Pixar undergoes Identity Crisis

Rating: 3/10 (19 August 2012)

Four out of ten may seem like a harsh score for what is actually a decent film but on leaving the cinema this morning the overwhelming feeling was one of being cheated. I paid to see a Pixar film and what I actually got was the traditional Disney fairy tale princess theme and story. If you want that then watch Tangled which is in my opinion a better film. My 3 year old son is a huge Pixar fan, as am I, and he has every Pixar film and watches them repeatedly. This film didn't hold his attention and in fact he wanted to go home after 15 minutes in the cinema. It is not a film you'd watch repeatedly and if I can nail the problem it is simply that the animation is too realistic and the storyline maybe a little too sophisticated if that's possible. Ultimately it failed in its humour and failed to cut through those cross generational barriers and entertain all ages. I'm sure there will be many reviews stating how stunning the visuals are and they were; almost too stunning in places because here's the trap that Pixar/Disney risk falling into... An animated film can be too real; kids want to see an animated film and not something with stunning scenery. It feels like Disney arrested control of this movie and I may be wrong but I suspect we'd be looking at an actual Pixar film had Steve Jobs still been around to deal with quality control. So we have something of a trade description issue here, if this was a Disney film I'd have given it 7/10 but it isn't, it's a Pixar film and they have a history of being rather more innovative, creative and original than this.