Are you getting tired of Disney/Pixar movies being overly sentimental?

[trickybus]

Nope, pretty sure you're just getting older and you've seen a fair number of movies compared to when you were a kid. Every Pixar movie is like this, most animated children's films have an emotional core beyond some kind of adventure or spectacle, because you want kids to learn something.

Closest I can think of that didn't was A Bug's Life, but every Toy Story is a sentimental story about growing up, Monsters Inc. has John Goodman saying goodbye to his unexpected child, the opening of Finding Nemo, all of it.

Yeah, WALL-E was super critical about late-stage capitalism and very sentimental but that was its strength. Up is the same way but with a more grounded though no less sentimental story. They're both fantastic films that combine emotions with grand adventures and changing those aspects of them would intrinsically change the films.

I will argue that Disney has more examples of movies that are more adventure than sentiment—Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan come to mind—but they aren't completely bereft of emotional notes; it's just not the focus. I have noticed that there's more grumbling online about the lack of "classical" Disney villains in the wake of all those remakes where they try to make previously irredeemable villains sympathetic. I have to wonder if that's what's fueling the dissent regarding excessive sentimentality online.

I personally dislike the trend of reimagining villains as misunderstood anti-heroes. Yes, a villain can behave poorly because of traumatic circumstances that force the adaption of maladaptive practices but sometimes an asshole is just an asshole.

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

Do you feel like recent movies are entirely set up around the moral of the story, trying too hard to pull the heartstrings of adults or to get an message across?

• Wreck it Ralph 2 is about insecurity after having a friend going absent for chasing their own interests
• Encanto is a musical about members of a dysfunctional family
• Raya and the Last Dragon teases having a world building at first but then every problem in the world gets solved by a single act of naive generosity
• Inside Out 2 and Soul gets their points across pretty well regarding anxiety and obsession with success respectively, but they feel too self-contained around that
• Toy Story 4 is the less offending of this list since it has more going for, but it still leans heavily on the theme of breaking free of existential dread after losing relevance
• Cars 3 is about dealing with retirement and life limitations
• Elemental is so blatant about the parallels with our society that the elemental aspect feels secondary. Seriously, the most remarkable comment I can make about that movie is that I want to fuck a fire now
• I don't even remember what Frozen 2 was about

As a sentimental person myself I can't say I wasn't a sucker for some of this stuff, but it's starting to wear down on me. It's not that previous movies didn't had a sentimental message to them, but I'm beginning to miss old school villains, high-stakes and and plain silliness. Like, stories that are a little more grounded on their other elements rather than just the moral of the story.

I was gonna weigh in and debate, but considering I haven't seen any of those movies you mentioned, maybe I'm tired of Disney/Pixar by default and didn't realize