Cloud people on a blimp pretty much sums up my life goals and now I must see this movie.
For all my complaining here, it wasn't an awful movie. In fact, there were elements
(no pun intended) that felt like true classic Pixar.
I think that's my problem with it. So much is good and then there are these aspects of story/character that feel out-of-place and amateurish. That's okay for a kid's movie but Pixar has been
pretty direct in their assertion that they aren't making "kids movies".
They market it like this is a story about Ember and Wade but really, it's a story about Ember and her father. Wade and his family and really all other characters are just plot devices and that would be perfectly fine if they'd written the plot devices a little better but since Wade's only role is to motivate/push Ember, it doesn't feel like they spent as much time developing his character or on considering his own motivations so he's written like a
manic pixie dream boy who has zero growth through the course of the movie and the other characters are equally devoid of apparent realistic motivation or behavior and are able to flip on a dime to push the story forward when needed.
That's all fine for a kid's movie but Toy Story has always really been Woody's story and yet none of the other characters come off as simple plot devices to me. Coco is
chock full of characters who only exist to provide exposition in their one scene but they're all fleshed out
(also no pun intended) so as not to feel that way unless you really analyze it.
All of Pixar's best work is like that where you can close your eyes and imagine many of these character's existences off-screen.
This one felt like a magic trick where I caught something a few times hiding in the magician's hand that I wasn't supposed to see. In the end, I couldn't tell you how the whole trick was done but I caught enough to have the suspension of disbelief ruined.
My son, I don't think, caught any of that and therefore, I think, liked it more than I did.
I don't want to discuss it with him because I don't want to make him like it less.
(I apparently, have no problems crushing the hopes and dreams of strangers on the internet, though - sorry )
Anyway, it wasn't awful, at all.
Maybe it really is just a kid's movie?