Meditations in an emergency might be the secret to making fewer mistakes.

There are many ways meditation has found its way into the workplace. Its been found to improve your work ethic in the office and can even be done while commuting to work.

But if you find yourself being forgetful or making mistakes when in a hurry, it turns out that a little bit of meditation can make you less error-prone, according to a new study.

Researchers from Michigan State University published their findings in Brain Sciences in the journals September 2019 issue. The main goal for researchers was to find how open monitoring meditation (meditation that focuses on feelings, thoughts, or sensations that are present in ones body) could change brain activity that would decrease the chances of making mistakes.

Peoples interest in meditation and mindfulness is outpacing what science can prove in terms of effects and benefits, Jeff Lin, a Michigan State University psychology doctoral candidate and study co-author, said in a press statement. But its amazing to me that we were able to see how one session of a guided meditation can produce changes to brain activity in non-meditators.

Lin added: Some forms of meditation have you focus on a single object, commonly your breath, but open monitoring meditation is a bit different, Lin said. It has you tune inward and pay attention to everything going on in your mind and body. The goal is to sit quietly and pay close attention to where the mind travels without getting too caught up in the scenery.

For the study, researchers found more than 200 people who have never practiced meditation and had them go through a 20-minute open monitoring meditation exercise. Researchers tracked brain activity through electroencephalography (EEG) during both meditation and the tests.

The EEG can measure brain activity at the millisecond level, so we got precise measures of neural activity right after mistakes compared to correct responses, added Lin. A certain neural signal occurs about half a second after an error called the error positivity, which is linked to conscious error recognition. We found that the strength of this signal is increased in the meditators relative to controls.

Following the tests, the results showed how different forms of meditation enhanced the brains ability to detect and examine mistakes.

These findings are a strong demonstration of what just 20 minutes of meditation can do to enhance the brains ability to detect and pay attention to mistakes, said Jason Moser, a co-author of the study. It makes us feel more confident in what mindfulness meditation might really be capable of for performance and daily functioning right there in the moment.

A recent OnePoll study in partnership with Thermador interviewed 2,000 Americans finding that more than half (52%) start their day off with a fresh cup of coffee. The poll, which wanted to explore Americans routines and lifestyles, also found that exercise and medication were popular morning methods.

Two in five of the respondents said they exercise first thing in the morning, while one in three claims meditation to be an essential part of their morning routine.

With meditation and mindfulness entering everyday life in recent years, researchers said more works need to be done in order to access how meditation can enhance mindfulness.

Its great to see the publics enthusiasm for mindfulness, but theres still plenty of work from a scientific perspective to be done to understand the benefits it can have, and equally importantly, how it actually works, said Lin. Its time we start looking at it through a more rigorous lens.

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Meditation Scientists say this is the key to making fewer mistakes at work - Ladders

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Gisele Bndchen said she overhauled her lifestyle after severe anxiety and panic attacks almost led her to take her own life.

In an interview with Vogue Australia, the supermodel explained how the unhealthy lifestyle she led in her 20s resulted in serious mental health problems - which she opened up about in her 2018 book "Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life" - but transforming her lifestyle and adopting healthier habits saw her turning her life around.

"I felt like I reached rock bottom," Bndchen, 39, told the magazine. "It became so unbearable I couldn't breathe and I thought: 'I gotta change.'"

The Brazilian model and environmental activist explained that she used to have a sugar-laden mocha frappuccino for breakfast, steak and French fries with a bottle of wine for dinner, and smoke a pack of cigarettes every day.

Transitioning away from that lifestyle "wasn't easy," Bndchen said. But she did it and hasn't looked back.

"I had the worst headaches ever because I was withdrawing," she said. "My system was so used to that life it was in shock because I stopped everything, so it took time.

"We are beings of habit and I think you can't just expect to do something you have always done and stop. You have to replace bad habits with good habits.

"So when I stopped having coffee, the mocha frappuccino for breakfast, and four cigarettes when I woke up in the morning, I started running.

"I don't run anymore, but I ran then because it allowed me to feel my lungs and every time I ran for 20 minutes I was like: 'Okay, I can feel my lungs, okay, I'm not smoking.'"

Bndchen said she also started incorporating meditation and breathing techniques to help combat her anxiety.

"I would get into the elevator and I would feel like I was going to die," she said. "So I replaced bad habits with things that were supporting me and I realised that every day I was feeling better."

Bndchen's holistic existence now couldn't be more different from her previous lifestyle.

The mother-of-two (and step-mother of one) starts her day at 5.30 a.m., getting up before anyone else in her family to meditate, breathe, stretch, swirl coconut oil around her mouth, have a green juice, and get a workout in on her elliptical machine.

If she can't do that, she'll work up a sweat at her husband, footballer Tom Brady's Boston gym TB12.

And she's evangelical about the importance of looking after yourself by eating well and moving - and how this will in turn lead to outward beauty too.

"You can go and buy all the products you want, but if you are not nourishing your body by eating nutritious food, if you are not exercising and oxygenating your blood and doing things that bring you joy, you are not going to feel good, and if you don't feel good you are not going to look good," Bndchen said.

"I have never seen someone who doesn't feel good looking good, have you?"

Slideshow: These 40 fit celebrities over 40 will inspire you to hit the gym (Provided by Prevention)

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Gisele Bndchen switched from fries and cigarettes to green juice and meditation to overcome the anxiety and panic attacks that nearly killed her -...

SEATTLE Find it hard to reach serenity in crowded classes or groups?

A new wellness center in Seattle may have the answer.

Sanctuary is a space designed for individual, private sessions of zen.

"It's kind of beyond words, but once you're in here you get the feeling of it, said studio director Sarah Goble. "When you walk up the stairs from the busy Seattle streets, immediately transformation begins."

Described as a technology-informed wellness space, Sanctuarys experience starts with an app. Guests log-in and schedule their sessions, choosing from more than 50 options of virtual yoga, meditation or sound baths. The sessions can be customized down to room temperature and aromatherapy scents.

When they arrive at the studios, theyre greeted by a docent who brews them custom-blended tea and invites them to sit on a plush couch.

"It's dimly lit, very intimate feeling, it's warm, Goble said. It helps you completely relax inside and outside."

The sessions happen in private rooms with 14-foot digital screens. Sanctuary provides yoga mats and towels, blocks and other tools needed for the selected session. Guests are guided by a virtual teacher or voice, while watching soothing images and scenery play on the screen.

Conner Cuevas has done four sessions, including yoga and guided meditation.

"It's unlike anything I've ever experienced, he said. "It really allows you to kind of get out of your head and into the practice and it's been really, really helpful."

After the session, guests can shower and unwind in an adjoining bathroom, stocked with a curated line of shampoo, soap and lotion.

Sanctuary has space for small groups (up to 8 people) but it's ideal for anyone who prefers to find their zen solo.

"We're seeing a lot of folks that are on the introverted side, Goble said. "There are no mirrors in the room so there's that elimination of competition with other students in the room, and also the elimination of the competition even with yourself. It is a completely judgement-free zone."

The first session at Sanctuary is complimentary. After that, individual sessions are $50 and group sessions are $30.

Sanctuary is located at 3134 Elliott Ave in Seattle. Download the app to sign up and book sessions.

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Find your zen by clicking on this app - KING5.com

While students are one of the most stressed-out communities in the world, there is not much being done to talk about it, or find a fix for it. Puddicombe, along with Richard Pierson, Co-founder and CEO, Headspace, a global leader in meditation and an online healthcare company were at this premier institute to talk to students about the positives of meditation and how it could help in improving overall health and well-being.

The aim of the talk was to encourage students to take a break from their hectic schedules every day and spend some time on their mental health and overall well-being.

Headspace was later launched in 2010 as an event company and converted into an online application in 2012. It currently has over 62 million members and 2 million paid subscribers across 190 countries. Headspace has raised $93 million in a mix of debt and equity in a funding round that saw the participation from Times Bridge, the global investments and partnership arm of the Times Group. As part of the investment, Headspace will now launch its services in India.

Sharing what encouraged Puddicombe to start Headspace, he said, People never really have had access to meditation. It was always tied up with religion or traditions or some foreign language. There's some sort of mystical kind of veil around it, when in truth, it's something that is universal, timeless and each and every one of us can learn it. Even thinking about the idea of just stepping out of our busy mind feels like a bit of a relief and the experience on a daily basis can have a really transformative effect. So I made the decision to leave the monastery and to begin teaching meditation in a different way.

Speaking of mental health has been a taboo, not just in India but globally too. As an online platform where you can access short, bite-sized meditation sessions on-the-go, Headspace is helping people to seek help themselves. Sharing some insights on the kind of people using the app, Pierson said, The ratio of men to women on the app is 50:50. People between the age of 25-40 are the most active users. Students have to deal with a lot of pressure, there is a lot of expectation. He stressed that if students start developing the habit of meditation early on in their lives, it could be of a lot of help to them - in handling pressures of societal expectations, in navigating their careers in the tech and corporate world.

We started something because we really cared about it and felt passionate about it. We wanted to share this with people, added Puddicombe. He stressed that even taking out 5 minutes on a daily basis to take care of their mental health could soon start showing positive effects on peoples minds and bodies.

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Mindful living and meditation can be life-changing tools for students: Headspace co-founders tell IIT-B stude - Business Insider India

Empathy is a great trait to have, but it's equally important to be able to protect your energy. When external energy starts to encroach, Herstik recommends a protective meditation. And as water signs are some of the more imaginative signs in the zodiac, that imagination can be used to your advantage in this meditation.

"Imagine a sphere of protective light around you," she says. "It can be any color you wantbut I like to imagine it's mirrored." Visualize your sphere, along with the intention: "Only that which is serving my highest good and helping me evolve can move through my barrier. All negative energy is deflected."

Herstik says this is a powerful visualization to help foster feelings of protection and control over emotional states, especially in emotionally strained environments. Some other practices to incorporate in your day-to-day for extra emotional support include journaling, breathwork, and burning sacred herbs.

Whether you're actually a Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio, or you just feel more emotional than usual, these tips can help get you out of an emotional tailspin and back on solid ground. It's always important to honor what we're feeling, but when it gets overwhelming, having go-to practices on hand never hurts.

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Here's A Calming Meditation Ideal For Overwhelmed Water Signs - mindbodygreen.com

In his textThe Weird and the Eerie, Mark Fisher found a profound confluence of the weird with the grotesque in the music of The Fall.Pointing to the groups work between 1980 and 82, Fisher writes: The groups methodology at this time is vividly captured in the cover image for the 1980 single, City Hobgoblins, in which we see an urban environment invaded by emigres from old green glades; a leering, malevolent cobold looms over a dilapidated tenement. He continues: But rather than being smoothly integrated into the photographed scene, the crudely rendered hobgoblin has been etched onto the background. This is a war of worlds, an ontological struggle, a struggle over the means of representation.

On Mouse on Mars member Jan St. Werners new record Molocular Meditation, the ghost of the late Mark E. Smith escapes Hades and materialises in St. Werners studio as that hobgoblin on the cover of the City Hobgoblins single. Though the album finds St. Werner re-editing a set of songs that were originally recorded in 2014 at the Cornerhouse, Manchester, in the guise of a multi-channel installation (as well as unreleased new material partly written around that same time), its nigh impossible to not hear the album as a voodoo ritual calling to Smith beyond the grave, demanding he make his physical presence, his voice, and his words known once more.

On this record, Smith becomes the cobold a material spirit of Germanic folklore that will typically play tricks if insulted or neglected that uses the ethereal and alienating nature of St. Werners wobbly synths, fractured melodies, and spectral keys to offer his disgusted observations on what humanity looks like to him now as a subterrestrial being.

This, like the cover of City Hobgoblins according to Fisher, is a war of worlds and an ontological struggle. Though its difficult to imagine Smith as ever truly part of our plane of existence, on Molocular Meditation hes an invader of reality. Its almost like St. Werner has rendered Smith as one of the Lovecraft or Arthur Machen characters that Smith so fetishised when he was alive. As in a Lovecraft story, Smith is a force from outside our world and beyond our material understanding gifting us with forbidden knowledge.

The difference? Smiths forbidden knowledge reveals aspects of our world that should be obvious. Initially it seems like the perfect place. However, they quickly find that their ridiculous goddamn lives are caught up. Its inexplicable, muses Smith as St. Werner modulates his last syllable into a dropped beat that fades out of concrete reality on the eighteen-minute opening title track.

The album is atypical sonic terrain for both its respective artists. Musically, it shares little in common with St. Werners work in Mouse on Mars, which generally trades in lush, spacious, and heady electronic beats, and more in common with producers and musicians that have been associated with hauntology: Philip Jeck, Aseptic Void, and Leyland Kirbys slightly more beat oriented work as The Stranger. The music is cryptic, otherworldly, and uncanny. The dislocation of Smiths voice from The Fall is jarring and thrilling at times.

Whereas in The Fall it often sounded like Smith was channeling the ghosts of Stefan Grabiski and Wyndham Lewis through the terrestrial terrain of his bands distinct working class modernist rock n roll hybrid, Molocular Meditation finds Smith himself as the spirit being channeled through the bizarre nature of St. Werners production. Though Im sure the project was worthwhile and interesting on its own when it premiered in 2014, it is true that Smiths untimely demise in 2018 brings to the fore a level of narrative subtext that the listener can read into. Smith isnt here anymore, but he is here in some form or another on this record.

On second track Back to Animals, a muted techno beat propels the intro through the first minute into a breakdown of synth swirls that sounds like AI having a panic attack. Smiths voice is lower in the mix than in the opening track. Everything else is slow, muses Smith before the rumbling bass kicks in and a bricolage of disjointed electronic sounds overwhelm the brain space. This is a synaptically confusing album, and it becomes more gripping with each listen.

On the closing track VS Cancelled, a track that refers to Domino Records shady handling of the sole album by Smith and Mouse on Mars collaborative project Von Sdenfed, Smith reads from a dismissive email from Dominos then general manager Jonny Bradshaw. Smith cant be escaped. From beyond the grave, he materialises as the hobgoblin to further admonish, embarrass, and expose his enemies. At the end of the track, Smith says, I think thats the lot Jan thanks. As the music lingers on, its easy to envision Smith walking away, slowly fading from reality as he blurs back into the otherworldly dimension that his spirit has claimed as his home in his peculiar afterlife.

Link:

Features | The Lead Review | I Think That's The Lot: Mark E Smith Signs Off On Jan St Werner's New Album - The Quietus

Perhaps youve plunked your backside on a cushion and given meditation the old college try, only to have your mind spin off into a cacophony of thoughts.

You got up, tossed the cushion in the closet and said to heck with that. OK, fair enough (though it couldnt hurt to try again). Dont give up on meditation altogether, though. It could be your beautiful mind simply needs a little something to hang onto. Handily enough, music and sound can help still your mind and stop the crushing mountain of thoughts.

Yoga Studio Satya will offer its first meditation sound journeys at Cave of the Winds on March 21 and May 17. Its also the first time an event of its ilk has been offered at the tourist attraction. Space is limited, and reservations are required.

The acoustics of the environment will enhance the sounds of the wide variety of instruments Amanda Neufeld and her husband, Colten Peed, will play inside Canopy Hall, the first cave visitors explore on many of the tours offered at the cave.

Often peoples minds have a hard time stopping, and meditation is elusive, says Neufeld, co-owner of Yoga Studio Satya and an E-RYT 500 (experienced-registered yoga teacher with 500 hours of yoga teacher training). When you bring in layers of sounds, your thoughts start to dissipate. When thoughts dissolve and were totally within ourselves, its a state of oneness.

During the 90-minute sound bath, the duo will play meditation and crystal sound bowls, harmonium, gong, didgeridoo, hang drums, a rain drum, egg shakers and more. Attendees are encouraged to bring camping chairs or warm blankets to sit on. Though the ground is concrete, its cold in the cave about 55 degrees.

For those who fear feeling claustrophobic, Canopy Hall is fairly large, about 200 feet by 30 feet by 60 feet, says Ann Miller, Cave of the Winds operations manager. But if it begins to feel like too much, people can exit easily and quickly.

Sound healing is thousands of years old, says Neufeld, and works through vibration. Without even realizing it, we use sound to stir up different emotions and mindsets. We might listen to certain songs or artists to pump ourselves up when we exercise. Or listen to sad love songs when were brokenhearted.

Consider how different genres of music make you feel: How does the sound frequency of heavy metal or rap music affect you? It can be agitating to some nervous systems. What about wind chimes and rainfall sounds? Those are sounds many find soothing.

If it all sounds like malarkey to you, a 2016 study on the effects of Tibetan singing bowl meditation on mood, anxiety, pain and spiritual well-being might change your mind. The study found that following the sound meditation, participants reported significantly less tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood.

We are all energy and also a lot of water, says Neufeld. The impact of sound goes into every cell and tunes the instrument of our own being. Its a powerful thing to work with sound.

Even if youre a nonbeliever in the healing power of sound and vibration, its still worthy of experiencing.

Instruments sound really pretty. (The cave) has great acoustics, says Miller. Weve done choirs in the cave for that reason. I know it sounds great.

Contact the writer: 636-0270

Contact the writer: 636-0270

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'Sound bath' coming to Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs | Live Well - Colorado Springs Gazette

Framed as a series of tableaux, in which the residents of a seaside town on the Galician coast appear to be stuck in timeunmoving against the changing scenery, yet constantly thinking through voiceoverwriter/director Lois Patios gorgeously trippy Red Moon Tide oscillates between fairy tale and visual essay creating an uneven narrative that is often overshadowed by the films compositional beauty.

Mourning the loss of Rubio, a diver whose main job is to retrieve the bodies of those who died in shipwrecks, the unnamed town has become stuck. Bodies crowd the streets, homes, and shorelines, but never move. All stuck in a limbo, Patios main narrative unfurls through voiceover as the residents fill in the backstory of Rubio, and the fight that he had with an unnamed mythical creature. In doing so, Rubios death has frozen the town, leaving residents with only their thoughts as time goes by, without anyone ever being sure if theyve been there a few days or a thousand years.

Purposely fragmentary, Patio appears more concerned with amassing stories of loss, rather than collecting these individual moments into any type of coherent narrative. Repeated cycles of narration, either focusing on Rubios death or the purposeless of time, begin to strain after a while. Eventually invoking Macbeth, three witches show up, the only ones able to move through the town, and set about attempting to unstick the people. How they go about this is anyones guess, despite covering the villagers with white sheets for some purpose. Yet all of these developments are wordlessly portrayed, as Red Moon Tide focalizes mood over method. What the rules of this curse are is anyones guess.

Patio, who also serves as cinematographer, has crafted a visually arresting film, creating a series of moments that foreground the stillness of the town and the people who reside in it. We witness he repeated cyclical progression of days into nights and tides pushing up against the coast. Life appears to go on around the villagers, but how much of that life is movement forward versus closed loops? In contrasting the two, the film appears to argue for the interrelation of progress or regression. What it means to move forward, and how trauma and grief impede that development.

Where the film falters, however, is in its invocation of the mythical. Who Rubio is, and what significance his fight has on the town, is too opaque. Patio eventually retreats into, paradoxically,over-explanation and under-development, as the witches descend and Rubio becomes the focal point, as if not trusting the audiences attention to be held on a series of feature-length still lives. That sentiment may have a tinge of truth as the successive series of voiceover narration based around ideas of loss and temporal manipulation can feel a touch repetitive. In its latter moments, the film plunges into the inexplicable, both in regards to what is actually happening on the screen, and what significance they have in relation to the narrative that preceded it.

The film is then bifurcated into two sections, pre-arrival of the witches and post. The earlier section is a profoundly beautiful reflection on grief, coupled with a tantalizingly under-explained sci-fi concept. The latter section serves as a corrective, not only going into too much detail about the rules behind the supposed mythical curse, but also frustratingly leaving behind the thematic undercurrents of the earlier section in favor of an entirely new protagonist in Rubio. Red Moon Tide is obviously the work of a director willing to push the boundaries of visual narrative, but he doesnt see that work fully through.

Red Moon Tide premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival

Grade: B-

BerlinaleFestivalsLois PatioRed Moon Tide

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Berlin Review: Red Moon Tide is One-Half of a Beautiful Meditation on Trauma and Loss - The Film Stage

Central Hall

The Commons at Central Hall in Dover-Foxcroft

The Commons at Central Hall in Dover-Foxcroft

Beth Ranagan, Special to the Piscataquis Observer March 1, 2020

At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11 at The Commons at Central Hall, NAMI Piscataquis County will host a video presentation entitled, Meditation and Prayer: How Spiritual Practices Can Be Powerful Tools to Overcome Depression and Anxiety.

Whether you are a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu, chances are that you engage in the spiritual practices of prayer and meditation, especially during times of physical and mental pain or illness. By practicing religious or spiritual activities, you tend to become depressed less often and recover from any depression more quickly, Dr. Harold Koenig, MD, of Duke University reported in his Handbook of Religion and Health after surveying thousands of studies on the effects of prayer and meditation on health.

Why is this so? Dr. David Spiegel, MD, psychiatrist at Stanford University, found in studies of MRIs that, Praying involves the deeper parts of the brain (specifically, the cortex). These parts of the brain are involved in self-reflection and self-soothing.

Dr. Loretta Breuning, PhD., professor at California State University, found in her research that when we pray, neural pathways are activated to release the feel-good hormone oxytocin.

Author of the 1993 book, Healing Words, Dr. Larry Dossey, MD, ignited the interest and practice of prayer by doctors and nurses following his deep dive into the research literature of the last half of the 20th century. Since that time, Dossey has pointed to the existing positive evidence of prayer use with patients to enlighten his fellow professionals to include spiritual practices in their medicine.

More recently, there have been more and more supportive studies. Research from Columbia Universitys Teachers College, spearheaded by Dr. Lisa Miller, PhD, professor and researcher, found that prayer and meditation may bring about better depression treatment outcomes because the brain cortex actually thickens as a result of spiritual and religious activities. A Baylor University study published in the Journal of Religion found that praying to a loving and protective God can relieve anxiety-related disorders, while researcher Matt Bradshaw, PhD, found that emotional comfort is experienced through prayer. Research by S. Jain and associates, reported in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine (2007), found meditation reduces stress and promotes positive mood states.

At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11 at The Commons at Central Hall, NAMI Piscataquis County will host a video presentation entitled, Meditation and Prayer: How Spiritual Practices Can Be Powerful Tools to Overcome Depression and Anxiety. You can learn how people have used their connection with a higher power to help themselves through their mental health challenges and how having a positive spiritual belief can lower the risk for mental illness. While previous video presentations have looked at resources from without, such as supplements, food, detoxification, medications, and cognitive behavioral therapy, this presentation explores the resources within yourself for spiritual development.

If you would like to attend this presentation, please register at 207-924-7903 or at nami.piscataquis@gmail.com.

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The role of spiritual practices in healing depression and anxiety - observer-me.com

Pixar specializes in tales of people, animals, and artificial intelligence coping with loss: of a spouse (Up), of human contact (the Toy Story films), of love (WALL-E). But like a lot of Hollywood dream-workers, Pixars storytellers also believe in believing. And faith in something, anything, is essential to the studios latest feature, Onward, as the heroes of this comic fantasy are two teenage elves who go searching for the magical gemand the self-assuranceneeded to briefly resurrect their departed and sorely missed father. On the occasion of the films release, join us in revisiting the Pixar canon, ranked from worst to best. Mark Jenkins

Editors Note: This entry was originally published on June 21, 2013.

The effect of the Toy Story films is practically primal. They appeal to anyone whos ever cared about a toyone they outgrew, gave away, or painfully left behind somewhere. These films, with scant manipulation and much visual and comic invention, thrive on giving toys a conscience and imagining what adventures they have when we turn our backs to them. Conversely, the effect of Cars and its infinitely worse sequel, toons about dudes-as-cars not quite coping with their enormous egos and their contentious bromances, is entirely craven in the way it humorlessly, unimaginatively, and uncritically enshrines the sort of capitalist-driven desires Pixars youngest target audience is unable to relate to. Unless, that is, they had a douchebag older brother in the family who spent most of his childhood speaking in funny accents and hoarding his piggy-bank money to buy his first hot rod. Ed Gonzalez

Maybe its my general aversion to Nascar, or anything chiefly targeted at below-the-line states. Maybe its that Larry the Cable Guys Mater is the Jar Jar Binks of animated film. Or maybe its just that a routinely plotted movie about talking cars is miles beneath Pixars proven level of ingenuity, not to mention artistry (okay, well give those handsome heartland vistas a pass). Whatever the coffin nail, Cars, if not its utterly needless sequel, is thus far the tepid, petroleum-burning nadir of the Pixar brand, the first of the studios films to feel like its not just catering, but kowtowing, to a specific demographic. Having undeservedly spawned more merchandising than a movie thats literally about toys, Carss cold commercialism can still be felt today, with a just-launched theme park at Disneyland. And while CG people are hardly needed to give a Pixar film humanity, its perhaps telling that this, one of the animation houses few fully anthropomorphic efforts, is also its least humane. R. Kurt Osenlund

The Good Dinosaur has poignant moments, particularly when a human boy teaches Arlo, the titular protagonist, how to swim in a river, and there are funny allusions to how pitiless animals in the wild can be. But the film abounds in routine, featherweight episodes that allow the hero to predictably prove his salt to his family, resembling a cross between City Slickers and Finding Nemo. Theres barely a villain, little ambiguity, and essentially no stakes. There isnt much of a hero either. Arlo is a collection of insecurities that have been calculatedly assembled so as to teach children the usual lessons about bravery, loyalty, and self-sufficiency. The Good Dinosaur is the sort of bland holiday time-killer that exhausted parents might describe as cute as a way of evading their indifference to it. Children might not settle for it either, and one shouldnt encourage them to. Chuck Bowen

Its perfectly fair to walk into Monsters University with a wince, wondering what Toy Story 3 hath wrought, and lamenting the fact that even Pixar has fallen into Hollywoods post-recession safe zone of sequel mania and brand identification. Whats ostensibly worse, Monsters University jumps on the prequel, origin-story bandwagon, suggesting our sacred CGI dream machine has even been touched bygulpthe superhero phenomenon. But, while admittedly low on the Pixar totem pole, Monsters University proves a vibrant and compassionate precursor to Monsters, Inc., the kid-friendly film that, to boot, helped to quell bedroom fears. Tracing Mike and Sulleys paths from ill-matched peers to super scarers, Monsters University boasts Pixars trademark attention to detail (right down to abstract modern sculptures on the quad), and it manages to bring freshness to the underdog tale, which is next to impossible these days. Osenlund

Cars 3 is content to explore the end of Lightning McQueens (Owen Wilson) career with a series of pre-packaged sports-film clichsan old dog trying to learn new tricks, struggling with a sport that seems to have passed him by, and facing, for the first time in his career, a sense of vulnerability. The template turns out to be a natural fit for the Cars universe, organically integrating racing into the fabric of the film and rendering it with a visceral sense of speed, excitement, and struggle. Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) is a welcome addition, a plucky foil to McQueen whos also a three-dimensional presence in her own right, much more richly developed than one-joke characters like Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and Luigi (Tony Shalhoub). Cruzs presence also allows the filmmakers to bring some social conscience to this sometimes backward-looking franchise, exploring the discouraging pressures placed on young female athletes while also nodding toward the historical exclusion of women and racial minorities from racing. Watson

For those who waited patiently for the first Pixar film to be led by a female protagonist, its understandable that Brave might have been a disappointment, arriving after the studio hit its artistic peak, and suffering from a handful of authorship woes. But the feminist fable remains the most underrated of this revered brands lot, not least because of Princess Meridas eye-popping head full of aptly unruly hair. The movie may enchant with its focus on Scottish lore (an element arguably explored better in How to Train Your Dragon), and it may deserve a hand for its girl-power, who-needs-a-husband trajectory, but the distincitve bit that puts the lump in your throat is the mother-daughter story. From Aladdin to The Little Mermaid, Cinderella to Tangled, princess tales almost always deal with the heroines link to a father or an evil mother surrogate, never an actual mom who imposes relatable, resonant rules. This far more interesting dichotomy gives Brave an especially fresh and expressly female perspective. And while Meridas mothers transformation into a bear may seem gonzo and random, its actually perfectly appropriate: Together, mother and daughter must fight to undo a beast of a burden, one thats historically, symbolically masculine in nature. Osenlund

Onward doesnt have a distinctive visual style, but it does showcase Pixars trademark mastery of depth, light, and shadow. As in Dan Scanlons Monsters University, the fanciful and the everyday are well harmonized. Thats still a neat trick, but its no more novel than Ian (Tom Holland) and Barleys (Chris Pratt) experiences. Animated features often borrow from other films, in part to keep the grown-ups in the crowd interested, but the way Onward recalls at various points The Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Ghostbusters feels perfunctory and uninspired. And it all leads to a moral thats at least as hoary as that of The Wizard of Oz or Peter Pan. While Onward begins as a story of bereavement, it soon turns to celebrating the payoffs of positive thinking. That you can accomplish whatever you believe you can is a routine movie message, but it can feel magical when presented with more imagination than Onward ever musters. Jenkins

The gentle counterpart to Dreamworks Animations Antz, A Bugs Life deals in a wealth of familiar themes and narratives, peddling the importance of community inherent to ant populations, positioning unlikely hero Flik as a fish out of water when he seeks help for the colony, and reinforcing the tyke-targeted notion that being small isnt so bad (a maxim preached to young ant Dot, voiced by a very young Hayden Panettiere). But when Flik, a country bug, goes searching for warriors to combat the ants oppressive grasshopper nemeses, and instead returns with a ragtag troupe of circus insects (think the gang from James and the Giant Peach performing amid the carnival debris of Charlottes Web), a more intriguing theme emerges. As the actors and acrobats help the ants to craft a massive bird (a salvation-bringing idol that will hopefully scare off the enemy), they also introduce art as an alternative to fear and violence, and the film presents entertainment as something not just diverting, but heroic. Osenlund

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Review: Days Is an Unsentimental Meditation on the Need for Reciprocity - slantmagazine