Transcription
What's up, guys? Welcome.
So, today I want to talk about an interesting topic that I saw recently. Pixar just released a new movie called Elio. Is that how you say it? I I don't know. But this movie here is making headlines, not because of how good it is, but because it had the worst box office opening ever for a Pixar film. So, naturally, as an artist, I'm very interested in the animation industry and what's going on here. So, I wanted to dive into this a little bit more.
Now, one of the consensus here is that it's a marketing-related issue. And I would partially agree with this because I personally didn't see one single ad. Someone said, "Didn't even know it was out. Where's the marketing?" But like I said, I feel like that's only a part of it. And here's where the tea gets a little bit warmer. This movie looks like it was made for Disney Plus. And can Pixar stop using whatever this animation is? Which is, of course, in reference to the character design and art style used in this movie. Someone said, "Nemo, Wall-E, Toy Story, and Brave all resonated with all audiences because they were more mature in their storytelling and the design."
Now, for real, I'm so tired of this bean mouth. Tired of bean mouth, Play-Doh, Gumby body animation, regardless of what story is told. What the f happened to Pixar's art style, bro? People are tired of this art style. It's lazy, ugly, and devoid of cultural differences between humans. Someone said, "I'm so glad this PowerPoint art style will end with this movie, Zero Sauce." This was a really funny response to the original post that just says, "Grubhub perks give you deals on the food you love," which is in reference to a very ugly Grubhub ad, which is titled Delivery Dance, and you can find it on YouTube. Now, funny enough, that aired in 2020, and it just so happens that Pixar started doing this type of style after 2020. Maybe they're copying GrubHub. I don't. Here's a response to that saying, "I hate the Steven Universe type style." And on the left, you see three movies: Elio, Luca, and Turning Red. And honestly, yeah, they do have a very similar type of art style that I personally do not find appealing either. But on the contrary, I do think it looks pretty good in the 2D animation form. The art style is bonds. Somebody said, "Don't even think actually advertising this film would have saved it. The kind of deals that make you boogie." And there's a little clip from the GrubHub ad that people are comparing this movie style to. He looks like he'd fit perfectly in a modern Pixar movie. And I don't know if I should be saddened or humored or both by this fact.
Someone said, "Stop hating on the Beemouth. love the bean mouth." But you know the problem with that is I think a lot of these bean mouth characters really work because they are 2D animations. And you probably see this with live-action Disney remakes too. But with 2D animations, you can get away with more fun and quirky and spontaneous-feeling character designs and story arcs. And that's a big reason why these types of designs really work in 2D animation. But of course, at this point, I thought to myself, "This is Twitter, and people on Twitter are probably going to just complain about anything and everything." So, I ventured to some of the other cesspools of the internet where people like to discuss these topics. And behold, more of the same complaints. Tip for Pixar, stop using the same art style. Their style is just boring now. It worked in the 2010s, but now we have Spiderverse and Puss and Boots. I don't think Pixar is used to competition. They got too comfortable. I think even with marketing, people just wouldn't care for this movie.
So, because I'm nosy and I like to go down these rabbit holes and get all up in other people's business, I went and researched the history of all Pixar movies from their very first film, which is Toy Story released in 1995. First of all, that is insane. I can't believe it's it's been 30 years. What the— But here's the thing. From that very first release, Pixar has always been a 3D animation studio. And for 22 years, all the way from 1995 to 2017, from Toy Story to Coco, I don't think anybody ever complained about Pixar being a 3D animation studio and doing 3D animation styles. Now, I'm of the firm belief that the reason we didn't complain about their 3D animation style is because they had genuinely good character designs. Every film was unique. Every character's design was iconic. Think Mike Wasowski from Monsters, Inc., Lightning McQueen from Cars. I mean, picture the characters from Finding Nemo, from The Incredibles, and Wall-E. How could you ever forget about Wall-E? These characters were designed so differently from each other, and they were so iconic in their appearance. I think people are complaining about the art style, not exactly because it's an art style that they've always used for the last 30 years, but because it's actually genuinely gotten worse. They've lost the sauce. Just look at the movie Coco, for example, which I adore, and it came out in 2017. They were so expressive, so animated, and their visual design actually directly reflects the culture of the characters. I personally thought Coco was a fantastic movie. And then from that point on, from 2020 onwards, no pun intended, Pixar gave us the movie Onward. They gave us Soul. They gave us Turning Red, Lightyear, Elemental, and Inside Out 2. And now, just most recently, we're getting Elio. Now, within those movies that I've just listed, I think the new Pixar style that people are complaining about nowadays began with Luca in 2021, and they kept it going with Turning Red in 2022. And this specific style is what people are responding really negatively to. And I can't blame people for feeling this way because when I saw the trailers for Luca, for Turning Red, and for Elio, I was just completely not enticed.
Someone said, "I know it's a kids movie, but man, even by those standards, it looks too babyish animationwise. The animation looks unappealing, and unappealing is the perfect word for it because visually there is just nothing there for us to latch on to, especially as adults." And one could argue that this is supposed to be a kids movie, so why do we care about it? But what I've noticed, especially with animated films, is that a really good classic animation doesn't just entertain kids, it also makes parents want to take their kids so they have an excuse to see that movie. Think, for example, the Spider-Verse movies or even Puss and Boots The Last Wish, which is again a fantastic movie. So you guys can let me know what you think about this too in the comments. But at the end of the day, I think the monumental flop of this new Pixar IP is probably due to a wide variety of reasons like no marketing, everything now being on Disney Plus, so people have less incentive to actually go see things in theaters, as well as a serious lack of visual appeal. If you look at something like Puss and Boots The Last Wish, you can clearly see that the character designs are simple and their silhouettes are very intentional. There's a level of anthropomorphification here that makes these characters really resonate with the viewer. Take something like Arcane for example. You're getting a much more realistic style for each character. You're getting something a lot more complex as well, but each character still remains simple and iconic in their own theme. With teal hair and purple shorts, you can immediately recognize Jinx. Even in Coco, Miguel with his guitar and all the skeleton motifs that you see in that movie. It's iconic and it's simple. It's straightforward. It knows exactly what it wants to be. The same thing could be said for the character designs from Wall-E, from Toy Story, from Finding Nemo. But now, if we just turn our attention back to the films Elio, Turning Red, and Luca, and we completely ignore the stories and just look at the visual appeal of the characters, there is clearly something lacking here.
I mean, you can compare these characters to some of the older characters that Pixar used to make. Like maybe think about the movie Up, you know, Carl, Russell, Charles. You could argue that it's a very similar type of polished 3D animation style. But what sets Up apart from these post-2020 Pixar movies is the character designs, right? Carl is so distinct. You can recognize him anywhere. And then you have Russell with the funniest proportions. Just a cute, cuddly little dumpling kid. I mean, even Doug, you know, you can tell these characters are designed extremely skillfully in a way that makes them instantly recognizable just by a silhouette. Now, let's look at Elio. Let's look at Turning Red. Let's look at Luca. These characters, if I were to black them out and just hand you all of their silhouettes on a platter, you would not be able to know who's who. And not even just the silhouette. If you look at the features of these characters and take in their design as a whole, there is a clear lack of creativity, especially when you compare it to some of Pixar's older films.
I'm not going to lie, and this might just be my personal opinion, but when I see an image like this of the character Elio, this does not entice me to go see this movie at all. Not a single cell in my body wants to move my ass off this seat and head to the theaters for this. What is that on his head? Why does he have spoons and forks on his shoulder plates? From an artist's perspective, this just feels like a design that didn't know exactly what it wanted to be, so it just became everything. Same thing with Mei from Turning Red. Now, completely ignoring the story and everything, when I saw the trailer, the most exciting thing that I saw was the CN Tower in Toronto. As an Asian person, I find no part of this character's design resonating with me whatsoever. It's just generic, for the lack of a better term. I mean, the costume feels generic to me. The proportions feel generic to me. It pains me to say this because I used to always look up to Pixar for inspiration. Pixar was always known to push proportions. You know, they make these iconic character designs like you see in The Incredibles, right? Just think of the silhouette, right? You know exactly what Edna looks like because she's got such a striking silhouette and it's something that ties to and matches her personality just perfectly.
Now, it is my sincerest hope that Pixar as a studio can bounce back from this monumental failure. The people online have spoken, and this is clearly just not something that's working for Pixar. Anyways guys, so I don't know what's happening right now, but Disney, Pixar, they're not doing well. And um I hope this is not a signal of the end of days for these animation studios because Pixar and Disney have given me some of my best childhood memories. You know, these movies meant a lot to me when I was growing up. And I would love nothing more than for kids today to grow up having these amazing pieces of media like we did when we grew up. But so far right now, post-2020, Pixar is not looking too hot, guys. And I hope they can turn this around. Anyways guys, please let me know in the comments what you guys think, whether you agree or disagree with the people online and whether you agree or disagree with me. Please leave some very harsh words and start some fights in the comments section. I would love for you to do that. Anyways guys, check out my Patreon for monthly tutorials where you can improve your art. And I will see you guys on the next video, but only if you subscribe. Because if you don't subscribe and you just leave, we will say goodbye forever. And that would make me so sad. almost as sad as Pixar's post-2020 movie lineup.