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Posts Tagged ‘family’

Delightful

Here’s a movie that I forgot to review a long time ago, and one that is certainly due for it’s additional fifteen minutes in the spotlight (as if this review could be considered the spotlight, right?) I can only review this movie on the basis that it is quite possibly the best animated movie of all time. Right up there with Emperor’s New Groove (review coming soon, my minions).* Shrek really dazzles the audience with original humor, excellent voice over and even very believable animation, right from the very beginning of the movie to the very end. Plus it entails a wonderfully original love-story-adventure-quest plot that is not only easy to follow, but fun as well. Starring such huge names as Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow, and Cameron Diaz, this 2001 film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vickey Jenson will astonish viewers of all ages.

*Editor’s note: you don’t have minions King, you ARE the minion.

Plot

Reclusive ogre Shrek goes on an epic quest to remove a spattering of fairy-tale creatures dumped onto his swamp by the evil dictator “king” Lord Farquad only to be sent on a further quest to retrieve the lass Farquad wishes to marry in order to become king. Damn that was a weird sentence. But anyway, after embarking on an additional quest to save the princess, Shrek finds himself hopelessly in love with the lovely Princess Fiona who hides a terrible secret. This love then balloons into a frantic situation and a slight plot twist right at the very end. And although the plot does seem slightly cliché every now and then, there is not a single point where it disappoints. Plus, right when you start thinking you know where the movie is going, something new comes along and changes it all. Most excellent plot development.

Visual

The CGI really made this movie fantastic. Although still obviously CG, it is so well developed that you can really see the time and effort the animators placed into every scene. The lighting is exceptional and really requires mention. From the breath of the fire-breathing dragon lighting up the castle walls to the sun setting over the kingdom of Duloc, every bit of light beautifully interacts with all other aspects of the particular scene.

Audio

The theme song is beyond catchy here, it’s actually contagious. You’ll find yourself humming the song for days afterwards. Even during the actual movie, the music never takes on a point where it seems to not fit. Every part of the music fits exactly the way it should into every scene. Even though most of the music is an adaptation of the same theme song, it is adapted so well you barely even notice it’s the same song.

Acting

Here is where the movie really shines–for an animated movie anyway. When I watch an animated movie, I don’t want to spend the entire flick trying to figure out the name of one of the actors doing the voice over. But I also don’t want to only think of that actor during the movie, I want the voice to seem fitting with the character that is being portrayed. This is where many animated movies go astray when they enlist huge name actors–it’s far to difficult to forget that someone had to voice that character. In Shrek, however, the huge name actors blend so beautifully into the character being acted out that you actually forget who is doing the acting and enjoy just the characters. Just the way it should be.

Script

I have to add this little extra part in here to give some props to the writers in this movie, they did such an excellent job on the script that it’s originality is sure to become the standard by which all animated movies should be created. The humor is outright fantastic, and the movie actually sports jokes and melodrama suited not only for the young children, but also even more so to adults. So congrats to the writers of Shrek, because they did such a great job that I actually broke my template for movie reviews. Kudos.

Summary

If you haven’t yet seen this movie, you must be a caveman, or perhaps Amish. But if you’re Amish then you shouldn’t be reading this review on a webpage then should you? So anyway, if you haven’t seen it then go buy it right now. Don’t rent it first, don’t borrow it, just go buy it. The re-watch-ability is excellent and I don’t know of a single person who doesn’t love this movie. So in conclusion, the plot is great, the script is stunning, the acting is perfect, and CGI is just the way it should be. So all in all is this movie really worth your time? Absolutely. Is it worth 5 stars? You better believe it.

5 “You didn’t slay the dragon?!?!?” out of 5

Pixar is at it again

Horsepower, speed, chrome, and skid marks. No, I’m not talking about King’s car, or his underwear for that matter. I’m talking about Pixar’s newest release, Cars. They packed the cast full of big name celebrities from the big screen, TV, radio, and several racing circuits. There are so many running Pixar jokes in this movie that I couldn’t even begin to count them all after only watching it once.

Plot

Have you seen Doc Hollywood? It’s fairly similar to that, but without all the people. It’s called Cars, get it? The movie follows Lightning McQueen (voice by Owen Wilson), a cocky rookie racecar on his way to California for the Piston Cup. On his way he gets lost one night because he can’t see where he is going, his headlights are only stickers. He ends up causing a lot of damage to this small town of Radiator Springs and is sentenced to community service by repairing the main road he tore up. After a while he begins to make friends with the locals and eventually makes it to his big race.

Visual

AMAZING. If Pixar were to leave out the cars and just show some short clips of the Radiator Springs area you would probably think it was real. People who really pay attention to the background will pick out car shapes in the mountains and the rock bluffs. The little VW Beetle bugs flying around in some of the scenes are hilarious, rather than contrails in the sky left from jets you can see clouds in the shape of tire tracks. Pixar quadrupled (that’s 4x for those of you who have trouble with big words) their processing power after making The Incredibles and they still spent an average of 17 hours rendering each frame of the movie. And it shows in the final product. The detail that they put into the cars, the buildings, and especially the scenery is amazing.

Audio

Lots of good stuff here, they have some good music that really helps set the mood for whatever might be happening at the time. Nothing really memorable about the music, but at least none of it seemed out of place. Lots of country and slow music to describe the old town of Radiator Springs and especially when Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and Lightning go “Tractor Tipping.” And the music speeds up when Lightning gets back on the race track. The voice over acting matched seamlessly with the mouths on the cars so there are no problems there.

Acting

Woah, how many actors and celebrities can you fit into one movie? Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger (Isn’t he in every Pixar movie?), Michael Keaton, Richard & Mrs. Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Tom & Ray (Click & Clack from Car Talk) Magliozzi, Jay Leno, Michael Schumacher, and Mario Andretti just to name… more than a few. Pixar recognizes that John Ratzenberger is in every movie they have made, and they make a joke about it at the end of the movie while the credits are rolling. The only thing that struck me as odd through the whole movie was that the fire truck, Red, never said anything. And I didn’t find out until later why. The movie is dedicated to Joe Ranft who was the voice of Red, and the Peterbilt at the beginning of the movie, as well as being the Co-director of the movie, died in a car crash in August 2005. They had to cut Red’s lines because they didn’t want to replace him. The appearance of racing celebrities throughout the movie adds a touch of fun. I would have acted much the same way that Luigi and Guido did if Michael Schumacher showed up at my door too.

Summary

Great, fun movie. There are jokes for the entire family. Car lovers will find nearly every kind imaginable in the movie at one point or another. Mater’s signature voice adds the hillbilly humor everyone loves and will make you “Happier than a tornado in a trailer park.” There is a good lesson in the movie about friendship and respect too… somewhere. I was too busy laughing to notice. I give it 5 “Pit Stop?”s out of 5

Pixar just can’t make bad movies!

What? An animated flick? Who the hell do I think I am? wait…I think I’m a movie reviewer dude, and I think I know who I am. Right. Moving on. Here’s a bit of a break from the norm, with a review of the movie The Incredibles. A creation of Disney in conjunction with Pixar, this box office smash hit cartoon dealie was more than entertaining. It was just flat out fun. And anyone who has read my previous articles knows that I don’t really review a movie based on its “fun” factor. But after seeing this flick, I was persuaded that movies really can be fun. It stars such people as my favorite actor of all time Jason Lee as the bad guy and Samuel L. Jackson (what movie isn’t this guy in?) as a kind of sidekick. Unfortunately, I didn’t really recognize the other actors and actresses, but more on that later. This movie is exceptionally well done and is more a work of art than a movie.

Plot

The movie follows the lives of a family of underground superheroes after a series of lawsuits forces the government to conceal the identities and stop the super activity of superheroes. This particular family’s father, Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) played by Craig T. Nelson longs for the “glory days” when he could save lives and be loved and cherished by the whole nation. After losing his job at an insurance company, Mr. Incredible gladly takes on a job for big bucks on a remote island where he can once again use his powers. Unbeknownst to him, however, he is working for someone whose sole purpose is to kill all supers and become a super hero himself. After “killing” Mr. Incredible, Syndrome played by Jason Lee, sends a gigantic robot to the city and attempts to disable it. After realizing he is unable to become the hero he wants to be, Syndrome is foiled by his own robot, which is now destroying the whole city. It is then up to the Incredibles (that’s the whole family, not just Mr. Incredible) to vanquish the evil. And so on. I won’t delve in any more, because I don’t want to ruin the ending.

Visual

All CGI, all the time. But it really works. I know I’ve left a few animated movies thinking how crappy the graphics seemed, but this flick pulled it all off very well. Now, I’m sure you’ve all seem some Pixar movie, so I’m sure you know the quality of graphics they produce. But this movie even exceeds all previous work. It’s not quite perfectly lifelike, but it’s close enough to make you believe it could be real. Plus, a lot the visuals took on a very “James Bond” kind of feel that I found quite exhilarating. I really can’t stress enough the uniqueness of these visuals, I actually left the theater wanting more. I wanted to see more of the movie, I wanted more James Bond bad guy secret hideouts and beautiful CGI.

Audio

A great theme song, and even better special effect sounds. I found myself humming the theme song for the whole day afterward, and occasionally it gets stuck in my head still. The song fit the movie perfectly, and almost helped the believability of the flick. It actually helped it seem like a Superman meets James Bond movie, but with better acting, plot, sound effects, and originality.

Acting

Yeah, I know it’s animated, and that there really isn’t a whole lot of acting required with voicing-over, but I was pleasantly surprised with the acting quality here. Every part of each voice-over is incredibly (pun intended) believable. You could almost catch yourself thinking the characters are real thanks to this. It really helped make the whole movie seem more like a live action movie than an animated flick. As for the acting quality of the actors I had never heard of? I could almost say that they are better than even the ones I have heard of. Truly impressive.

Summary

I would strongly recommend this movie to any person of all ages. From that six year old obnoxious cousin you have to baby-sit for the weekend while her parents are in Vegas, to the ninety year old that you sit with on Thursday mornings to make him feel loved again. But it also works for everything in between. This is the kind of movie that my parents would watch and enjoy (for those who don’t know, I help them to watch movies that won’t make them mad…and that’s pretty damn tough to do). So as the first review of an aminated movie, I’m proud to rate this one exceptionally high. If you haven’t seen this one yet, you should go do that. Just spend the buck or two to rent it. You’ll like it, I promise. Yes, do my bidding, excellent. Right, anyway. 5 out of 5

The Burton-ized remake

Just for clarification, this is the NEW version of the movie, not the old version. This is the version that editor-in-chief LilPickle refuses to watch. But little does he (and many other people) realize this version is far superior to the prior vintage musical. And no, before you ask, this is NOT a musical. Music does play an important role in this updated flick, but at no point do you have to sit and endure the new version of “Cheer up Charlie,” which is most good because that song blew my left nut. In fact, the only singing you have to endure here is the all new and very creative Oompa Loompa songs. Directed by the acclaimed Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, this delightful romp actually makes dark movies fun again. But before you go saying things like “King, it’s supposed to be a light, airy movie,” I say shut your piehole for a sec and check this out: the movie is based off a book, and the book took on a very dark theme. This movie was far truer to the original story than the 1971 flick.

Plot

Reclusive chocolatier Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) realizes that he is getting old and must assign an heir to his factory, and since he has no family to speak of, he sends out five golden tickets in a world-wide lottery. After much hope and several candy bars, a very poor lad by the name of Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) discovers a golden ticket. He and his grandfather are then to be taken on a tour of the enormous Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory. But you probably all knew that anyway. The plot here is vaguely similar to the original movie. Also, the same characters still exist with the same mannerisms (although they are updated to current day standards). In the end, the same offer to Charlie still exists, but it’s here that the filmmakers took a slightly different path by remaining truer to the book. Charlie actually denies the offer for the factory at first because Willy Wonka does not want Charlie to ever see his family again. But after some time, Wonka realizes the error of his ways and allows Charlie’s family to come live in the factory and everyone lives happily ever after and so on. One other key plot difference between this and the original flick, is that the new one no longer utilizes the whole “everlasting gobstopper” thing, where the competition guy tries to bribe the children who go on the tour to bring him the gobstopper. Tim Burton wisely chose to leave that out of this movie.

Visual

Quite stunning. Key visuals include the dirty, leaning shanty that the Bucket family lives in, the snow-covered town bustling with people, the huge, mysterious factory, and so on. It is quite easy to buy into the visuals’ hook, line and sinker here–and that’s all before entering the factory. The factory itself is filled with awe-inspiring CGI and even real creations of candy and chocolate. Everything in the factory is made to look straight from the pages of the original book, and the execution is absolutely flawless. Another signature visual is the use of only one Oompa Loompa (Deep Roy) and using CGI to recreate Oompa Loompas in the hundreds. But, this is no cheesy effect. Deep Roy actually acted out several different movements per scene, and all were added together to create each scene. Perfectly executed.

Audio

I can’t stress enough how happy I am that “Cheer up Charlie” did not make it into the update. God I hated that song. Plus, all the Oompa Loompa songs are catchy and original, and none of them sound the same. This really helps make a different feel for the movie: it doesn’t quite seem so rehearsed, instead it really seems much more on-the-spot. As for sound effects, nothing truly stunning to speak of, but all was done very tastefully and noting seemed out of place.

Acting

Everything in this section was quite spot-on. Johnny Depp perfectly played the reclusive chocolate king. From the flashbacks to the confused looks, everything about Willy Wonka was fantastically executed by Depp. As for the other actors, they all gave remarkable performances, but I think you’d have to watch the movie to truly respect the performances.

Summary

For all you people who refuse to open their minds to this movie, you’re all jerks. This movie rocked. And I say that from a professional standpoint of course (I don’t see your movie reviews on websites, do I?). So here’s the final word: unclench that butthole a bit and go rent this movie. I’m sure blockbuster will have a copy or twelve, and I highly doubt my review is going to make twelve people in every major city go to blockbuster and rent this movie. Anyway, I do need to summarize and say that this movie was a far superior update from the old vintage seventies flick with Gene Wilder. Even if you don’t believe everything I said prior to this point, I very strongly recommend this movie to people of all ages. It’s worth your time, I promise. Oh and LilPickle? I expect you to borrow this movie any day now…*

5 Squirrels’ nuts out of 5

*Editor’s Note: …And I expect one of these days I’ll get a review from you that we can agree on its star rating, but that doesn’t mean either will happen. I just want to clarify that I refuse to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ever again, and because of that, I don’t want to watch this version. It’s like a mouse hitting the shock button the first time and later being told it was changed to the food release button–I still won’t risk getting shocked when the old food release button continues to work. Damn scientists.