I think 'Up' was the one that irritated me the most, though. For instance, the whole 'Toy Story' series is basically about abandonment. But with Pixar they really like to crank up the tear factor. All you have to say are the words 'Littlefoot's mother' and I know grown men who will start openly weeping. Let me explain a little about what I mean by 'preachy and manipulative.' In a Pixar movie, they always seem to have to go out of their way to make it sad. Perhaps the fact that many Pixar fans found it to be weak-sauce should have been foretelling in what wound up happening, which was that I actually enjoyed 'Brave.' It's possible that the fact that it lacked that classic Pixar manipulation and preachy nature, the reason I enjoyed it, was the reason everyone else said it was a weaker entry in their body of work. And based on the facts that not only was 'Brave' a Pixar film, which I generally find pretentious, the reaction to it had been lukewarm, and also that I was also able to correctly guess the plot nearly point for point after an employee at Blockbuster merely told me the setup, can you blame me for not really wanting to give it the hour and a half it asked of me? When you see enough films I guess that's an inevitable side effect. Over the years I've proven to myself that I have a pretty good sense of prediction for what a movie is going to be like, and whether or not I will like it. I'll just go ahead and try my best to not assume anything about any movie from now on. I'm going to make a new rule for myself right now, and hopefully it will take.

Brave 2012 merida and elinor