[critical] VICE VERSA

P‘s questions, by promising trailers, the new Pixar was obviously very expected… And the show is at the rendezvous ! But not as much as we had hoped…

As is usual with Pixar, the technique is at the top. Quality Textures, details by the millions… It’s beautiful, and very well done – but in the competition also, Disney including; the technique is no longer a major component of the quality of a feature-length animated film…

It is, therefore, to the emotion or the richness of a universe that the viewer of 2015 must, therefore, seek the difference. If Pixar brought together at the end/beginning of the century, ALL of these aspects in each of its films, the studio had not really been seen since the huge Toy Story 3 ; Monsters Academy resembled too much to a genre (the college-movie) to reach back to the foreground the rich universe of monsters, and the lovable Rebel, if he tutoyait the stamp characters “strong – emotion” being the trademark of the studio, lacked also one of the worlds iconic (the Scotland of fairy tales, too generic, etc.).

As for Cars 2, he took openly his status as a toy-seller in exchanging the pretty nostalgia of the first volume for an action movie in exotic and décérébré, without interest.

VICE-VERSA, though it remains largely above the average (all studios combined), operates, however, a certain back compared to the other Pixar, in emotional terms.

As in Up There, the character of Riley, age 11, is installed by his experience. A history made up of small moments that are beautiful and magical (memories with parents, or friends) supposed him to compose a singular personality. But this pretty emotional base will disappear very quickly as soon as it will follow the protagonists and not their story. Because unfortunately, VICE-VERSA is facing a problem of size : even the concept of anthropomorphisation of the emotions involves a HUGE and paradoxical characterization of the characters ! Joy is only joy, Sadness, only sadness, etc, Their interactions are summarized as a binary opposition of sentiments, a few gags, burlesque, or in dialogues utilities – engines scriptwriting or vectors of humor…

Result : the empathy towards them is almost non-existent, because they lack these nuances, the psychology, of this complexity to allow for the identification; and without empathy, it is difficult to place stakes viable – without issues, a little suspense… And therefore of little interest for the fate of these characters.

More problematic : at the end of one hour and thirty minutes of film, we realize a certain counter-sense story which is reflected in the moral of the film: what makes up a personality, it is the mixture of emotions… Except that the image of this morality (all in all, very pretty), the film is just a sum with no personality of various qualities, to which there is a lack of real binding emotional.

The emotion is not built as in the report-to-the-other between characters are fleshed out (history, psychology)… But rather in the interaction of the characters generic with a rich and inventive.

“It would have been impossible to give a best treatment to this synopsis, from the outset, wobbly…”

So let’s talk a little bit of this universe, since it is the main asset of VICE-VERSA. Its installation is exemplary, although also very binary: the inner world of Riley is the perfect counter-point to the reality; a San Francisco for a time quite distant shots of the city and jovial, open and welcoming. Dirty, dehumanized, SF 2015 is a city, town or the individual does not seem to be able to evolve differently than in the solitude… It is thus that the multiplication of personalities in the psyche of each individual takes on a particular meaning, almost tragic: hell, this is the real world, the imagination is the only solution… the Same for the imaging of both worlds, grey and dark to the town, a complete contrast to the colorful world of Riley.

This world is constructed so that logical enough : it is put into the image by the excessive visual all of the data pragmatic inherent to a concept (here: a personality made up of emotions). A factory of dreams is a faux-hollywood, the subconscious mind is a prison phobias; oblivion, an abyss without bottom… Each of the very many concept abstract is a concrete representation, credible, and especially registering with consistency in a universe very, VERY rich.

There, we finally found the great evocative power of the very first Pixar, when it was not yet to develop franchises. It is so much fun to evolve with the characters in this universe, which is full of surprises that are impossible to translate. We relativisera, however, our pleasure in stating that this concept is relatively easy to transcribe through the image, and that it is more of an extrapolation that is imagination.

In short, the pace of The film does not suffer from any dead time; The universe in which the character is rich, colorful, lively, and imaginative… even so, VICE-VERSA is never stimulating or subtle on the emotional level, because of the characters clearly lacking… personality. Clichés and poorly developed, they are unable in principle to offer this powerful emotion typical of the studio. If VICE-VERSA is still managed, you can’t help to say that it would have been even more awesome if the empathy and nuance were more present… And at the time it seemed impossible to give a better visual treatment to this synopsis wobbly.

@georgeslechameau

The other outputs of the June 17, 2015

VICE-VERSA, MUSTANG, CAVANNA, SPY, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, The great ESCAPE, VALLEY OF LOVE, THE RESISTANCE OF The AIR, THE BATTLE OF THE MOUNTAIN OF the TIGER, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, etc