Movie Review: Finding Dory

This sequel was a long time coming and it was worth the wait, to some degree. I should really start off on high note and let the cards tumble after that. The rich palette of colors alone makes this movie eye-catching. I wasn’t particularly overjoyed by the pre-movie short, Piper, but it was cute. The movie centers around the concept of Dory trying to find her family. Unlike Finding Nemo, the stakes aren’t nearly as high and this makes the story seem less compelling. Dory is amusing and frustrating all in one breadth. Having a main character whose memory issues delay the story instead of moving it forward is tough for the audience hold onto. At varying points during the movie, the plot meandered, matching pace with Dory. The characters were much more developed in the second movie and it was fun seeing some of the ‘bit’ characters getting a larger role, like the students in Nemo’s class. My nephew (almost 3) and niece (5) couldn’t pay attention for the duration, but two teenagers sitting next to me couldn’t stop crying or making ridiculously stupid remarks. The theatre was packed.

I won’t say the movie wasn’t entertaining, it absolutely was. In this day and age, and I used to focus on this more, it is important to look at diversity and female roles. In an animated movie with animals, this was hardly relevant, save for the fact that the main cast was predominately white. While the characters are hidden behind a mask, this is still quite apparent. With the main character being a woman, and the story certainly passing the Bechdel test, the plot can’t be faulted greatly.

In what turned out to be an uncertain turn of events, I both lauded and was appalled by the way Pixar approached mental illness. Dory has a learning disability. Everyone around her tries to compensate for this. At an early (and adorable) age, she is taught to keep telling people about her disability. It is used to great comic effect. Imagine if someone tried to do this in real life, would we all respond so kindly? While Nemo highlights that her memory issue is an asset, making her fearless, it could also be construed as highly dangerous. Though she manages to avoid catastrophe, these are used as punchlines. Great for kids with issues, but if they tried to replicate Dory’s behavior, they’d be dead. However strange this might seem, the sea lions ruined this movie for me. They were so mean to the clearly differently abled sea lion, Gerald. I actually already foundarticles about this online, so I’m not alone. Is it right to mock and make fun of someone who is autistic? That is what it looks like in the movie. It was quite a letdown for such a fun movie. It was unnecessary. The other two sea lions were basically bullies.

On the one hand, it seemed like everyone in the movie had some weird deficiency, like the whale who thought his echolocation was broken and too afraid to use it. While it is great to have comedy, what lesson is it teaching? This is a movie you should watch, but this discussion might take some of the fun out of it.

Movie Review: Mr. Peabody and Sherman

I’m a fan of animated movies.  I think they’re fun, and if done right, they can engage on all levels.  I don’t have a favourite between Dreamworks, Pixar or Disney, to me they all can be both good and bad.  Lately, I’ve loved the Despicable series.  Those movies have a little something of everything.  In this movie, brought to you by Dreamworks, the studio pulls from a known commodity, a sub-series of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

I can honestly say I didn’t remember anything about the original, so as I watched the movie, I assumed they were being true to the series.  After seeing the movie, I can’t bring myself to care enough to even look it up online.  The animation was decent, but it wasn’t any more impressive than anything else you might see nowadays.  I understand that most people who saw it in 3D raved about it.  If a movie is only good in 3D, then there is something wrong with the picture.

The story was not coherent from beginning to end.  The idea was that Mr. Peabody, a brilliant dog, has adopted a boy who he found abandoned and the boy is just now going to school, at age seven.  That alone had me questioning what was going on in the story.  Once he gets there, he shows off how much he knows and some other girl gets jealous and the two get into a fight and Sherman bites her.  Of course this isn’t okay and the parents get involved.  Mr. Peabody decides to try to smooth things over by inviting the girl and her parents over and the story gets more bloated from there.

For kids, this movie is probably perfect.  It doesn’t have to make sense and there’s a dog wearing glasses.  Done. For adults expecting a throwback to when you watched this as a child, like me, you might be wondering what the deuce is going on.  From the first interaction between Mr. Peabody and Sherman I was turned off.  I am usually okay with kids, especially in animated movies, but this kid, Sherman, was exceptionally annoying.  And when you meet the girl who he bites, it doesn’t get better.  Almost all of the characters are caricatures of anything and everything and it was tedious.  I could not wait for the movie to be over.

Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

Years ago, I had seen the first Despicable Me movie and thought, wow, while it wasn’t original.  It had a lot of elements that made me love it.  Sure you can’t understand the minions, but their antics are more than enough to keep you engaged, even as an adult.  Despicable Me 2 takes what started in the first one and builds on it.  At the very core of the story, it is about Gru finding a woman so that his kids can have a mom.  I think Universal missed an opportunity to prove that single parenting, while not easy, is the norm and kids can succeed in a family with only one parent, even if that isn’t optimal.  I realise, having no kids, how dare I say that, but it is what it is, as one of my co-workers likes to say.

The story starts off with Gru hosting a birthday party for Agnes, the youngest of his adopted daughters.  It becomes clear that he is no longer being ‘evil’ anymore, but going to sell legitimate wares, jellies and jams.  A large installation with radioactive chemicals gets stolen and a secret organisation calls on Gru to help them figure out which villain may have done it.   Gru is then paired up with a new agent and hilariousness ensues.

While this movie doesn’t have the same punch that the first one did, I still found it both funny and touching at times.  Gru’s character evolves and he does care about the girls and their lives.  There is a great sequence where Margo is trying to date a boy and Gru plays the perfect over-protective father.  Though the movie is probably going to be pulled soon, this one is well worth seeing.

Movie Review: Rise of the Guardians

Nothing signifies the holiday season than an animated holiday movie.  To get in early on the family gatherings, Dreamworks released a movie about the various ‘fictional’ entities kids believe in, such as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Sandman.  The group is beset by the Boogie Man, who is also trying to vie for the attention of children.  To tip the scales, the group are tasked with bringing Jack Frost into their midst, but he, like the Boogie Man, is not believed in by the kids.

The story is cute and short, the concept of Jack Frost wanting to belong is one most kids can relate to.  The all-star cast makes the characters come to life, but I spent most of the movie wondering how was playing Santa Claus.  The thing that stole the show for me was the stunning visuals.  Dreamworks has outdone themselves once again, mixing state-of-the-art digital technology with great sound and story. There is little significant about this story that makes it memorable, but with enough laughs and heart to make the hour and a half fly by.

Short-Lived, But Not Short on Promise

As a long-time Batman fan, mostly of the animated series from the early 1990’s, I find myself, nowadays looking for something to replace it.  Cartoon Network has various choices, but something about the animation and story-telling does nothing for me.  I was either late or early to work, I’m not sure which when I stumbled upon the Hub channel and saw Batman Beyond on. Granted, I know this show has long since stopped running, but it was a refreshing take on something that was so pivotal to the success of the early Batman cartoon.

If I can take you back down memory lane, the original Batman cartoon featured superb voice acting and engrossing story-telling.  The cartoon chronicled Batman through the middle part of his career and allowed the viewer to watch him train a protégé as well as watch that same protégé grow up and move on.

In the next iteration of Batman, Batman Beyond, the viewer is taken into the future where Bruce Wayne no longer dons the cap and cowl, having realised that his body has betrayed him, in a manner of speaking, and he can’t trust himself to defend the night as he did before.  As circumstances develop, Bruce has a run-in with the person who will become the next Batman, Terry McGinnis.  Terry loses his father and steals the bat suite from Batman, before proving that he is after the same cause that Bruce has been.  It takes some time, but the friendship develops.

Without going into more detail, this cartoon captures everything that is great about Batman and brings it into the next century.  The stories are written by the same pairing who did the acclaimed cartoon series from the 1990’s, and the look and feel, as well as voices, all match.

What makes this cartoon stand out from other cartoons is that it isn’t cartoon-y.  While we can all enjoy some morality with The Simpsons or even SpongeBob, both have the bright colours and child-like quality that separate them from anything for adults.  It is these Batman cartoons that are so different from anything else out there.  Even the modernised versions of Justice League don’t capture what has really become a mainstay with cartoons related to Batman: realism.

The Batman cartoons are real.  If he gets hit, exploded, shot at, he gets hurt.  Not like Superman who bullets bounce off of or Green Lantern who can make a shield appears out of nowhere.  Batman has gadgets, sure, but even those don’t have the Acme feel to them.

I’m rambling about this cartoon, the sequel more than the original, because it takes real life situations and doesn’t trivialise them, things happen, life happens.  And while we all may say we don’t want to deal with reality, sometimes it is nice to watch something and have it mimic reality in its own way. 

Memory Lane

I haven’t watched a good cartoon in a long time.  I am an avid Family Guy fan, but I’m not sure that counts.  When I say cartoon, I mean a classic Scooby Doo or the now ‘retired’ PowerPuff Girls or Dexter’s Laboratory.  Those were great cartoons.  They had heart, lessons to be learned and at least one character to identify with.

When I was little, I could hardly go a day without watching/reading something Scooby Doo related.  Recently, I purchased a Mystery Machine box set of DVD’s, but its in the queue, way at the end too…but I do have the complete PowerPuff Girls Series and I am waiting it out for the Dexter’s Lab one.  I recently came across a discussion on Amazon about how greedy companies like Disney are. The reason we haven’t seen the next volumes for Chip and Dale or Ducktales is because they didn’t see enough sales on the previous sets.  I realise there has to be a cost benefit analysis, but as one of my other favourite cartoons finally made it to DVD, Pirates of the Dark Water, I wonder why they can’t use a Field of Dreams approach to things.  If you make it, people will buy it.

Honestly though, even in limited release, the people who want it will grab it, and the people who miss it, will pay anything to get it once it’s no longer available.  It’s really a win-win scenario, I think.

I am also a big Snoopy fan, if you don’t know me, this might be big news, but I do think I have the largest Met Life Snoopy collection this side of the world.  But I have noticed quite a few great Snoopy specials haven’t made it to DVD.  Most notable of those, one that made me cry even when I was a kid was Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown.  This cartoon had everything in it.  Good kids, bad kids and a great story that was about the whole Peanuts crew, not just my beloved Snoopy.  This movie is a heart-warming sort of story about doing the right thing, working together and being selfless. 

I feel like there aren’t cartoons like this out anymore.  Now it’s special effects and weak stories that rule the day.  Family Guy is great for its current events sort of humour, but really brings little else to the table.  If you want a wholesome cartoon, then you have to watch Boomerang for something of value.  For now, I guess I’ll have to get my cartoon fix from DVD’s.