What do you think of the Pixar influence in Overwatch promotional videos?

For me, Blizzard cinematics have been some of the biggest jaw-dropping moments in gaming career. They drove me to beat levels in Starcraft and Brood War just to unlock the next cutscene. They generated hype for miles. (That Burning Legion intro, anyone?) I watched them over and over in the pre-youtube days.

But these Overwatch shorts have a noticeable "Pixar factor" in their aesthetic and story beats that, in my opinion, sticks out like a sore thumb. I really like these new cinematics, but every super-glassy, high-poly blinking eyeball just screams "remember Up? Remember Inside Out? Remember childhood and nostalgia and overwhelming emotions?"

Which is fine, but it clashes with the actual content. The next moment, Reaper is shooting loud shotguns, or thugs are beating a helpless robot to death, or Widowmaker is assassinating a religious figure. While I think these are beautiful and expertly crafted, it does feel like a thematic tug of war trying to serve contradictory purposes and audiences.

What do y'all think?

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EDIT: There's a lot of defensiveness here. For full disclosure, I really like Overwatch, and to reiterate, this topic is about its promotional videos. Let's have a civil discussion about the points I made instead of kneejerk defensiveness of one of the biggest companies in the world, no?

i don't care for them. and it's not because my heart is ice- i don't mind their blatant play at a younger audience.

the thing that gets me is that you can feel the BUSINESS in all of this- the mini-united nations of characters, the visual style (CGI cartoon) cues you find in pixar and mobile games, the milquetoast writing (omg HEROES, you guise). in isolation none of these are bad, but in aggregate it feels completely sterile. it seems like blizzard-activision have engineered a product for maximum global appeal and adoption- and in doing so they've produced a thing without any creative SOUL.

i'm sure it'll be massively successful, though.

Pixar didn't invent CGI. This seems like a reach just to hate on Overwatch.

Yeah, I don't know if it's poor writing or what, because while I think I see what they were going for in each of the shorts I'm often left cringing at the execution. I've been struggling to put my distaste into words but maybe you're on to something with the argument that it has an inconsistent/clashing, tone.

The game itself is fun, though, I'm looking forward to playing it more tomorrow.

I agree, and part of the problem is that Overwatch in general has thematic problems. It's not just the marketing, but the entire game that can't decide what it wants to be (thematically, in terms of gameplay it knows exactly what it is). The moment you try to add story to the disparate themes and styles of the game, as they do in the trailers, it stands out that much more. I think that's why you notice it in the trailers.

@lvl3bard: I don't know if you're trolling, but benefit of the doubt. I'm lusting after Overwatch on a grand scale. But there's no need to give all their marketing a free pass just because you're already sold on it. Discussion is valuable; brand loyalty battle lines aren't.

If you haven't seen any Pixar movies in the last decade or so (that's not supposed to sound sarcastic), then I understand why you wouldn't see the connection. But it's pretty overt, and I can't think of any precedent in previous Blizzard cinematics.

I thought the shorts were cool, and nothing you are talking about ever occurred to me in the slightest. Even if you think the animation is a lot like some Pixar stuff, I'm not sure why that is a bad thing or what difference it makes. None of that has any bearing on how fun the game might be.

@sunbrozak: I think this is the counterpoint I've been trying to find. There's definitely an accessibility / inclusivity thing going on that makes me really excited to share this with my daughter one day.

That's probably what sticks in my craw, too. For me, they've stretched the fiction & setting very thin by trying to appeal to vastly different interests, which feels like a boardroom decision rather than an interesting conceit.

It's interesting to track this stuff via their cinematic work over the decades--compare/contrast with the end of Diablo 1 where a dude jams a jagged rock into his forehead.

@mike: Agreed--I liked them a lot, as I said in the post. I don't think I brought up anything about having a bearing on the gameplay. The game is fun as hell, and 9+ million people agree with me on that. It's OK to critique the marketing around something you are passionate about, isn't it?

@jacksukeru: I'm glad I'm not the only one. The writing in Blizz's fiction over the years has definitely gone in that trajectory, hasn't it? More and more bombastic and broad-brushed? At this point, I wouldn't have it any other way. But this (admittedly hair-splitting) effect seems fairly blatant, and it's really distracting for me.

That said--they're full of interesting details, and the way they connect to the actual locations in-game is groundbreaking.

I personally think blizzards fantasy look is tired and outstayed it's welcome. Not many games these days going for the 'pixar' look and whilst not original it looks nice and stands out among other video games.

@yesiamaduck: This is a good point. Blizzard has been at it for a long time, and certainly reused a lot in that time. It certainly stands out in general, and even among their own lineup.

I think it's great. Blizzard rarely seems to disappoint, and whatever crack team they have researching what best theme/style game or cinematic they should make needs a heavy raise. Having followed and played the game, I guess I don't understand the contradicting notion it's seeming to portray. I thought the cinematics fit the universe well.

I think all their shorts are terrible. Extremely shallow and doesn't go into characters much at all, all characters are very one dimensional.

Thank god its just a multiplayer shooter.

Did this really need its own thread when there's one already up that essentially covers the same topic.

Where is it written that everything Blizzard does has to look exactly the same?

I think if they had made the trailers for Overwatch all gritty and brooding, that would have been a really big mistake.

That first trailer with the kids in the museum just as the characters come bursting in fighting was a frikkin' masterpiece.

They're fun and im happy theyre stylistically different. It's more of a comic feel rather than pixar to me, so i think it allows for some edgier stuff without being opressively brooding. Maybe aping the tf2 short aesthetics a bit if anything bugs me about them personally, but they're still well made.

I wouldn't compare them to Pixar. The characters and story are shallow, one-dimensional and extremely generic. I would compare them to children's cartoons with a high production value.

They're cute, just like the game.

So here's the thing... I might be terrible for thinking this, but I've always kind of wanted to do Pixar to invest that incredible technology and talent that they have on some more mature characters, topics,settings, and themes. While the Pixar movies are generally fantastic, they never stray too far from being very well produced "kid's movies" that adults can also enjoy. Every once in a while they tackle some more heady topics (think Wall-E) and while they do some interesting stuff, I feel like they are never able to veer too far from the path of the standard Disney animated film formula.

The Overwatch shorts end up being great in terms of world building for me as they set up this universe that has all the cartoon-y flash and spectacle while also hinting at some deeper themes and having way better fight scenes than any Pixar movie. They may fail to have the depth that Pixar movies do, but I think they paint a fantastic roadmap for some animation company out there to make a more mature movie that doesn't have to be brown and gritty and boring all the time.

But I guess Miyazaki has been doing that for years, so I digress.

I don't see a problem with it. Next time if you have a problem with a topic, please just flag it or send the mods a PM instead of posting that you don't think it needed to be a thread.

I didn't get any feelings of pixar outside of the fact that it's CGI. I've been really enjoying the shorts, and I hope they don't give up on making them after the release. While the writing and "story" is shallow, they're visually superb and exciting to watch. Some people here are putting way too much stock into them. It's a multiplayer shooter. Blizzard has never been the best at telling stories, so I don't know why people think this is going to be the jumping off point where they start to take it seriously.

I think it fits the game's art style really well, and it adds to the sense of "fun" Overwatch brings in general. I don't think it would play as well if it was super realistic. Who knows, maybe that level of fidelity or realism would look great too. The way it is now feels right to me.

Yeah, I'll admit the first one I watched, I cringed a little when they started killing people. Not sure what it is. Like, Conker's Bad Fur Day but not overtly trying to satirize the material it's drawing from--it's just over the top violent and also happens to look like a kid's cartoon. I'm not sure if there's anything inherently wrong with that? I think there's maybe something to question about it morally, but that's getting into a territory I'm not sure I really want to dive into. That said, it was definitely weird at first. And, while I think they're beautiful, I do agree with @mellotronrules about how heartless and manufactured it strikes me. Then again, I'm pretty cynical about the whole e-sports drive a bunch of games have been making lately, so maybe this was just never going to be for me.

I think if you take them for what they are -- fun, accessible short movies aimed at spreading the word about a good game -- they are great. A little shallow and derivative? I guess, but come on, they aren't entering these shorts into Sundance, they are promotion material. Expertly animated and fun to watch, and as others have mentioned, I like them because I can share them with folks who don't necessarily love games and they can get a flavor for the world and characters who I'm playing in game.

The only thing connecting the Overwatch shorts and Pixar are "they both use 3d". 3d animation isnt exclusively Pixar you know.

@wacomole said:

The character design (cinematic & otherwise) over the decades has definitely evolved. You're right--it's actually refreshing to see them change up. Personally, I don't think there's a cohesion in setting that includes Reaper and Winston simultaneously. How zany are they? But like you said, I'm glad to see Blizzard try something new.

I can understand if you don't like them, but I think they fit fairly well to the game. If you want the more classic Blizzard cinematics, the World of Warcraft ones still have that feel to them.

@yurimegumi: I responded to this point previously in this thread, but it's worth noting that there's definitely a "Pixar style" in character design, and it's on full display in these cinematics. Again, this is just my take on it, but there's a common thread that I can't not see in scenes like the Museum short, and so on.

Let's please remember that this isn't an attack on Overwatch (a game I'll be playing in about 4 hours) or Blizzard (a company I've fanboyed for since the shareware of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans). It's an observation about their promotional videos (which, I enjoyed).

Yes! Actually, I'd go farther than that. I'd say they are MUCH more interesting and artistic than the vast majority of promotional videos. And, good. They tell stories and connect the player/viewer with not only the characters, but with the locations as well.

I probably didn't do myself any favors by the way I framed the original post. I do like them a lot. I just see Brave and Frozen and Up every time one of the "defenseless civilian kids" shows up. It's a splitting of hairs, but it was never supposed to be about the game, just the cinematics.

I think Blizzard people found out that if you want cartoony humans to work well in CGI Pixar kind of found the magic formula that doesn't make it look disturbing to audiences. The uncanny valley has a big role in the artstyle to work with a cartoonish aesthetic, and also lends to DreamWorks and a lot of other CGI animated movies.

The only noticeable draw to Pixar I can make is literally the high contrast and slight saturation of the colors that definitely lend to that Disney style in general.

@firepaw: Holy amazing cutscenes, Batman. This is a great point of reference--it's exactly the product of old WC2 and WC3 taken to its gleefully absurd logical extreme. Thanks for posting, I had not seen modern WoW videos in some time. This really, really underlines the difference in approaches.

Also let the record show that I don't not like the Overwatch videos:

I've enjoyed them a lot and I think they look fantastic. The fact that the game looks very similar really brings life to the world of a multiplayer 6v6 shooter. Blizzard already does wonderful cinematics but if you're going to take inspiration from anyone, you can't go wrong with Pixar.

@caleb1915: That is a great point. This "look" resonates with people.

And your comment made me think of this--how did we get this far into the topic of cartoonish humans and CG without talking about the Warcraft movie? Oh dear.

Personally, I like the style in the game. I wouldn't necessarily call it as "Pixar", but Disney in general (check on Big Hero 6, Meet the Robinson or some recent Disney XD animated series for further examples). I think it makes the visuals look vibrant and the characters to stand out. I agree that some of it might clash with the actual content of the shorts, but the alternative would have been having a different visual style for those shorts and possibly using that style on the game, both of which would have been a weird compromise.

If anything, and I don't want to sound overly cynical about it, I think this is a proof that the writing team and the design team in Blizzard don't work well together, or at least, has radically different visions...

I think you summarized the disconnect perfectly.

One second we're in the middle of Toy Story, and the next second an action movie kicks in the doors and starts firing. I don't think I can put my finger on it more precisely than that--it just registers on my weird-o-meter.

Well said. Incidentally, you've helped me understand why some people have responded so snippily to my original post. I never got the "Pixar feeling" from the game--it never occurred to me until we're watching those promotional cinematics, and we're zoomed in on some defenseless children admiring the DoomFist, or a sad monkey who represents our innocence and hopefulness. That's when klaxons started going off for me.

And you make an interesting point about their writing team. I'd really like to see how they decide to iterate and edit from start to finish. They certainly strive for accessibility (a more jaded player might say "dumbing down," but I don't think that's quite right), and the writing definitely suffers.

The animation quality seems fine. The only thing that has put me off so far is that Hanzo looks way too young and has baby-like skin for his greying hair.

And of course the writing is piss-poor but that should be a given when you're watching Blizzard videos.

I agree that the Pixar-style-wannabe is more than obvious on the promotional videos and I think it's a shame. And a lot of people noticed that as well. I wasn't expecting them to go all realistic like on their other cinematic videos for other franchises, but there's a ton of different ways to approach cartoon visuals without going to the Disney/Pixar route. But, then again, going that route is the easiest one since people will almost automatically love it unconsciously, they might not notice that it looks and feels just like Pixar but it's enough to trigger their brain.

But, to be fair, I'm not totally impressed that they copied were "inspired" by someone else's styles, since most of the characters are already mashups of designs from already existing characters in other franchises, or just overall design clichés.

@hassun: Haha! I thought that too. Could this be the first playable Middle Aged Baby Samurai Archer (sorry--he looks like Mitsurugi and that throws me off) in a competitive shooter?

Drawing comparisons to Pixar isn't a knock on the quality--it just seems like a choice that was made and leaned into in the process somewhere (to me).

@johnymyko: I hadn't thought of it that way. I think there's a probably apocryphal quote from Picasso along the lines of "Good artists borrow, great artists steal," and if it were ever applicable (or true) then it is for Blizzard's character design. And I mean that in a good way--everything is just so full of homage and references, if not outright parodies.

Aaaaand now I cannot wait for 7 PM tonight.

I think it's a video game and I don't waste time putting much thought in it beyond that.

The OW shorts are fun to watch even if they seem a bit engineered and cliche at spots. My most favorite promo short to this day is still TF2's 'Meet the Demoman'. It doesn't take itself seriously, its got great voice acting, and light-hearted.

other than the last one they were fine. they set the world up, had some good action and showed off some of the characters. they're neat little things that are meaningless in the end because this is an online multiplayer only game.

@viciouscombover: Absolutely my favorite of the bunch.

The extended bleep-out joke... classic.

Wow! Those are fantastic. I don't think the action clashes with the spirit of it at all. It's like Disney melded together Pixar and Marvel or something.

I mean, to be clear only connection I see with Pixar is that they're both high-quality 3D animations with heartfelt storytelling (which is a pretty tenuous connection). That doesn't mean there can't also be a cyborg ninja fighting is morally questionable archer brother, widespread persecution of androids, or a scenario where the villain wins.

The evolution from stuff like Meet the Heavy to Meet the Pyro or Expiration Date is insane. Sure this is partly due to Valve time but even then it's impressive.

My overall favourite is probably still Meet the Spy though:

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This brings me to another feature I really hope Blizzard steals/borrows: Editing the game in small ways in relation to the material they release outside of the game.

E.g. After the Meet the Spy video the Sniper character model gained a scar on his face and a few days before Meet the Medic landed Valve patched in a small chance a dove flying out of the Scout's carcass when gibbed, foreshadowing Meet the Medic. Little touches like that are great. I already know there are a few custom kill taunts in Overwatch so they're on the right path.

Same as I do with the game overall, I guess. Really good art direction that I wish more games had, but the game itself isn't really my cup of tea-- so I've never cared enough to make it through an entire short. That, and I can't shake the overbearing "marketing" feeling they give off.