UP

[Nordling]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40812

[papalazeru]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40812

Nice eloquent review Nord. I wasn't sure about UP because it looked a little childish but now you've sold it to me.

[Seppuku]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40812

Meh, I think your earlier review "Magnificent film" said it way better and with far less padding. But that wasn't bad as far as rehashes go.

I still think that ET piece was the best thing you've ever written for this site, but that was a good read! Thanks. And not one Stephen Hawking comparison? Talk about restraint.

[Maui]

New Toy Story 3 character revealed in UP.

Watch the teaser in the link above. It's either the Teddy Bear or a pair of talking slippers.

[Fried Gold]

This is the first Pixar film since Cars that I'm not really too enthusiastic about seeing.

[RogueScribner]

Yeah, the trailer left me pretty cold. I'll be skipping this one.

Oh, and based upon some recommendations here in the Zone, I gave Ratatouille a gander. I stopped watching after 35 - 40 minutes. It was just boring.

[Peven]

if you really thought "Ratatouille" was boring then SR should have put you in a coma........

saw an AFLAC commercial tonight that had some clips of "UP" in it, apparently from flashback scenes to when the old guy was young, with his wife, and just from those clips my anticipation rose as i think i can see where they were going with it and i think it will give the movie some real depth...to those who are open to it. i guess i can understand that the animation may not be blowing people way the same as they are used to with Pixar flicks, because it appears to be more...traditional in its look, a lot of primary colors, for instance, and it doesn't look as detailed or textured, but i think that is the style for a reason here and i think it will work...but i confess i am very optimistic when it comes to Pixar movies as they have only let me down once, with "Cars" and that movie never looked that great to me from the very first image i saw, could see its mediocrity coming a mile away, while "UP" has had me hooked from the first teaser.

[RogueScribner]

Well, let's see. By the 35 - 40 minute mark in Superman Returns we saw Superman crash back down to Earth after a long absence, we were introduced to Lex Luthor, we got a glimpse of how much the world has changed since Superman left, a flashback showing us the first serious manifestations of his powers, Luthor invading the Fortress, Clark Kent's return to the Daily Planet and "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman", finding out Lois has moved on, and Luthor testing the Kryptonian crystal technology which causes a major incident which inspires Superman to make his first appearance in 5 years and save the day.

In the first 35 - 40 minutes of Ratatouille, some rats dug around in some garbage, a dishwasher got hired at a fancy restaurant, and then they make soup. Yeah, that's exciting. Maybe if the movie were funnier the lack of story movement wouldn't have mattered so much, but I think I smiled twice and chuckled once during that entire time which means I was largely bored.

[Peven]

Luthor "invading the fortress"? uh, he just kind of walked in.....you been taking a course how to write in yellow journalism style? i mean, nobody was home....how exciting is that...well, more exciting than most of the rest of the movie, sure.....

and you conveniently omitted the big scene at the start of "Ratatouille" where they bring down the house with the old lady shooting and trying to kill them all...pretty active scene.....


.....maybe if the rat had grimaced more to summon his super strength it would have been more interesting for you...

[Ribbons]

Alright, can we manage to NOT make another thread into how much Peven hated Superman Returns? Jesus Christ.

But yes, the Granny With A Shotgun scene in Ratatouille was pretty awesome.

[Maui]

I must admit, sometimes I get a little weary of the talking toys, talking bugs, talking cars however, Pixar is the one of the best animation houses out there and they too, can sometimes slip when it comes to a good story line. I definitely have my favourites (Ratatouille/Toy Story/The Incredibles) and least favourite (Cars).

Some of you may remember Geri's Game. It was an award winning Pixar short which featured an elderly man playing chess with himself. One thing that Pixar does extremely well is old people and I'm kinda excited about the teaming of a grumpy old man and a young boy. So many possibilities there for them to learn from each other.

[Peven]

Alright, can we manage to NOT make another thread into how much Peven hated Superman Returns? Jesus Christ.

oh come on, where is your sense of.....give me a second here...........uh, sense of......patience?

[Leckomaniac]

Alright, can we manage to NOT make another thread into how much Peven hated Superman Returns? Jesus Christ.

I thought it was ZZS that hated Superman for being Jesus Christ, not Peven?

...right?

[Al Shut]

I thought he hated Jesus for beeing superman


anyway

I'm kinda excited about the teaming of a grumpy old man and a young boy.

Sounds like it has the potential for a lot of fun

So many possibilities there for them to learn from each other.

Ugh

[Peven]

Alright, can we manage to NOT make another thread into how much Peven hated Superman Returns? Jesus Christ.

I thought it was ZZS that hated Superman for being Jesus Christ, not Peven?

...right?

yes, you are correct, Lecko, i have never hated Superman or SR...just not a huge fan


and back on topic, i think this movie is going to surprise some people with its depth...call it a hunch....

[Maui]

So many possibilities there for them to learn from each other.

Ugh

Yeah, yeah I know. But this is a G rated movie primarily intended for the kiddies and the parents and 9 times out of 10 there is some obvious and meaningful message thrown at us from every direction.

[CeeBeeUK]

How come Pixar/Disney are back to screwing the UK?

We usually had a six month delay that meant I could by the US DVD before the films came out over here, but with Wall-E they relented and only gave us a 4 week delay.

Up? It comes out here in October? Do they have to spread out the premiers so that the stars can... walk the... red carp... et? Wait. This makes no sense!

[Fried Gold]

How come Pixar/Disney are back to screwing the UK?

We usually had a six month delay that meant I could by the US DVD before the films came out over here, but with Wall-E they relented and only gave us a 4 week delay.

Up? It comes out here in October? Do they have to spread out the premiers so that the stars can... walk the... red carp... et? Wait. This makes no sense!

It's stupid.

Disney go to all the hassle of making bespoke "Knock-off Nigel" adverts about piracy, when really all they'd need to do is shorten the release delay.

[Fried Gold]

Some of you may remember Geri's Game. It was an award winning Pixar short which featured an elderly man playing chess with himself. One thing that Pixar does extremely well is old people and I'm kinda excited about the teaming of a grumpy old man and a young boy. So many possibilities there for them to learn from each other.

Jan Pinkava, the guy who made Geri's Game, was originally making Ratatouille before he was replaced by Brad Bird.

[Maui]

Some of you may remember Geri's Game. It was an award winning Pixar short which featured an elderly man playing chess with himself. One thing that Pixar does extremely well is old people and I'm kinda excited about the teaming of a grumpy old man and a young boy. So many possibilities there for them to learn from each other.

Jan Pinkava, the guy who made Geri's Game, was originally making Ratatouille before he was replaced by Brad Bird.

Interesting, thx for the 411 FG.

Of course I had to followup up on this.

[Peven]

25-0 Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes with glowing reviews.....

[Maui]

25-0 Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes with glowing reviews.....

Yup, I've read nothing but great reviews for this so far. I'll be seeing it in 3D on Friday.

[RogueScribner]

There's some negative reviews trickling in.

[Maui]

There's some negative reviews trickling in.

The feedback section on the 1st review is rather interesting too.

[Fievel]

reviews

This reviewer:

Joe was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times before he became a theater and movie critic for the New York Herald Tribune in 1959. He moved to Newsweek as movie critic in 1965 and was a columnist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner from 1983 to 1988. He has written television scripts, including "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble"

So he's living his golden years with the guilt of writing one of the cheesiest films known in Travolta's history.
Yeah....

[Fried Gold]

The BBC report on the Cannes screening seemed to suggest it was liked by all.

From what I've seen so far it appears to bear a resemblance to that claymation "Adventures of Mark Twain" from the early 80s.

[Ribbons]

Yeah, UP looks pretty good so far.

Man, I saw some footage in a commercial last night with the main character and his wife when they were young that made me

[Seppuku]

TFrom what I've seen so far it appears to bear a resemblance to that claymation "Adventures of Mark Twain" from the early 80s.

You mean it contains one of the bleakest and creepiest scenes in movie history? I love it when kids movies blindside children with scenes like that (something Pixar probably do at least once with every film, although not that extreme).

[Fried Gold]

TFrom what I've seen so far it appears to bear a resemblance to that claymation "Adventures of Mark Twain" from the early 80s.

You mean it contains one of the bleakest and creepiest scenes in movie history? I love it when kids movies blindside children with scenes like that (something Pixar probably do at least once with every film, although not that extreme).

I can't get it play for some reason, but I assume it's The Mysterious Stranger bit....and yeah, it's creepy stuff.

I don't think Pixar will got quite that far.

[Seppuku]

Yeah, it's the Mysterious Stranger scene. Heh, I actually got told off by my aunt for playing that movie to my nephew and niece when I babysat them once. It's not like they grew up to be Satanists or anything- although one of them moved to France, so maybe I am partly responsible for leading them astray.

[BuckyO'harre]

Yeah, it's the Mysterious Stranger scene. Heh, I actually got told off by my aunt for playing that movie to my nephew and niece when I babysat them once. It's not like they grew up to be Satanists or anything- although one of them moved to France, so maybe I am partly responsible for leading them astray.

Even worse.

I mean, who the hell do Satanists really bother?
The occasional goat?


Frakkin' toads er,um... frogs.






[/typical american anti-french piffle]

[DerLanghaarige]

Vern's Review

Welcome to another episode of Vern’s Soft Side. In this episode, Vern cries at a fuckin cartoon.

Okay, short version first: just go see the fuckin thing. This review is gonna have spoilers in the sense that I’m gonna talk it up, you’re gonna go in expecting this or that based on what I said, it’s gonna get to your analytical mind and might fuck everything up. So don’t read this. Also disregard what I said above about crying, I would never cry, come on man let’s be serious here.

UP is the latest Pixar and somehow tops everything they’ve done before. For all the mediocrity and horribleness going on in our world today, we are lucky to live in the golden age of Pixar. Who knows how long their streak could last, but watching their movies now feels like watching PINOCCHIO and BAMBI and all those coming from the same group of people in a row. It’s just incredible, nobody else can match what they’re doing.

mp_upThere’s this cliche about movies like SHREK and all the different comedy cartoons that have come since Robin Williams did the Arsenio Hall impression in ALADDIN. They say those are good cartoons because they work on two levels: for the kids it’s a cartoon that moves around in front of them, for the adults there is sophisticated humor such as a reference to a TV show that you know about, and that’s why it’s funny, you have seen that show before or know people who have seen it and told you what it was one time.

Well, UP blows that shit out of the water by really truly hitting at what kids want and what adults want at the same time, and not by appealing to the lowest common denominator or the easiest jokes. No, this is a fantasy adventure comedy with some great action sequences, some colorful creatures, easily the most laughs of any Pixar movie and yet also it hits on profound emotional life issues much more effectively than most serious adult dramas and what not.

Also it’s Pixar’s version of GRAN TORINO: grouchy old man loses his wife, stubbornly stays in his old house in a rapidly changing neighborhood, reluctantly befriends young Asian neighbor, they help each other to learn life lessons. There is less shooting and racism, though, and more flying.

Hopefully you’ve already seen it so I’m not gonna give anything away, but holy shit, I was crying in the first ten minutes of this god damn movie. I was crying before it even truly got sad. In the dialogue-free montage through decades of Karl and Ellie’s life together you see so much happiness, so much struggle, so much dreaming and almost but not quite achieving. And more than almost any movie it seems to capture the feeling of a real loving relationship and because time is moving so fast it becomes sad because you know at this rate their life together is fleeting. It hits you because you’re sad for what happens to these fictional characters, but also because it makes you think about your own life and where you are on achieving your dreams or finding happiness, about whether you have enough time or if you fucked up and got too off course.

In this one sequence it tells you in images so much about the way people want to do things with their lives, but don’t always get to. About how important that dream is not only to the person but to the person who loves them. You see how Karl wants more than anything to see Ellie get what she wants. You see how they fall into a routine and time passes and they fear that maybe they haven’t really done what they wanted to with their time together, that they’ve wasted their lives and lost sight of what was once important to them, and maybe still should be, but they don’t really know.

It has so many deeply relatable things for adults that I end up with tears rolling down my cheek like I got pepper sprayed. I look to my left, the gal next to me is worse than me. To my right I hear somebody blowing snot. Then somewhere to the left. The kids are all laughing at the jokes and the adults are all crying. So fuck you SHREK and your “ha ha, the donkey said a line from the theme song from THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, they threw that one in for the adults.”

I mean this is the most emotional thing I have seen in a cartoon so far that does not involve the bombing of Hiroshima. If the first ten minutes of UP was Andrew “Dice” Clay it would say, “Jesse the Cowgirl montage in TOY STORY 2? I fucked it.”

It really does work on multiple levels at the same time. Like the early scenes where construction is going on around his house. In the story it’s an excuse for why he has to fly away with his house. But emotionally it’s about the feeling of getting older and the world changing around you and stubbornly wanting to stand your ground. Or toward the end when he dumps all the furniture and things out of his house. Story-wise of course he has to make the house lighter in order for it to fly. But an adult can’t help but also see that he’s casting off all the shit he’s accumulated over the years. Earlier all that stuff was important to him because it reminded him of his wife, but now he realizes it’s just stuff, it’s not the objects that are important but the actual experiences.

(dude, Fight Club.)

You know what? I bet this is the first time in cinematic history that a 3-D movie makes people cry. I mean there might’ve been some teary-eyed emotional moments in JAWS 3-D or COMIN’ AT YA, but not full on tears. This brings up alot of questions about the technology, is it a problem to have salty deposits on the lenses, does it break the illusion for somebody to have to take off the glasses to wipe away their eyes, etc.

(By the way, the 3-D looks great and brings you even more into the detailed Pixar world, but I don’t think it’s necessary. If you don’t have one of those theaters near you or don’t want to spend the extra couple bucks don’t worry about it, see the movie in regular-D.)

I said, and still believe, that WALL-E is a masterpiece. Its one flaw is that the first section is such a perfect, jawdropping and completely unique masterwork of filmatic imagery that the rest of the movie, by being merely superb, is kind of a letdown to some people. This one does not have that minor structural problem. It’s front-loaded with that emotion but it’s perfect because then you know why this matters. It makes a dude pulling a house across a cliff seem like the most important thing in the world, because we have watched his whole life before that and we know what it means to him. You laugh and have a fun time with his relationship with his young neighbor Russell (as well as a dog and a bird) and some crazy death defying shenanigans and what not, but it’s all anchored in this ritualistic quest to fulfill his wife’s dream for her posthumously. It’s about his relationship with his dead wife. I thought I was fine with that, I thought I was a man again, then that last image snuck up on me and got me crying like a bitch again. So perfect.

Pixar, I don’t know if you guys have seen TYSON or not. But maybe it’s time to hang it up. I don’t see how you can top this one. In conclusion, Pixar, did it ever occur to you that maybe some people want to retain their emotional fluids, and not have them just leak out in public? Thumbs down.

[SilentBobX]

After having seen the film with my girlfriend yesterday, I can safely say it was an incredible picture. Family perfect without a ton of pop references(at least modern ones), and a wonderful story. Highly recommended, and Giacchino's score deserves an Oscar nod most definitely.

Mahalo

[Peven]

saw this today with my two younger boys and thought it was a beautiful film, though it hit its highest mark during the first 15 minutes, which were better on their own than most of the movies released this year. i rank this among my favorite Pixar films, "Finding Nemo", "Wall E", and "Ratatouille"

[Maui]

Loved this film. It's a beautiful story and easily Pixar's most sentimental piece to date.

The opening montage showing the beginning/ending of Carl and Ellie's life together is just brilliant, incredibly moving and quite necessary to show US how Carl GOT to this place.

When Carl opens the scrap book and finds the pages at the back with photos and Ellie's message, I lost it.

The 3D was very subtle and it gave added depth and texture to many of the scenes. Beautifully scored by Michael Giacchino.

It's a great sentimental journey that just carries you away!

[bastard_robo]

I watched this last night.. NON 3D..

Easily, one of the TOP 3 Pixar Films ever.

This movie is so weird, yet so goddamn touching. I love that we dont even hear karl's voice until he's old. I love that this movie dosnt pull back any punches.

and I'll admit it.. this movie cut me to the core. There was a tear or two shed through out this film. and this is a movie that EARNS those tears, not just a simple jerk fest like that Marley and Me crap!

It had an almost, INCREDIBLES vibe to it at many points. And every character was used perfectly, from the talking dog to Russel!

A flat out 10 for me

[Peven]

oh yeah, i had forgotten completely that this was a 3D film, so we didn't even go to a theatre that had a 3D screen, so we saw it 2D and still loved it, though i can see where the 3D would add even more goodness to the experience. one thing that occurred to me on the drive home was that the movie had something of a look and feel reminiscent of a Wes Anderson film, the little details of Carl's house, the style, the sweet melancholy of Carl's life in the montage, i don't know, maybe because because i am an Anderson fan i am seeing things where they aren't, but it certainly seems to me that if he was to direct a Pixar film it would be a lot like "UP"

[bastard_robo]

oh yeah, i had forgotten completely that this was a 3D film, so we didn't even go to a theatre that had a 3D screen, so we saw it 2D and still loved it, though i can see where the 3D would add even more goodness to the experience. one thing that occurred to me on the drive home was that the movie had something of a look and feel reminiscent of a Wes Anderson film, the little details of Carl's house, the style, the sweet melancholy of Carl's life in the montage, i don't know, maybe because because i am an Anderson fan i am seeing things where they aren't, but it certainly seems to me that if he was to direct a Pixar film it would be a lot like "UP"

%100 Agree. The touches in this film in the little things were fucking perfect.

I'm still shocked.. SHOCKED about how good UP was. I knew it was going to be good, but I didnt expect it to be near Perfect.

[minstrel]

I saw Up in 3-d the other day. I won't write a full review, because basically my review would be an echo of Vern's review above. In short, I loved it. I'll only touch on a few points that struck me.

First, I'd never seen a movie in this kind of 3-D before, and it looked astonishingly good. I hadn't known that the 3-D tech was at that level yet, but it looks tremendous.

Second, the opening montage of Carl and Ellie's lives together is wonderful, creative, and deeply touching. A master-class in visual storytelling.

Second, I'm a sucker for the kind of story in which some beleaguered character just suddenly says "Fuck it!" and breaks out of his previous life and starts a new one. I love the end of A Fish Called Wanda for that reason. I love how Harry Potter first finds out about Hogwarts and goes there for the same reason. And it happens in Up, at the moment in which Carl releases his balloons and his whole house lifts off and away he goes to South America. It's a beautiful moment of fantasy, but it's also a beautiful moment of a character experiencing a burst of ecstatic freedom. That moves me deeply. The sequence is directed wonderfully; it's full of color and life and a real sense of adventure, a sense of rising - Up is an apt title for this film.

Third, the voice acting is great! Ed Asner has received a lot of praise for his portrayal of Carl. But I also think that young Jordan Nagai does a wonderful job as Russell. And I was especially impressed with Bob Peterson doing Dug the Dog. He came up with a way of speaking that sounds exactly like I imagine a dog would think, and it's an original portrayal, and should be lauded.

If I have any criticism of this film at all, it would be that Charles Muntz seems kind of forced as a villain. It's like Pete Docter was saying to himself "Okay, I've got Carl and Russell down to South America, but now they need an antagonist." The Muntz character didn't seem to fall neatly enough into the story for me. But that's a very minor quibble. The adventure was exciting so I let it all go.

I haven't talked about the humor in this film. I think it's hands-down the funniest movie Pixar has ever made. Go see it. You'll laugh lots!

And for those of you who are burned out on sequels and remakes and re-imaginings and other totally uncreative shit that's been churned out by Hollywood for the past long while, go see Up. It's an actual original story! It's full of ideas, great characters, and great storytelling all around.

I can honestly say that I haven't enjoyed a movie as much as this one in a LONG time. It's an incredibly entertaining experience and you'll have a great time. I give it my highest recommendation.

[thefraze]

Saw UP this weekend - delightful little movie, though I did not like it nearly as much as Wall-E. I did enjoy the star wars references, though.

[RogueScribner]

Yeah, I really liked it, but it was no Wall-E.

And SPOILERS







Why did Muntz have to die at the end? Especially by falling to his death? Shit like that is so typical of Disney animated features, I figured Pixar would be above that. Guess not.

In fact pretty much the whole last section in South America turned very cliche which was more than a little disappointing to me.

[Ribbons]

Why did Muntz have to die at the end? Especially by falling to his death? Shit like that is so typical of Disney animated features, I figured Pixar would be above that. Guess not.

Yeah, you're actually not the first person who I've heard say that. Disney used to have the pretty grisly deaths, but I can't think of any Pixar characters so far to have gotten a similar treatment, with the exception of maybe that grasshopper in A Bug's Life.

From the always awesome Cracked, The 7 Most Horrifying Disney Movie Deaths

[TonyWilson]

A lot of those deaths are fantastic, I always liked that about Disney, sometimes they can be fucking harsh, just like life. You wouldn't complain about Bambi's mother dying, would you?

[Ribbons]

I don't necessarily see them as the same thing though. For example Nemo's mom dying at the beginning of Finding Nemo is pretty gnarly, but there's something touching about it as well. All the deaths on that list have a fire-and-brimstone quality to them that is definitely NOT like real life, or shouldn't be.

[TonyWilson]

I 'spose it's not real life like the death of a parent so I'll concede that point. But I mean the deaths are all (ok the ones I've seen) proper villainous bastards who usually end up dying through a mixture of their own evilness and hubris and the hero's actions, that's just classic storytelling like the witch in Hansel and Gretel getting cooked alive, for example.

[Spandau Belly]

I saw this last night and it's a pretty enjoyable cartoon movie although I don't think it completely gels.

It starts off like some sort of cartoon Gran Torino and it gets wierder and wierder as it goes on until you get a house trying to outfly a zeplin while talking dogs fly WW1 planes and an ostrich vomits up the cane of an old man who doesn't seem to need it to do all sorts of agile shit anyway, but they also keep trying to keep it grounded in being this whole story about a dude and his dead wife and her memory. So it's kinda like Gran Torino meets The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which you think would mean I'd like it more, but I just thought it was okay.

I agree that maybe this film would've been better off with Fredrickson and Russel just witnessing strange sights and meeting funny characters instead of bringing in a villain. And I also don't think they needed to murder Muntz. They could've just humiliated him, or not had him turn out to be evil and out to hurt Kevin The Ostrich. Just make it so that Fredrickson, Russel, Muntz and Kevin the Ostrich all go on tour with him peacefully.

So yeah, cute enough to watch once, but not really a movie that completely works for me.

[tapehead]

And I was especially impressed with Bob Peterson doing Dug the Dog. He came up with a way of speaking that sounds exactly like I imagine a dog would think, and it's an original portrayal, and should be lauded.

It's funny you should say that, because as soon as he started talking I was reminded of this guy, and an older Looney Tunes characheter (who's name escapes me) based upon George (as in Lenny and George) from 'Of Mice and Men' - a little similar, don't you think?

It's easily on par with other Pixar movies in terms of visual beauty (see it in 3D), but the story lacks. Most notably I think the Muntz explorer guy was kind of bungled - he needed to have a pathos and tragic quality that would give a dynamic to his villainy, obsession and genius, but quickly became (oh the irony!) a pretty two-dimensional bad guy. I would have liked more of his story to be told, and maybe even something to explain how the dogs came to be the wonderfully entertaining mutts they came to be in an otherwise weak third act. Also, while I agree the opening 15 minutes or so which prefaces the story by showing Carl and Ellie's life together was pretty great and perhaps the film's apex, the sentiment was leaned on way to heavily for the rest of the picture, and by the time they made it to Paradise Falls I found Carl's talking to his wife a little tedious. Fun movie all the same, but it's going to be a minor work in the annals of Pixar.

[MonkeyM666]

http://tapemonkeyblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/film-review-up.html Review!

I thought that it was ok... fell a bit flat IMO, but it looked pretty.

[Maui]

http://tapemonkeyblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/film-review-up.html Review!

I thought that it was ok... fell a bit flat IMO, but it looked pretty.

"Keven, a giant Dumbledore pride colored bird and Dug, a rehashed mold for a talking dog, are by far the most entertaining part of the film".

Yup and I found that the film didn't quite find the right balance with the talking dogs. While alot of people (especially the kids) really enjoyed the scenes with the dogs, I was like meh. We're reusing the same joke and it's getting kinda old.

Dug I liked, just too much of the other dogs!

[Ribbons]

Yup and I found that the film didn't quite find the right balance with the talking dogs. While alot of people (especially the kids) really enjoyed the scenes with the dogs, I was like meh. We're reusing the same joke and it's getting kinda old.

Dug I liked, just too much of the other dogs!

I agree... I don't know if this would've necessarily been a solution, but I think it would have been a more interesting joke if instead of the alpha dog's voice chip being broken (thereby making him sound "girly" and shaming him in front of the rest of the pack), that was just the voice his little chip thing always had. It shouldn't make a difference to them since they're not really talking, after all, and he still cuts a pretty intimidating figure. I don't know. I just like the idea of the rest of the pack all cowering in fear from some dog with a tiny, Munchkin-on-helium voice.