ABSTRACT
DreamWorks try to do. Pixar’s early movies worked like that, mainly because Pixar used to take more time with script development – consider Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille – but John Lasseter has not been able to do it again ever since Disney bought his studio. These days, he sells toys like a champ. In interviews, Lasseter likes to say that he has “Disney blood flowing in my veins,” but I doubt seriously Uncle Walt would have taken Carl and Russell to Paradise Falls. Or, if he had, he would have set the entire movie in that location. Walt Disney was a genius storyteller who made movies for kids and then charmed adults into seeing them also on the grounds that “there is a kid in all of us.” The next time you watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, note how you regress to your childhood self. I have screened Snow White dozens of times, and the experience is enlightening. It is practically impossible to watch that movie with an adult’s discerning eye. Same situation with John Lasseter’s personal favorite Disney movie, Dumbo, as well as Pinocchio. Walt Disney was brilliant when it came to luring adults back to childhood. It is significant that he did not attempt to do it the other way around, pushing children into adulthood, which is what Up demands.
