Recently I have been watching a bunch of pixar movies that have been blockbusters, but I really haven't seen before. I like their themes and story telling, but something that bothers me for their major pictures is it feels like they all follow a very similar overall narrative:
- some sort of "buddy" movie
- some sort of "we only have x amount of time to solve our crisis we got into"
- the two buddies have some sort of big fight
- the two buddies make up
- stronger than ever, they overcome this crisis right just before the buzzer.
Maybe its because they don't do it in their shorts (or its because they can explore ideas more), but I think their shorts they have are really some of their best story telling.
Tropey story beats do get a bit tiresome, but they're there because they work. Fiction that flaunts defying these tropes tends to be pretty great, but its still rare, and probably doesn't feel very good unless the viewer is already tired of the original.
Buddies fight and, having acknowledged their primary character fault, reconcile, is one that is everywhere in children's fiction. I also find it boring.
Fiction that flaunts the tropes are a good example of “you have to know the rules before you can break them”.
These tropes aren’t new inventions, they go back into thousand year old myths, so it does seem like they really do appeal to the human brain, ie the Campbell monomyth/hero’s journey.
- some sort of "buddy" movie
- some sort of "we only have x amount of time to solve our crisis we got into"
- the two buddies have some sort of big fight
- the two buddies make up
- stronger than ever, they overcome this crisis right just before the buzzer.
Maybe its because they don't do it in their shorts (or its because they can explore ideas more), but I think their shorts they have are really some of their best story telling.