View User: mjb1124

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Pixar Animation Studios - Random Topics
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but Pixar has been worrying me lately with their dependence on sequels. I mean, Toy Story 3 was a great film, and what should be a perfect ending to the trilogy. But now Tom Hanks is saying that they're working on a fourth movie, which just seems like overkill. This after they dropped Cars 2, an inferior sequel to what was already their worst-received film. And they've got a sequel to Monsters Inc. lined up, and possibly even )heaven forbid) Cars 3! It's really starting to look like Pixar is more concerned with money than with making quality films. It's spreading to Disney's main animation unit (which Pixar's John Lassetter runs) as well, with the new Winnie the Pooh film also seemingly made with money in mind (and I love the old Pooh shorts). I know the film industry is a business and money needs to be made, but why compromise the high reputation that Pixar worked so hard to create? At least the next movie slated to come out (Brave) is an original, so hopefully that will make me feel better about their outlook. -- Submitted By: (mjb1124) on June 29, 2011, 1:01 pm

Google - Websites
When you started seeing ads as the top results for the search. Also, it seems that around the same time, Google started going overboard with "Are you sure you didn't mean ___?" questions. -- Submitted By: (mjb1124) on July 22, 2010, 6:46 am

Sesame Street - TV Shows
It's hard to say exactly when this show boned - perhaps sometime in the early to mid-90's. But I'd say that the show experienced a slow, gradual decline between 1985 and 1998. Things started changing for the worse when the show started caving into PC sensibilities, with the first notable example being the decision to make Snuffy visible to everyone in 1985. Next, at the end of the 80's, the show lost two of its guiding forces: Muppet master Jim Henson and composer/songwriter Joe Raposo. Then in the early 90's, they started adding newer, more childish characters like Baby Bear, Zoe, and Rosita. They changed the theme song for the first time ever (not counting the pilots) in 1992, and added the "Around The Corner" neighborhood the following year. Maybe the bone coincided with veteran director Jon Stone's retirement in 1994, since it was around this time that classic segments started rapidly disappearing, to be replaced with new segments that style over substance. Of course, the final straw came in 1998, when they started devoting 15 minutes of the show to the obnoxious inanity known as Elmo's World. This segment still prevails to this day, and the rest of the show has continued down the same path towards overt childishness and style over substance. The current show still has some occasional shining moments (mostly pop culture parodies and/or segments featuring classic Muppet characters), but they are surrounded by way too much obnoxious fluff. -- Submitted By: (mjb1124) on May 18, 2010, 10:14 pm