h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Ultimate Pixar Animated Film Guide: 2005-2009 - A87867715
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

Part III in a look at Pixar.

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Another clear guide, BB.

I could give you the code for putting borders on the table so that it looks good in Pliny, but I'm hoping that the techs will get around to reading my e-mail and implementing the 30-second fix that would make such code unnecessary.

Pixar III

Edwin Cattmull --> Edwin Catmull (only one T)

learns that that local judge -- remove the extra 'that'

Is 'race car' the correct term in America? In Britain it is always 'racing car'.

Why are some of the names in the character list in bold and others not?

Lizzie, A model T Ford -- lowercase a

In the Sequels section you have 12. Cars 2

What's the 12 for?

finds Gusteau's restaurant, which has just hired a new garbage boy named Linguini, is struggling.

-- this is slightly confusing because "finds Gusteau's restaurant" is complete, so when we later get to "is struggling" we don't know what it refers to. This could be improved by adding "that":

finds that Gusteau's restaurant, which has just hired a new garbage boy named Linguini, is struggling.

- this keeps the first phrase open all through the "which has..." phrase, so we're waiting for the 'is struggling'.

Ratzanberger --> Ratzenberger

the only animated films set in that country had been The AristoCats -->
the only animated film set in that country had been The AristoCats

out grossed --> outgrossed

has been long-abandoned --> has been long abandoned

" A probe named EVE arrives from a starliner, with whom WALL·E develops feelings, only for it to apparently deactivate after WALL·E shows her a plant."

-- you'll have to reword this. You can't really say "WALL·E develops feelings with EVE" and it's not clear what "it deactivates" refers to.

Louiguy and Marguerite Monnot & Édith Piaf --> Louiguy, Marguerite Monnot and Édith Piaf

(Louiguy was not Louiguy Monnot; this was a working name like Sting or Madonna, not a first name)

"to be the same shape as the balloons, as like the balloons he lifts Carl's spirits and sets him free. " -- doesn't quite flow right because "as like the balloons" suggests you are going to say "as like the balloons as a ..". I suggest you split it:

"to be the same shape as the balloons. Like the balloons, he lifts Carl's spirits and sets him free. "

A text-speaking programme -- it is normal to use the spelling 'program' for computer programs.

Thanks for the thorough read-through – I'm happy to accept most corrections and will only comment on anything that needs more than a tweak.

I'm hoping that table borders will be corrected soon too – you might've noticed that I use tables a fair bit, and I'm not the only one. Let me know if you get a reply.

Lightning McQueen always refers to himself as being a 'race car' but I'll change it to 'racing car'.

Why are some of the names in the character list in bold and others not?
Explanation added – essentially characters in bold recur in other films released to date.

In the Sequels section you have 12. Cars 2. What's the 12 for?
It was the 12th film made by Pixar. I've added that in the text so hopefully it is explained.

I'm enjoying writing about the Pixar films and think the entries work out quite well; there aren't too many films in each 5-year period so the length is about right.

You never did say which the few Pixar films you didn't like were.

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Well, I haven't seen Cars, Cars 2, or The Good Dinosaur.

OK, the ones I didn't like:

A Bug's Life
Ratatouille (it relied too much on the tension of wondering when the rat was going to be exposed)
Brave - ok but rather tedious
Monster University - rubbish. The only good bit in it was the race where they had to avoid being hit by the balls which caused them to swell up.

The others were all great films - among my favourite films of all time.

I can't say any of those are in my top ten either - 'Cars' and 'Cars 2' are probably below average and 'The Good Dinosaur' I found disappointing too.

But as you said, the others are classics so on the whole their aim of making quality films has, to date, been obtained.

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Another interesting read

I'm pleased by the WEDway PeopleMover cameo - that was my favourite ride in 1991, which they presumably restored in 2008, as I discovered it was turned into something else in 1993.

Ratatouille got the record for most nominations (5) for an animated film but then we read that Beauty and the Beast was nominated for 6 in 1991...

Is a Wilderness Explorer a well-known scout-like troupe, or is it invented for this film?

Thanks for the read through

I've clarified that 'Ratatouille' had the record for most nominations (5) for a computer animated film ('Beauty and the Beast' counts as a traditionally animated film, even though computers were used a little) and added a footnote to say that Wilderness Explorers were invented for this film.

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Reading this one again:

You mention Steve Jobs, but it is not clear what relevance he has here.

"their second film" - "their next film"

"•The Pizza Planet truck appear on the bridge over the Seine" - "•The Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story appears on the bridge over the Seine"

"Ratatoille was first proposed back in 2001 by Jan Pinkava. Pinkava had been born in Prague, raised in England where he had gained a PhD in theoretical robotics and, after directing computer-generated adverts in a firm based in London, applied to Pixar where he wrote and directed the Oscar-winning short film Geri's Game. Although he wrote the script and designed sets for Ratatouille, in 2005 Brad Bird rewrote the script and took over directing. This was the third animated film set in France that a Disney-owned animation studio had made since their building Euro Disney, following Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Before the near-completion of Euro Disney, the only animated film set in that country had been The AristoCats (1970)."

Here's another paragraph dense with information. What does it mean "near-completion"? Suggested tweaks:

"Ratatouille was first proposed back in 2001 by Jan Pinkava. Pinkava had been born in Prague and raised in England where he had gained a PhD in theoretical robotics. After directing computer-generated adverts in a firm based in London, he applied to Pixar where he wrote and directed the Oscar-winning short film Geri's Game. Although he wrote the script and designed sets for Ratatouille, in 2005 Brad Bird rewrote the script and took over directing. This was the third animated film set in France that a Disney-owned animation studio had made since the Euro Disney theme park was built, following Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Before Euro Disney, the only animated film set in that country had been The AristoCats (1970)."

In the five Oscars paragraph, you could just say "a record at the time for a computer animated film" and you might like to note that it did win one out of the five.

Tweaked.

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