I was thinking this movie was going to be eye candy and comedy due to the commercials. Good to know Pixar still has yet to succumb to the safe, sanitized, Disney model. Now I guess I will go take the family to see it.

Your review definitely makes this one sound way better than the previews did. Their addressing serious issues such as death and the emotional distance of a parent actually makes me want to go see it.

The story itself feels very Miyazaki based, actually.

“Is this the first Pixar movie with death played so prominently?”

In my opinion, no. Nemo’s mother dies very early into Finding Nemo and how this affects Marlin informs his outlook on life and his relationship with Nemo.

Sounds great. I’d love to watch it now, but I have to wait until end of September, because that’s when the movie will finally come to theatres here. It’s sad, looking at some of those international release dates: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/releaseinfo

And it’s just a little ironic, after seeing your comparison with Miyazaki, that Japan will be the last country to get the movie, in mid-December… ^^;

My wife and I took the kids to see it yesterday. We all loved it. I teared up many times, and my wife, who is usually far less affected by emotional movies, was bawling early and often–sounds like you two had similar reactions.

As parents, we were a bit surprised at what was dealt with in the opening minutes, but we know plenty of people who have had
SPOILER

fertiltiy problems and as I have revealed before, we are dealing with my father’s terminal illness,

SPOILER OVER
so our kids weren’t as affected as we were.

We try to discuss anything like that with them, and they both seemed to understand not only that there are hard and sad times in life, but also that life isn’t defined by those alone.

Anyway, I was way down on Pixar lately. Hadn’t loved a movie since Nemo (or Incredibles–can’t remember which came first) and actually disliked Wall*E. Found it very boring and really just another installment in the Hollywood trope of Schluby guy with a heart of gold who gets a girl way out of his league who would actually never look at him to fall in love. Kinda like Knocked Up with robots.

Anyway, after this, Pixar is back in my opinion. I’m aware that this could be reactionary, but right now, I think this was Pixar’s best movie to date, and the best movie I have seen in the theatres in a couple of years.

Also, the absentee Dad thing, while heavy and sad, it another reality of life that our kids are sadly too aware of–they both know families who have absentee parents.

Also, good point by Roger A. that Nemo deals with death pretty prominently as well. My mother took our oldest son, who was not quite three yet, to see it in the theater and after the opening scene, he turned to my Mom and asked her, “What happened to his Mom?”

That was the last movie my Mom took the kids to by herself.

the first fifteen made me cry…carl ending up alone and all.

I am a tech worker and i spent 8 hours a lone daily…i fear that I am carl for 40 hours a day 365 days a year.

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