Not only Disappointing, but also strangely racist

Rating: 4/10 (21 November 2012)

I watched the 3D version of this film. The positives are limited, so I'll get to them first. The visuals were absolutely gorgeous in places, and the 3D effects convincing yet not obtrusive.
Now for the sad reality.
Given what we have come to expect from Pixar, this film came up short in several respects. The essential problem is that a number of previous Pixar efforts have excelled not only in the technical realm, but also in terms of characterization and emotional power. They keep you glued to the screen from start to finish. By contrast, this film is jumbled, lacks character depth, and is ultimately actually boring. So while Toy Story 3 is both beautiful, touching, and deep, this movie is simply passable. It fails to consistently hold one's interest.
There is one more annoying aspect of it that has become so omnipresent in our culture that it might go right over the heads of the typical denizen of the modern university Arts Faculty, let alone the typical viewer, so I'll take pains to point it out.
The primary characters are all Scots -- an itentifiable minority group in our society. Is this group treated with respect? Hardly! All the (white) male characters are portrayed as imps or hulking buffoons or simpletons. This in fact mirrors what one often sees in a random assortment of modern TV ads. The only attractive characters are women or animals.
Had any identifiable non-white "minority" group received similar treatment, Harvard's English faculty would already be hard at work "deconstructing" the work as racist. Watching this film, only the culturally aware viewer can articulate what feels so vaguely discomforting and wrong.
In fact, our culture is now so imbued with anti-white-male racism that one quickly realizes that the "humour" in the movie simply wouldn't work (at all!) if the film had been made about a black African family and the sexes reversed.
Suppose, for example the film was made about a young tribe in Africa, with a massive, hulking, rather dumb *matriarch*, three moronic and unattractive females as "potential brides" for a handsome young prince, and a host of equally inept female supporting characters. It wouldn't work!
Now do you get it? It is hard to see at first, but it is simply a fact that this kind of propaganda is an intentional element of much of our modern media. White males are portrayed, relentlessly, as idiots and buffoons, or, alternatively, robotic male model heroes.
Learn to see it, and don't support it. Let the producers know -- we want balance in our movies and in our culture, and we are prepared to vote with our wallets.
And don't be deterred by the standard retorts that "white males control everything," and "why don't you get a sense of humour." Look where "tolerance" has gotten us over the past 20 years.