Category — Film

Good trilogies are hard to come by. Third movies of the franchise can be killer. (TMNT III, Shrek the Third, Spider-Man III–just a couple that come to mind.) However there is those few rarities that go from sequel to trilogy with no loss of respect. And the Toy Story franchise can now add their name to the small list of superb franchises.

Toy Story 3 has had a lot of hype since being announced. Not because Pixar has been showing off or bragging in any sort of way but mainly because we had not seen a Toy Story movie in 11 years. That’s right eleven. Toy Story came out in 1994, Toy Story 2 came out in 1999 and then out of the blue Pixar told us we had a third installment headed our way. So we have all been curious as to why we were getting a new Toy Story. Some people have been counting down the days to see the third and others have been dreading the day, afraid their beloved Woody and Buzz would be tainted by a horrible sequel. Could it be that Pixar–the amazing movie making machine–could finally be out of ideas and found the need to drag out a franchise that is their calling card?

The answer is a resounding no. I have already seen the movie twice. Because the first time I saw the movie I thought I was just blinded by bias. But after seeing it again I realized that it is that amazing. It started with a bang with Pixar’s new amazing short “Day & Night”, which is an inventive combination of 2D animation, 3D animation and sound effects. The short was brilliant and perhaps my favorite short they have ever produced. Toy Story 3 itself was superb. The movie picks up as a 17 year old Andy is off to college and has to decide what he should do with his old toys that he has kept in his toy box mainly because they were tough to part with not because he uses them.

The movies theme is incredibly simple: moving on. The theme works for Andy as well as his toys. Yet while the the movie is an incredible joy for children it seems as if the movie is speaking to the now young people that have cherished Woody and Buzz for the last 16 years. However, everyone that is going through a “getting older” stage in their life can relate. Usually when we are getting older we have to do new and scary things and we have to move on and lose parts of our younger selves that we do not want to part with. This theme resounds through our lovable cowboy protagonist, Woody. And because it’s through Woody we can all relate. It’s genius. It’s a little emotional at times. Once again Pixar is a movie plot genius because the have a plethora of characters from the last two movies and they even add about twenty or so new characters this time around but Woody is still the focal point of the plot. It keeps things simple and allows for the other characters to be great comic relief. (Don’t worry Buzz fans he gets a great sub-plot and is still an amazing part of the story.)

And as cerebral as it seems like I’m trying to make this movie sound it is still gut bustingly hilarious.There is one moment of the movie that Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) makes the whole theatre laugh and keep laughing everytime he shows make up. Micheal Keaton is amazing as Ken, that’s right Barbie’s Ken. Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt, Whoppi Goldberg, Richard Kind, Kristen Shaal (of “Flight of the Conchords) and Javier Fernandez Pena (you’ll see) are the new comers in the already star studded cast.

Pixar’s done it again and while the movie has it’s small flaws, they are completely forgivable for everything that it does right. The story is amazing here and is an instant classic. Both kids and adults will relate to growing up and the pains it sometimes holds. Moving on is a part of life and it is often difficult but maybe not so much with a comfort movie like this. Let’s hope Pixar never grows up and continues to give us films that make us laugh, help us stay young and touch our hearts.

To be honest, I had almost no interest in seeing this movie. As far as I could tell from the previews and commercials this was probably just a new silly 3D kids movie that was probably all shine and no substance.  Then I realized that the makers of Lilo & Stitch were behind this movie. And when I looked up the movie on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 97% rating. (At the time I wrote this it boasted a 97% rating, however I went back a couple weeks later to update the rating after hype went down. Contrary to my belief the rating went up to 98%.) Well tickle me pink, I made the age-old mistake of judging a book by it’s cover.

Directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois are the mad geniuses behind the 2002 anti-disney film Lilo & Stitch, which I consider a wonderful gem in the very forgettable Disney era of the late nineties and early aughts. (I’m talking about hand-drawn not Pixar , calm down.) Stitch was a great movie because of it’s very different perspective and endearing characters.

How to Train Your Dragon uses the same formula. The protagonist, Hiccup,  is misunderstood, missing a parent and desperately wants to be loved. While his family and social life is lacking his imagination and heart is not. He might be a complete screw-up but he is endearing a lovable.  The same goes for his newfound friend Toothless the dragon. (The Stitch character of this film). Toothless is wild, reckless and violent but deep down just needs someone to understand him.

This is a very good movie and has plenty of heart and a great creative story, based on the book by Cressida Cowell, it soars under the supervision of Sanders and DeBlois. It has it’s flaws but they’re easy to overlook when there is so many good things in the film. It’s a great kids movie and very enjoyable for adults. With this past year of so many great animated/children’s movies (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, Where the Wild Things Are, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs) it’s a great time for the kids to go to the movies. Dragon I think is automatically nominated for an Oscar–congrats Dreamworks you perennial loser you. Dragon is a wonderful movie that’s very enjoyable. Take the kids and enjoy.

Here’s  one of the wonderful shorts that me and my main man Phil Hays work on. This was awarded as one of the “Best of A/V Swap 2009.” Enjoy!

Recently I went to go see Disney’s return to the two-dimensional world, The Princess Frog. Now there’s really no excuse for a grown man seeing a cartoon so I would like to thank Alex for going with me so I didn’t look like complete child. First and foremost, before I rip this movie for what I didn’t like, I would like to say: go see this movie. Go take your kids to see this movie. If you don’t have children go borrow one or take your girlfriend so you have an excuse. Every kid’s flick that is produced today is computer animated and in 3D. The only way we can stop this madness is supporting the different, which in this case is old-school 2D cartoons.

Watching The Princess Frog was refreshing. It was almost like going into a time capsule and going to the movie theatre as a kid. Almost. This movie is criticized mainly for being just a shadow of what 2D greatness Disney used to offer. Of course this movie is going to fall short of Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. It’s almost not fair to try an compare Disney’s first 2D, musical outing in years to those amazing films.

Princess Frog offers lovable supporting characters, lavish musical numbers, the idea of true love and the beauty of New Orleans. I think the main critique I have for this film is that it seems like they sacrificed character development for getting the movie under a certain time. I felt like the main character Titana and the villain, the Shadow Man, were under developed. Especially the Shadowman, I felt like there was so much promise for this villain but nothings ever really explained about him. He has a evil shadow that has a mind of it’s own that’s really never addressed. I think Disney might have thought an audience wouldn’t pay much attention to a 2D film and opted to move the story as quick as possible.

There also has been talks of it being too scary or even possibly evil because of the use of voodoo. This, in my opinion, is over sensitivity. In every Disney movie there are villains that use magic, which I believe when evil is referred to as witchcraft. From Snow White’s evil witch with her poison apple all the way to Hercules’ Hades…who is the mythology form of the devil. I thought this movie was not too scary for most children, but then again the last children’s movie I watched was the horribly frightening Christmas Carol.

At the end of the day this movie is not going to be remembered as one of the greatest Disney movies of all time, but it could be the beginning of a revival in good, quality Disney cartoons. All you have to do is support it.

As some of you twitterheads and facebook peeps know, I took some kids from school on a field trip to see Disney’s A Christmas Carol last week. This version of Christmas Carol is directed by Robert Zemeckis, the madman that brought us Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and Castaway. As of late he’s been known as the madman that brought us The Polar Express and Beowulf. It’s almost as if since 2000 Zemeckis has decided that he is the one that is going to usher in a new age of film-making. These slightly creepy realistically animated movies seem to be the only thing that Zemeckis is interested in now.

I think the majority of us will admit that it’s strange to watch a movie in ‘Zemeckiscope’, a term that I give Timmy Wood credit for. One of my friends claimed that watching a Zemeckis cartoon is like watching corpse puppets. They look like humans but there’s something eerily non-living about them. Sometimes I feel like I’m watching cloned actors. Every now and then there is something really strange about the eyes of the cartoons, I honestly believe that I can peer into the character and see that it has no soul. I think that it’s off putting for the majority of viewers because the animation is so good and at times you feel as if you’re watching a real movie not a cartoon. In other words, these meat puppets be scary at times.

As a quick disclaimer, I think that Zemeckis is a forerunner and if he’s lucky he’ll master this niche of film making. Or unfortunately, he’ll be the other type of forerunner. The one that is misunderstood and thought of as a fool. The guy that takes a beating for introducing something too early for popular consumption. He’ll either be a mad-genuis or a martyr, only time will tell.

Now on top of all of this, I was with a group of children. You know, what the group of people we would assume would be the target audience for Disney’s A Christmas Carol. I don’t know when Disney started making movies for adults because this movie is NOT for children. I repeat do not take children to this movie. They will cry.

I thought the movie was decent. Jim Carrey was pretty good and deserves some credit for his work in this animated film. Gary Oldman found another way to make himself unrecognizable. Oldman might actually deserve an award for acting in a cartoon. The performances were pretty good but in the end my main problem with the movie was the same I had with the animated characters: they both lacked soul. It was hard to really get emotionally involved in this movie and in the end you should feel the change of Scrooge not just see it. I thought it was a solid attempt and decent but not memorable unless you want to see obese animated Carey Elwes…