Did Pixar Rip Off Their Own Movie? by WoollyOne Response

 Welcome back to Your Opinion Is NOT Law, where we call out people who don't know what their talking about and are generally pretentious prudents about it. Today's specimen is WoollyOne, a YouTuber who very clearly has no respect for the art of animation or the people involved in animation. This is very much evident by his Why are Animated Movies Terrible Now? video from 2019 and the video we'll be covering today. Strap in because we're going to dive in to this jerk's cynical analysis of Luca.

Stupid Question

0:00 The very first problem with the video is the title. That is such a stupid question that did not need to be asked. Pixar did NOT in fact rip off their own movie, but rather Luca just so happens to bear some similarities with films that came before it. This is not an inherently bad thing as every movie shares similar traits to previous movies, be them intentional or purely coincidentally. This is also very insulting to the film's director, Enrico Casarosa, who was very passionate about making this film as an ode to his home country of Italy (more on this later). Had he known this fact, he wouldn't have needed to ask such a stupid question.

Stop Holding Pixar To An Impossiblly High Standard

0:30 Woolly is also one of those people that hold Pixar to such a high standard that every film they've made since 2010 has been either decent at best or mediocre at worst. There's this wonderful article that perfectly explains why this is stupid and unnecessary that I highly recommend giving a read (here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/kylelovesanimationnmore.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/pixar-or-just-four-guys/amp/). Tl;dr, not every Pixar film is going to be as great as the ones you grew up with and that's okay. Pixar is full of a wide variety of talented filmmakers who all have unique voices they want to share with the would. They shouldn't have to strive to be like Pete Doctor, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton or Lee Unkrich. To expect them to do so is stupid and unprofessional.

Not Seeing The Reason Why Luca Is Set In Italy

2:43 Woolly goes on to question why Luca is set in Italy when it could've been set anywhere in the world and contrasts this with Ratatouille which was specifically set in France due to it's luscious cuisine and stuck upness. This honestly infuriates me because he didn't even do any research into Luca before making this video, nevermind actually look at the subtle and deliberate details of the setting in Luca. Not only is this film set in the Italian Rivera, but they eat pasta that's not just spaghetti, there's Italian music that's often playing, and the characters sometimes speak in Italian in between speaking in English. The biggest reason why Luca is set in Italy, and the reason Woolly failed to mention, is that the director is Italian! Enrico Casarosa grew up in Italy and when he was given the chance to make his own movie for Pixar, he chose to make a film somewhat based on his summers in the Italian Rivera. The characters of Luca and Alberto were based on him and a childhood friend and he chose to make them sea monster because that's part of Italian folklore. If you're going to do an analysis of Luca, the bare minimum you could do is enough research to know what you're  talking about.

Throwing The Filmmakers Under The Bus

4:21 After reciting the synopsis of Ratatouille and Luca, Woolly calls the latter "an empty, risk-adverse film with unconvincing stakes." I have no qualms with people who found Luca too boring for their tastes (opinions are opinions after all), but I take issue with people like Woolly calling the film empty and not taking risks. This implies that the filmmakers were either too scared or forbidden from making the film Woolly wanted to see. It's a good thing than that Andrea Warren was the producer of this film and NOT Woolly because he'd probably demand Enrico Casarosa make a film he wouldn't want to make. Also, wanna take stakes? If Luca and Alberto are discovered as sea monsters, they'll get skewered with harpoons. It's not just about getting a vespa; it's also about Luca and Alberto trying to hide their identities from a world that hates them.

Luca's Ending Explained

7:00 Woolly oversimplifies the ending and questions how quickly the townsfolk welcomed Luca and Alberto as sea monsters because they won the race. What actually happened was Giulia's Dad, Massimo, defended them because they didn't harm his daughter. The town accepts Luca and Alberto because they see first hand that they're not actually dangerous. Also at 7:21 he says Grandma's line about how Luca can separate the good people from the bad is a cop-out, which is stupid because you see during the credits Luca making friends with kids at his new school and showing them that he's a sea monster much to their amazement. It's like he deliberately ignored that part of the film to try and make his point.

Conclusion

Woolly wraps the video by saying Pixar is going down the same path as Star Wars where they're becoming mediocre for as long as they were once great. He also imples that Luca could've been great if it had met his standards of greatness. This video was basically 8 frustrating minutes of a pretentious punk complaining about how Pixar made a movie he didn't like that just so happens to share similarities with a movie he did like. It's poorly researched, he gives a very pretentious delivery and his criticisms just fall flat because he throws the filmmakers under the bus. To WoollyOne, if you're reading this, you need to shut your pretentious pie hole when it comes to anything related to animation. You have clearly shown that you have no respect for the medium nor for the people involved in said medium. You think you know better than the many men and women who went to school to learn about animation, but the reality is you're just a selfish snob who sees his own bias above that of the filmmakers decisions. Like I always say: Your Opinion Is NOT Law -.-

Responsding to CBR.com's Article on Klaue in Marvel's What If

 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbr.com/what-if-wrongs-klaue-again/amp/

Ordinarily I wouldn't respond to these clickbait articles, but this one particularly rubbed me the wrong way. This 7 paragraph long article felt like the writer was whining over how the episode was written and provides little constructive feedback. Since there's no comment section on this article, might as well explain my problem with this piece here.

The main criticism this article lobbies at the episode as well as the film Black Panther is how Ulysses Klaue is underused in both instances. While it's an understandable criticism, it's worth noting that both the film and the episode had to dedicate their runtimes to telling a compelling story and killing Klaue was integral to both stories. While the writer of this article acknowledges that fact, his attempts at trying to get around it come across as flimsy and superfluous.

"Had Klaue been kept as an outside agent-maybe for a sequel-that might've made sense..."

Not really. Klaue and Killmonger were supposed to be working together up until the latter's betrayal. Killmonger needed to bring Klaue to the Wakandan boarder as a corpse in a body bag to earn their trust. If he didn't do that, there'd be no rest of the movie.

The author also suggests having Klaue killing either Rhodes or T'Challa so that his death would be more palatable. Why? That wouldn't even change how the events play out. If anything, that would just take away more than it would gain because Klaue killing either Rhodes or T'Challa would've robbed the episode of important dialog between them and Killmonger.

The author also claims that Klaue has no villainous agency and he didn't even get to intimidating anyone. I guess Pepper's shock of Tony getting vibranium from him was unwarranted then. Jokes aside, this is just a meaningless gripe because in this reality Klaue is still an infamous arms dealer who steals vibranium and sells it on the black market. 

The author closes by saying killing Klaue again is "repetitive, lazy and ruins what [he] could've been as an ally in the shadows." Reusing familiar tropes and motifs in a different context is NOT lazy. It's a common an often affective form of storytelling, especially in a long running popular franchise like the MCU. Klaue dying in What If is like what happened in Black Panther, but here his death predates the events of Black Panther and he doesn't find out Killmonger was a Wakandan before he has a bullet in his head. The author failed to properly articulate his disappointment with the use of Klaue in this episode and instead resorts to whining about the creative decisions that were necessary for this story like a spoiled child. Just because you disagree with a writer's storytelling choices, that doesn't make them lazy. Like I always say: Your Opinion Is NOT Law -.-

Stop Saying That Pixar Films Aren't For Kids (Glass of Water) by Lily Orchid response

 Welcome back to Your Opinion Is NOT Law, where we call out people for false claims and nasty attitudes. Today's subject is Lily Orchid, who hasn't changed a bit since she uploaded that infamous video about Steven Universe. Her latest video about people thinking Pixar movies like Soul are more for grown ups than kids is yet another example of her nasty attitude towards people who disagree with her (as painfully evident by he disablingthe like/dislike button). Without further delay, let's dive into why Lily Orchid is STILL a terrible critic and an overall nasty person.

Insulting Her Audience

0:35 The title card features a blurb that calls the audience "thick" and "desperate to avoid the fact that [they're] getting older" and threatens to beat them with a stick. If this was her attempt at humor, she failed to read the room because that kind of edgy humor doesn't work on what's supposed to be a video essay explaining why Pixar movies are perfectly acceptable for kids. This kind of humor died out in the late 2010s when people started taking jokes like that personally and critics has to be more mindful of what they say. It also doesn't help that she insinuates that the people watching her video are stupid because they think Soul might be too mature for kids. She fails to recognize that the people watching her video are normal everyday people who think differently than she does. This video should not be a slam against their intelligence; it should be an eye opening think piece that offers a unique perspective.

Threatening Her Audience

2:11 She claims that every time "millennials" say a Pixar movie is too deep for kids, she unapologetically says she wants to strangle those people. Because in her sick twisted worldview, threatening to kill someone who disagrees with you is considered perfectly acceptable, or at the very least funny. News flash! Not everyone thinks Pixar movies are deep upon first viewing. I didn't even realize The Incredibles was about a man having a midlife crisis until after multiple viewings as I got older. No one should be chastised (let alone strangled) for not getting the theme of a movie. Even if this was meant to be a joke (and a very poor one at that), my point still stands.

Spreading Misinformation

9:51 She claims that Pixar's Ratatouille slandered the profession of critics and we're still feeling the ramifications to this day. Both of these statements are false and she's making Ratatouille out to be anti-critics when it really wasn't. To quote the actual movie, "Not everyone can be a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere." It wasn't saying don't be critical, it was reminding people not to hold such a gold standard for people. And to this day people still hold Pixar films to a ridiculously high standard, as evident by Onward being seen as "good, but not one of Pixar's best."

Insulting Pixar Character Designers

10:01 She then claims that the people designing the female characters in their films should be fired because they're "perverts" or at the very least be beaten with a stick by female coworkers. First of all, one of the images she uses is from Inner Workings which was made at Walt Disney Animation Stuidos, not Pixar. Secondly, a female character looking attractive isn't bad unless that's all they're good for in the grand scheme of things. Pixar goes above and beyond not just giving their female characters strong personalities, but also varying body types that suit their character. Helen Parr being a housewife and an athletic superheroine, Collette being a fierce chef in a restaurant, Laural Lightfoot being the mother of 2 grown boys and so on. There's no need for someone to loose their job or be beaten with a stick because Pixar's female characters are very diverse in terms of design and personality.

Conclusion

She wraps the video by telling the people who think Pixar movies (particularly Soul) as not really for kids to "shut the [fork] up." Yep, one last slap to the face for people who should've left the video with a newfound appreciation for Pixar movies. This video is the living embodiment of wasted potential. There were some genuinely good points about how deep 22's character arc is and who her mentors were the problem, not her. And yet all those good points are rendered null and void because of Lily Orchid's nasty condescending attitude to people who don't agree with her. To Lily Orchid, if you made it this far, allow me to be blunt. You are just as bad of a critic as Armond White. Even if you have a good point, it's buried under your horrendous attitude and bitterness towards anyone who disagrees with you. I have no patience to sit through your 2 and 1/2 hour long video of you insulting and belittling the people who make or are fans of Steven Universe, but as evident from this video, it's clear you haven't changed. I hope you NEVER get the change to make your own cartoon, because then you'll end up exactly like John Kricfalusi: a stubborn, condescending bully who doesn't play well with others and refuses to accept when she's wrong. Like I always say: Your Opinion Is NOT Law -.-