Brave

(A quick aside before I begin my review proper. It’s been a relatively busy weekend for me. After having essentially all of last week off, I actually worked Friday and Sunday, more or less the whole day. And on Saturday, I went to the movies with my little sister and her roommate [there will be two movie reviews in quick succession since I allowed myself to get backed up like  a dumbass]. We went to go see the new Evil Dead movie. More on that in it’s review. Anyways, I watched 2012′s Best Animated Feature Oscar winner, Brave, in the wee hours of Friday morning so forgive me if this review is shorter/hazier than what you usually expect from me).

When Don Bluth’s films disappeared from the public eye by the end of the 90s, Pixar was there to pick up the slack with increasingly thematically complex and mature children’s entertainment. If films like All Dogs Go to Heaven and An American Tail were the definitive children’s movies of the 1980s, Disney had a brief resurgence in the 1990s with Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King before Pixar arose from their umbrella to define modern American animation. Toy Story 3, Up, and The Incredibles aren’t just the best children movies of the last decade; they’re some of the best movies period of the last ten years. The first 15 minutes of Up is arguably the most emotionally powerful sequence in the last five years of cinema. One almost has to pity Pixar at this point because they have set the bar so impossibly high for themselves. Any thing short of making me curl up in a ball and making me sob uncontrollably becomes a disappointment. 2012′s Brave is a good film, but it’s high on the adventure and low on the emotional impact that has grown to define the best of the Pixar experience.

Following the well-trod path of rebellious princesses unhappy with the arranged marriages set up by their parents, Brave forges its own identity with a cast over-flowing with memorable characters and a stunning visual sensibility. Merida (Choke‘s Kelly MacDonald) is the bushy-haired tomboy daughter of the boisterous Scottish King Fergus and the strict but loving Queen Elinor (Stranger than Fiction‘s Emma Thompson). Merida would rather be in the woods with her horse Angus shooting her bow and arrow and exploring the wilderness than learning how to be a proper princess. And when she learns that her mother and father have arranged suitors from the three most powerful clans in the kingdom to seek her hand in marriage, she quickly runs away where she encounters a witch in the forest which grants her a wish to change her fate. And clearly, that wish comes with a price.

Let me get my biggest compliment towards the film out of the way because it is a massive reason why this score isn’t lower (that and Kelly MacDonald’s performance and the movie’s consistent sense of humor but I’m getting ahead of myself). Brave is one of the most beautifully animated films that I’ve ever watched. Apparently, Pixar had to completely remake their animation software (which they had never done before; it had simply been upgrades not a complete overhaul) for Brave and it shows. While the character animations are par for the course for Pixar (though the hair, obviously, is exceptional in this film), the consistent scenic panoramas of the Scottish countryside are just stunning. I could watch this movie with the sound off at times because it was just that gorgeous. The film never stopped stunning me with its sheer beauty.

And Kelly MacDonald remains a criminally under-appreciated talent (though her recent turn on Boardwalk Empire seems to be raising her level of American pop culture infiltration). Still, for anyone who’s seen Trainspotting, Choke, or The Girl in the Cafe (an indie film that my dad weirdly really enjoys), you know she’s a supremely talented actress. You only hear her voice in this film, but she does a wonderful job of bringing Merida to life (although she sounds very grown-up in her opening narration though I forgot about that as the film progressed). Emma Thompson is just one of the greatest actresses of her peer group, and she brought a wonderfully subtle interpretation to Queen Elinor. And there was a whole host of great performances although another shout out would be for Harry Potter‘s Julie Walters as the Witch whose powers have a higher price than Merida could have expected.

The film could also be very funny. Merida has triplet little brothers, and they are perpetual comic motion machines. There was barely a second where they were on screen where they didn’t have me laughing my ass off (and the film used them for some surprisingly dirty jokes for a kids’ movie). There’s a brilliant set piece halfway through the film where Merida has to sneak something out of the castle (I can’t say what for fear of spoiling some of the major twists in the film) and the triplets serve as the distraction. It could have came out of a classic Benny Hill routine for sheer slapstick value. And it’s a shame that the Witch had such small time on screen because she was without question the liveliest and most hysterical part of the whole film.

Sadly, the the film’s plot has been done to death. How many Disney princesses (of which Merida is certainly one although she may be the first Disney/Pixar princess) have been upset about being forced to marry someone they don’t want to? Way too god damn many is the correct answer, and there’s not much that Brave does differently (well, there’s one big thing at the end but I can’t say for fear of spoilers, yet again). Merida just seems like the cliche tomboy fantasy princess, and it’s only her mother, Elinor, that seems to break the major genre conventions. Up until the film’s final climactic encounters, Brave failed to elicit even the most remote emotional reaction/sympathy, although the final moments did wind up bringing a tear to my eye. Ultimately, Brave is a film about the relationship between mothers and daughters, and perhaps that is why I failed to connect to it. That would be a fair argument.

I’ll draw this to a close since I have to review Evil Dead tonight (it’s now one of a handful of remakes I’ve reviewed where I’ve also reviewed the original but I’ll talk about that in my Evil Dead review). Let me simply say that it isn’t that I didn’t enjoy Brave. It is a passable and highly enjoyable kid’s movie. However, Pixar has trained me to expect more from their movies. They have trained me to expect films that are as enjoyable for the kids in the audience as they are for the grown-ups. Brave fails to meet that standard. However, as far as children’s adventure movies go, Brave is an exciting and often frighteningly dark tale. One only wishes that the emotional stakes had been higher.

Final Score: B

 

Shrek

I am way too excited about the upcoming days to really do any more meaningful writing this week. Every time I’ve sat down to the typewriter for the last week (I don’t know why I said typewriter there since I use my computer and its keyboards) I’ve been distracted by thoughts of Bonnaroo. It’s a miracle I’ve been able to churn out any meaningful reviews. I leave tomorrow (around 11 AM) to head down to Tennessee and I am excited beyond words about the possibilities of my exciting adventure to the coolest music festival (after Coachella anyways) this year. This will be my last movie review until at least a week from now. I might get one more review of a TV series done. That depends on whether or not I decide to watch another episode of Mad Men tonight and at a reasonable enough hour that I have the energy to review the first disc of the show before I go to bed. Considering the fact that my Mad Men reviews have started to get as in-depth as my Game of Thrones reviews, I don’t see that happening just because I don’t want to make that mental commitment. There’s going to at least (with certainty) be one more Song of the Day post before I go, and then this blog is going on a week long hiatus. I’m going to write an official hiatus post later though. Anyways, I just finished watching Shrek and while I didn’t really enjoy it as much as when I was a kid (though I certainly caught more of the dirtier jokes this time around), it was still a fun children’s movie which has earned its place in cinematic history as being the first kid’s movie to win the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards.

Based off of William Steig’s children’s book (though the film franchise will be remembered far longer than its source material), Shrek is an affectionate parody of nearly all of the children films to come before it. Shrek (Austin Powers‘ Mike Myers) is a solitary and irritable ogre living by himself in the swamps surrounding the kingdom of Duloc. When the evil Lord Farquaad (Dexter‘s John Lithgow) of Duloc relocates all of the fantasy creatures in the kingdom onto Shrek’s swamp, the stolid but basically decent ogre sets off on a quest to get his swamp back for just himself. Reluctantly dragging along the talking donkey, named Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Shrek agrees to rescue the Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a treacherous and dragon-guarded castle for Lord Farquaad in exchange for getting his land back. After Shrek and Donkey rescue the beautiful and feisty Princess Fiona, it’s only a matter of time before Fiona and Shrek begin to bond, and we learn that ogres aren’t the only ones like onions (i.e. they have layers. That joke only worked if you’ve seen the movie), and that Princess Fiona may have some secrets of her own.

I have complicated feelings about Shrek. I’m not going to lie. I remember this movie being so much funnier when I was little. Unlike say Up or Toy Story 3, I don’t feel like this film aged as well as I did. You can put in the best Pixar movies, and they’re going to turn me into an emotional wreck by the end of the film regardless of how old I am. Seriously, if you play that opening montage of Up at any point in the rest of my life, I will cry like a baby without fail. I understand that Shrek was meant to be more of a comedy than a serious film, and while I picked up on a lot more of the jokes directed to the grown-ups during this particular sitting (there was a lot of sex and penis jokes in this movie. Like wow.), I didn’t necessarily think all of them were that clever. Most of the adult-themed humor in the film was as broad and obvious as the jokes geared towards the kids. There were some subtle pop-culture nods here and there that I thought were fairly clever. But, if I want to watch a Shrek film with an endless stream of pop-culture allusions, I can put Shrek 2 in. Still, perhaps as a film meant to be enjoyed by children, my memories of how funny I thought it was as a kid are more than enough to recommend showing it to a whole new generation of children.

The film’s animation though has aged much better than I expected. While all of the people look like plasticine dolls ripped out of the in-game engine of a particularly mediocre current-gen videogame, everything else about the film dripped with style. Shrek is an intentionally ugly world, yet there was a surprising amount of beauty in the landscape work as well as some really exceptional particle effects during important scenes. Much like Rango (though ultimately a far better film), Shrek revels in perverting (in a fun way) and subverting all of the standards of children’s animation. That to me will always be the film’s ultimate legacy. It has become one of the most influential children’s films of the last twenty years simply thanks to its art style alone (well also its occasionally adult sense of humor). Shrek and Donkey were especially well-animated and while the script certainly gave the pair plenty of life and character, the animation team must be given an extraordinary amount of credit for their iconic status in the animated pantheon. Many films have aped Shrek‘s style but few have come close to matching its original magic.

One last comment before I draw this to a close (and do my song of the day post). With the exception of the original Beverly Hills Cop, this was probably the best comedic performance of Eddie Murphy’s career. He was the only part of the movie that was still able to consistently make me laugh and his non-stop zingers, non-sequitors, and neurotic ramblings were always able to keep me in stitches. If you’re a young adult like myself and considering re-watching Shrek for the first time in years, it’s still an enjoyable film even if the years might tarnish your cherished memories of this movie. My sister and I still somehow managed to know all of the words to the movie and were calling them out as the film was happening like we were watching Rocky Horror Picture Show. It definitely has the best soundtrack of pop and rock music in any kids movie I can think of whose name isn’t Fantastic Mr. Fox. This was the film that introduced me to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (though it’s performed by Rufus Wainwright in the film and my favorite version is Jeff Buckley). And if you’re thinking about showing it to your kids for the first time, you have my whole hearted approval. Just come up with a clever distraction if they ever ask you to explain some of the dirtier jokes.

Final Score: B+

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I am 22 years old. I’ve legally been an adult for over four years now. I’ve gambled in Las Vegas, drank myself sick at countless bars, and lived on my own for two years now. Yet, tonight was the night that my childhood officially ended. For years now, I’ve been able to cling desperately to some last remnant of my youth because whenever any new Harry Potter book or movie was released, I was instantly transported back to the innocent, 5^th grader who had opened The Philosopher’s Stone for the very first time. I was immediately transformed into a sense of child-like wonder and escapism. With the exception of The Hobbit (which was the first piece of fantasy literature that I was ever exposed to), no other piece of fiction has had such a monumental influence on my imagination and pure sense of wonder as the magical world that J.K. Rowling would return me to time and time again. While, as I got older, I discovered other writers such as Neil Gaiman or George R. R. Martin who could craft even deeper and more engaging worlds than that of Harry Potter, nothing they have ever created or will ever create could possibly hold the same place in my heart as the countless hours of my youth I lost reading and re-reading the adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

If you couldn’t tell, this is going to be an incredibly personal review. While I will make an attempt to analyze the film mostly on its strengths as cinema, I’m going to go ahead and assure you that this isn’t entirely possible. This movie means too much for me to distance myself from it enough to be completely unbiased. However, since the almost universal consensus has been that it was simply awesome, I’m hoping that I’m not just feeling the way I do out of a weird nostalgia or sentimentality. My expectations were the film were quite high, and whenever that happens, I tend to hate the movie I watched because they can never live up to the movie I’ve made in my head. However, for a film that changed quite a bit of the book and added a lot of material, not only did this film meet my expectations, it exceeded them in nearly every way possible. I haven’t cried for such a ridiculous continuous period of time since I saw The Return of the King in theatres, and the film combined an epic fantasy adventure with intense levels of personal emotions that I would have thought nearly impossible. I couldn’t have possibly imagined a more fitting way to draw such an integral part of my childhood to a close.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 picks up literally where Part 1 left off. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have little time to mourn Dobby’s death as the clock is running out on their quest to destroy the Horcruxes and defeat Voldemort once and for all. Without wanting to ruin anything (and I’m assuming we’ve all read the books by this point), the film is broken into three parts. There is the break in at Gringotts where the group must steal from the “impossible to steal from” wizard’s bank to gain one of the Horcruxes. Part two is the indescribably epic battle for Hogwarts (and once that started I literally didn’t stop crying the entire film), and then there’s the epilogue. The battle for Hogwarts makes up the vast majority of the film, and much of the contents of those scenes are greatly expanded from the book if not created out of thin air. However (and I know this is blasphemous but I don’t care), I honestly felt the film handled many different aspects of that battle better than the book did if for no other reason than we got to actually see things that were simply alluded to and certain moments carried even more emotional weight because of that.

The battle for Hogwarts is simply one of the most well-constructed and epic, both in scale and emotional weight, fantasy or science fiction sequences that I have ever seen put to screen. It had the scale and technological wizardy of the best moments from Lord of the Rings and Star Wars while placing it all in a personalized and emotional context that such moments normally lack. The battle for Isildur in Return of the King is a technical triumph, but I was never as emotionally invested in the individual actions or players (because the emotional aspects of the journey always rested with the Hobbits) as I was in nearly every familiar face’s role in the battle for Hogwarts. Some of my most beloved characters from the series lost their lives during that battle, and while I read about it all for the first time four years ago, it was equally as powerful now as it was then.

I’m the same age as the stars of the film. The Deathly Hallows was actually released the summer after I graduated from high school. As I’ve aged, Harry aged. I became more interested in darker and more mature themes, and the books matured with me. The book was a spectacular metaphor for coming to terms with adult responsibilities and the sacrifices that we must make for the one’s we love. The film captures the themes and mood of the book as well as it possibly could. It seems so fitting that as I am now entering the grim and dark world of adulthood and leaving school and family behind that this vestige of my childhood draws to its close. I was the awkward, bullied kid who didn’t know his place in the world and never stood up for himself, and while I’m not comparing myself to Harry, I’d like to believe that I’ve grown into my own and carved my own little place in the world and stood up for what I believed in. I know I’m not alone here either. For every kid of the millennial generation (and some of their more cool parents), this marks the end of a significant era and I lack the skill with words to capture that emotional weight.

This was easily the best film in the series. While The Deathly Hallows is not my favorite book in the series and I only gave Part 1 a B+ on here, this film carries such depth and power that it’s going to stay with me a long while. I’m an admitted fanboy so maybe this isn’t an appropriate score for this movie, but I honestly believe that this is the score the film deserves on its merits as a movie and not my attachment to the series. I can easily say that this film marks one of the pinnacles of fantasy film-making, and it will be a long time (hopefully not so long for The Dark Tower books to become movies) before something will come around that so completely captures an entire generations imagination. Its detractors accounted for, I firmly believe that J.K. Rowling has crafted a legacy that will live in the hearts and minds of kids (and adults) for as long as the written word remains. The adventures of Harry Potter will stand alongside the quests of the Fellowship and the adventures beyond the wardrobe to Narnia. They will be timeless, and I will always know that I was part of the generation that was first exposed to this wonderful world.

Score: A

Howl’s Moving Castle

 Sometimes, I have myself convinced that I am just the worst otaku on the planet. I talk a big game about how much I love anime and how much I seem to know about the culture, but before today, I had never seen a film by Hayao Miyazaki, a children’s film maker who has a reputation as being the Walt Disney of Japan (however, after watching one of his film’s, I prefer to think of him as the Don Bluth of Japan which is more of a compliment anyways). Well, having now watched the magical Howl’s Moving Castle, I am quite upset that it took me this long to find him. I have never seen quite such a stunning combination of Eastern and Western story-telling and animation, and the final product really has to be seen to be believed.

Set against the backdrop of a devastating war, Howl’s Moving Castle is an epic children’s fantasy that tells the story of a young shopkeeper named Sophie. One day, after encountering a strange young man who saves her from bullying soldiers, Sophie is transformed into an old woman by the evil Witch of the Waste. She sets out on a journey to figure out how to break the spell that has been put upon her and return to her normal self. Along the way, she finds out that the man who rescued her is a powerful wizard named Howl who has a giant mobile castle, where he lives with his young apprentice Markl and a fire demon named Calcifer that lets the castle run. Soon, Sophie finds herself swept up in a war and must find the beauty and love within her and Howl if she wants to live, let alone be transformed back to her old body.

The animation in this film is just mind-boggling. The colors are so vibrant, and the world is filled with so much detail and action. The setting of the story is a beautifully rendered steampunk world where tun of the 20^th century architecture intermingle with magic as well as later technology such as planes. At the same time, you are given several stunning vistas in beautiful forests and glens.The character models look splendid as well. Not since the golden age of Disney has hand-drawn animation looked this splendid.

Much like the great Don Bluth films from the late 80′s/early 90′s, this film is as entertaining for me as a grown-up as it surely is enchanting for children. This is a wonderful allegory for the dangers of war, the price of love, and remaining yourself in the face of hardship. This is the kind of quality children’s picture that you only expect from Pixar anymore. I can definitely see how another Miyazaki picture, Spirted Away, won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, and I can’t wait to watch that movie. If you like anime, this is a no brainer. If you like children’s movies or have children of your own, I can without fail recommend this movie for the whole family. Although a slight warning, it might be a little scary in parts. Certain aspects of the film reminded me of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland which just terrified me as a child.

 Final Score: A-

Fantasia 2000

I have a million little questions that I tend to ask people that are, in fact, secret tests of their character, taste, and intelligence. Who is your favorite character on Seinfeld (any answer is fine except for Kramer)? Who is your favorite Beatle (George or John)? The Red Sox or the Yankees (Boston)? Sony or Nintendo (Sony)? Well, one of my key ways to determine if you have good taste in children’s movie is your opinion of the original Fantasia film. It is easily one of my favorite films from my child hood and if someone doesn’t like Fantasia, I have to question their entire taste in cinema. Well, I finally got around (11 years later) to watching its long-awaited sequel Fantasia 2000 and while it isn’t quite as magical as the original, it’s still quite a gamble in high-brow children’s animation.

Fantasia 2000 follows the same basic set-up of the original film by setting different animated “stories” against a back drop of classical music (although this one also includes a wonderful jazz number). The film has many new vignettes as well as bringing back the classic “The Sorceror’s Apprentice”. However, unlike the original, where the conductor managed most of the transitions between scenes, this one brings in a large cast of familiar faces to add humor to the transition scenes, like Steve Martin, Penn and Teller, Angela Lansbury, and James Earl Jones.

There were two numbers in this film that I would put as being on par with some of the stuff from the original film, and while the others were good, they weren’t as great as the two I’m about to mention. Obviously, “The Sorceror’s Apprentice” isn’t counted in all this since it was in the original as well. They do an absolutely A+ stellar job with George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” both through the perfect choice of song and then through the beautiful art deco animation and Great Depression era storytelling that follows. “Rhapsody in Blue” was my favorite part of the whole film. Also, much like “Night on Bald Mountain/ Ave Maria” from the first film, “Firebird Suite” beautifully mixes an earthly sense of wonder, beauty, and creation with  a sense of danger and death. “Night on Bald Mountain” gave me terrible nightmares as a child because of Chernobog and I could see “Firebird Suite” doing something similar for children today.

This film isn’t as groundbreaking or innovative as the original Fantasia was nearly 70 years ago, but that’s ok. It’s still the kind of big gamble that you’d think Disney had stopped making a long time ago. I would give the original Fantasia one of my very rare A+’s for it’s total score, and while I can’t do that for Fantasia 2000, that doesn’t stop it from still being a great fun, family film. When I get older and if I ever have any kids of my own, I know that the Fantasia films will play a very special role in their cinematic lives.

Final Score: A-

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

I think there is in everyone’s life, some piece of popular fiction that is nearly defining of a particular era of their existence. Lasting much longer than the war it actually portrayed M*A*S*H was practically a cornerstone of every American’s television watching experience in the days when they were really only three or four channels on TV. Radar, Hawkeye, and Hot Lips Houlihan were basically a part of your family that you only got to see once a week, and it’s finale still remains the singe most-watched non-sporting event episode of television of all time. That was my parents’ generation. For my generation, for millions and millions of children who are now adults, it is without question the Harry Potter franchise. Another girl and I were the first kids at our school to read the books way back when I was in the 5th grade in 1999. We pushed those books on the other kids like crack and before long, every kid in the school was reading them. As I grew up, Harry grew up. Those novels were as essential a piece of my childhood as any real life friends. Before too long, the film franchise came around (I got on the evening news for being the first kid at my theatre in line for the movie), and while they would never be able to truly capture the magic of J.K. Rowling’s words, after they dropped Christopher Columbus after the second film, they become great fantasies in their own right.

The last book came out four years ago, so if you haven’t read it yet, you probably haven’t read it on purpose and aren’t a Harry Potter fan, and as such, I’m not going to be remotely concerned about spoilers for this review. So, read at your own risk I guess. The 7th chapter in the series picks up almost immediately after the end of Book 6 with the death of Dumbledore at the hands of Professor Snape. Harry has just learned that his mission is to destroy the Horcruxes, which are basically objects that Voldemort has used to store pieces of his soul. He can not truly be defeated until every last Horcrux is gone. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend the film on a mission to both identify what objects are Voldemort’s Horcruxes and how to destroy a Horcrux when they actually find one. The film only constitutes the first half of the book as the second half will come out this summer. This would also be the first film that doesn’t take place at Hogwarts at all. The second film will only be there for the climactic final battle.

While this film is essential for setting up the end game of the series and presents a lot of critical information and plotting for that final battle, I’m not saying anything too controversial by saying it is fairly slow. There’s a lot of walking, a lot of talking, and an incredible amount of exposition. If it weren’t for the fact that this allows them to make the final movie as epic and true to detail as possible, I would almost want to question the decision to split the books into two movies. However, that isn’t to say that this film isn’t full of a lot of touching and great moments. There’s a scene after Ron runs away (that wasn’t in the original book) where apropos of nothing, Harry and Hermione share a really cute dance to a Nick Cave song. It was great at showing how despite the fact that they are in the midst of an epic war between good and evil and the fate of the world is in their hands, they are still essentially just teenagers. Dobby’s death at the end of the film brought my sister to a state of uncontrollable weeping. I cried worse when Dobby died (and when Harry buried him) than at the death of Dumbledore. Director David Yates (the best for the series since he came along for film 5) does  a great job of filling the film with several creepy and stylistic moments as well, such as the scene at Godric’s Hollow.

Whoever was in charge of casting these films deserves a medal. Say what you will about the quality of J.K. Rowling’s story or the way that the films have been adapted, but there is no way to deny that these films have a done a great job of picking the best and brightest of British talent and placed them in roles that they seem to fit perfectly. The three main kids were all perfectly cast. Even if Daniel Radcliffe isn’t a great actor (which I don’t think he is), he just looks so much like what I always imagined Harry looked like that it’s to the point now that I can’t re-read the books without seeing him as Harry. Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are terrific talents that will have a long career after this series is over. However, the real genius is in the adult casting. Helena Bonham Carter is superb as the psychotic Bellatrix Lestrange. Alan Rickman’s best role of his career might be Severus Snape. Imelda Staunton never ceases to be disturbing or terrifying as Dolores Umbridge, and Ralph Fiennes hasn’t had a role as great as Voldemort since The Constant Gardener or Schindler’s List.

I can clearly remember the day that the last Harry Potter book came in the mail. It’s become a symbol of the end of my childhood. I’ve been able to keep a hold of that dream a couple of years after that thanks to the regular release of new entries of the film adaptations but in a couple of months that will finally be coming to a close as well. Like millions upon millions of people world wide, it’s a really bitter-sweet emotion to finally have come to the end of such a long and loved road. If I ever have children of my own some day, I can guarantee that Harry Potter will become a part of their lives as well. Much like when my father read a couple of pages of The Hobbit to me every night when I was very, very young, I will instill that same sense of adventure and imagination in my children as well.

Final Score: B+

Toy Story 3

While the actual first film that I can remember seeing in theaters was A Muppets Christmas Carol, one of the other earliest pictures that I can remember seeing at the movies was Pixar’s debut feature, Toy Story. The first full-length film to be made using computer-generated graphics, Toy Story has stood the test of the time and has always held an incredibly special place in my heart. When I heard a couple of years ago that they were finally making the long talked about Toy Story 3, I was justifiably concerned, since Disney’s record of releasing sequels to its classic films is less than stellar. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Toy Story 3 ranks alongside Up and the original Toy Story as being one of the greatest animated films that Pixar has produced, and I’m absolutely positive that if you were a child that grew up with the original films but is a grown up now, then the emotional strength of this film can hardly be under-stated.

Toy Story 3 picks up pretty much in universe with the number of years that had passed since the release of Toy Story 2, which was about 11 years or so years before. Andy, the owner of cowboy Woody (Tom Hanks) and space ranger Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), is all grown up and about to head off to college. The few remaining toys that haven’t been sent off in yard sales or thrown away haven’t been played with in years, and they concoct elaborate schemes just to have the opportunity to see or hear Andy. Due to some confusion, the toys are accidentally sent to a daycare center instead of being placed in the attic. The daycare is run by an autocratic stuffed bear who uses new arrivals as cannon fodder for toddlers who don’t know how to properly take care of toys. What follows through the film is a very powerful meditation on abandonment, growing up, and continuing the cycle of love, play, and imagination. And it is guaranteed to bring grown men into inconsolable tears.

I’m probably not saying anything too controversial when I say that with The Incredibles, Up, and Toy Story 3, Pixar took the opportunity to place really mature and deep themes in what are other wise children’s movies. You place the site gags, the animated look, and some of the more childish aspects of plot and pacing to keep the children interested and appeased, but then you throw in some deep and moving moments and messages for the parents, and right now, no one does that better than Pixar. The beginning sequence of Up is one of the most powerful 10 minutes or so of any movie I’ve ever seen, animated or live action. The last scene of Toy Story 3 had me just convulsing with tears. It was embarrassing. I’m glad there wasn’t any women around to see me weeping like I was at a funeral for a loved one. And they weren’t even sad tears. It was tears of recognition of such a fantastic celebration of childhood and the transition from childhood to adulthood. It’s heavy shit. I’ve talked to so many of my friends who agree whole-heartedly when we feel like this movie wasn’t even made for the kid audience but it was made as a celebration of growing up for all the millions of kids who grew up with these films and are now finally grown-ups ourselves.

Besides the emotional weight of the film, it’s fantastic for a myriad of other reasons, particularly the endless jokes and tight plotting that keep you laughing as well as crying. Any scene with Ken and Barbie is hilarious. The sight gags where Mr. Potato Head looks like something out of a Dali painting are great fun for the adults. The film’s last act is structured like The Great Escape. It has some genuinely dark and terrifying moments that I’m sure scared the piss out of the kids in the audience. It has a pretty fantastic use of a Deus Ex Machina at the end of the film. The film’s opening sequence is a brilliant bit of ridiculous anachronism in how it combines the old west with science fiction with just the beautiful imagination of a hyper-active child who hasn’t had life sucked out of him yet by growing up.

This is one of only three animated films to ever be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and that should hopefully speak volumes towards the quality of the picture (the other two being Beauty and the Beast and Up). While I probably still believe that Up and The Incredibles are better movies, it’s a damn close race and Toy Story 3 is still one of the best animated pictures ever made. If you were ever a child and especially if you were a child when the original Toy Story films were released, then you owe it to yourself to watch this movie. If you finish it and haven’t spent the majority of the film in tears, then you are probably a heartless automaton. To infinity and beyond!

Final Score: A

Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope

A long time ago (about 30 years ago), in a galaxy not far away at all (our own), George Lucas dropped on the world a movie that would prove (if inflation is taken into account) to be the highest grossing film ever made and would go on to spawn 5 more films, a seemingly endless series of official novel tie-ins, a bunch of video games, and more licensed merchandise than I even want to begin to think about. That movie was, of course, Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. With just one movie, George Lucas would change not just the face of science fiction in film forever but the very nature of blockbuster films for all of eternity. The first outing isn’t necessarily as perfect as history wants it to be, and I think The Empire Strikes Back is definitely the far better film, but this film’s place in cinema history is locked and guaranteed like few others.

I wish I could say that I literally don’t know a single person who has never seen the Star Wars films but that’s not true anymore, literally as of this watching, because my roommate’s girlfriend walked into the living room while I was watching this and told me she had never seen Star Wars before. I had to pause the movie so I could pick my jaw up off the floor and let that information sink in before I continued watching it. So, if you’re like my roommate’s girlfriend and have never seen a Star Wars picture, here’s a basic plot synopsis. Young farmer Luke Skywalker gets mixed up in an intergalactic battle between the evil Empire, headed by Emperor Palpatine (not named or even mentioned in this film) and Darth Vader against the Rebellion, led by Princess Leia. Luke is introduced to the concept of the Force, a mystical energy that flows through all life in the universe and gives us our strength and power, by an old Jedi knight named Obi-Wan Kenobi. With this new found power and a rag tag group of comrades like Han Solo, a mercenary, and his Wookie Chewbacca, along with robots R2-D2 and C3PO, Luke sets off on a journey to rescue the galaxy from the Empire.

If you thought the effects in this movie would age fairly poorly for something that’s over 30 years old, you’d be wrong, and I really am incapable of comprehending why George Lucas feels the need to go back and ruin his old classics by inserting digital upgrades and new scenes and computer graphics that weren’t in the original and feel completely out of place and forced. His effects and his genius still look great now and he really should just leave his own movies alone. South Park had it right when they devoted an entire episode to skewering this particularly sad trend of his. A shout out must be given to John Williams who gives perhaps one of the most iconic scores in film history in this movie. A lot of his scores have gained an iconic status, and there’s definitely a reason for this. He is simply one of the most talented scorers in the history of cinema.

The movie is not perfect despite what some people like to claim. Mark Hamill is an absolutely atrocious actor. It has its fair share of pacing problems. The character development is pretty bone dry and a lot of the characters are, in this movie and it’s fixed with the other two, caricatures of archetypal figures in fiction. However, there are a lot of great things working for it too. Despite being the most copied and mimicked movie ever made, its story and plot still hold up as genuinely entertaining despite all of the dopplegangers out there. Alec Guinness is spectacular in his Oscar-nominated role as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Harrison Ford has never been cooler than when he’s Han Solo. C3PO and R2D2 are my favorite characters in the entire series despite the fact that R2D2 can literally only make indecipherable beeps and bloops. They just give the film the comic touch it definitely needs.

What is there left to say about Star Wars that hasn’t already been said. If these films (I’m referring to the original trilogy here, not the let’s just say less than fantastic new ones) weren’t as amazing as they truly are, the Star Wars franchise wouldn’t still be making more money in merchandise alone than whatever the biggest box office draw of the year makes in theaters. The Star Wars saga holds an absolutely special place in the hearts of countless people, and it’s really a shame that George Lucas hasn’t made a truly great film since The Empire Strikes Back. While A New Hope isn’t my favorite film in the series, it is still one of the finest science fiction epics ever made.

Final Score: A

Hook

When I was growing up, we had two different VHS’s in the house that were about Peter Pan. I had an old, worn-out copy of the Mary Martin Peter Pan, which for those who aren’t familiar with it was basically a filmed stage play with Mary Martin as Peter Pan. And, boy, was I obsessed with that movie as a kid. That was one of the VHS’s I watched the most growing up. We also owned Hook, 1991′s update of the classic tale directed by none other than Steven Spielberg. This was the very first movie I ever watched that had stars in it like Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Smith, and Bob Hoskins. It is, although maybe not as much as when I was a kid, a great and fun adventure tale that is sure to be magical for all children.

For those rare, rare few who have never seen the film, Hook is about Peter Panning (Robin Williams). Peter Panning is a corporate lawyer who is more obsessed with his job and career success than his family. And more often than not, he puts his work well before his family and misses events like his son’s baseball games. Peter is an orphan, and when he was younger, he was adopted by Wendy Darling (Maggie Smith). Yes, that Wendy Darling. She is the Wendy that J.M. Barrie spoke to and was inspired by when he wrote the Peter Pan story down. Peter takes his family to London to celebrate Wendy’s long, long life in helping the orphans of the city. While there, Peter’s children are mysteriously kidnapped, and we discover that Peter Panning is in fact the Peter Pan of myth and it is up to Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) and the Lost Boys to whip Peter back into shape so that he can save his children from Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) and Smee (Bob Hoskins).

The film is your childhood fantasy of Peter Pan come straight to life. Steven Spielberg brings Never Never Land out of the story book and onto your TV screen through inventive costume and set design. The little tree village that the Lost Boys lives in is an absolute visual delight and the pirate town looks like something you’d expect Disney World to put together. It’s a marvel. You can’t forget John William’s fantastic score either. There’s a reason why this man is one of the most consistently excellent scorers in the history of film, and this movie is no exception. One of the themes of the movie is the power of imagination and you can tell that the group of people who put this film together were chock full of spectacular imaginations.

Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams are the dual beating hearts of the film. It was wonderful to see Robin Williams cast so completely against type for all but the last act of the film. To see him playing a stuck-up, nervous, neurotic lawyer goes against one’s expectations of Williams as the high-strung, manic, perpetual motion machine that he usually plays. It isn’t until he realizes that he truly is Peter Pan that we begin to see that side of him again. And of course, there aren’t enough good things to say about Hoffman’s deliciously ove the top  performance as Captain Hook. I love Dustin Hoffman. He’s one of my favorite actors. However, if I had never seen Hook before, but still knew all of the other stuff I knew about Hoffman, and you asked me who was playing Hook, I would have never in a million years guessed it was Dustin Hoffman. From the wig to the makeup to the prosthetic nose to the ridiculous accent, he completely transformed himself and it’s awesome.

The film has some serious problems. It’s way too long. There’s way too much talking. Yet, I’m about to turn 22 and I still love this movie. Pretty much every critic on the planet hated this film, and I don’t know why. It was never trying to be a great movie. It was just trying to be a fun children’s movie that if you’re the adult taking your kids to see it, you’re still going to enjoy it to. And I firmly believe that in that area, it succeeded. Not every film has to be a high-brow art-house piece, and we should judge movies on what they try to be. This film tried to be fun, and it was.

Final Score: B+

The Iron Giant

I’ve always found it strange that even as an adult I can go back to my favorite movies from when I was a child and still find them to be as enthralling and magical as when I was young. Hell, I can even find that same magic still alive in the higher quality modern children’s movies that I see for the first time as an adult like Up or Where the Wild Things Are. There is something about being transported back to the innocence and beauty of childhood that is absolutely mesmerizing. Intellectuals often look down on children’s movies and say they are beneath them, but that I think that is just silly. No more proof can be found that the first children’s movie I have reviewed so far for this blog also happens to be the best movie I’ve reviewed so far. 1999′s The Iron Giant, while a complete commercial flop, is in my mind one of the finest children movies ever made.

The Iron Giant tells the tale of young Hogarth Hughes living in picturesque Maine in the 1950′s in a town that could be taken straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting (purposefully, I believe, the town itself is called Rockwell). He likes to stay up late and watch cheesy science fiction movies of the day and read stacks and stacks of comic books. He’s a latchkey kid and his imagination is his portal to escape the boredom of his life. His life is turned upside down by the arrival of a giant robot from outer space that he quickly befriends. I won’t ruin the rest of the plot, but what follows is a beautiful tale of friendship, the loss of innocence, and a surprisingly dark take on the Red Scare for what is otherwise a children’s film.

The film is beautifully animated. It expertly combines gorgeous hand-drawn animation along with slickly incorporated computer imagery. The script by Tim McCanlies and Brad Bird is riveting and well-written all the way through. It’s a loving send-up of old science fiction features along with the coming of age tale of classic movies like E.T. (which is an obvious and huge influence on the film). Brad Bird actually made one of my favorite Pixar movies as well, The Incredibles. He’s a man with some serious talent in this particular field. Much like Up and Toy Story 3, this film had me just ravaged by tears by the end of it. It’s touching and heart-felt and if you aren’t emotionally moved by the sincerity of the film, then perhaps you are heartless.

The film only had one flaw, and it was the very last scene, which diluted a lot of the emotional impact of the fifteen minutes or so before it. That’s pretty much the only reason this film didn’t get a perfect score. Honestly, if you are able to still appreciate the child-like wonder needed to watch a family film, watch this right now. It’s a loving tribute to the wonders of being a child, but at the same time, it’s mixed with just enough of a political commentary about the 1950′s and the Red Scare to be incredibly interesting and enthralling to adults of all ages. You owe it to yourself to watch this if you have never seen it before, or to watch it again if you haven’t seen in it in a long, long time.

Final Score: A