Archive for Animated

A report was let out a few days ago that World Events Productions may sell the rights to Voltron in order for a live action movie to be made. The question is: does anyone care? Well, if you are a child of the early 80s that grew up with the metal toys and remember crashing them at your younger sister in hopes that Voltron would save the day, then yes, you would care. However, they want to turn it into a live-action movie, which may be a little different than expected.

Transformers has done pretty well as a live-action adaptation of a toy line, GI Joe on the other hand looks too far fetched an idea. Since Hollywood is looking back to old 80s cartoons, or I should say Japanese Manga from the late 70s, why not the Thundercats? Or better yet M.A.S.K., the Inhumaniods, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Jem, Centurions, Tranzor Z? All of these would be pretty sweet live-action movies.

There are a few things in the world that Hollywood does not need to glorify on the big screen, and old cartoons is one of them. You can pull only so much together to make a story for 30 minutes seem interesting, how about 90? Instead of destroying the legacy of some of these shows, maybe they should release them all on DVD so many of us can watch them and experience a little piece of childhood again. It is a shame that most of those toys haven’t been made in a few decades. The Centurions completely would dominate anything kids play with today. And the original Voltron lions? Those things were built to last, not the cheap plastic stuff you have today. Heck, the Smurfs are getting a movie, who cares about those guys?

The first film that I saw from the Japanese animation film studio, Studio Ghibli, blew me away. It was in 2001, and the film was Spirited Away. Since then I have become somewhat obsessed with looking for releases from Studio Ghibli and the director of Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki. When I got the chance to get a copy of the latest flick from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli last week, I was overjoyed. The film was Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.

Like all of the Mizayaki flicks I’ve seen, Ponyo took me to a dream world that only Mizayaki can create. The story is simple, it is about a little girl fish (or a mermaid) who meets a little boy living in a house on a cliff by the sea. The girl fish (Ponyo) escapes her father who will not allow her some freedom and ventures to a place near where humans live. A boy named Sousuke discovers her after she gets stuck in a bottle near the shore and brings her to his home to become his pet. Ponyo falls in love with the boy and shows him that she can talk. But just as Ponyo’s and Sousuke’s friendship becomes deeper, Ponyo’s father catches up with her and brings her back to their home underneath the sea. But Ponyo wants to become human and with her mind power, she is able to grow her own limbs. She escapes again and is reunited with Sousuke.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea gives us many of the kind of things that only Mizayaki can give us: stunning visuals, intricately drawn underwater scenes, realistic movements of the characters, and the meticulous manner in which every little detail in the movie is presented. But compared to Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo on the Cliff somehow left me a little disappointed. I don’t know, but I guess I just expected too much from Mizayaki. The storyline of Spirited Away is more solid than Ponyo on the Cliff; I could not get over the power of the dreaminess of every frame of Spirited Away. Probably if I hadn’t seen Spirited Away, I would say that Ponyo on the Cliff is by far one of the best animated films I have seen.

Okay, I know that everyone has already given their thumbs up for Pixar’s 10th animated film, but allow me to add my own two thumbs up in the mix for Up. I have seen many (if not all) of Pixar’s films (including the very short ones made during the 80s when the company was not that big yet), and I can say that Up is one of Pixar’s funniest and best works ever.

Why is Up doing so well in the box office, and why is it safe to say that it is one of Pixar’s bests? Well, I guess it is not the amazing visual effects because we all know that visual effects are part and parcel of today’s animated films. It is also not the amazing sounds or the funny scenes or the breathtaking action because we know that these elements are always present in every Pixar film. I guess it is in how the film touches the heart. Up is a love story. If the trailers you’ve seen led you to believe that this is an action-comedy film, then watch the movie and you will see that it is actually a love story.

The first ten or fifteen minutes of the film is where its power really lies because of how it stirs the emotion: a boy and a girl falls in love and they grow up and marry and live happily as a couple and grow old together. But they do not die together, one has to go first and leave the other broken by the memories and a promise that was not fulfilled. Then the hilarious action and adventure set in.

Up is not only for children, adults will definitely enjoy this film; the children will enjoy the action and the visual effects; the adults will surely be surprised with how much this film, an animated one, can touch them emotionally. If you are familiar with Pixar’s films, expect all the good ingredients that are in their previous films to be present in Up plus a lot more that you haven’t seen before.

It wouldn’t be spring, or summer, without a new Pixar movie and Up is the newest edition to the Pixar family. The trailers for this movie already prove that it will probably fit right at home with talking cars, lovable monsters and a robot with a crush on plants.

Ed Asner lends his voice as Carl Fredrickson, a 78-year old who ties thousands of balloons to his house in order to take a trip to South America and see the sights. In this time of economic strife it may be cheaper to buy and inflate thousands of balloons instead of purchase a plane ticket, but who wants to clean up that mess afterward?

Carl isn’t alone as 8-year old Russell, voiced by new comer Jordan Nagai, stows away in the house to join Carl for the ride of their lives. Nothing says family fun like an old curmudgeon and his funny child-actor sidekick running through a jungle of talking dogs and over-sized tropical birds.

Thankfully, Pixar has found a way to incorporate many kinds of humor into their animated movies. Plenty of verbal and sight gags keep audiences rolling in their seats as the fun barrels on. In the tradition of Disney animated movies, where every summer you’d wait to see what story they would exploit next, Pixar makes animated movies fun to watch again if you’re 8 or 78.

Dreamworks does a solid job, too, but they seem to be trying too hard and sometimes come up short. If Dreamworks pulled out the stops for their animation instead of getting countless actors to voice their movies, then they might be on the same level as Pixar. Until the scale evens out, be sure to set your calendar for May 29 and get ready for an exciting ride.

Coraline falls somewhere between the impressive and the disappointing. The storyline is cliché. but it somehow managed to keep me hooked up to the end of the movie. The storyline is the most important part of a movie; it is where the overall beauty of the film hinges.  A fresh storyline is guaranteed to impress, but in Coraline, we’ve seen it all before, it’s the usual stuff– an 11-year-old girl lured into another world and finds adventure and misadventures there. Think about Alice in Wonderland meets Pan’s Labyrinth in the 3D world. It’s interesting enough but not as exciting as a three minute rollercoaster ride.

As to the visuals, here’s what I have to say: nothing beats pure CG, or pure stop-motion animation. I know that the makers of Coraline took pains and pride in trying to mix the new way of doing it (CG) with the old way of doing it (stop-motion animation). But the two do not seem to mesh well, or is there something wrong with my eyes? Yes, it’s a visual feast, but I find it distracting to see where the stop-motion animation comes in and where it gets out. Pure CG has this kind of fluidity in motion that only it could have. Pure stop-motion animation has this kind of dreamlike realism in the images that could not be seen in the smoothness and perfection of CG.

Stop-motion animation comes out really rough if it is placed side-by-side with CG.  But never mind the CG and stop-motion animation not meshing well with each other because if you look at the whole canvas, Coraline is still visually appealing.

I like the character of Coraline Jones (probably because she was voiced by Dakota Fanning). She’s not the kind of heroine who consciously begs for your approval; she’s just herself, nothing more and because of this you’ll like her.  The characterization is one of this movie’s strengths.

If you enjoyed Nightmare Before Christmas, I am sure you’ll also enjoy this film.