Tag Archives: Movies

Review: Big Hero 6

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At this point it’s pretty safe to say that the Disney Revival is now in full swing.  The era which began with either Bolt or The Princess and the Frog depending on your tastes, and which so far seems to mirror the trajectory of the Disney Renaissance in the 1990’s, has seen Disney producing some seriously outstanding films in the last few years.  Tangled is an underrated masterpiece, Wreck-It Ralph is a creative, kinetic marvel, and Frozen has reached the point where it no longer requires description.  Big Hero 6 represents not just the next big step for Disney Animation, but also the first attempt by Disney at creating its own Marvel-based content outside of the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe.  And while Big Hero 6 could never hope to live up to something like Frozen, it’s still wildly entertaining and enjoyable in its own right, and another solid rung in the Disney Revival ladder.

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Review: Feast

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I’m definitely a fan of the recent resurgence of animated shorts preceding feature films.  It harkens back to an earlier time when cartoons and news reels were a part of the cinema experience (though I hope they don’t bring back news reels!).  Pixar, of course, has always had a short attached to each of their new releases, but Disney Animation has gotten back in the game for their last three movies and the results have been impressive.  Paperman (which aired before Wreck-It Ralph) is nothing less than a masterpiece, while Get a Horse! (attached to Frozen) was a fun, creative use of 3D that captured a bit of that historical Disney magic.  The recent debut of Big Hero 6 brought with it a new short, Feast, that serves both purposes of an animated short: it serves an hors d’oeuvre for the main film while also telling an endearing and entertaining story of its own.

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Review: Pride

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The year is 1984.  Miners in the UK, angered by the government’s plans to close more than 70 coal mines (the coal industry had been nationalized following World War II), went on a strike that would last almost a year.  The miners manned the picket lines every day, while back in town their wives strove to keep the community together, making the most of what donations of food and clothing they could find, hoping to keep the government from starving them out.  If that sound like a familiar setting for a film, perhaps you’re thinking of Billy Elliot, but instead of merely using a place and time to tell a story, Pride actually tells the story of that place and time, particularly of the unorthodox union of two groups who just might be able to help each other out.

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 2005

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(Note: This is a fictional creative thinking exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

The Best Voice Performance category at the 77th Academy Awards was considered something of a letdown.  All five nominees came from only two films, and the winner was neither unexpected nor particularly exciting.  However, 2005 proved to be a much more diverse year for voice performances.  Pixar wouldn’t be releasing a new film, but both Dreamworks and Disney both had new movies to contribute.  One film in particular, Madagascar, seemed to be gunning for nominations by recruiting a high profile cast of comedians of who featured prominently in its advertising campaign even before the film was released.  However, no one could have predicted the variety and quality of the performances that would eventually earn nominations.

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Trailer Thursday: Avengers: Age of Ultron

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Avengers: Age of Ultron posterWelcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.

Marvel’s plans to premiere the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer during next week’s episode of Agents of SHIELD were altered when the trailer leaked online last night.  Instead of waiting, Marvel decided to go ahead and officially release the trailer early, so without further ado I’m bringing it to you.  Take a look below, and read on for my shot-by-shot thoughts and analysis.

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Review: The Boxtrolls

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I’ve come to feel that stop-motion animated films need to be graded on their own scale, separate both from films in general but particularly from computer animated movies.  Partly that’s due to the simple fact that so few stop-motion films are released anymore; The Boxtrolls is the only one due in 2014, while there are at least 10 major studio computer animated movies set to come out this year.  In fact, while seemingly every studio is eager for a computer animated hit, there are very few sources of stop-motion animation, mainly consisting of Laika and Aardman Animations (with an occasional film from Tim Burton when he feels like it).  In the last five years and despite producing only three films, Laika has set itself apart as a film studio with a vision, making interesting, unique films like Coraline and ParaNorman.  With The Boxtrolls, it has solidified its place with the likes of Pixar as a studio that makes movies of the highest quality and vision which demand to be seen, and whose involvement with a film is more important than voice casts, writers or directors in attracting my interest.

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Trailer Tuesday: Inside Out

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Inside Out posterWelcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.

How long will Pixar be able to get us excited by merely referencing their past triumphs?  There may not actually be any limit on that timeframe, considering they have movies like Toy Story, Ratouille, WALL-E, Up, The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, all of which are permanently etched in the public’s consciousness.  For their newest film, Inside Out, they use the familiar tactic (also used in their first trailer for WALL-E) of reminding us why they’re so awesome, and of course it works.  But I’m more interested in the small taste we actually get of Inside Out at the end of the trailer.  Take a look at it below, and read on for my thoughts:

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Trailer Thursday: Tomorrowland

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First glimpse of Tomorrowland

Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.

I’ve been looking forward to Tomorrowland for well over a year.  Ever since director Brad Bird tweeted a picture of a mysterious box from the Disney Archives in January of last year, I’ve been mildly obsessed with the film (for reasons I’ll get to after talking about the trailer).  Out of seemingly nowhere today, we finally got our first look at footage from the film (due out May 22, 2015) in a quick teaser trailer.  I got more than a little emotional watching it, but that may just have been from personal reasons.  Take a look at the trailer below, and read on for a breakdown of it and my thoughts:

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Trailer Tuesday: Pride

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where we look at trailers for upcoming movies.

Most Trailer Tuesdays I post a trailer along with a bunch of screencaps that either highlight interesting moments from the trailer or which show off the film’s visuals.  However, not every film I want to bring your attention to needs that level of analysis or imagery.  So today we’ve got a trailer that speaks for itself with its excellent cast and interesting subject matter.  So without further ado, here’s the trailer for Pride:

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Trailer Tuesday: Mad Max: Fury Road

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where we look at trailers for upcoming movies.

The Mad Max films form one of the most bizarre trilogies out there.  A product of the unique mind of George Miller (known more these days for the Babe and Happy Feet movies), each film had a drastically different style and feel.  The first film, Mad Max, is the darkest of the three, with its tragic story and its nihilistic style, and it helped introduce the world to Mel Gibson.  The second film, The Road Warrior, is an absolute masterpiece, possibly the greatest pure action film of all time, whose chase sequence is one of the most pulse-pounding and electrifying sequences ever put on film.  The final film, Beyond Thunderdome, is almost too strange to describe, with Tina Turner overseeing a town powered by pig methane where arguments are settled in the craziest of cage matches (“Two men enter, one man leaves!”), and a group of abandoned teenagers who think Max is a prophet.

So it’s almost impossible to have any idea what to expect from Mad Max: Fury Road.  I’m thrilled that George Miller is back behind the wheel, as there’s no one else to whom I would trust a new film, but I’m conflicted since Mel Gibson won’t be returning.  On the one hand that’s probably a good thing, as the thought of watching an older Gibson try to revive his career by returning to his roots isn’t appealing, but on the other hand he was Max and I’m not eager to see him replaced.  And then of course there’s the troubled production, which has been an ongoing story for years.  But if this first trailer is anything to go by, we’re in for one hell of a ride with Fury Road.  Take a look, and read on for my thoughts:

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