In which I badmouth Pixar a bit

[soc_puppet]

This is something I've been sitting on a bit, especially since there's so many avid Pixar fans on my f'list, and criticism in general is not always taken well.

However. I just read a good percentage of a particular spoiler-tastic Up review, and now it's not going to stay behind locked teeth any longer.

Therefore, if you cannot hear a single bad word against Pixar, please do not click the cut.



Dear Pixar,

Your graphics are fantastic. Amazing, even! Your stories are often touching and funny. I love how you're bringing back the pre-film short cartoon, and, generally, what you're doing with them. As of Up, you're even getting better at including diversity in your films*!

However. You are absolutely horrible at passing the Bechdel Test**.

If I recall correctly, The Incredibles and A Bug's Life pass. If I recall correctly.

So, Pixar, I love you, but seriously. Please to be getting to work on writing more female main characters. In fact, a film that stars a female character wouldn't be remiss! Princess Atta and Helen Parr*** are the only ones I can think of# that come close, and they'd be co-starring. With male counterparts.

You've already got plenty of films that star or co-star male characters exclusively. As a young woman, I would definitely like to see myself better reflected in your work.

Yours,
Me


* Former examples of diversity: Frozone in The Incredibles, supporting character; that one chef in Ratatouille, bit character (although - possibly Colette? I saw her as generic Mediterranean, but my therapist saw her as Asian, so IDK/YMMV); those two cars in Cars (god, one of them is Flo, I think, the one with the diner? And the other one is the guy who paints and I feel horrible for not remembering his name, but considering Flo's is one of three names I remember from Radiator Springs, I'm giving myself a bit of a pass), supporting characters(?). I for one could only tell by the clear dialect that they were intended to be non-white - which actually almost makes it worse for me. See, specifically casting for dialect use in those two cases points out that you didn't cast anyone using stereotypical non-white dialect in pretty much any other movie of yours that I know of to date. Which means you recognized it was an issue. Which means that pretty much any character in any previous movie defaults to "white". And, before Up, those are the only instances I can think of. See where I'm going at all?

** For movies that pass the Bechdel Test, see this blog.

*** Just for you, I'm temporarily skipping the housewife tangent.

# As inarticulate has pointed out to me, I forgot Dory from Finding Nemo. I feel incredibly foolish now. And I could probably also add Eve from Wall-E in there, with a possible side-order of what's-her-face that's on the BNL ship and stuff. I'm also willing to give points to Jessie from Toy Story 2 and Sally from Cars, but I really don't know how much you could count Boo from Monsters, Inc. Rassa frassa memory failure... I'll show you how to remember something...!



...Upon a brief look around Wikipedia, it seems as if someone has already written this letter. And while the subject of a female protagonist is apparently going to be addressed, there's still a nice gaping hole for a non-princess role.

Edit: Now with less memory fail!

Edit 2: Review mentioned in the comments is here, for the sake of. Is transparency the word I'm looking for here? Well, whatever. If you're insanely curious, there's where it is. Be warned, it is not a nice review.

Comments

[meigui]

Haha, I'm just one of those people who obnoxiously overanalyzes absolutely everything I watch/read, I think :(

Well, she did have a pretty flamboyant personality--but, effectively, I felt like she was a cross between a cheerleader and a resource. I mean, particularly in such a result-driven story (as opposed to cause-driven), she wasn't a direct player in the plot so much as a plot device. If that makes any sense? She has some modicum of agency, but only in that she serves super heroes; she even expresses disdain towards the idea of designing for non-supers. She is a member of the non-privileged group whose power and significance comes from how she, at best, interacts with the privileged group (privilege here from a metafictive point of view, not an in-universe one). But like I said, if these were real-world groups, that would have very unfortunate implications.

Well, yes; but the corollary to that--what of the people who don't start out with the abilities that they have? The two examples we have are pretty much Etna and Syndrome. Etna I discussed above; Syndrome is, well, he's the villain. In fact, though, the antagonist's side of the story is two-fold: first, Syndrome, a non-super who is dissatisfied with his own role as a bystander; and second, the government, which works to oppress the efforts of those who would otherwise be able to make a difference. The latter is implicated as much as the former in the story, though in less direct way; considering the time at which this movie was made, this came across as very political to me--as I recall, this was within a year after the beginning of the Iraq War.

Eh, I feel like the worst that happened to him was when he fought the first robot, and most of those difficulties were played for laughs; and the training montage itself was built up as... kind of glamorous, more of a confidence-building sequence than actually honing his skills again. Like, "I thought I'd lost it, but look, it was still inside me waiting to be let out again all along, and look how happy I am now!" I mean, really. (I actually thought there was more to it, because I felt like he must have had trouble at some point or another, but then I looked up a longer clip, and--nope, that was it.) To me, it positively reeks of self-help culture, which I... also kind of despise. Hahaha.