jakobnicholas

What are YOUR favorites?

You Can Count On Me (Laura Linney stars)

Wixard of Oz

Spirited Away

Thelma and Louise (up until the cop-out ending)

Dancer in the Dark

It IS hard to think of many. But I'm a guy, so probably haven't seen too many films that, to me, looked too "chick-flickish".

I appreciate Toy Story. I don't think it's one of the greatest trilogies, but I appreciate it. I appreciate it so much, in fact, that I wish the company that made it would remove it's head from it's rear, jump forward a few centuries in storytelling themes, and make a few equally-amazing films with strong female leads.

You just admitted you thought Toy Story was "amazing". So we agree.

And yes, I too would like to see Pixar make a film with a strong female lead. And I know they will.

Just curious, what movies in history do you like for the reason that they had strong female leads? And have you ever seen great animated and/or kids movies that rely on a female lead character?

It's funny that you phrased it that way; what you're implying is that you can't identify with or want to emulate a strong character if you are not the same sex as that character - and that's my point. One of them, at least.

Bitter much?

There's a busniness reason big U.S. movie studios don't try to make Kiki's Delivery Service. In my opinion, "Kiki" is a GREAT movie. I loved it. But I'd imagine that movie wouldn't crack 100 million if made and released by Pixar.

Mabye movies like Coraline and "Brave" will be steps toward making kids movies that are focused on females.

And I don't think it's always about identifying with a character. In the case of Mrs. Incredible, I LOVED how "all in" she was on her kids and her family. I respect the hell out of that. Mr. Incredilbe was going through a mid-life crisis and was living in the past....things maybe I'll relate some day. But SHE kept it together and was the hero (er...heroine) of the movie.

And if I could physically be ANY character in ALL of Pixar's movies, it would be Ellie from "Up". She seemed like an amazing peson. Though a grumpy old man and curious boy got the screen time, it was Ellie who stole the movie and it was her who guided the old man.

(This is supposed to be a Toy Story appreciation thread, not a female-characters-in-film empowerment thread.)

I love Pixar, don't get me wrong, but their ommission of female leads drives me nuts. It's not rocket science.

 

 

 

That's great, but this isn't about giving CGI characters a better "career," this is about what the audience (read: children) are seeing. It is incredibly hard to find movies with strong, standalone female leads (i.e., with no male mentor or "rock"), and Pixar is no different. In Monster's, Inc., for instance, the two primary female characters were administrative assistants, and the hot-shots were all men. Yes, for 60 seconds, the female lead assisted in the star male character's winning goal-shot, but she spent 82(?) minutes of the film as a cranky office lackey.

 

 

 

Dory was consistently portrayed throughout the film as a nice airhead. And central character? Absolutely not. Supporting. I also found it interesting that Pixar decided to play the angle of the single father instead of a single mother. While on the one hand I agree that single fathers don't get a whole lot of airtime, they had a lot of movies under their belt by that point and easily could have made the parent a mother. Jessie is another perfect example of a great supporting character.

 

 

 

That's interesting. John Hughes was male, and he didn't take 16 years to put a female star in his movies.

You make valid points, but why did you gloss over the few times that Pixar DID get it right with females? I didn't even mention The Incredibles, which if I was female, I imagine I'd LOVE the gritty mom character, and feisty costume designer. And I thought the daughter had a John Hughes-type character vibe.

I've read before that animated movies, to be really successful at the box office, must be able to hook young males. Beauty and the Beast might be an exception, but even that movie had lots of action and male characters.

Coraline was a great movie, and did OKAY at the box office. The Frog Princess did just okay as well.

The same lack of female lead can be seen in Dreamworks animated movies.

In November, Disney will release "Tangled". It was originally to be called "Rapunzel", but the studio feared it might seem too much like a girl movie, so they changed the title. But that won't change that the focal character will be a female. We'll see what that one is like.

Hopefully "Brave" will do well and open the door to more female-dominated movies.

Sixteen years, then, between their first full-length and their first full-length starring a female character. Way too long in this - well, I'd say century, but I guess this is their second one.

Probably so. But that shouldn't skew whether their movies are good or not.

Darla Anderson has produced many Pixar films, including Toy Story 3. Toy Story 2 was produced by 2 females. Cars and Ratatouille gives writing credits to many, including females.

If you read how Pixar was formed, you'll realize it was started by a bunch of computer geeks. It wasn't until they asked John Lassiter to join that the company started creating great stories. The core of the Pixar story-tellers were all buddies and all male.

Considering all that, I think they've done a good job with female characters. Jessie's character made Toy Story 2 great. Dory in Finding Nemo was the loveable, central character. Cars and Ratatouille both had strong, important female characters. Wall-e was basically a love story. And Up's Ellie character is one of the greatest characters in ALL their movies. Sucked that we only got a short glimpse of her, but her soul and spirit carried the movie, in my opinion.

I'm still waiting for Pixar to release a full-length starring a female character.

You won't be waiting too long. June 15, 2010, Pixar will release "Brave". It's about a daughter born into Scottish royalty, but she wants to be an archer instead. Brenda Chapman, who gets writing credits, will be the first female to direct a Pixar film.

I'll withhold judgement on comparing Toy Story to Star Wars. Star Wars 1 & 2 would get the edge over Toy Story 1 & 2. But Jedi was a decent-sized step back.

Back to the Future 1 is a GREAT, GREAT movie. But "Future 2" was just good, and "Future 3" a huge disappointment, in my opinion.

Lord of the Rings might top Toy Story, but Lord of the Rings was MEANT to be 3 movies.

Based on early reviews, Toy Story 3 is on par with the first 2 films, which is saying A LOT.

Toy Story 1 may always be my favorite Pixar film because it was revolutionary...advanced graphics, great visuals, deep characters and a good story.

Toy Story 2 added a likeable female character, more emotional depth and lots of fun.

Toy Story 3 sounds to be loaded with goofiness, tense action and supposedly deals with mortality a bit.

Perhaps the best trilogy of all time?

The Diary of Horace Wimp - E.L.O.

I'm not a super knowledgable soccer fan, but it's CLEAR that Lionel Messi is insanely talented.

His foot and lower-body control is unreal. I've become an Aregentina fan just hoping I can watch Messi play as many games as possible.

Just viewed a very intriguing movie, LUNA:Tell Me Do You Miss Me, chronicling one indie band's farewell tour and the dynamics that caused it's demise. I couldn't help thinking WILCO could have gone the same way in the mid-90s--never quite making the "hit" that would boost them into stardom (regardless of a sizable cult following), relying on t-shirt/CD sales just to make money to help fund the tours, internal personality differences . . . After 13 years, Luna called it quits for all of those reasons. I suppose it didn't help that they sounded a lot like a regurgitation of Velvet Underground/Feelies/Yo La Tengo. Just goes to show you how utterly talented Tweedy is.

Not trying to nitpick, but I don't know if it's fair to suggest Wilco made it just because Tweedy is super talented. Jeff is a great writer and artist, but Dean Wareham is pretty great also.

I think Wilco's longevity is due mostly to Tweedy's restlessness. In Tupelo, he went from punk to folksy to pop. In early Wilco, he put out a great "alt-country" record, then found Jay Bennett, helping create texture to Being There and wonderful studio pop on Summerteeth. Tweedy really immersed himself into the Woody Guthrie songs, creating some of his best tunes with Bennett. He perhaps got bored with Ken Coomer and saw the possibilities with Kotche, which helped make YHF great. Working with O'Rourke added greatly to YHF and Ghost is Born. Then Nels' guitar skills helped create a new "jammy" sound on some recent songs.

I like Wilco as much as anyone, but must admit their live show has become stale for me. I've seen them a number of times and have heard many live recordings over the past 5 years, and I'm amazed how they can continue to basically play the same 40-50 songs over and over and over without going a little nuts.

Perhaps Wareham tired of the routine....probably a more natural reaction than what Wilco has done.

As for Luna, I love "Luna Live"...it has awesome versions of Bewitched, Sideshow by the Seashore and Moon Palace, among others. Wareham, with Galaxie 500 and Luna, just had a really cool vibe with his music. Perhaps he couldn't or didn't want to try to expand his sound.

Curious if anyone has heard this fairly new record by singer/songwriter Matthew Houck and a great backing band.

I've been listening to it a lot. Definitely one of my faves of the year.

If "Americana" can ever be used to describe a cd, "Here's To Taking it Easy" qualifies...the sounds on it remind me of Neil Young, Willie Nelson, The Jayhawks and Wilco.

The opener "It's Hard To Be Humble" has a light, laid-back, breezy shuffle to it. Songs like "We'll Be Here Soon" and "Tell Me Baby Have Had Enough" are very country and very beautiful. The country rocker "I Don't Care If There's Cursing" sounds like a track off Being There. "Mermaid Parade" is probably the standout and "Los Angeles" sounds like an early Neil Young track. Lap Steel guitar is all over the record. Houck's lyrics are about a relationship getting torn apart due to his busy touring schedule.

Nothing revolutionary going on here, just a very pleasant-sounding record that I put in my cd player and don't ever want to press "stop" or "skip".

PBS will show a 90-minute special on July 28th of last night's Gershwin Award concert at the White House honoring Paul McCartney.

Most of it sounds great:

Jack White sang Mother Nature's Son, Emmylou Harris sang For No One, Elvis Costello sang Penny Lane, Stevie Wonder sang We Can Work It Out, Dave Grohl sang Band On The Run...

Jerry Seinfeld had a monologue. He analyzed McCartney's lryics, and asked McCartney what he meant by the lyric "She was just 17, you know what I mean.".....ha!

McCartney sang some of his greats: Let it Be, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Jude and others.

Predicatbably, it sounds like it turned into a love fest for the Obamas, with McCartney singing Michelle for Mrs. Obama, Grohl declaring Sir Paul was his 1st hero and that Obama was his 2nd hero, McCartney sang Ebony and Ivory with Stevie Wonder, McCartney said despite some of the problems going on lately that Obama can be sure that he and billions of others are rooting for him, and then to top it all off, McCartney thanked the Library of Congress for giving him the prestigious award by saying, "After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is".

The song that came on was nothingsevergonnastandinmyway (again). I know the current band kicks ass, but something about the wonderful little fills that come at the end of lines and between verses in a song like this (and the others on ST) are Jay's lasting influence on even this band (who has to try and reproduce those things). Sure, the band now has great musicians and a great live sound.

 

Meanwhile Wilco is now a big draw that travels the world to critical aclaim (and rarely even plays the midwest any more.) Jay's ongoing contribution can't be minimized by anyone. Both Mikael and Pat have become really fine keyboard players and Nels is of course an incredible guitarist. But Jay's sonic invention was amazing. His staying in the band wasn't to be, but everytime the songs are played from his era, Jay becomes part of the band again.

 

LouieB

Very nice.

Being There, Mermaid Ave., Summerteeth, YHF, the songs Cars Can't Escape, Shakin Sugar, Venus Stop the Train, Magazine Called Sunset, the gorgeous Instrumental on the YHF demos, Not For The Season...

To me, that stretch of Wilco was just MAGICAL. I happen to think Jay was a big reason the band was SO great for so long. I don't think the Mermaid songs would be half as good without Jay's contribution. Many regard YHF as Wilco's pinnacle. I wonder how that record might have sounded without Jay trying to wring every sound possible out of the studio. How much contribution did Jay make to the sound of Being There?

Lots of these things we'll probably never know, because it's mostly subjective and/or people's opinions. Maybe just Jay's presence pushed Jeff to explore different ways of making music.

Wilco's made good music without Jay...most noticeably AGIB...but there's something missing since Jay left...a warmth and sense of fun in the music sounds perhaps. I can't put my finger on it.

I'm looking forward to hearing Jay's final album in July. His last album, the acoustic "Whatever Happened, I Apologize", is bare and dark, but well worth a few listens.

As cool as that is, and I think Betty is a riot, SNL will find a way to make it suck.

This.

I tuned in last week to see Zach Galifianakis....the dude's pretty funny, right? The show's gonna be good, right? SNL is gonna make good use of his physical, zany abilities, right?

Uh, no.

Saying that, it would be hard for SNL mess this up. That list of former of SNL ladies is a talented, funny group. I'll be watching.

...it made me think of "Brothers in Arms".

Great album.

My least favorite cuts are the radio hits. I prefer the songs after them...'Your Latest Trick', 'Why Worry', 'Ride Across The River', 'The Man's Too Strong' and the title cut.....wow! Think I need to listen to this again.

Hell yeah. Panthers, The High Heat and This Is New are my favorites that didn't make the record. I also do prefer the soma version of Hummingbird over the album cut.

The Wilcobook Hummingbird is just VERY cool. I prfer it over the album version.

High Heat and This Is New would have been OK by me to be on AGIB.

I had this on, but was in and out of watching it.

The John Hughes tribute was the highlight for me. Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. arguing the merits of writer vs. actor was genius...very funny. The animated intros to animated movies were good...especially Up's intro with Dug the dog licking the camera.

Martin and Baldwin weren't very good. Occassionally funny lines, but Martin seemed old and Baldwin seemed tight.

Message boards are for opinions, so I'll offer mine...

Let's Not Carried Away is a cluttered mess. Starts off promising. Jeff's vocals are annyoingly unnatural sounding and forced in parts. I don't care for the lyrics much. The piano bit sucks. The electric guitars ARE nice...I do like that about the song. And the drum solo proves that Glenn is a talented guy, but I already know that. The Raspberries "Let's Pretend" is alphabetically the next song on my itune, and I'd much rather listen to that corny 70's pop nugget.

Let's Fight has a very cool vibe. I like the string sounds, no matter how they were made. I can entertain the thought that it "plods along". But I'd say it "builds up". To me there's a difference. And the 40+ second Nels guitar solo half-way through is almost eerie at first, then really cool.

Panthers is an amazing song, particularly the solo early live version. Beautiful. The studio song was an acquired taste for me, but I now enjoy the different take on the song. Jeff's vocals on the solo version are easily the best, and why I think it rules.

Kinda off-topic, but it's always fascinated me that most of us are concerned about recycling and pollution and saving nature, yet Earth is just one major earthquake or volcanic eruption or meteor strike away from being altered considerably.

I respect people like Al Gore for their goal or making Earth a better place to live, but throwing empty 2-liters into a recycle bin and saving trees seems silly after events like the recent earthquakes or the forest fires last year.

I'm not suggesting we stop helping make our environment cleaner and better. But Earth can pollute and ruin itself MUCH better and faster than us measly little humans.

I like a lot of SBS.

It's quite a bit better than Wilco (The Album) for me, but quite a bit behind all else they've done.

In my humble, meaningless opinion, SBS would be on the level of Wilco's great records (Being There, Summerteeth, YHF, AGIB), with this set list:

1. Either Way

2. You Are My Face

3. Impossible Germany

4. Sky Blue Sky

5. Side with the Seeds

6. One True Vine (this song is simple and beautiful. An absolute crime it didn't make the cut.)

7. Let's Fight (never released...but love the live versions pre-SBS. Beautiful start, then rocks out.)

8. Please Be Patient with Me

9. Leave Me (Like You Found Me)

10. What Light (this song gets unfairly trashed. It's Tweedy's 'Walk Unafraid')

11. On and On and On

It seems Jeff's basic intent was to make an organic, beautiful-sounding record. For me, Shake if Off and Walken are awkward and jarring songs....especially when mixed in with the beauty that is all around SBS. And Hate if Here combines musical awkwardness with lameness.

ALSO, I like Leave Me (Like You Found Me) a lot.

Beatles & Stones aside, I'd rank these ahead of Wilco:

- R.E.M.

- Replacements (I'm ASTONISHED there's no mention of this amazing band on this thread)

- Radiohead

- Dino Jr.

- Flaming Lips

- U2

- White Stripes

Aintitcoolnews has some early reaction to an early screening of Stallone's 'Expendables' movie and I found this quote pretty funny...

After seeing The Expendables, I couldn't give a shit about Avatar and James Cameron's smurfs fighting over a mineral.

Kudos to Jay, Oprah and Letterman for the short commercial. Nicely done. Jay went to Dave's studio with Oprah to tape it. The idea was apperently from one of Dave's writers.

The Simpson's Coca-Cola ad was great.

It won't happen, but I'd love to see Fantastic Mr. Fox win best animated film. I loved Up as well, but I think Fox was a better movie.

I preferred Up, but Fantastic Mr. Fox was very worth seeing. I love how the movie was made and designed.

I'm very curious to see the nominated "The Secret of Kells". Supposedly it won't be released in the States until Spring. It's an Irish film and sounds interesting.

"Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea" was also very good and it would have been on my Top 5 list.

If the Academy's goal was to nominate a good, well-attended, crowd-pleasing popcorn film (which is how I'd classify Avatar), Star Trek should have been the one....by a long shot. Not only was Star Trek good entertainment, but it was fun and funny in parts....something James Cameron doesn't seem to understand.

And if they nominated 10 movies last year, there WAS a deserving super-hero movie....it was called Iron Man.