Disney vs Pixar - the Fanfic Faceoff

[tealin]

It occurred to me while visiting California Adventure (soon to be Pixarland*) that despite Pixar's modus operandi of 'creating worlds,' my imagination is never tempted to explore them outside the confines of the film, whereas I often find myself mentally wandering the possibilities of Disney worlds. The only explanation I could come up with is that Pixar movies are more self-contained ... everything in them was created for them; nothing exists that does not relate to the plot or characters; everything is explained and there are no loose ends. It's a very tidy way to make a movie but it doesn't give much room to play – it feels like the movie is shot on a sound stage rather than on location, that if you wandered past the end of the street that is visible in the establishing shot, you'd either meet a blank concrete wall or ... nothing. I don't wonder about the rest of the characters' lives, or 'what would happen if...', or how their society works or anything, because everything I need to know is spelled out for me and nothing further is hinted at, which squashes all curiosity I might have. And for all that the world is painstakingly created I never wish I could just go there to hang out – it's a closed-off room that exists for the purpose of the movie and the movie alone; it doesn't have any doors.** So I wondered: am I the only one? Is your imagination piqued by Pixar movies as much as Disney? I did a brief and extremely unscientific survey of fanfiction.net and the fic tallies for Disney and Pixar movies seem to prove that I am speaking out of my butt, but I cannot recall one Pixar character that, for example, has a squeeing fangirl following. Have you experienced Pixar fandom online? Is it as fruitful or pervasive as the Disney fandoms I followed for a while before running away screaming? What are your thoughts/observations/comments/suggestions/snarkings? Is it better to make a beautiful, clean, perfectly-wrapped up origami of a movie, or leave some loose ends and cracks that the imagination can crawl into?

ETA: I ought to set Incredibles a little bit aside from the Pixar pantheon – it's really much more of a Brad Bird movie than a Pixar movie, and he's the only one to my knowledge who can stand up to Lasseter and get away with it. He directed Ratatouille too, but it was someone else's project that he took over.

ETA2: This seems as good a time as any to point out one of my favourite Daily Show clips ever ... Forks!

*Not officially. But basically ... yeah.
**with the exception of Monsters, Inc which has a lot of doors (literally) ... but none of them open into my head (figuratively)

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you make sense, and the making sense amuses me because the Pixar people take such pride in their thoroughly-imagined universes with their rules and their logic.

I have to disagree with you on the nostalgia aspect, at least in my experience; the fandoms I remember were related to contemporary movies, starting with Hunchback and going through to about Mulan before I ran away. I know Lion King had a HUGE following and that was even before most people had the internet; once fans started making their own websites, Lion King ones cropped up like mushrooms, and it hadn't come out that long before. And there's not one human in Lion King. I don't think the species of the character really has all that much play, as long as they have a human brain. I mean, they're drawings first and foremost, the fact that we're relating to them at all kind of throws anything else into perspective. Half the girls I know had some degree of crush on Robin Hood at some point in their lives ... granted these are girls working at Disney, but it's got to be an indicator of something.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I was a huge Lion King fanboy, this much is true. :D

The girls working at Disney though, look at how old they were when they saw Robin Hood -- it came out in what, the seventies? So we were all children when we saw it. I think I was twelve or thirteen when Lion King came out, still young enough that the movie sort of...belonged to me. As a matter of fact I think Lion King was actually the last animated Disney film I intentionally went to see. I've still not seen Hunchback or Mulan or most of the ones that came after it, and then picked up Pixar in my twenties.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Most of the girls I talk to are in my generation so would have seen Robin Hood on video in the 80s or early 90s – when they were young, yes, but my point with him was more in regards to attachment to an animal character rather than the nostalgia aspect. And (without giving away too much, I hope) there's a character in Frog that has won the heart of most of the girls on the crew, all of whom are over 21. Younger fans are probably more likely to conglomerate for squeefests and older fans might get turned off by this, but there still are older fans ...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

But he was still an anthropomorphic animal -- a basically human shape, human eyes, human clothes. It's why the film is super-popular in the Furry community, not to ruin you for Robin Hood forever :D I would venture to say ditto on this concept as to why Rats of NIMH is still a beloved icon in our age group as well (plus it was way darker than most kids' films).

I do see your point though. I just feel like...none of the stories have really belonged to me, even the Pixar ones, since Lion King; I can enjoy them but they're not my cultural property. I wish there were mature animated films that I felt I could own, because of complex adult-oriented scripts, but most of them elude me storywise entirely -- the only animation I've ever written fanfic for has been the Ouran tv series, because I can actually interact with a sensible plot, even if it's a parody. :D And the logical premise is thin, but it's still there; the Ouran students exist in a relatively logical setting. Though I feel that if I'd seen more Avatar than just S1 I could write fic for that too.

I suppose I feel like it's hard for me to be a fan in the usual way because I'm disconnected from the story by the sense that it's not for me and I have no nostalgic connection.

But I'm looking forward to Frog!