Why this movie is fun...

Rating: 9/10 (3 December 2004)

Is it the fact that it has an excellent Bond-esque soundtrack? No. Is it the fact that the action is non stop? No. Is it the fact that it has such a neat story and such lifelike characters that you hardly gawk at the pretty pictures and think to yourself "Wow, neat computer graphics!"? No. Is it the countless homages and allusions within the movie? No. Well what is it?
To me its the fact the people at Pixar do something special. Other movie companies (especially Disney) seem to go out and ask people what they find funny. They seem to do surveys on laughs, clocking competitors movies for laughs per minute, and then average it out - trying to find some common denominator in 'funny' and generally doing 'humor by committee' - and consequently totally missing the point about what makes people laugh.
Humor is the unexpected. The extraordinary that wrenches our brain into surprising directions. Pixar people seem to just put in there what makes themselves laugh - without worrying if it is politically incorrect or unsuitable for the target audience. If it fits the mood it's stuck in. Maybe they will not reach such a wide audience (PG rating) but they surely create classics that way which will have a big payoff in the long run. Somehow this total identification of the makers with the humor is transferred to the effort put into animating the characters - giving them just the right kind of attitude and mimics because the people that animate them know exactly how the characters are thinking. They seem to have as much fun making the movie as we have watching it.
The result is the difference between a factory made pie and one made by grandma. Both may contain the same ingredients and be made by the same method, but one is made with love and one is made by machines - it shows in the detail, and registers with the audience.
Thank you Pixar for -yet again- an excellent movie that lets me forget all the mediocre garbage from your competitors I have watched the past year.
My rating: 9/10