Dallas Stars: Finding Inspiration From Pixar During The Season Pause

With the NHL completing its second full week of the pause, many Dallas Stars fans and sports fans in general are still contemplating how to spend their time. So, why not turn to Pixar movies in this trying period?

Time is an interesting concept. Though it never changes and is consistent in nature, it always seems as though we have either too much or not enough of it. Over the past 14 days, we’ve had plenty of time to wrestle with the merits of time.

It’s been almost two weeks since the NHL and every other professional, college, and minor sports league paused, suspended, delayed, or cancelled the remainder 2019-20 season. And while two weeks seems like a relatively short period of time in general, it’s probably felt closer to two years for those involved and invested in the sports community.

In addition to feeling longer than they actually were, these past two weeks have provided a challenge for different members of the sports community.

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For writers, it’s provided the test of coming up with story ideas even though there are no new events to report on and no players, coaches, or staff to interview on a daily basis. From my own perspective, this is the longest I’ve gone without writing a story about the Dallas Stars for any publication since April 2014 when I started with Blackout Dallas.

For content creators, the challenge has been rooted in trying to concoct a talking point or storyline from thin air. There are no stats to play off of, no hot streaks or slumps by players or teams to work with, and no quotes to build on.

For those in the sports broadcasting world, these two weeks have created a relatively empty void. With control rooms and demo sets empty due to a lack of new content to present, produce, and air, the empty time has presented a unique challenge both mentally and financially for all involved.

And for the typical sports fan, no new games to indulge in, storylines to follow, opinions to debate, and analysts to label as ‘delirious’ and ‘idiotic’ leaves an unfamiliar feeling of dissociation from sports.

For myself, I’ve spent the past two weeks of self-quarantine doing a number of things to keep myself either active in the sports world, active in covering the Dallas Stars, or active to keep my brain from turning to mush.

In addition to covering FOX Sports Southwest’s Encore presentations of the top Dallas Stars games from this season for our social media channels and recording a daily episode for the Locked On Stars Podcast (I’d be forever grateful if you gave it a listen and subscribed), I’ve also dabbled in learning how to play the ukulele (let’s just say it’s a work in progress) and playing NHL 20 on Xbox One.

I’ve also spent a part of each evening watching Pixar movies on Disney+. Just about every night for the past week or so, I’ve picked a film at random and watched it in its entirety. While I’ve seen a handful of them in the past few years, there are some that I haven’t come across in almost two decades.

So, it’s been a fun exercise.

What I’ve gained from this endeavor – besides a substantial dose of childhood nostalgia – is a handful of valuable lessons. Spinning a valuable lesson into each film was likely of prime importance to those directing and producing the movie at the time; but as it turns out, these messages can also serve sports fans and society as a whole at the moment.

In the past week, I’ve watched Inside Out, Finding Dory, The Good Dinosaur, Up, and Finding Nemo. And while the plan is to watch the remaining Pixar flicks over the next two weeks while we continue to self-quarantine in an effort to help flatten the curve on the COVID-19 pandemic, these first five movies provided a good jumping off point for a 22-year-old writer/social media person covering the Dallas Stars that’s trying to get rid of writer’s block with plenty of time on his hands.

DISCLAIMER: if you haven’t seen one or all of these movies, I would highly recommend that you do so while also abiding by the CDC guidelines and practicing social distancing/quarantining. It’s a terrific way to spend 90 minutes each day.

Inside Out

Let’s begin with Inside Out. It’s hands-down one of my favorite Pixar movies (though I’ll likely say that about each one) because, unlike many of them that try to focus on happiness, it shines an important spotlight on sadness and grief. It centers around five different emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust) and their day-to-day routine inside the head of Riley, an 11-year-old from Minnesota (and avid hockey player) that is forced to move to San Francisco with her mom and dad.

Early on in the movie, Joy, the ultimate protagonist, says, “Alright everyone, fresh start! We’re gonna have a good day, which will turn into a good week, which will turn into a good year, which will turn into a good life!” The majority of emotions in Riley’s head agree with her, but Sadness has another plan.

Once Joy and Sadness are essentially booted from Riley’s subconscious and forced to find their way back to

“headquarters”, Riley goes through a tough transition while unable to access two primary emotions and eventually resorts to planning to run away from her new home.

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Throughout the movie, Joy begins to learn the importance of Sadness. While she had become accustomed to brushing Sadness off and putting her in a corner as often as possible, she begins to realize the benefits of her counterpart. That leads her to letting Sadness control Riley’s thoughts and actions in the most important scene of the film, which eventually leads to a beautiful resolution (and they lived happily ever after, in other words).

In life, we so often forget the importance of sadness. We are so focused on creating joy on a daily basis that we forget why sadness and pain exist. They exist to remind us that life involves hardships, and those hardships in turn help us fully comprehend and appreciate the good, happy times when they reappear.

Through two weeks with no sports, you’ve likely experienced some sadness, confusion, or loneliness/emptiness. That’s natural. Writers don’t know what to write, producers and creators have nothing to create, and fans have nothing to yell about in a time of year that is usually overflowing with sports content.

In an unprecedented time like this, it’s easy to keep looking for joy and trying to avoid the sadness. But sometimes, you just have to let the sadness catch up to you and embrace it for what it is.

Now, I’m not recommending that you throw a pity party and sink into a pit of despair. But while the absence of sports is tough, it’s a reminder of just how good we have it when they are up and running. Joy is always fun and brings a lot of positivity to our lives. But Sadness brings depth and helps us fully remember all of the good we have going in our lives and just how much it should mean to us.

Let’s remember to not take it for granted while we continue to do our part in neutralizing and stopping the spread of this pandemic.

Finding Dory/The Good Dinosaur

Finding Dory and The Good Dinosaur both boast similar messages and lessons, so let’s clump them into one. In the sequel to Finding Nemo (we’ll get to this one in a moment), Dory is on a mission to find her parents. In the first movie, she develops a friendship with a clownfish named Marlin and helps him find his only son, Nemo, after he is taken by deep sea divers and placed in a fish tank in a dentist’s office.

The second movie flips the script and has Dory, a forgetful fish that suffers from short-term remembery loss (I love the language in these movies), searching for her family. The journey takes her through the Marine Life Institute where she meets new friends like Hank and Bailey and reconnects with an old friend name Destiny. Meanwhile, Marlin and Nemo go on an adventure of their own trying to find Dory inside the aquarium (don’t get me started on the hilarity that is Becky the loon).

The Good Dinosaur focuses on Arlo, an Apatosaurus that is one of three dinosaurs born to Poppa and Momma. Unlike his siblings, Arlo is smaller and scrawnier, which leads to him having trouble doing his part on the family farm (yes, these dinosaurs are agricultural geniuses). After losing Poppa in a flood and falling into the river chasing a critter (that turns out to be a young child named Spot) that was stealing the farm’s food, he must navigate his way back to the farm with the boy and face a number of different fears and challenges that most undersized dinosaurs probably wouldn’t be able to face.

That Balls Outta Here

In both movies, there’s an importance of family and standing up to fears that radiates in the plot. Dory takes on her memory problems and doesn’t let the fear of getting lost in the aquarium or in her own mind hold her back from finding her family. Arlo struggles with the loss of his father and his own inadequacies, but uses it as fuel once he realizes that he must find his way back home to help his family survive.

In a difficult time like this for those invested in the sports world, there are opportunities. Many are under voluntary self-quarantine (and to those who aren’t: get to it) or “Shelter-In-Place” protocols, and that leads to more time around family, roommates, or pets.

The fear here is the unknown presented by the novel coronavirus. The virus continues to spread across the world, there’s no known cure, and people are dying. And how do you stand up to a fear like that? Well, by doing your part. Keep your social distance. Wash your hands. Self-quarantine except for essential activities. Follow the CDC guidelines. Do whatever you can to help flatten the curve.

The second element of these movie plots is the importance of family. In the hustle and bustle of the usual world, we get so lost in the shuffle that we never seem to have enough time to spend with those most important to us. If you’re quarantined with family, watch a movie or play a game together each day. Eat meals together and spend time talking with each other. It will only grow you closer to them and help you cope with the loss of sports and your regular lifestyle. And it will be all the more worth it in the end.

Up

I’ll skip going over the first 15 minutes of the movie in which we see Carl Fredricksen meet Ellie in the early stages of his childhood and watch the two bond over their love for adventure. That bond turns into a happy marriage that runs for an undefined amount of time (I’m going to say around 60 years).

It’s the most sincere form of true love you’ll ever see in a children’s animated film. There’s highs, lows, joy, heartbreak, and everything else that comes with a long-term union between two people.

They started a money jar to save up funds for a trip to Paradise Falls that they have dreamed about since their childhoods, but life continues to get in the way of their savings. By the time they finally meet the desired number, Ellie is in the hospital and eventually passes away. It’s heartbreaking to watch it play out and you’d be hard pressed to tell me any differently.

Along Main Street

Soon after her passing, Carl attaches a bunch of balloons to the house he and his wife built together and floats to Paradise Falls (it is a kid’s movie, after all). He is unexpectedly accompanied by Russell, a Wilderness Explorer attempting to secure his Assisting The Elderly badge.

The two are whisked into the middle of a phantasmic world with talking dogs, brightly-colored snipes, and Charles Muntz, the explorer that Carl idolized as a child but quickly learns is trying to hunt down Kevin, a snipe that Carl and Russell have befriended. You’ll have to watch the movie if you want to know more about the twists and turns.

However, the motto that is used countless times and embodies the entire film is, “Adventure is out there.”

While we are all confined to our respective homes – or at least should be – it’s easy to dream of the adventures that could be going on in the sports world right now had life as we know it not have taken a severe left turn.

The Dallas Stars would have played their 73rd game of the 2019-20 season last night against the Los Angeles Kings at American Airlines Center. It’s the seventh Stars game that has now been postponed by the season pause. Would they have broken their six-game losing streak (0-4-2) by now? Might they even be on a winning streak with four of their seven would-be opponents (Florida, San Jose, Arizona, and Los Angeles) currently sitting outside the playoff picture?

Could they be back in the running for second or first place in the Central Division, or would they have fallen back into the wild card race? Would their offense be clicking again?

There’s a lot of different storylines that we could be following and reporting on at this very moment. The adventures that would be taking place are fun to dream on, sure.

That’s why it is all the more important to continue doing your part in this previously uncharted time.

Adventure is out there, and there isn’t a one of us in the sports community that can’t wait for it to return. The unpredictability, the impressive athletic feats, the perseverance, the storylines, the emotions, the mountains and valleys that come with each season; it’s all being missed right now.

But in order for that adventure to return, it’s going to take a little bit of muscle from everyone. If everyone does their part and chips in as they’re supposed to, we might be closer to the end of this pandemic than we think. But you must do your part in order for that to have a chance of happening.