564: Dream Productions / Letterboxd Reviews / Top 10 Pixar Movies

[Henry Faherty]:\nWhile I don't inherently mind that Pixar did something like this show, at the same time, having just released Inside Out two, which to me had a very clear purpose and was moving the story forward. This, maybe it was not the point, but it felt like it kind of ironically lacked the emotional punch of the films and \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nreally brought the story \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nto a halt in some ways. And considering the probably big budget that it had, I just was wondering why did they have to do this and not just put it towards another movie. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Film Buds podcast. This is episode number five hundred and sixty four, and my name is Henry. This time around, I'm gonna be tackling the new Inside Out Disney plus original series, Dream Productions, and then we'll be counting down my top ten Pixar movies of all time. So it's gonna be a great time. Thanks for being here. Please make sure to go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Rate, review, like, all the good things and thank you very much for doing that. Check out our premium podcast page at phonebuds bandcamp dot com. Our website at foambudspodcast dot com, and all that is in the show notes. Follow us on Letterboxd. I'm very excited to talk Pixar. And I guess without further ado, let's go ahead and get into Dream Productions. And we do have a clip, so take a listen. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nHey. Hey, team. Hi, girlfriend. Oh, could you cut your hair? Yep. Cute. Are we talking later? Yeah. Great. Folks, sweet, sweet Riley is not remembering our dreams. All the hard work we do, it doesn't exist in the morning. Okay? Shane? Riley's already forgotten your dream. Am I right? No. It's It's right here. Oh. My new son was too late. That's not even the worst of it. Recently, we've even had a few wake ups in the middle of the night, people. We need more hits. Tweens want drama. They wanna be taken seriously. K? They're practically grown ups, so we are gonna up our game by tapping into what preteens are all about. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nOkay. So Dream Productions is, as I said, a Disney plus original. Came out in mid December twenty twenty four, so fairly recent. It stars Paul Appel, Richard Aote, Maya Rudolph, Kensington Tallman, Ally Maki, Amy Poehler, really the whole cast from the main group in the films. And the synopsis is acclaimed director Paula Persimann teams up with an overly confident daydream director to create the next big tween dream hit for Riley at Dream Productions. So we did review Inside Out two on the show back when it came out, and I also discussed it on my top ten movies of twenty twenty four. So you can hear more thoughts there. This was only announced maybe a month or so before it was released, if I'm not mistaken, and I was immediately thinking, this is just gonna be another Disney plus original series. Like, we don't really need it. Not that there's anything inherently wrong or offensive about it, but it just seems like a cash grab or, here, we need some stuffing for this time period or we're riding the high off of Inside Out two. Didn't know much about it at all aside from the overall concept. I was curious because I do think the mystery of dreams is very interesting. There's still so little known about how they're made, why they happen in the way that they do, where do they come from in terms of different parts of your life, that sort of thing. My dreams in particular are a complete mess. They're just chaos. They're people from ten years ago who I haven't thought about in ages to people I know now, different locations. It's all random, and then I forget most of it when I wake up. And I liked how the Inside Out films do at least tease the idea of there being these dream makers in her mind when she goes to sleep, and they're basically on a movie set. And that's what this series is is the dreams are pretty much Hollywood movies of the world, and they get reviewed by critics. They're directors. They have studio execs, and this did well, this didn't. We need to change this, which I all thought was clever, and there is a lot of creativity to the little touches of making it feel in its own way like a real place, you know, within her mind. And I think I heard fairly good things about it. There are some people lukewarm, some people who really liked it and thought it brought a lot of new ideas to the inside out universe. For me, I'm more with the lukewarm people. It was diverting enough. I was able to watch it in just a couple hours. That's maybe a hundred and ten minutes total broken up into twenty five minute episodes, but I don't know if it's due to the direction, the frantic pacing, the lack of a narrative for the most part, but I was really struggling to maintain focus and, pun intended, I was daydreaming a lot throughout the middle of the episodes. I think, honestly, it could have easily been one or two five minute shorts at the beginning or the end of the feature films. Even at twenty minutes, it was really pushing the runtime of what content was there. And as opposed to the movies, which I know that they are different, they have different purposes, it's not trying to be or make itself out to be as good as or as big as the films. In terms of the cutting back and forth between Riley's real life, like her outer life, and then her mind, in this, it felt very choppy. I was constantly losing track of what was happening, where they were, what was connecting to what, and maybe there was a overabundance of characters or it was I mean, the animation is beautiful, and it's seems to me like it's movie quality animation. So they spent a lot of money, I'm sure, on that, which is nice. And I also liked the office esque style of filmmaking where there are these talking head interviews and there's handheld cameras and it zooms in on characters faces for an expression and that all was funny, but after a while it didn't really add that much and kind of fell by the wayside. Some of the dreams were fun, and that more so came at the end when they were trying to execute a certain idea. And even though it's not talked about a lot, the idea of dreams in whatever age you are, sometimes for better and for worse, revealing certain fears, anxieties, embarrassing moments that have either happened in your life already or you're worried about them happening at some big event in the future as with Riley worrying about this prom and the dress she's gonna wear and etcetera. There's also the storyline that's kind of like A Star is Born, the out with the old, in with the new, where the main character is a aging director, and she's been with Riley since she was young. And so her dream visions are more cutesy and childish. And then a younger director comes in and is hired because they wanna bring a more mature, less goofy dream style to Riley. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAnd the main character, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nreally, I don't know if it's a hot take, didn't do that much for me. I just felt like I never really got to know her and the design of her being, like, a bean basically or an eggplant, whatever it is, that was a little bland and didn't really keep me engaged visually or writing wise narratively. I don't think it's as good as Monsters at Work, the Monsters Inc series, but maybe kids will get more out of it than I did. Perhaps I'm not the target audience even though I love the two Inside Out movies. One of the only moments, and I won't spoil it, that felt like it calmed down a little bit and allowed me to sit with what they were talking about was the very end when Riley is having a certain kind of dream \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nand is talking \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nwith one of the main characters, and there's a very brief but touching conversation that's at least somewhat refreshing as opposed to what you had seen before, which is things constantly going wrong. It's just all over the place, people running everywhere and talking. It's just a lot of noise, for lack of a better word. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nThat one is a heavy three out of five. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAlright. Let's get to some Letterboxd reviews of Dream Productions. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAnd as always, if you wanna have your review read or you wanna suggest I review something so you can have your review read on the show, Please let me know in whatever way, social media, letterbox, anything. These are just chosen at random. Charlotte gave it four stars and says, whoever's directing my dreams has got to be fired. Same here. Next one comes from Owen, gave it two stars out of five. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nSays, there's a few good scenes, but the interesting concept is mostly wasted on spending way too much time on the interpersonal drama between the sentient jellybeans. Matteo Piazza gave it five out of five and says, another little gem from the world of Inside Out. Everything about this animated series feels so fresh and imaginative. It's bursting with creativity, packed with humor, and full of heart. It's the kind of feel good storytelling that reminds you why Pixar is the best in the game. Truly a delight from start to finish. Last one comes from Matt Schmieding. Sorry if I said that name wrong. Gave it three out of five and says, more Inside Out two Dream Stuff with Riley has some fun commentary on behind the scenes film production creativity, but that still felt like a mediocre Pixar show to help keep Disney plus afloat. So there you go. If this is something you like this segment and you want me to do more of those or change it up in whatever way, this is still a new thing for me. So I'm happy to hear any suggestions, comments, questions on that. Happy to oblige. But let's end off with my top ten Pixar films of all time. So like most people in the world, Pixar is a favorite studio of mine. They made some of the best animated films of all time, undeniably. The last ten years or so, they've been declining somewhat or at least having ups and downs, but I think especially the Inside Out films have shot them back up quite a bit. Let me know your top ten lists, top five Pixar films in the comments if you have a way to do that. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nNumber ten, Inside Out two. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAgain, I just talked about this recently, so I won't repeat myself too much, but really liked it. I think it's underrated. So many good ideas, and especially for a younger audience, I am so thankful that it exists in the way that it does, and I hope that \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\na character of anxiety or at least characters as inspired and as useful for lack of a better word are in future sequels, which I'm sure we're gonna get. Number nine, Wall E, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nwhich is also one of my dog's names. It's one that I think really set the standard or really blew people away with how the first half of the movie or so is without any dialogue pretty much, and it was able to tell a story totally visually about a robot or two robots rather and get you to completely fall in love with them, care about that world, care about that journey. It was so touching, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nstill remains one of the most, I think, poignant and charming and innocent animated films that I've ever seen and holds up totally. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nNot only that, but I think it does present a fairly realistic future of the world if the world doesn't get itself together and take care of what we have and also the future of how people treat themselves and the health of the population and all that, but that's background noise for sure. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nNumber eight, Finding Nemo. I remember growing up it had a huge \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nimpact on me and still, I mean, as all of these do, I don't wanna repeat myself, but really holds up and also still remains as an example of taking a very classic simple story, a literal fish out of water, and enriching the world with fun, touching characters, with great animation, with so many good life lessons for both younger audiences, but also adults. It's one of those that if it's on TV or something or someone's watching it, I can't help but just get sucked in and never really gets old. Number seven, Toy Story three. This trilogy, I think I know that there's the fourth one, and we're also getting a fifth one now. But before the fourth one came out and still, I mean, it is sort of a more self contained trilogy, I guess, if you had to pick it apart. But the original trilogy is by far one of the best movie trilogies of all time, live action and not. And while this isn't my number one favorite of the three, which we'll get to, this was I don't know if people were skeptical about it, but because of how great it was, it almost has a great escape vibe or narrative to it, but it got so dark, so emotional by the end of the toys about to be burned up in a furnace and them holding hands and then Andy growing up and wanting to keep his toys close, but then he says, you know, I see this younger kid who I, you know, used to be like, you can have my toys, but take good care of them. And I can't help it tear up in those final few moments, even being an adult. And even more so than the first two, it has a huge group of characters, but nothing ever feels overstuffed. The villain, the pink bear, is a great villain who you love to hate even though there is a backstory to why he became who he did. And the daycare center, just that location is very interesting by itself. Number six, The Incredibles, the first one. This movie is, I'd say, one of the best superhero movies ever made, both live action and animation. It is not my all time favorite Brad Bird movie as we'll get to, spoiler. But when Pixar can find a great original concept, an original story, and find the right director, you know, the right team, it can be like, I mean, I'd say some of these movies are some of the best movies of the decade. They're that good to me. And spending time with this family, they each have their own abilities. They each have their own personality. They're so well fleshed out. The story of them going to this island and fighting this villain who the father kind of humiliated when he was younger and comes back to bite him, Samuel l Jackson's character, mister Freeze. Like, there are so many great lines, the writing, and that's one of Brad Bird's strengths as it is in his others. The dialogue is so witty and so clever. It's got good drama. It's got good action. It's, you know, again, it's got good humor. There's nothing really wrong with it. I'd say it's pretty much a perfect movie. And even though the second one I like decently, it's hard to really top this one. I don't think that that's ever gonna happen if they made a third, a fourth, fifth. I don't think I would love to be proven wrong, but I think this will always be the defining film in The Incredibles franchise or the, let's say, the Pixar superhero films or comic book esque films. Number five, Ratatouille, another Brad Bird film. Probably one of the best things about this one that is always really I think I always have to be reminded of it, like, remind myself when I'm watching it, and I've seen it a zillion times is I don't know how for one, how this got made, like, how the studio green lit it considering it's about a rat who runs around a not that he's a cook, but he runs around a kitchen and is causing what you know in reality would be all these germs, a health hazard. It would be disgusting, gross. Like, if anybody saw that in real life, they would run. They would try and kill it as the humans do in the movie, but this film makes you care about a rat and his family. And then he also gets to become a cook in a kitchen and \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nthis very weird but fun relationship with the main guy \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nas well as the human character having the ancestry of the original owner, the chef, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nand that conflict between him and the super short, mean chef. But more than all of that as \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nBrad Bird did in The Incredibles, the main idea of anybody can cook. Or if you wanna think about it more broadly, that could be applied to pretty much any situation. Hey. You wanna do this? You wanna tackle this subject, this field? You wanna make this a career? You wanna learn this skill? You can do it. There's nothing in the world saying that you can't \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nother than a bunch of haters, and so go for it. If you fail, you fail, but why don't you try? And that's a great message. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nOf all the movies I'm talking about. That's still one of the best in my opinion and really affected me growing up that, you know, I wasn't thinking about it that deeply back then, but especially now, I am so happy that that idea exists in such an accessible and great movie. I mean, it's beautifully animated. It's got great music, the French theme and style and the look of Paris. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nNumber four, Toy Story, the first one. This, of course, launched digital computer \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nanimated films. It was really the first of its kind in that way and has maintained its legacy ever since. Even though some of the animation is a little sketchy now, a little weaker than others, it still looks great a lot better than, honestly, a lot of movies that come out now. And more than anything, the storytelling is so strong. And like Ratatouille, it gets you to care about a bunch of toys who are animate and can talk, and they all feel so distinctive, and you get to know them and care about them, and you don't want them to get, quote unquote, hurt. Or if anything happens to Andy or that relationship of the kid and this toy that hits you hard or at least it does for me, and that conflict between Buzz and Woody will never get old. And I think even in the fourth one, it's very interesting and compelling. The You Got a Friend in Me song is iconic, obviously. The character of Sid, the evil boy is hilarious, and Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are giving two of their best performances ever, I think, and they will forever be tied to those characters. I don't think I could ever see \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nsomeone else taking over the voice for those characters. Number three. Almost done here. Number three is Inside Out. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nWhen I first saw this, I didn't know, I think, anything about it. I just knew it was a new Pixar movie, so I was excited, and I left the theater completely amazed, and I was so engaged emotionally. The incredibly creative and intelligent way that the writing and the direction thought about someone's inner mind and memories and how certain activities, certain situations affect them and how that affects the brain and then their future and how they look at their past and especially a child and then also the parents seeing their child grow up and them not being the same and it really there's so much going on for such a simple story. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nThe voice cast is one of the best, I think, of all Pixar films. Amy Poehler is just perfect as Joy, as is everybody else. This is a masterpiece of a movie to me and will always remain a favorite, I think. Number two, Toy Story two. If I'm not mistaken, I think this is still considered to be one of the best sequels \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nof all time. This would be that's not obvious, would be my favorite Toy Story movie. With one aspect in terms of how well it meshes into the story is the Star Wars esque dynamic or concept with Buzz and the enemy toy, and then the toy store, the conflict of Woody wanting to go with these toys and then suddenly some of them turning on him, Jesse being introduced and her backstory, the mascot character who's always screwing everything up and that danger, the airport sequence at the end. There's just so much suspense as crazy as that sounds. Like, I am never bored. I'm always hooked, and I always wanna know what happens even if I've seen it dozens of times. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nI don't know what magic happened at the time of this movie, but they really nailed it. And number one, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nI don't know if it's an easy guess or what, but in terms of elimination, Monsters Inc. I think that this was the first Pixar movie that I ever saw, and it's always stuck with me. The character of Mike Wazowski and Billy Crystal and then Sully played by John Goodman, like, those two characters are two of my favorites ever in movies. They're so funny, and I love that back and forth between them and then the character of Randall played by Steve Buscemi and especially the triangle between Sully, Mike, and the young girl, and that's so heartfelt, especially that final moment where he puts in the little piece of the door and opens it and is wondering if she's still there, if she's still alive, whatever. And she's like, kitty, and he just smiles and it cuts to black, like, just hits me every time. Just the genius of that world and, you know, how original it is with the monsters powering, you know, electricity for their world, scaring kids, going into these doors and coming out, the preparation and the epicness of the scares. There's so much detail, so fleshed out. I do really like Monsters University. I'd say it's underrated. Didn't make the top ten list, but still a great movie. Alright. Well, there you go. Again, let me know your favorites, what you thought of my list in the comments if you can do that. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, like, share with your friends, post on social media. Would greatly appreciate it. And as always, hope you enjoyed it even half as much as I did. And see you next time. \n\n