watched turning red last night, really enjoyed it! it's been great to see spider-verse's continuing influence on the cg animation industry, even if some studios show it in subtler ways than others1. it's clear that domee shi is one of the best story and directorial talents at pixar right now and i'm excited to see more work from her over time.
between luca and turning red, pixar has finally broken away from the same-face issues they were having (and that their counterparts at WDAS continue to have) in favor of making their characters actually look like different people2.
on the release front, it's frustrating that disney decided as close to its release as they did to make turning red a disney+ exclusive. i like movie theaters, i like seeing movies in theaters, i would have liked to see turning red in a theater. but alas. it feels like they're still trying to shift the balance of power they have with movie theaters—the end goal for any studio—and using pixar's releases as the test to see how well disney+ exclusive releases actually work. i feel for the people actually making these movies; having the terms of your work's release changed so suddenly in such a blatant power play can't feel good.
given all this, i'm extremely excited for the release of the next film on pixar's slate, Lightyear (2022), because maybe then i will stop fucking seeing trailers for it before everything3.
1: pixar, i think, has mostly shown it through a willingness to play with light, texture, and staging more than they previously had been, as well as incorporating more traditional animation techniques. dreamworks is interesting to see right now as well; we're starting to see the results of their productions that started after spider-verse (the furbait movie i can't remember the name of and puss in boots 2) and it seems like they took the opportunity to completely change their house style. the trailers for the aforementioned movies still look distinctly like dreamworks but in a way that's actually fresh, interesting, and clear the animators are having fun.
2: also the protags are starting to look like aardman characters which is objectively a good thing imo
3: the only movie i've seen recently that was free from lightyear was Jackass Forever. there's a chance it also wasn't in the matrix trailer package, but our theater inadvertently started showing spider-man instead4 so i don't actually know what was in the matrix trailer package.
4: i was already mad about spider-man taking over all the dolby cinema screenings at my theater for weeks so having it start playing in the one imax screening i was able to see was like a punch in the face. shout out to the guy next to me who, the instant peter parker was on screen, said "damn, marvel's really taking over everything huh"
