Why I hate Pixar

So Pixar will tell you that their success is in part due to their use of the Joseph Campbell hero’s journey that is the ages old formula that mankind has infused in all story and legend from the dawn of time.
​
Campbell’s whole theory is that there are certain universal truths that ring true emotionally with the human psyche regardless of all other factors. And that is why similar themes and motifs arise in all mythology regardless of the disparate cultures they arise from independently. He compares this explanation explicitly to other cultural diffusion theories that say the stories are all originate from a single source and then we’re carried and passed down as humans migrated across the globe.

Well Pixar turns this formula on it’s head. Instead of crafting a story that resonates with the soul for humanity, they attempt to reverse engineer the effect by manipulating their audience into an emotional reaction as then cramming whatever story they want to tell in with it.

That is why every Pixar movie attempts to make the audience cry I. The first 5 minutes. They rip your heart out so they can cram whatever agenda they want down your throat and it pairs that agenda with the deep emotional experience. It’s classical conditioning,, not human resonance.