213 Wild romance

Tuesday 1 August 2006 Yes sir, we are amping up the romance to the max!

Last weekend I had a bit of a Pixar weekend. I watched three of their greatest movies (then again, that can be said about almost anything they have ever made), Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. and was once again bowled over by the quality of these movies. The great thing about the Pixar movies is that they don't just look great, but the stories are also magnificent. I'm especially fond of Monsters Inc., a movie that is both inventive and touching, with some of the most memorable characters ever designed for an animated movie. I mean, how can you design a guy that is not much more than just a big eyeball on legs, and still make him have so much personality? It's pure genius, and when you watch a great movie again and again, you start appreciating things like this more and more.

Watching movies more than once is something that I love to do anyway. I know many people who watch a movie once, and who cannot understand why you would then want to watch it again, but to me it's a great way to discover new things, and to gain a better understanding of what it is that made this movie so great in the first place. Watching a movie for the first time, you don't know what's coming, and so you are surprised at what happens, eager to find out more and to see where everything is leading (with a good movie, at least). But when you watch it again, you don't have to concentrate on the main story so much, and instead you can watch the little jokes in the background, look better at what the main characters are doing when they are not speaking, and try to find hidden meaning behind what's happening.

The people at Pixar make sure their movies are great for repeat viewings. They cram them with little inside jokes, visual references to their previous (and future!) movies and with characters you may have seen in earlier pictures. And besides that, the stories of these movies are so well constructed that it's almost like meeting an old friend and discovering a new, interesting side to him.

I have been thinking over the past months: "What is my favorite animated movie?" Having seen practically every animated feature that has come out so far, it is almost impossible to make a choice. But after having seen Monsters Inc. again this weekend, now I know.