The Humor of Recent Pixar Films

It can be argued that the quality of Pixar films has fluctuated a great deal after the release of their first ten projects. While some point to Toy Story 3 as a turning point, I personally consider Up as a crossroads in the Pixar portfolio. Recent strong releases such as Inside Out and Coco balance out the weaker films such as Cars 2, an enjoyable film which was not met with strong audience favor. However, with the last five films, an interesting trend may be appearing: are the more recent Pixar films less funny than their predecessors? Is Incredibles 2 another link in a chain of movies that, while popular, have lost a level of sardonic, intelligent wit that marked earlier projects? Defining what humor is may be a difficult enough job, but trying to sift through the elements which combine to make a film work may be even harder. At Pixar the maxim “story is king” has been a longtime goal and such focus has borne storylines that both entertain and amuse. Now, I’m not implying that the last five films (The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Cars 3, Coco, and Incredibles 2) have been devoid of humor. However, the amount of humor isn’t as strong, and of these films, The Good Dinosaur is only one of these I have not seen in theaters, the latter three on opening weekend. From what I can recall, there wasn’t as much laughter during the course of these films as during some of Pixar’s earlier films. I first noticed this trend when I saw The Good Dinosaur, my least favorite Pixar film and the only one that I currently do not own on DVD. While I was watching it, there was one surprising thing I noticed - I wasn’t laughing. I call recall only one time my family and I laughed. Pixar’s 2016 offering, Finding Dory has its moments but is not nearly as funny as its predecessor. 2017 was a great year for Pixar, and movies in general, with two excellent releases. I personally think Cars 3 is Pixar’s most underrated film. Surprisingly inspirational and mature, it may actually be better than the original Cars, simply because the story is original and not derivative of Doc Hollywood (1991). However, I don’t think it was as funny as the previous Cars films. It felt more mature not only because of subject matter and themes, but the lack of humor added to this tone. The same is true for Coco, a wonderful film that doesn’t need to rely on a lot of humor to tell a great story. Both these films certainly have their amusing moments, but that’s not the element that stays with the viewer when leaving the theater. I remember leaving the theater after seeing Ratatouille and Up and quoting funny lines for months afterward. Ultimately for the 2017 films, less humor doesn’t hurt them at all. In a way, it proves that Pixar does not need to rely on jokes to keep the audience engaged. The disappointing Incredibles 2 offers some hilarious moments, especially with Jack-Jack. But the humor (along with the film in general) fails to live up to the genuine hilarity of the original. The theater audience where I viewed it (which was a packed theater) did not laugh as long or as hard as you might expect from a Pixar product, especially a sequel to one of their funniest films. It will be interesting to see if this trend will continue with Toy Story 4 and beyond. However, as long as Pixar makes good films, that’s all that matters. They should be known for that more than simply their ability to create laughs.