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Reviews
Minions (2015)
If I know the minions enough...
If I know the minions enough, I felt like this could have been quite a bit funnier than it turned out to be. The storyline for the most part was okay, but the movie certainly was no real classic. If you're into the whole Despicable Me concept, it is still fairly interesting at how the "history" behind the little yellow creatures came to be in the first place. For one thing, I just didn't feel like I was laughing as much as I expected and some of the dialogues and jokes just didn't feel, well, "Despicable Meish" as much. It did have a solid ending I will say (most people could probably just as well guess what it is story-wise if they know the series enough). As I would agree with one other audience critic: it did lack the Despicable Me charm I will admit, which is really the only real negative to this besides one of my overall opinions: I feel like it would be hard to make a film only starring the minions (Gru stole both shows the most I would say, with even the minions not quite making second place). However, this prequel was okay overall, with a solid ending as I mentioned before.
Brave (2012)
B-
Are you willing to pay the price your freedom will cost?
Princess Merida is scheduled to be given away to a suitor to marry. A contest is held for her hand and she decides to participate on her own behalf. She has a vision that young adults can pick their own mate. She'll have a hard time convincing the elders that this path is appropriate, but that won't stop her from trying.
"There are those who say fate is something beyond our command. That destiny is not our own, but I know better. Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it."
Branda Chapman, director of The Prince of Egypt, delivers Brave in her second major motion picture. The storyline for this picture is above average but far from epic. The animation style is first rate and classic Pixar and the characters are fairly interesting; but again, maybe not as good as other Pixar films. The script is above average and the voices are well selected and include Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kelly Macdonald, and Julie Walters.
"At least we have hair!"
"And all of our teeth!"
I watched Brave last Christmas but fell asleep on and off watching it. I just sat and finally watched it all the way through, and it just felt okay...a step below some of the current series like How to Train Your Dragon, Wall-E, Incredibles, etc. Overall, this is worth watching once, and is borderline worth adding to your DVD collection, but nothing special for the genre.
"I didn't ask her to change you into a bear! I just asked her to change... you."
Grade: B-
Snezhnaya Koroleva 3: Ogon' i Lyod (2016)
Very good fairytale!
Today, my daughters and I watched the third part of the Snow Queen trilogy. The youngest daughter adores this story) The cartoon is about 1.5 hours, but the view flew completely unnoticed. I liked the work of Russian authors. Kai and Gerda grew up, make money for their living stories, miss their parents and will of chance again become involved in the adventure. Very nice characters, especially Gerda. Really, very sweet - I suddenly wanted to put my daughter's hair like hers! Trendy, slender, charming, and when she finds herself in the outfit of a "half-snow queen" is awesome. How adorable is her love, how familiar these adolescent loving looks are! solid fascination! Animation is very beautiful, good special effects (but a cartoon is not completely overloaded by it), a clear plot design, adventures of heroes, interesting turns... There were several scenes where little spectators had to worry. But the magnificent ending has very pleased me and my daughters! Summary: the movie is absolutely to be seen especialy by young girls!
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Monster Inc.
In the aftermath of my lukewarm review of The Incredibles, someone asked me what I would consider the great PIXAR film. I didn't want to give an immediate response without revisiting all the titles I had loved the first time round, before my critical faculties had developed to their current level. But until such a point in time, Monsters, Inc. is a very good candidate, being a truly great children's film with all the hallmarks of what makes PIXAR great.
All the best PIXAR films have a simple but engaging premise, from which an entire world can be constructed. With Toy Story 1 & 2, it was that your toys are alive and will miss you when you're not there. What could just be a gimmick was expanded out into a fascinating, complex and heart-warming story about childhood, jealousy, rejection and the fear of being abandoned. PIXAR have always been very good storytellers, laying the proper foundations of a world in which memorable characters can flourish.
With Monsters, Inc., the premise is equally straightforward: there are monsters in your wardrobe (closet if you will), but they are more afraid of you than you are of them, and they rely on you to function. From this idea is built up the entire system of the factory for harnessing children's screams, the means by which monsters can travel to our world, the hierarchies within the workplace, and the central comic conceit of a child who escapes into the monster world and isn't afraid of Sully or Mike.
Even in this set-up, Monsters, Inc. presents itself as a really great twist on monster stories, giving insight into the nature and purpose of monsters in our childhood and culture. It's a film about children learning to grow up and face their fears: either the monsters simply cease to be scary (as happens early on, when a door is shredded), or the children end up actively laughing at them, which the monsters eventually embrace. The discovery later in the film that laughter is more powerful than scares reinforces this message about standing up to your fears and overcoming them. It also ties in with one of PIXAR's overarching themes, namely coming to terms with the people we love growing up.
There is also a neat little role reversal in the film regarding the choice of monsters. The employees at Monsters, Inc. are assigned to a specific child to extract the most possible scares out of a given subject. Rather than the children creating the monsters, as manifestations of their fears and uncertainties, the monsters are tailored for them in the hope that their fears might manifest themselves. This approach within the fictional universe is complimentary with PIXAR's notions of creativity: their films have broad appeal but they are built around emotions and feelings that children will respond to, rather than asking them to respond to something they know nothing about.
On an entirely different level, Monsters, Inc. is also a film about good business practices. The prosperity of the company is directly in proportion to the quality of life enjoyed by its employees. At the start of the film, everyone is working flat out to avert an energy crisis and the management keep complaining when anyone falls short. They even resort to underhand tactics to achieve their goal, rather than thinking the problem through with their employees at the heart. In contrast, Sully's management decisions, from the new energy source to the brighter colours in the workplace, make dealing with the daily grind a lot more fun.
There are a lot of wonderful touches to the visual world of Monsters, Inc. which reinforce the business angle to it. Mike and Sully's world has a lot of blue-collar qualities, from the helmets to the metal lunchboxes, but unlike The Incredibles, it doesn't feel like these adult characteristics are being forced upon a younger audience. The paperwork conversations are structured much better and take up less time than the insurance conversations in Brad Bird's film: not only are they shorter but they are not an integral part of the story. We get a sense of how Monsters, Inc. works as a company without Pete Docter having to labour over details at the expense of his characters.
While Docter needn't labour in his storytelling, there are a number of nice references to monster movies buried in Monsters, Inc., reinforcing our impression of PIXAR as a thorough team who are passionate and well-researched. The restaurant at which Mike and Celia eat is called Harryhausen's, after Ray Harryhausen, the great stop-motion animator and special effects pioneer. Celia's hair is reminiscent of the Gorgons in the Greek Myths, in which Harryhausen dabbled at the peak of his career. There are also several little nods to other PIXAR works in Sully's last scene with Boo: she hands him a Jesse doll from Toy Story 2, the ball from the PIXAR logo and a clown fish (Finding Nemo was in production at this time).
Even if you don't pick up on all the film's deeper themes or references to other works, Monsters, Inc. is still a great piece of storytelling and a really funny family comedy. While Mike and Sully haven't become quite as indelible as Woody and Buzz, they still make a great double act with believable characterisations and great physicality. John Goodman's lugubrious delivery is beautifully balanced out by Billy Crystal's fast-paced dialogue, and unlike many Dreamworks productions it feels like the famous faces are playing characters rather than just letting loose with their own distinctive shtick.
Alongside the main pairing, there are a number of really good performances in the supporting cast. Jennifer Tilly is very good as Celia, her gravelly voice capturing the harsher side of the character while being suitably smitten with her ""googly bear"". Steve Buscemi is well-cast as the villainous Randall, with the role playing to the same slippery, scheming quality that he brought to Fargo or Reservoir Dogs. James Coburn, in his final performance, balances the mentor-like role he has to Sully with all the ruthlessness and frustration surrounding his position. Best of all, however, is Mary Gibbs, who is simply adorable as Boo. Gibbs was only two-and-a-half she was cast, and was so restless that the recording staff had to follow her around with a microphone.
Most of the humour in Monsters, Inc. is visual, but it's superbly timed and really quite inventive. The scenes involving the CDA are wonderfully over-the-top, parodying any number of scenes in thrillers where a SWAT team must invade a building and remove a threat. Many of the best gags are throwaways, like the jelly-like monster slipping through the grating in the street, or Randall's multiple colour-changes when Boo is bashing him over the head. There's also some good dry humour between Roz and Mike regarding his paperwork, and when Crystal is required to improvise, it's a lot funnier than his stuff in The Princess Bride.
While Monsters, Inc. isn't primarily an action film, it does have several good set-pieces which will keep children entertained. The door chase sequence is to some extent a one-upping of the luggage chase at the end of Toy Story 2, but it's still executed in a very neat way with good editing. Similarly the scenes with the Abominable Snowman (voiced by Toy Story alumnus John Ratzenberger) results in a decent slice of action with a solid punchline. Neither of these scenes are particularly ground-breaking, but they do punctuate the slower, sadder moments.
Monsters, Inc. is also noteworthy for the visual leaps it made, for CG animation in general and for PIXAR'S aesthetic in particular. The film utilised a new animation programme called Fitz to accurately produce the appearance and movements of Sully's hair, including the correct amounts of shadowing on different parts of his fur. Without these innovations, Docter's subsequent film Up would not have looked half as inviting. Ironically, the title sequence feels like a product of 1960s Disney, being reminiscent of 101 Dalmatians in both its pacing and design.
Monsters, Inc. is a great and funny family comedy which still holds up really well after both 12 years and its recent prequel. While its technical innovations can be marvelled at in hindsight, its real achievements lie in its beautifully crafted story, great characters, memorable performances and the nuanced ideas that these raise together. While it's not quite up to the high standard of Toy Story 2 or Finding Nemo, it remains one of PIXAR's finest achievements.
Sing (2016)
Sing!
I can carry a tune; carefully with both hands... but that's about it. I'm like most people who've got an ear for music but no talent for the singing; more than slightly obsessed with animated singing cartoons. But you can't just go throwing some tunes on screen and expect me to be all in. I've got standards, blame Disney and Pixar, you must hit me somewhere good and give me a reason to add you to my wall of animated singing glory (yes, I have a shelf of movies that all require singing to happen - sooooo).
Sing has a back story familiar in the animated movie world. Anthropomorphized animals living in a parallel world to the human world going through life struggles with theme songs and musical soliloquies. But it doesn't feel like it's already been ""done"" and the daily life and struggles in this town populated by animals provides a relatable background to pull you into the story without wasting opportunities for authentic and touching moments made more so by combining them with satirical hilarity and off-color humor - there a very good reason it's PG and not G.
Buster Moon is a too slick for his own good theater owner who's living his life one step ahead of creditors and a final cut off notice from the electric company. Clinging to his dream has brought out the huckster in him. Buster voiced by Mathew McConaughey comes across more as unbelievably optimistic than shifty - trust me this character cuts it a little close to the ponzi-scheme runner edge. You've got the quirky (glass eye-having) ancient-as-all-get-out assistant who of course has our beleaguered theater owners back no matter how much things are falling apart or going awry. She makes a massive mistake (this is why copy editing is important before going to press, people) which becomes the secret waiting in the wings to drop the other shoe of disaster on Buster's head... or so you think.
Each of the contestants have a mini-backstory that explains what brings them (or holds them back from) to the stage and there's something in each storyline to interest each movie go-er:
- You've got the rock chick Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) playing second string to her boyfriend with delusions of rock greatness Lance (voiced by Beck Bennett).
- The talented stay-at-home mom Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who put her career aspirations aside to marry and raise her (25) children and support her career-focused, completely tuned out husband, Norman (Nick Offerman).
- Smooth-talking street hustler and saxophonist Mike (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) looking to parlay his participation - an anticipation of winning the big prize - in the singing competition into cash that opens the doors to the life of status, luxury, and wealth he's intent on becoming accustom to.
- Street tough Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) son of ""smash and grab"" gang leader Big Daddy (voiced Peter Serafinowicz) he's living - reluctantly - with both feet in the underworld and his heads in the clouds where the music's calling his name.
- Then there's Meena (voiced by Tori Kelly) sweet and shy with a killer voice and a huge case of stage fright with a little social anxiety to even things out.
They're all here for different reasons. They'll be at least one you can behind. The secondary characters and scenes add color and flavor like any good animated movie should. The music is an ode to some of the best (and worst) popular music as to offer. There's a good enough mixed bag of songs from past decades (it's a little like name that tune with the song snippets) to hit the spot for all age groups. Honestly some of the best irony and hilarity in the movie are the song match-ups to animal characters during the audition process. It's well drawn and nicely paced to keep you interested and entertained. The story has its sad moments - let's just say I have mad respect for what Buster's dad did to raise the money for him to buy the theater in the first place - coupled with ridiculousness to keep it from being bogged down in the maudlin.
This movie isn't trying to make you dig for deep emotions or push you to make sweeping philosophical changes to your life view. But it's got some down to earth and simplistic lessons about being honest, asking for help, owning your mistakes, and not giving up.
Sing is part love letter to the shrinking world of theater and live music venues and a call to arms for going after your dreams and seeing your success as possible long after everyone else has written you off. It's equal parts simple entertainment and commentary into how we relate to ourselves and each other.
It's not the best I've ever seen but it certainly makes my list movies I'll watch to adjust my mood without putting me through the ringer.
An animated movie sprinkled with musical moments about a down on his luck koala trying to save his dream by hosting a singing competition that in turn fuels the ambition of other dreamers...that's totally what we need for the Holiday viewing schedule. Right?
Why yes, yes, it is.
Zootopia (2016)
Zootopia review.
What a wonderfully delightful movie. Some of the the best characters I've seen in a movie and so funny. The sloths are hilarious. Zootopia is going to smash the holiday box office open as it is intelligent and fun the whole way through. The big thing to consider for this movie is whether it is suitable for young children. I had already read some reviews that were saying 5 and 6 years olds may find some scenes scary. And that could be true. I didn't think the boo scenes were that startling, there is really only one jump moment in the whole thing that made everyone leap out of their seats. The part I found most intense was the language. It is not swearing but the characters are rather forceful with their words. If you are uncomfortable with characters aggressively scratching or pushing each other while they say things like "you jerk, shut up", then this movie may be too old for your child. The one thing I can say without reserve is that all adults should go see it. You will love it.
Coco (2017)
I have to say few words, Pixar
The nitpicky asshats will point out why the movie's called Coco since they did the Legend of Zelda thing where the titular character isn't the protagonist and is instead a kid named Miguel. But that's not the point. I admit the movie gave off a bad first impression not simply because of Pixar's decline in quality in recent years but also because the teaser trailer gave off the impression that it was going to be a Book of Life knockoff. Although in that movie, he doesn't even die until the third act which trailers made the main selling point. However, that has always been Pixar's thing. The trailers make the movie look like your generic animated comedy but are more than that. And Coco is no exception. Once again, Pixar demonstrates how they're still the best in the business when it comes to modern animated movies. They're not terrified of moral guardians, something which even DreamWorks succumbed to after How to Train Your Dragon 2 despite what my opinions have to say about that. The animation is beautifully crafted. The animators once again worked their asses off and it shows. There's always a fine level of detail added. It deals with the themes of death from a child's perspective amazingly well and balances out slapstick antics with skeletons and a fine level of poignancy especially near the end of the movie. The music. Oh, God, the music. It's practically tearjerking. Bring some onions as an excuse for crying. Since most of Pixar's cast and crew was Latino, it showed that this was indeed Pixar's love letter towards Mexican culture, specifically Dia de los Muertos. Nothing feels like it's racist. There's is a predictable plot twist since we're constantly whacked on the head about a certain fact regarding Miguel's family but what movie hasn't done that? I think that was the writer's point. That you shouldn't make blind beliefs based solely off of pictures. Looks can be deceiving. Family comes first, all dreams have their own limitations, we should always consider the consequences of pursuing fame. And also, don't steal on the Day of the Dead if you're Mexican. Much like Inside Out and, to a lesser extent, Finding Dory, Coco shows that Pixar still hasn't lost their touch. Let's hope Incredibles 2 is just as awesome as the first movie. It has the same director though given Tomorrowland's reputation, we might have to be wary when going to see it. Only time will tell.