Review: Inside Out

Starring the voice talents of 

Amy Poehler as Joy

Phyllis Smith as Sadness

Bill Hader as Fear

Lewis Black as Anger

Mindy Kaling as Disgust

Richard Kind as Bing Bong

Kaitlyn Dias as Riley Andersen

Diane Lane as Riley's Mother

Kyle MacLachlan as Riley's Father

Paula Poundstone as Forgetter Paula

Bobby Moynihan as Forgetter Bobby

I had heard some good things about the animated feature Inside Out, so I finally got a watchable retail dvd to see what all the excitement was about when the movie first hit general release. I wasn't disappointed.

A Pixar / Disney collaboration (is that the proper word? Since they are part of the same company.) That seemed to take the best of both.

I thought with Disney, I was going to get a straight on children's film and in a lot of respects, that is what I got. Oddball characters and even stranger plots. Not disappointed on either front with Inside Out.

But once the main characters are introduced, the plot-line takes a turn towards the dark. The whole plot device being that the major emotions are taken up by identifiable archetypes and we view the majority of the movie from these archetypes view point with occasional forays into the exterior world to observe the interplay between external and internal worlds.

There are several places in the film where each of the characters are highlighted and how they make up the whole. And this is why I have reservation on very young children watching this film. The emotions are strong and intense, so much so that even as an adult I was uncomfortable and uneasy, so I would lean towards older children with more experience with stronger emotions

Review: Oz: The Great and Powerful

Directed by     Sam Raimi

Starring   

James Franco - Oscar Oz Diggs
Mila Kunis -Theodora - Wicked Witch of the West
Rachel Weisz - Evanora - Wicked Witch of the East
Michelle Williams - Glinda - Good Witch of the South
Zach Braff - Voice of Finley
Joey King - Voice of China Girl
Bill Cobbs - Master Tinker
Tony - Knuck
Bruce Campbell - Winkie guard

Oz: TGandP takes place some twenty or thirty years before the time of Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ. This movie is very much a "where did the main characters come from?" feel.  Several  are not in evidence while a few make very short appearances.

The story deals mainly with "OZ" escaping one perdicament only to find himself embroiled in those of OZ.

Many a homage is paid towards the MGM WofOZ that would be ill of me to mention them in case you haven't see this film / dvd yet.  But you do get a feel for what brought about the creation of many of the main characters.  

The film starts with con man and small time carnival magician  escaping from an enraged boy friend only to be transported to the Land of Oz.  There he is befriended by good which Theodora and learns the dire conditions that the Emerald City is in with the murder of the king by the wicked.   Theodora believing that Oscar is  the Wizard as told of in prophecy,   escorts him to the Emerald City.  

Oscar  is told that to become King he must destroy the wicked witch.  He sets out and along the way accrues   a motley crew consisting of a china doll and a winged monkey.

There are a few change ups and reversals and things are often not what they seem. 

The story is a wee bit thin.  If you grew up on the MGM musical, you will find the "prequel" nature of this film interesting, from the standpoint of, where did all these people come from....If you read the book series you could be aggravated at the liberties taken and if you have done neither, there is a great possibility that you will become lost in the convolutions.         

I would give the movie a 7.5.  Disney has a habit of rewriting history to suit their needs and the final product often only vaguely    resembles the original work.  I don't  think they were so openly aggressive in this case, but in typical Disney fashion, lots of splash and color and little substance.  Plus sadly many of their earlier works far outshine this one.

As for extras?  slight but interesting.  Walt's desire to do something with the Oz products that he had reserved really is an interesting look into the past.  What he wanted and what got made are a very interesting.  I would go as far as an 8 on this merit alone.   15.5 total on the film    and a 7.75 overall is something I think hits the mark pretty well. 

It is worth the rent, maybe not so much the purchase...but I am on the fence there.

Why Darth Vader May Not be a Good Party Planner

Every year, Disney puts on a series of Star Wars weekends. Disney's Idea Generator Matt Buchanan leads off the brainstorming sessions where he will field ideas from the collaborative group.

Here however is one such event where Star Wars characters themselves join the the process. Sith Lord Vader even takes a crack at some core events that he feels would be interesting.

Don't miss this hilarious "behind the scenes" look at the brainstorming process.

The piñata suggestion is particularly funny in a twisted kind of way.

Review: Tangled

Tangled

Starring
Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murph

Runtime 100 minutes

Tangled is a CGI masterpeice from Disney Studios. It is also their 50th animated feature length movie. Tangled is for all intents a loosely based retelling ot the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" by the Brothers Grimm.

The plot really doesn’t take any chances. The king’s wife is ill. It is known that there is a flower in the kingdom that has great curative properties. So the king sends out to his subjects that the flower must be found. The flower however is jealously hoarded by Gothel who uses it to keep herself young for years. However the flower is found and it is used to cure the queen. It comes to pass that the sovereigns are gifted with a baby girl with shockingly golden hair. Gothel not to be robbed of what she feels is hers alone comes to the child’s bedside to steal the hair from the child, knowing that it must have the same properties as the flower because they were both bright and gold as the sun. Upon cutting a lock the hair changes from golden to brown and loses all magical properties. Seeing this Gothel kidnaps the baby Rapunzel and sequesters her in a tall tower where she never leaves. Gothel never allows her to cut her hair and uses it as she used the flower to stay young.

From here the plot progresses to her meeting a young thief who she bribes into escorting her to the city to see the lights that appear only on her birthday. The thief is pretty much standard Disney fair. A bit of mild bad boy with a good heart. And of course he is being chased and of course he is betrayed and of course she is lead to believe that he cares not for her. Which of course does a 180 in the movie as needed. Of course there are no loose ends, everybody get what they secretly want and the evil people are eliminated in the most bloodless way possible. Happy happy happy.

As much as I would love to trash this movie I can’t. Disney shows that it can still compete and do it strikingly well against the other large animation houses. This feature set a new standard and holds some records in CGI. Rapunzel’s hair has 10,000 separate pieces of animation. The movie holds a record for the largest cgi crowd scene at 3000 different cgi actors. The much talked about Chinese lantern scene contains a stunning 45,000 animated floating lanterns! The lighting as well as the texture mapping are a feast for the eyes.

So all in all the movie may not take any chances, it is endearing in its own right. Plus the added benefit of high quality animation only adds to the enjoyment. Over all I would give the movie an 8 losing only to a plain vanilla plot. The extras are pretty much non existent. Mandy Moore, and Zachary Levi, spend a few moments giving you a run down on what makes the movie special, there are some out takes and that is about it so extras are a 5, which pulls the movie down lower that it deserves so I will give it an overall 7. Remember I am rating a dvd/blu-ray which is supposed to be better for graphics and the amount of data they can cram. That being said the movie is good simplistic fare, but don't waste your time on the extras.

Review: Up on Blu-ray

UP
Awarded with two Academy Awards for best Animated Feature and best Original score plus Golden Globe Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Directed By Pete Docter Co-Director: Bob Peterson

Starring Edward Asner Christopher Plummer Jordan Nagai Bob Peterson

I know, what am I talking about Up for on a sci-fi / science blog. Well I have made no bones about how much I enjoy good animation. I know many of the animated films I have reviewed have had a strong SF theme, but to be honest the reason for the rental was indeed the animation. And without another word the animation is sumptuous! In the theaters it was originally presented in 3D but not having seen it as such I was most pleased with the blu-ray version I watched.

For those that haven't seen the movie, the first thing that can be said is that the plot is very much a “let's put this part here, that part there and so on”. By that I mean, all the ideas and plot devices are off the shelf in a very “Disney” kinda way. No real stretching going on here. That being said though the movie is out and out whimsy. I don't believe at this point I am giving anything away when I say that, in an attempt to keep a promise to his wife of many years Carl escapes almost certain forced retirement by escaping in one of the most unusual methods imaginable but makes complete sense in the world we see Carl grow old in. At the start of his voyage he finds himself stuck with a young boy named Russell who drags Carl into his world and by misadventures bring Carl into a completely over the top adventure all his own. Oh and I am using the word adventure this many times on purpose. The whole movie revolves around it, from very tearful (Disney, who would have thunk it) end of one to the inadvertent completion of another. Did I say tearful? Yeah I know Disney you're thinking of Bambi but it's much deeper and fuller than I have ever seen a Disney movies go. So they gave Docter and Perterson quite a bit of leeway.

The rest of Up is just over the top. Everyone put a great deal of work in detail and it shows. The extras will show you just how much of the movie was drawn from real observations of very real places in South America. And the EXTRAS! The director's comment tract is one of the best I have seen. Lots of effort went into the information that is offered along with the director's commentary. Included in the extras is a great making of and a couple of scene expansions which are wonderful. Even the closing credits are fun! If you like animation you won't be disappointed with this offering. Even the score of the film is great, as shown by the awards for it.

The movie is fun and the extras are a movie buff treat I would give the movie an 8 just because many of the plot devices are like off the shelf Disney kind of thing but just for extras the blu-ray gets a 10 for just SO much material. So that's what...a 9? yeah, that works for me.

If you like animation and whimsey go for it. If not, rent it for the kids, they will love it, but sit in the opening sequences may be upsetting or confusing to young viewers.

Meet the Robinsons - a review...of sorts...

I don't often run movie review from other blogs. Mostly because movies and reviews are really so subjective. But I got to reading Matthew Pook's (over at RevolutionSF) review of Disney's first all computer generated sf story, and was very entertained. Matt doesn't gut the movie as so many are in the habit of doing these days. He might not have enjoyed himself but he gives a good showing of his opinion. So much so that I am going to suggest that you click on this article's title and zoom over and take a read.

here is a couple of lines from the review, to get you started...

f the first notable thing about a film is the fact that it has seven screenwriters, you know that you are in trouble and are not going to enjoy the next ninety minutes.

If you're going to watch a computer-animated film and it's not made by Pixar, then you know that you are in trouble and are not going to enjoy the next ninety minutes.

If you're going to watch a Disney film and it's not made by Pixar, then you know that you are in trouble and are not going to enjoy the next ninety minutes.

and more like that! lol... yes, very much worth the read.