The Good Dinosaur [2015]

Okay. So let me start by saying that this is not a cutsey little fun romp movie. I know that the stylized animation of the dinosaurs makes them look kind of land-before-timey, but this is kind of a mature movie! Not saying that it's not fine for kids, because it's a great family movie, but smaller children might be a little freaked out.
The Good Dinosaur gets a lot of flak, and I think that this is because it was unfortunate enough to come right after a masterpiece like Inside Out. Inside Out was, in my opinion, a better film, but that doesn't mean that The Good Dinosaur isn't still an above-average movie!
First off, the animation is beautiful. Nothing short of amazing. Inside Out looked amazing, but it was mostly set in a metaphysical realm that is pretty alien to us viewers. Here, the setting is much more familiar- nature! It looked really amazing, almost photo-realistic. To offset the photorealism though, the characters are classic Pixar stylized. A lot of people thought that the cartoony characters looked silly in the midst of all the intricately animated backgrounds, but I wouldn't sacrifice the gorgeous backgrounds.
Most computer animated films have 'that one scene' that shows off the movie's aesthetic in a showstopping way. Let it Go from Frozen, I See the Light from Tanged, Wall-E and EVE dancing, etc. Here, there is a gloriously beautiful, but also very, very simple scene of a father and son playing with fireflies.
The characters were nice. The supporting characters were a little one note, but they were likeable one note. And besides, this really is Arlo's story. Arlo is the titular 'Good Dinosaur', and he's about preteen aged, and has some serious problems with fear. The story is all about how he is forced by circumstance not only to grow up, but also to face his fears and break free from anxiety and grief. It was very moving, and it's treatment of sadness and anxiety reminded me of Inside Out.
I love to see a movie that treats these kinds of things thoughtfully and seriously, not just some flaw that gets fixed in the last ten minutes of the movie without any real resolution.
The music gave the film a very Appalachian or Frontier flavor (there are even cow-herding Dinos at some point!), and I really liked it!

The Verdict: A-
Though the parent-dies-tragically-and-child-must-grow-up thing is getting a little old on kids movies, this was still a very moving film. There was a brilliantly bittersweet scene that resolved a storyline without even having any dialogue! True Pixar magic, that.
Content Advisory: Some bloodless violence and intense scenes. Fine for kids who don't freak out easily.

Inside Out [2015]

Inside Out was very, very, very, very good.
The End.

Okay, I'll elaborate.
So we all know the basic premise, right? There's a girl named Riley, and her family moves to San Francisco from Minnesota, and we get to know the five major emotions that live in her head (and supposedly also live in ALL our heads!).
So the animation was amazing, as per usual! And the difference between the 'Head' World and the Real World was quite sharp. In the real world the scenery is more realistic looking, while in Riley's Head, it's more cartoonish and soft looking. The music, by Michael Giacchino was just lovely! Especially the main theme that plays at the beginning and a few times later. It's very tranquil and sweet, and has a rather unique ring to it. Very nice. The acting too, was great. Joy was effervescent and optimistic, but never over the top or annoying. She was always very likeable, even when she was making her mistakes. Sadness' actress gave delightfully morose performance, and the other emotions were so spot on!
Pixar movies usually have good humor, and this was no exception. There were so many laugh out loud moments! And of course, the emotional poignant-cy.
I'm not really eloquent or anything like that (what do you expect from somebody who says 'righteous' in every other sentence?), but this movie got me in quite a personal spot the way only a few movies do. I'm talking about the whole Joy/Sadness dynamic. The movie shows that yes, we do need Joy very much, and being joyful is important. But sometimes we just need to be sad. Not sure how else to explain it. The Family dynamic was well played, and it's really cool to see a movie where the kid's relationship with her parents is important and portrayed as something beautiful.

The Verdict: A+
Aaah! I'm in my Post-Pixar movie emotional high right now! Inside Out has pretty much everything I like in a movie. Great acting, a pretty soundtrack, imaginative scenery, and plus! There's HOCKEY! Woo!
Oh, and the short! The movie was preceded by a little short called Lava, which was very cute, and featured a Ukulele song! My sister plays the Ukulele, and she thought it was really cool.

The Blue Umbrella [2013]



The Blue Umbrella is a short film by Pixar. I mentioned it before, but I wanted to gush about it some more in a post all it's own. This is the short film that came with Monsters University, and as fun as that was, I think Blue Umbrella was more memorable. Here are my reasons why.
Animation

The animation in this short is just beautiful. At first, it's almost impossible to tell they animated it!
I mean, look at that. It's almost photorealistic. Of course, the problem with photorealistic animation is that the people look creepy and mannequin-like. This problem is averted in Blue Umbrella, since you never actually see a human face. The faces on the Umbrellas are animated, very simple faces with just eyes and a mouth. And yet they emote better than a lot of live action actors. The scenery is alive too, and there are faces everywhere. It might be creepy, but I was pretty enchanted by it. This short really reminds us how lovely a rainfall can be.

Telling a sweet little love story in about five minutes
The titular Blue Umbrella falls in love at first sight with a red girl umbrella who he sees standing out in a crowd of black. I'm going to go off on a tangent now and just say that I love how much personality they gave umbrellas. And I like how the girl one is kind of curvy and more feminine looking. XD
Anyway, the whole short is about the Blue Umbrella trying to find the Red Umbrella again. It's funny, it's clever, even kind of sad for a few moments when you starting thinking he won't find her again. The ending is very sweet, as it ends with both umbrella's owners going out for coffee(with the two umbrellas, of course.).

Music
The music for this short was really nice and well done too. It's rather whimsical, and the instruments sound a little rainy. Very fitting and beautiful. :) Dangerously catchy though.



The Verdict: A+
Okay, if you think too hard about it, it is a little weird. But if you use your imagination and just watch, The Blue Umbrella is a work of art. I mean, who says that short films can't be art? I think that Film making can be a really beautiful art form, and this is a charming example.

-Xochitl