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I’ve yet to attend the showing of an animated feature without noticing the resemblance of some of the characters to real and famous people. I could swear the little boy in “Rio” looked like Barack Obama. But I won’t hold it against him or the movie. A few other characters looked very familiar but I couldn’t put a name to them. I went to see this movie with daughter and granddaughter. First test, the movie kept the 7-year old interested, was not violent or sexual in any way, had a happy storyline and had the appropriate amount of action scenes as required to keep the young interested, to not lose them in boredom. <blockquote> Cast overview, first billed only: Karen Disher ... Mother Bird (voice) Jason Fricchione ... Truck Driver (voice) Sofia Scarpa Saldanha ... Young Linda (voice) Leslie Mann ... Linda (voice) Kelly Keaton ... Bookstore Customer / Lady Tourist (voice) Jesse Eisenberg ... Blu (voice) Wanda Sykes ... Chloe (The Goose) (voice) Jane Lynch ... Alice (The Other Goose) (voice) Rodrigo Santoro ... Tulio / Soccer Announcer (voice) Gracinha Leporace ... Dr. Barbosa (voice) Jamie Foxx ... Nico (voice) Will i Am ... Pedro (voice) (as will.i.am) Phil Miler ... Aviary Intern / Waiter (voice) Anne Hathaway ... Jewel (voice) Bernardo de Paula ... Sylvio / Kipo (voice) </blockquote> These movies are never the stuff of Academy Awards and they are formulaic. There must be a story line, there should be a chaste love interest ongoing, there should be a battle, however smallish, of good versus evil. The degree to which one such animated movie is better than another is in nuance. Rio had the most colorful characters of any recent animated movies I’ve chanced to see. First, the movie was about birds living in the heart of South America. Right there you’ve got a treasure trove of colorful and beautiful birds. As an aside, and as a bit of serendipity which brings a smile to my face, the main animated character in this story is a blue bird named …well “BLU”. So isn’t husband, who’s hardly any dedicated bird watcher, sitting at the dining room table one day, eating his dinner in front of the sliding glass doors, when he suddenly and with great surprise shouts “What kind of bird is that?” I turned to watch and for 1/100th of a second I saw a flash of deep blue wings. “The bird was completely blue!” husband shouted with surprise and joy. “It looked just like a cardinal only it was blue!” Somewhere in my mind the species of that bird was tempting me but I walked away to muddle it through. And I was a bit jealous that it was husband, who never fills the bird feeders which had attracted the bird to begin with, saw it for a much longer time then to rub salt in the wound…”Here it is again!” he shouts, only when I got back to the big window the deep blue bird was gone. It was an Indigo bunting, this within a week of having seen the movie RIO, which was about a beautiful blue bird which looked a lot like that Indigo Bunting. Husband becomes a bit insufferable, giving me details on Indigo Buntings, which are related to cardinals, as he informed me in one such info session, thus I should not forget that his first comments were that the blue bird at the feeders resembled a cardinal, only blue. The week before last husband spotted a pair of Orioles and I heard all about this for a week, but moving on. For the record, I DID see a flash of those inky blue wings so technically, I saw it too. For the record, sometimes I wonder if God doesn’t have a sense of humor what with these whimsical things happening, like seeing a glorious blue bird I’d never seen before…me, a dedicated bird watcher, the same week I watched an entire movie about a similar bird. For the record, God obviously has a touch of satire in Him for giving husband the bigger glance at one of His more beautiful creations. The love interest involves BLU and a lady bird, as well as a human couple, the female of which is BLU's human owner. Along with the beautiful birds that lend themselves quite well to color, there were playful monkeys, handsome drooling bull dogs, humans dressed in colorful costumes…the entire movie was as much a pleasure to the eyes as to the mind.
RATING 7.5/10 Bottom Line Disney’s 50 th animated feature film is somewhat feistier and fun than sentimental, making it a fresh, enjoyable romp, despite the dramatic weakness of the villain and Rapunzel’s plight. The Good The traditional fairy tale of Rapunzel forms the basis of this new animated film from Disney. The usual story is there, but the overall execution is much more fun and modern, with a feistiness that makes the whole endeavour fresh and engaging to watch. Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is more a tom-boy type heroine who, despite being afraid of disappointing her apparent mother Gothel (Donny Murphy), is not so afraid of the world and goes on an incredible adventure outside her tower when dashing Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) shows up in her life. Although the film is computer generated, the filmmakers in this instance modelled their work on traditional oil paintings which gives the film a unique look; a somewhat quasi-hybrid of CGI and old-style animation. The results are spectacular, and the film manages to successful combine these elements, offering the best facets of each in every image. Disney’s animated films are notable for their music, but the songs this time are not as in-your-face as in previous efforts, allowing the film to keep its more modern feel, an aspect which works very much in its favour. One of the reasons for this adjustment in tone may be that John Lasseter from Pixar was involved as a producer and may have imbued some of his sentiments in to the final product. “Tangled” is a lot of fun, is beautiful to look at, and quite thankfully does not dive in to overt sentimentality, even when the happy ending arrives, with Flynn finishing the film with a witty piece of narration. The Bad The weakness in the film largely stems from the villain, and by extension, Rapunzel’s obstacles that she has to overcome. Although Gothel is quite obviously not nice, she is not made particularly evil throughout the film, despite a few moments in the climax. As a villain therefore, she can be quite weak in terms of presence. Given Rapunzel’s free-spirited nature and lack of fear of the outside world, it does not seem to take much for her to defy her mother’s orders to stay in the tower. This is compounded by the fact that Gothel goes off for days at a time and all Rapunzel has to do is use her hair to escape to freedom. The film makes up for a lot of this by the adventure and banter between Flynn, Rapunzel and a number of other characters, but the lack of a strong villain is a weak point in this film.
Please note: this is a review for the 2000 anime film, not 2009 live-action movie. Set in 1966, somewhere in America, Blood: the Last Vampire tells the story of Saya (voiced by Youiki Kudo), a vampire slayer told to go undercover as a schoolgirl to kill the vampires that lurk about within the school premises. According to IMDb, Production I.G. wanted to make a three part anime series but due to budget and time restraints, they only had the money to make one installment and so they chose this, being the middle one and released it as a stand-alone film. It could have had a more simple storyline but the pity with Production I.G. is that they let Blood: the Last Vampire ’s unfinished feel show. We get little insight into both the film’s characters and storyline. For example, characters are barely developed and the film finishes just when we gain a little bit of insight into the protagonist, you know, when we start to find her interesting after about 40 minutes ! It’s a pity Production I.G. didn’t do enough work on the script in order to make the film’s short 40 minute running time (excluding end credits) more satisfying. The film could have been a little more simple and I don’t know why Production I.G. didn’t bother to do so. If I had another flaw to pick fin this film, it would be the voice-acting. Some of it sounds quite dull. This particularly shows in the final scene where Saemi Nakamuri, the voice of Nurse Amano, sounds convincingly like she has been replaced with a computer. No, I am not exaggerating. Yes, that bad. And feel free to call this a cheap shot but Youiki Kudo - the voice actress for Saya - sounds a little constipated. With all this said, it would be hard to say that I wasn’t entertained. The fact that I wanted more from this film made me want to watch it more. It is very fast-paced; the character of Saya, whilst not incredibly interesting, she is at least likeable; the atmosphere is unnerving; and the vampires look quite gruesome. This film is also known to be one of the first mix 2D and 3D animation together and although it is not as “groundbreaking” as it was back in 2000, since it is more common to see it in anime today, it still looks as good as it used to. Blood: the Last Vampire is very short and undeveloped, but at least it’s fun, looks good and does not outstay its welcome. However, I hear there is a TV series called Blood+ , which is supposed to be a longer version and apparently it’s good.
Richard Linklater is one of the most versatile directors working out there. He goes from doing a authorist oeuvre like Before Sunrise to a more mainstream film like School of Rock and having success in both cases. This original animated feature made with an uncommon technique of "drawing" over actual shoot footage results in a beautiful, but dreamy, graphical picture. Apart from being visually stunning this Odyssey of dreams into dreams recalls Luis Bunuel's Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie for its many states of awakening dreams. Waking Life is mostly philosophical and alike Before Sunset/Before Sunrise the story evolves around many conversations. Some of these conversations are set with concrete matters and others just play on the metaphysical level. Waking Life feels like a film essay about life and our perceptions of the present time. I actually enjoyed most of the film and how the story slowly evolves around the main character. The lower point of the visual effects is that sometimes there are so much movement that it makes you a little dizzy. A must see.
There's one new thing in the Yogi Bear movie, and that's it's the politicians are finally the bad guys. Beyond that, my granddaughter and I quite enjoyed this film featuring the lovable Yogi, his cute buddy Boo-Boo, Ranger Smith and his love interest, Rachel. Character voices are provided by :Dan Akyroyd, Justin Timberlake, Anna Faris, Tom Cavanagh. Not that I rush to see a film based on who's providing the voices, I suppose there is some fame for speaking for an animated character. So often when we see movies of all stripes, be they cartoons, science fiction, dramas, the bad guys are often some nameless but evil big business or our own country's military. Either some big business ran by ruthless CEO's who never struggle with meeting a payroll or delivering a timely product is all involved with taking over/stealing or outright killing the competition. And our poor military really takes a beating, dear Lord, you'd never believe that these folks are busy taking orders from civilian bosses or sleeping in a tent in some desert area wrestling fleas from camels. Oh No...the big bad military wants to take over other planets, rule the earth, turn us all into robots. It was refreshing to have a movie finally making the bad guys, the REAL bad guys. But of course not all politicians want to turn our national parks into trash dumps for re-election, or do they want to kill all endangered species. Still I'd think a politician would be more likely to sell his or her soul and principles for another chance to remain in the Blue Blood Ruling Class than some military Loot trying to incorporate political correctness into what's supposed to be a fighting force while commanding a regiment charged with protecting some godawful city in the middle of a sandy hell. Which is not to say that Yogi Bear was not a very good, quite amusing movie for adults, even grandmothers taking visiting granddaughters , and children. Although I do question the wisdom of a lovable bear character when bears are very dangerous animals. But Yogi Bear's been around for quite a while, in fact, I watched many a Yogi Bear cartoon as a child. Bears do like to raid camper's food supplies so the stereotype of a bear gorging on human food is not far off the mark. The movie has a good storyline, a chaste love interest, action to keep young minds interested in the movie right when their attention might wane. Add some popcorn, a soda, and you can't go much wrong with an afternoon of watching Yogi Bear, Ranger Smith, and Boo-Boo.
http://www.megamind.com/ Like every animated film I’ve seen these past years, the characters in this film look like real people to me and after spending a little time in thought, I’ve figured out who they resemble. A picture below my guesses better illustrates my choices. The title character, Megamind himself, looks to me exactly like comedian George Carlin. His nemesis and ultimately his friend at movie’s end, Metro Man, is a dead ringer for Alec Baldwin. The fellow who segued into the REAL bad guy, Tighten, looks like Seth Rogen of “Knocked Up” fame. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/patfish/Movies/megamindcompilation.jpg MEGAMIND is a movie that follows a pro forma type of plot, like they all do. There’s good, there’s bad, there’s a love angle. MEGAMIND does have a surprise twist in the plot. For as the movie begins there’s the “bad” guy-Megamind, and the “good” guy-Metro Man. A clash of good versus evil ensues and the movie viewer sits back to watch the action. Only the good guy is destroyed early in the movie and the viewer ponders how they’re going to fill in another hour of movie time. For MEGAMIND is in control of the metropolis, MEGAMIND is an evil sort of guy, MEGAMIND and his minion fish friend are full of joy for the victory and power. Enter, Roxanne, who looks exactly like Katie Couric and does, in fact, play a news reporterette and Megamind love interest. Roxanne gets busy sniffing around in the liar of Megamind looking for the story that will propel her to journalistic fame. As for Megamind, he disguises himself as a mild-mannered museum keeper and amuses himself by assisting Roxanne in finding the evil Megamind. For make no mistake, the evil Megamind is bored. So bored, in fact, that he decides to create another icon of goodness to replace Metro Man who left us so early in the film. “Tighten”, a clever play on the word “Titan”, is a camera man who works with Roxanne and lusts for her beauty. Megamind manages to grant the formerly meek camera super powers, with the intent that Tighten would be a “good guy”, allowing Megamind an enemy to again fight on to the heights of joyous victory. Only it doesn’t quite turn out that way. Tighten does not quite do what Megamind had in mind. Metro Man, the movie’s original “good guy” really didn’t die, Roxanne does not know that mild-manner museum attendant is really Megamind and despite his intent toward evil, well….it doesn’t quite turn out this way. It’s a good movie, one of the better animated films I’ve seen this past year. 7-year-old granddaughter adored the film and in due course a happy ending was had by all. Except, perhaps, for Tighten.
Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 3′ stars no other than the original voices of Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz and Joan Cusack as Jesse. This movie had more of an emotional impact then most of the rides at Disneyland. On this 3rd chapter reality sets in as you realize that your beloved characters have now been out grown by the soon to be collage student, Andy. These slightly used toys find themselves feeling abandoned and fear they will end up being thrown away or just stored in the attic with the rest of the unused and forgotten items. With a week away Andy must pack his things for collage and has 3 choices of where his things will go. 1 being the box labeled collage stuff, 2 stuff for the attic and 3 the awful black bag that will be taken out to the curb as TRASH. Anxiously awaiting their destiny they secretly watch Andy as he starts to pack up his thing. And true to the other 2 stories lines things end up more complicating then they should have been, ending up in what most of Andy’s toys think to be the next best thing to Andy’s room is the ‘Day Care Center’. Meeting some friendly new toys they are welcomed to the day care with open arm, but friendly has it’s own definition in this day care.. Watching this movie unravel, so did my emotions. I can truly say that I was so glad to have been watching this in 3-D as the glasses helped hide the water works, the anger, the sadness that took over. I highly recommend this movie as the entire theater went quite at one point and you could hear a pin drop along all those little kids who filled the iMax seats. Tissue is recommended for those of you who grew up with these fun loving group of Toys.
Not being a fan of mangas at the first place didn't tend me to discover the work of Asian animation. Having only seen Hayao Miyazaki's Alice in Wonderland inspired Spirited Away in the context of my journey through the 1000 Greatest Films of They Shoot Pictures Don't They?. I liked Spirited Away but I wasn't blown away by it. Since I decided to make parallel quests to the "1000GF TSPDT" I wanted to explore the 35+/- films I haven't seen yet voted by the users of IMDb. There are more than one Animation listed there, escpecially the ones from Miyazaki: Spirited Away , My Neighbor Totoro , Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle . So the later one was the first I decided to watch, well the plot seemd the most interesting and I had to start somewhere I guess. The story: a young woman, Sofi is a hat tailor that works hard for the factory of his deceased father. One day she meets a strange but attracting sorcerer. But later that night, a witch put a spell on her and she pass from 18 to 70 years old. But she must not tell anyone. The next day she quits the town and embarks on a journey on the moving castle of the sorcerer Hauru. Helped with a scarecrow, a demon fire named Calcifer, and a little boy Markl. As we are in an animation film, I must say that Miyazaki's visuals are very colored and candy for the eye. The colors are satured and the contrast are strong in the colors. I kind of find them very cheesy and maybe too poppy... I'd like to see a darker palette but Asian animation is all about blazing colors. However, with that aside some of the visuals are stunning and they fit perfectly well with that kind of fantastic story. I would have loved Howl's Moving Castle as a child, because I was very entertained by stories that take the character from its normal huma life and change it drastically into some "crazy" but lovable universe. It's like when I was reading comic books as a child I always liked how a story can take you anywhere in a world completely different from our reality. And I think that is well executed with Howl's Moving Castle and it changes from the lately vast offering of animation movies that just don't have the same hold onto their stories and constantly use the same patterns over and over again.
A still from his first short film. Wait, wait, he's gonna be sick, keep watching. Seriously. No wait! Genre: Experimental Documentary Horror Shorts Starring: Catherine E. Coulson ("Twin Peaks"), Harry Dean Stanton ( Wild At Heart • Repo Man) Directed By: David Lynch ( Mulholland Drive • Eraserhead) Overview: A collection of experimental short films that David Lynch shot at the beginning of his career, as well as some done well after he became established. Performance: Surreal. The shorts that where only pantomime looked a little rough given that they were the earlier, lower-budget career works, but the actors were appropriately creepy. As for the speaking roles, though nothing special, were just right. My favorite acting was in The Cowboy And The Frenchman, which is just the most out-there study of 'The Stereotype' ever. Rating: 8 Cinematography: Four of the films were low-budget but appropriately bleak, perfectly Lynch, really. The use of animation in two of the films seemed really amateurish to tell you the truth, but Lynch uses stop-motion effectively and his Lumière piece, using old-school filming technology, was a strange and interesting fusion of modern ideas with Silent Era film stock. That alone was mind-blowing. Rating: 8 Script: Lynch either makes his script mean very little on purpose, or he makes it mean too much. You'd have to see Lost Highway to understand his scriptwriting genius, but what I'm getting at is this is not for everyone, since the dialogue is more internal, spoken merely to convey emotion, or as unimportant background, like in The Amputee. It doesn't matter what's said, it's how. On the other hand, The Cowboy And The Frenchman, was hilarious. The Frenchman yelling "Yippe-Kai-Ai-Ay" while the cowboy replied "Ooh-La-La", is stereotype heaven, and the whole 24 minutes of that episode is like that throughout. Rating: 8 Plot: The stories are as follows: a montage art piece called Six Men Getting Sick (one of my favorites, this is basically just a moving painting). The Alphabet, a low-budget film about a nightmare, The Grandmother, about an alienated boy who grows a grandmother from a seedpod for love and companionship. This is by far the longest one at 34 minutes. After this we have The Cowboy And The Frenchman, a satirical look at stereotypes that he did for TV, then an odd scene featuring The Amputee as she writes a letter. Finally, there's a haunting single-minute tale for the Lumière project, using the original cameras and emulsions used 100 years ago during the dawn of film. This was astounding. No, these tales aren't about plot, but together these shorts are quite intriguing, especially with Lynch's narrated introductions. Rating: 8 Mood: There is no director who can pull experimental with understanding like Lynch. Maybe I'm just smart enough (or more likely, just in tune with Lynch enough) to touch the surface of what he means while still being confused enough that my imagination fires sparks to fill the gaps. What I love about this kind of art is that the mind attempts to create caulking for the holes left behind, and that my friend, is a wonderful exercise for your left-brain. If you don't like thinking about the artistic... well you hate experimental film anyways so you'd never watch this in the first place. If you like Lynch, though, go out of your way to see this. Rating: 9 There he is the Lynch Man himself. Wait, wait, he's gonna be sick, keep watching. Overall Rating: 82% (Short But Sweet) Aftertaste: Man even the menus are haunting and interactive. Somehow having a TV calibration test with faint wind sounds not only enhances the overall experience, but makes me think that Lynch cares about fixing my TV so it doesn't burn out early. How can a man pull off something like that?! Surreal! When you pop this in for the first time, just sit there, cause something's gonna happen at the minute mark that's just neat enough to wait for.
Continuing with Makoto Shinkai, going backwards, we arrive at his second big work, made in 2004, the third altogether if we count “She and Her Cat”. Like in the short “ Voices of a Distant Star ”, Shinkai blends and intertwines a surreal and fairly complicated sci-fi setting with a love story, now expanding his work into a full 90 minute feature. After WWII Japan has been divided in 1974 into the North and the South. The South, consisting of Kyushu and Honshu was occupied by the US. The North consisting of Hokkaido and called Ezo, was occupied by the (Soviet) Union. That same year, the Union began the construction of a strange tower on Hokkaido designed by a scientist named Ekusun Tsukinoe. Two boys, Hiroki and Takuya, and a girl, Sayuri, are best friends. They are fascinated with the Ezo Tower. And one day they make a promise that they'll build a plane called Velaciela and fly over to see the tower. The next day, Sayuri falls into a coma and disappears. Three years later, Takuya and Hiroki have stopped working on the plane, having taken different paths after the grief they suffered at Sayuri's disappearance. Recent discoveries about the tower will once again bring the three friends together and events will unfold on which the fate of the world will depend. Unlike “ 5 cm per second ”, “The Place Promised in our Early Days” doesn’t over-dramatize. The characters do not figure out the meaning of life and the secrets of the Universe at the age of 13 and they don’t have philosophical monologues that would put even the ancient Greeks to shame. And unlike Takaki from “5 cm per second”, Hiroki doesn’t become a depressed whining choir-boy and actually DOES something to achieve his dreams. The main motive is separation. Or rather, the struggle to re-establish a lost connection (a relationship), whereas between friends, family or loved ones. And in that it differs from Shinkai's other works - while “Voices of a Distant Star” was about trying to keep one such relationship alive,“5 cm per second” was about breaking it. As with his previous films, the animation is truly superb, but still a notch below the pinnacle that is the later “5 cm per second”. The most ingenious works in cinema history from my experience had been almost exclusively Japanese: There’s Kazuaki Kiriya who made “ Casshern ”, a sci-fi of tremendously epic proportions with a measly $6 million budget and then did it again with “ Goemon ” in 2009. Then there’s the incredible “ Oneechanbara ”, a full-fledged B-flick by all accounts that looks way better than it should considering the monetary constraints. And finally there’s Makoto Shinkai. It goes to show you money really can’t make up for the lack of true talent. The scenery, the game of light and shadows, the contrasts – all perfectly mixed together to provide you with some breathtaking moments, aided greatly by another masterful score composed by Tenmon. My favorite would be the scene at the 54:50 minute mark. Now, the story - you may love it... or you may hate it. Even to my surprise, I belong to the former group. Well... your call. In my opinion, it's Shinkai’s best. Rating: 9/10 - review by Ventilation Shaft
A colleague of mine gave this one a bad review but I found it to be not too bad a watch. It certainly doesn’t measure up to the previous Shreks but I must say that it gave me quite a few laughs tonight. I am glad I caught it instead of just listening to opinions cos’ I definitely needed something light this week to take the edge off. The story isn’t original but it certainly was fun to see the characters cast differently in this alternate universe sorta tale. Shrek Forever After is fun for the whole family. Rumpelstiltskin is a delightfully evil-lish sorta of villain and I really liked Walt Dohm’s voicing of the character. Ha ha! I give Shrek Forever After a 3 out of 5 cos’ of the laughs and also because the 3D made me dizzy. For more reviews check out http://wengyuen.wordpress.com .
Well, I’ll be damned! What an unexpected and pleasant surprise this has been. Every once in a while I accidentally come across an unknown film that get my attention for some reason. So there I came across the poster for “The Chosen One” and well, you read the rest. This little animated film was written by Chad Fifer & Chris Lackey, with the latter also directing it and the former being the voice actor for our hero – Lou Hanske. The quite famous voice cast also involves Lance Henriksen, Danielle Fishel, Laura Prepon, Traci Lords, Tim Curry, Debra Wilson and Chris Sarandon. Lou Hanske’s life is falling apart. He’s been kicked out of college, his girlfriend left him and he lost his job. He lives with Zebulon “Zeb” Kirk, an old man who fought at Iwo Jima, spent some time in prison and fronted the heavy metal band called Evil Health. Things got only worse when a Chinese satellite fell on his car, and immediately after that a bear that escaped from a zoo attacked him. Is that all? Of course not! The real trouble begins when the Church of Frank declares him The Chosen One, a messiah prophesized to bring peace to Earth. But to do that he must first travel to the mountain of Echoes (more of a hill to be exact) in the promised land – Kansas, to receive a message from God. And that’s just the beginning, but I hope it was enough to get you interested in checking it out. “The Chosen One" was completely animated in Flash. But don’t be fooled by its simplistic appearance. This is quite a serious project. What really got me was the complexity of the story. It reminded me of another great small independent film which I’ve seen more than a year ago and have been planning on reviewing it for quite some time – “The Nines”. “The Chosen One" is a bit simpler, though, but it’ll give you something to think about nevertheless. I recommend “The Chosen One” with all my heart. It’s a lightweight animation with a great story, awesome humor and more. Rating: 9/10 IMDb
THE SCOOP Director: Pete Docter Plot: Monsters generate their city's power by scaring children, but they are terribly afraid themselves of being contaminated by children, so when one enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds his world disrupted. Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family/Fantasy Awards: Won 1 Oscar - original song. Nom. for 3 Oscars - animated feature, sound editing, score. Runtime: 92min Rating: G IN RETROSPECT Not the best Pixar feature ever, but it remains my favorite. Monsters, Inc. is the fourth film to be made after the critical and box-office successes of Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999). Directed by Pete Docter who later helmed the lovable film about an old man with his flying house, Up (2009), Monsters, Inc. signaled the intent of Pixar to break new ground in creative animation storytelling by a director other than the pioneering John Lasseter (who made the first three pictures). Monsters, Inc. is an important film because it established the direction of Pixar’s future exploits. That not all eggs are placed in the basket as carried by Lasseter. Andrew Stanton and Brad Bird would follow suit with films such as Finding Nemo (2003), and The Incredibles (2004) respectively. They could only have done so because the success of Monsters, Inc . provided Pixar with the confidence that they had the team (and blueprint) to sustain itself for the next few decades as the world’s major player in animation filmmaking. The story of Monsters, Inc . is deceptively simple to grasp, even though the concept is intriguing to the mind. It tells the tale of monsters who work in a factory that generates energy for “Monstropolis” by capturing screams from children terrified of the monsters that come out of their closet at night. A crisis of immense magnitude happens when a small girl enters “Monstropolis” unknowingly through her closet door, one of millions of portals that link the human world to “Monstropolis”. Mike, who is light green, shaped like a ball, and has one eye, and Sulley, a big, blue bear-like creature, find her and attempt to bring her back to her home amid a large-scale manhunt for “the highly toxic contaminant” while trying to avoid their sneaky and evil colleague, Randall, a purple gator who can blend into his surroundings. The relationship between Sulley and Boo (as the former affectionately calls the girl) becomes the heart of Monsters, Inc . It not only forms the emotional centerpiece of the film, it is also used to stretch Sulley’s close relationship with Mike. As a quite hilarious study on emotional attachment, friendship, and loyalty, Docter’s film is an excellent work to savor and enjoy. Intimate moments of bonding between Sulley and Boo are touching. Like when Boo draws a picture of them holding hands, or when Sulley lulls Boo to sleep through candy. In a scene late in the film, both of them hug each other in a warm embrace like close friends do when they part. Many other animated films have “these kinds of scenes”, but none renders them better than Pixar who focus on creating the most genuine of facial expressions, hand movements, and especially, of the characters’ eyes, which almost always transforms the characters (in particular non-human ones) into “identifiable humans” whom we can relate to. The film is paced like a roller-coaster ride, with one circumstance leading to another. In between there are tender moments that strengthen the relationships among the protagonists, but they are never too long. An excellent example is the sequence in which Mike and Sullivan are banished into an icy wasteland. Despite the sudden change in visual environment (and direction of the plot), Docter steers the film back to “Monstropolis” quickly, keeping the film tight to its main narrative while taking the opportunity to further explore character relations. Monsters, Inc . is one of Pixar’s best efforts, and represents arguably their most conceptually imaginative picture to date. SCORE: 9/10 [www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com] All rights reserved!
Is it wrong that I love Golden Bat beatings? /</igp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"/>/igGenre: Animé Mystery Crime Thriller Serial (Japan) Starring: Shôzô Îzuka (Mobile Suit Gundam), Toshihiko Seki ( Vampire Hunter D ) Directed By: Satoshi Kon (Tokyo Godfathers; Millennium Actress) Overview: A girl reaches wit's end on a deadline. A high school student gets painted into a corner when his popularity drops. These are among those who find themselves the victim of brutal assaults at the hands of a boy with a golden bat and rollerblades. Is he their saviour, or are they victims of a greater threat? Performance: When a show comes in it's original language with the option of the overdub, you can usually count on the fact that it'll be pretty decent. I myself am a purist when it comes to animé so I can tell you the voice acting was tremendous, but in English it's pretty swank too. Rating: 8 Cinematography: If you know your Animé , then you'll remember the simplicity of the 70s without all the fancy computer graphics and Avant-Garde moments. Then you'll see this and wonder why you've been clinging to the past so much. In almost every episode, we see a distinct style of animation, trips into fantastic dreamscapes, scene after scene of visual metaphor. Holy good goddamn, this had me asking why I wasn't watching more of it. Careful though, it's definitely not for kids. Rating: 10 Script: Each episode ends with a 'prediction' of what the next episode will hold. The poetic fashion this is written is testament to the rest of the dialogue. One episode is merely a gaggle of old women gossiping the most outrageous stories they can invent, another is about a boy whose mission it is to defeat Lil' Slugger, because he's a fantasy hero... in the vein of Final Fantasy. Oh, it's just so cool. Rating: 8 Plot: The trouble with animé is that sometimes you realize it's just way too young and had it gone to a more adult-themed place, it would be a hundred times better. The problem with that is the kids gets bored and don't get it. Then there's this, a story for adults that you really shouldn't show the kids because plots involving murder, mayhem, and child molestation are just a little too serious. That having been said, you should be able to appreciate this almost philosophically deep and obscure piece. It's almost Lynchian . And that my friends, is awesome. Rating: 9 Mood: It's an animé series that travels deep in the mire of obscurity. Though nowhere near as ambiguous as the experimental animé serial Lain , we have here a tale that's easy to follow, very mysterious and if you asked me to help define the overall theme I think 'the state of the post-modern psyche in this crazy world. There's definitely a whole mess of the all too different, and rather than ending up with something muddy or awkward, it streaks the serial with an understanding of the undercurrent of social dilemma that drives Lil' Slugger's bat. Rating: 10 Climactic plots! Overall Rating: 90% (Don't Be Afraid To Immerse Yourself) Aftertaste: After every episode I mourned its passing. Even the opening song and the credits at the beginning and the end moved me. I literally danced. If you like Animé, see this. Period. Raa-eee-yaa Ra-Ra-ee-yo-ra Marvellous mushroom shaped cloud in the sky Raa-eee-yaa Ra-Ra-ee-yo-ra The afternoon of the birds feeding in an alley Raa-eee-yaa Ra-Ra-ee-yo-ra Such a marvellous vapour trail Raa-eee-yaa Ra-Ra-ee-yo-ra The afternoon of the people passing on the popular street Raa-eee-yaa Ra-Ra-ee-yo-ra Flaming rain that I used to see in my dreams Raa-eee-yaa Ra-Ra-ee-yo-raThe afternoon that I woke up by the office window
THE SCOOP Director: Wes Anderson Plot: Angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, look to get rid of their opponent and his family. Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family Awards: Nom. for 2 Oscars - best animated feature, original score. Runtime: 87min Rating: PG for action, smoking and slang humor. IN RETROSPECT Fantastic Mr. Fox is easily the best animated feature of 2009. It should be rewarded with an Oscar nomination (and is every bit deserving of a win) even though Pixar’s Up (2009) could land the coveted statuette based on popular votes. Adapted from the beloved Roald Dahl children’s book of the same name, the film tells the story of Mr. Fox and his sneaky scheme to steal poultry, especially chicken, from three nearby farms run by three nasty, detestable humans with a collective mission: to kill Mr. Fox and his family. Director Wes Anderson who is well-known for films such as Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) is one of the key American filmmakers of the 90s to revive the low-budget independent offbeat comedy. Even though much of his works remain underappreciated, Anderson has a loyal following claiming that he is one of the great filmmakers of our time. While that might be exaggerating it a fair bit, Fantastic Mr. Fox shows us why he is on course to being judged as such. Fantastic Mr. Fox follows the stop-motion tradition of the Wallace And Gromit films, and refutes the argument that brilliant animated films can only be made by Pixar. Anderson’s obsession with detail and his mastery of mise-en-scene also means that the film is far from ‘kiddish’; on the contrary, it can be seen as quality art. While children may enjoy the visuals and the odd dose of behavioral humor (e.g. how the foxes consume their meal or how they dig themselves out of trouble), parents who are forced to tag along are far more likely to appreciate the authenticity of the character and set models used, and the themes of ‘family’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘collectivism’ which reverberate with quiet resonance throughout the film. There is some superb voice work on show here with George Clooney as Mr. Fox and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox. Supporting voice talents include stars Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon, William Dafoe, and Owen Wilson. An ‘ethnic’ influence is evident in one of the characters here whose obsession with yoga and its meditative properties recalls a certain ‘spiritual’ Schwartzman in The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Anderson’s previous film about three brothers on a bonding trip to India. Fantastic Mr. Fox also explores the important theme of domesticity versus the wild. Mr. Fox has a lovely family and he dotes on them. In short, he lives a comfortable life in his big house under a tree. But more often than not, he succumbs to his animalistic instinct by ‘hunting’ for food from the farms. He enjoys the temporal satisfaction of being a wild animal, or in this case, a sly, scheming fox. In a key scene, Mr. Fox has a fleeting encounter with a black wolf. Even though suppressed by a psychological fear of wolves, he admires from distance the dark beauty of the creature, its freedom to roam the lands, to hunt, and its fortune to avoid the tepidity that is domesticity. An Anderson masterpiece of craftsmanship and direction, Fantastic Mr. Fox very much assures itself of a spot in my top ten films of 2009. SCORE: 9/10 [www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com] All rights reserved!
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