco – November 22
The Emoji Movie – August 4
Captain Underpants – June 1
Blazing Samurai – August 25
The Nut Job 2 – August 18
The Lego Ninjago Movie – September 22
Animal Crackers – January 13
Enjoy the show! And if you have any suggestions for future episodes and prizes, please let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading this. Seriously. You can subscribe to my posts by clicking “Follow” in the right sidebar.
Pixar’s next big movie, Coco, has so far been mostly shrouded in mystery…until now. The post below is a transcription of the video above.
Coco is the next original Pixar film that isn’t a sequel, but it’s also the last original Pixar film for a few years in a row as the studio releases Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4.
So obviously, there’s a lot riding on Coco being a superb movie. Because it will have to satisfy our appetites for quite a while, in the same way Inside Out and Good Dinosaur prepared us for Finding Dory and Cars 3.
But until now, we’ve known very little about Coco, a movie about a young Mexican boy who discovers a family secret about his past. The movie was announced in 2012 and was revealed to be centered around the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. And it’s directed by Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story 3, co-directed by Adrian Molina, and produced by longtime Pixar veteran Darla K. Anderson. Yes, that Darla.
I should stress that the information I’m about to share is very plot-heavy, so if you don’t want to know too much about Coco, then you may want to click away.
That said, here’s a bunch of new stuff we just found out about Coco, starting with the basic plot. You can also watch the video at the top of the page, or read the transcription below.
Coco stars Miguel, voiced by 12-year-old newcomer Anthony Gonzalez, a young boy with secret musical ambitions in a Mexican village full of vibrant and festive music-lovers. Unfortunately, his family of shoemakers despises and even forbids music in their household and apparently for good reason: they believe they’ve been cursed by music due to an old family story about Miguel’s great-great-grandfather abandoning his wife, Imelda, in order to become a musical performer. As a result, the family outright bans music.
Secretly, Miguel wants to become like his favorite singer, the now deceased Ernesto de la Cruz, voiced by Benjamin Brett. And he accidentally enters the Land of the Dead believing he has some link to the singer’s ghost.
(Like any good Pixar Theorist, you might be thinking the movie is setting this up to be a reveal that De la Cruz is Miguel’s late great-great-grandfather, but this almost seems too obvious, right?)
Anyway, Miguel explores this beautiful underworld and stumbles across the souls of his family, the Riveras, which includes his great-great-grandmother Imelda. He’s joined by a mischievous skeletal spirit named Hector, who is voiced by Gael García Bernal, and they team up to find De la Cruz somewhere in the Land of the Dead. And of course, there’s a time limit, so Miguel has to do all of this and return to the Land of the Living before he supposedly gets trapped their forever.
Like I said, that’s a lot of information, though the movie is less than a year away and we can expect to learn even more in the coming months. And thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we also have some specific insights from the creators of the movie that you can check out here. For example, Unkrich points out that this is an all-Latino cast, which is pretty new for Disney and Pixar, and he also provides some extra info on the voice cast that you might find interesting.
One last thing: Pixar is telling us that Coco has a ton of music in it, but it’s definitely not a musical, at least in the classical sense. Pixar has never been shy about featuring music beats in their movies (think the Toy Story movies, Monsters Inc., Wall-E, etc.) So it’s interesting to hear that Coco will be pushing that line a bit further since it centers around famous singers. I think we can at least expect a fun soundtrack, if nothing else.
Coco will hit theaters on November 22, 2017, and as always, I’ll be hitting the books on how this movie could potentially speak to the greater Pixar shared universe, if at all, as we learn more about it. For now, let’s all wait patiently for that first teaser.
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I’m a bit at a loss with Cars 3 so far, except to point out two key things Pixar is trying to say with this initial advert:
This isn’t Cars.
This isn’t Cars 2.
Specifically, this trailer seems to promise a darker, more visceral movie, perhaps because the younger views of the previous films have grown up with these toys and might be ready for something more mature (and cars crashing on the race track is a grisly, sadly familiar sight). And that’s not even mentioning how much sharper and more visually arresting the visuals are here.
The trailer doesn’t mention this, but the movie will partly focus on Lightning McQueen’s memory of Doc Hudson, who passed between Cars and Cars 2. We’ll also see most of the characters from Radiator Springs again, which probably includes Tow Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), though that isn’t confirmed. It’s too early to tell at this point what the extent of this “crash” will be for McQueen, and it’s smart to avoid showing his face at all to sell the new tone.
I understand that there’s a lot of disdain for the Cars franchise among even the most ardent Pixar lovers. It’s hard to deny that Cars 2 was anything short of a cash grab, made to bank on the surprising merchandising success of the first film, this time starring the comedic sidekick. But I happen to be one of the fans who grew up loving the first Cars, considering it one of my favorites growing up because it came out around the time I was learning to drive. If Cars 3 is anywhere close to being as affecting as that movie, then I’ll personally be satisfied.
Moana is a triumphant return to form for Disney that improves upon just about everything the studio has set up through both its recent surge of Pixar-esque entertainment, as well as the musical favorites of recent years. It’s a highlight that owes much of its existence to the success of Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frozen, though perhaps even more directly to the 90s classics younger critics like myself grew up with. Make no mistake, though, Moana is its own quirky, beautiful masterwork.
You can watch the full review above or read a transcription published here.
Grade: A+
Extra Credits:
The movie stars Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui. It was directed and co-written by Ron Clements, co-directed by Don Hall, John Musker, and Chris Williams, and the screenplay is by Jared Bush.
Ron Clements and John Musker sound familiar? They made The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules, among some other hand-drawn Disney films. This is their first feature-length computer-animated movie.
Original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i, and Mark Mancina.
If Moana wins an Oscar for its music, then Miranda will be the third person ever to achieve a PEGOT (Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).
Moana is the first Disney princess not based on an existing fairy tale or legend, unless you count Merida from Brave as a Disney princess.
I didn’t cover this in the review, but Cravalho (who voices Moana) is an incredible talent for such a young age. At 14, she’s the youngest Disney Princess voice ever.
“Moana” means “ocean or sea” in Polynesian culture, and it’s a common word for “blue.”
Alan Tudyk voices the animal sidekick in this film, which is notable because this is the fifth consecutive animated Disney movie he’s worked in, starting with Wreck-It Ralph.
Easter eggs: The only one I managed to catch is Maui transforming into Sven, from Frozen. Also, Moanais referenced in Zootopia as a DVD called “Meona.”
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Our most recent episode of The Pixar Detectives was honestly a somber one, as we recorded just a day after the election. We used this timing as an opportunity to open up about our Pixar stories, specifically having to do with what the movies have done for our lives over the years in meaningful ways.
I’m fully aware, of course, that some might find this a bit frivolous. But I really believe that cinema (and stories at large) have a real impact on us. They inform and shape us in a lot of ways, especially early in life, and Pixar’s hand in our own upbringings is quite relevant for that reason, even though some of you may not have grown up with these movies in the same way.
That said, I hope you enjoy this episode we recorded live on Super News, and be sure to tune in to our next live episode tonight, which is all about Moana. We’ll be recording live from our exclusive screening of the film and will also be answering all of your spoiler-free questions after we’ve seen it. Looking forward to seeing you all tonight!
Be sure to like Super News on Facebook, so you can get notified when we go on the air (it will probably just after 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time). And if you watch live, you’ll be able to comment with us along the way and take part in our weekly giveaway (last week, we gave away a copy of Finding Dory on Blu-Ray).
