Is this the best Pixar movie?

Every summer I ask myself this question, and I'm growing tired of it.

Pixar knows how to make a good movie and their latest offering, Up, is funnier than Toy Story, as thrilling as the The Incredibles, and more heartbreaking than Finding Nemo.

I absolutely adored this movie, but while watching these charming characters trek through breathtaking South American vistas, I came to a somewhat sad realization... Much like Up's hero Carl, the Pixar formula for making a good movie is starting to grow old.

This is not to say that Up is a predictable, paint-by-number movie. The characters are far from formulaic: here we have a 78 year-old man as the action hero and a egg-shaped Asian-American boyscout as his sidekick. Pixar riffs on the tired old talking-animal cliche by including Dug, a hilariously realistic dog whose thoughts are translated to English through a nifty electro-collar. Did I mention the 10-foot bird? Mix a Toucan with an Ostrich and you'll have a pretty good idea of what Kevin looks like. Like all the other Pixar movies, the characters in Up are so fun and interesting that they could carry just about any story and they do so with ease.

The action set pieces are breathtaking, the gags are genuinely funny, and the tenderness is real.
Up is a culmination of all things good about Pixar movies executed with a honed precision developed over the last decade with their stable of critically acclaimed hits.

I believe that this is Pixar's best movie, and with that being said, I hope it's the last of it's kind.

How many more movies can Pixar make about a misunderstood, unappreciated hero? How many more dimwitted but endearing sidekicks can they dream up? Part of what made Pixar's first feature-length movie, Toy Story, so good was that it was totally different from what Disney was doing at the time. Sure the flashy computer animation sucked you in, but it was the characters, humor, and overall flavor that really set it apart. Now, I'm afraid that Pixar movies are becoming too much like, well...Pixar movies.

I'm hoping that in the future, Pixar trail-blazes into undiscovered territories, like the characters in Up.

Of course this will have to be after Toy Story 3 and Cars 2.

:(

Note to reader: This is a review of the dvd of the 1986 animated film, not the manga or animated tv series.

The movie:
I first saw this movie in the early 90's when I was a little kid and, up until watching this particular film, all I knew of animation was what I was getting from Disney and Saturday morning cartoons. Kids stuff. Fist of the North Star was an awaking. You might even say it was a rude awakening, or even a bloody awakening. I didn't know that they made cartoons with cursing and gore and violence. But these so called "adult" elements only made me want to continue watching it even more. I thought the movie was awesome from the start.
This movie is ridiculous. And I mean that in the best possible way. It's action entertainment at its best. This film even claims, at least on the cover, to be "the most violent, action packed animated film of all time". I don't know if this claim is entirely true but the movie is pretty damn violent. It has a lot of obscenely muscular dudes beating the crap out of bad guys with only their fists, causing the heads, chests, and limbs of said bad guys to explode in an orgy of blood, guts and bone. Its even got men stabbing people not with knives or swords, but with their fingers. That's right, with their fingers. This kind of stuff appeals to my id.
Another way of describing The Fist of the North Star is that it falls under the category of being so bad it's good. I like this category, personally. It's got bad voice acting, bad dialogue, bad drawings, very limited animation in some (most) parts, and it's very 80's. The 80's, as some of you might know, is now regarded as a sort of social stigma from which many are trying to ignore and forget. I don't have that obligation because I didn't grow up in the 80's.
I don't feel it really necessary to go into specifics about the plot because I don't really remember this movie for its story. Just know that it touches on many themes and plot devices that we're all familiar with: "good vs. evil", "love", "betrayal", "lust for power", and "the children are our future". Nothing new under the sun. Although, I will mention this, this film does have somewhat of an atypical and surprising ending which possesses a bit of an emotional punch for me. It's very touching in a way.
So if you like exaggerated, unrealistic, obscene, bloody violence, if you love the ridiculous, if you adore crap, good crap, check out Fist of the North Star. In stores on dvd, finally, now!

The dvd/ blu-ray:
This won't take long to write about because there really isn't a lot to write about in regards to special features. It's got character profiles, image gallery, and some trailers. That's it. Nothing really intriguing to me personally, but I didn't buy the dvd for the special features.
The image quality looked surprisingly good for a 23 year old animated film that probably, at least in the western part of the world, not a lot of people know or care about. I wonder how many final prints of the film survived the last nearly three decades? I didn't notice any signs of age, there's no dust or scratches to be found. The audio itself sounds a little dated but that's because it is dated. Overall, though, a solid and pleasing aesthetic experience.

I've seen Star Trek twice now, once in a "regular" theater and once in an IMAX theater. The particular IMAX theater that I watched the movie in had recently been equipped with a new digital projector, the old one was a 70mm projector. Three things really bothered me about this transition. The image on the digital was smaller, blurrier, and had the rainbow that DLP projectors are notorious for. This made for a mediocre movie going experience, though I doubt many will notice. My sentiments were only reinforced by a recent /film article in which quotes the IMAX group as saying that 2% of ticket buyers would even notice the difference. True or not, IMAX digital isn't quite up to snuff, I've seen it myself. But for those who haven't check out this comparison pic also posted on /film. The little one is the digital format and the large one is the 70mm.

Nothing beats the size, color, and clarity of the old 70mm. What does IMAX intend to do about the growing number of people that notice this glaring discontinuity. AMC is upgrading to 2k soon so they'd better hurry.