My love for Pixar.

Pixar is the love of my life. It is the joy of the radiant sun that shines in the morning. It is the melodic laughter of a child. It is the combination of everything that is beautiful and adorable.

(Okay, creepy introduction paragraph over. I really seem to have a fondness for anaphora. Maybe because my name's in the term.)

I have an inexplicable, almost bizarre, love for Pixar. I've seen all of the major films and most of the shorts. I watch them consistently. I quote them at random. I annoy my friends about them.

For some reason, some people consider Pixar to be almost exclusively for children. I can't understand why. I grew up with Pixar and as they continue to release brilliant films, I don't find myself outgrowing them at all. They still make me as happy as I was when I watched them as a kid. Whereas my perspective has changed on some of the Disney films (I adore Peter Pan, but the constant references to killing in it is crazy!), my perspective on Pixar films hasn't. On the contrary, the things I discover in Pixar as a teenager make me love it even more than when I was a child. Some of the quotes I didn't recognize or understand as a child are my favorites now.

Finding Nemo: (conversation between two sharks when Marlin and Dory arrive)
Chum: Humans-think they own everything.
Anchor: Probably American.

Both of those quotes I wouldn't imagine understanding as a child, but I love them now. What hasn't changed, though, is how happy they make me. With Pixar films, when you watch the films, you get into their world and you become friends with the characters. They leave you happy and enchanted, thinking "well hey, life's not so bad. Actually, it's pretty fantastic!"

Finding Nemo is my favorite, closely followed by Ratatouille. Personal story time: when I was in 5th grade, my mom came down with a life-threatening chronic illness. It was a scary time, but I would watch Finding Nemo on my bed multiple times per week. It always made me feel better, no matter how bad things were going. Watching that movie and "Beyond the Sea" playing in the credits at the end, to me, solved everything. If Nemo and Marlin could overcome so many terrible things, why couldn't I? So yeah, there's a little sweet story for you.

The Pixar shorts are also adorable. They're like condensed versions of Pixar films, but are just as likeable. The fact that Pixar can tell as great of a story in 5 minutes as they can in 2 hours is true skill. Here's my favorite:

Moral of the story: Pixar is amazing. It works for all ages. It has great stories for little kids, and it has an added layer of depth and beauty for adults. It's perfect.