Tag Archives: disney

Movie Review: “The Blue Umbrella” (Short)

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

The Blue Umbrella

 

Last year, I extolled the virtues of Disney returning animation to its true form with “Paperman”, a short I was sure would win an Oscar (and it did). This year, Pixar’s short “The Blue Umbrella” presents yet another wonderfully done sweet tale of love – albeit with a twist.

As the scene opens, a city starts to experience the first few fat drops of rain from an oncoming shower. Inanimate objects on the city streets begin reacting to the rain with muted joy and subtle smiles as they soak it in. Umbrellas soon emerge as the protectors of the various passers-by, mostly the generic, stalwart black umbrellas sported in every city. There’s one standout, though: a blue umbrella. This bright blue umbrella revels in the rain, clearly enjoying the shower as much, if not more so, than the other supposedly lifeless characters on the street.

Waiting at a light, the blue umbrella spots another colorful protector in the crowd; a lovely red umbrella shares a shy, coy moment with the blue umbrella until they’re cruelly separated by their owners heading in opposite directions. The two umbrellas are heartbroken, and the blue umbrella does his best to make his way back to his beloved – to sometimes jarring consequences. In the end, love does conquer all, even the rain, providing a wholly satisfying ending for the adorable pair.

 

Blue and Red Umbrellas

 

The more I think on “The Blue Umbrella”, the more I think it certainly has a decent shot at winning the Oscar this year. It’s a sheer joy to watch, and the computer graphics feel and look so real as to be wholly believable. Well, if you believe that umbrellas can fall in love…and really: why not?

 

4 out of 4 stars

“The Blue Umbrella” will be shown in theatres prior to viewing of “Monsters University”, which opens nationwide on June 21, 2013.

 

 

Movie Review: “Oz the Great and Powerful 3D”

Posted on by — 3 Comments ↓

Oz the Great and Powerful

I’ll admit it: I came into this movie with expectations deeply tempered by all of the CGI-backlash fueled by recent big-budget box office flops. I’ve also seen prequels that couldn’t match up to the movie they were attempting to lead in, after the fact (I’m looking at you, George Lucas). Detractors beware: this movie actually really IS worth seeing. It’s also worth pointing out that, although this film will also be shown in 2D and IMAX, I really enjoyed seeing it in 3D. Sure, some of the 3D usage is a bit gratuitous (c’mon, they spent $200 million on the CGI!), but much of it is just so well done that I found myself marveling at it and really enjoying the added depth it gave to the picture rather than finding it distracting or overwhelming.

The movie opens in a boxed format and black-and-white tone that suggests you’re seeing something limited, something from the past that doesn’t quite meet current supersize, full color expectations. It’s the early 20th century, and dusty Kansas is receiving a visit from a traveling circus that’s home to a young con man named Oscar Diggs (James Franco – “Spiderman”, “Eat, Pray, Love”), who bills himself as Oz – a magnificent wizard extraordinaire whose powers require only that you believe (a constant thread in L. Frank Baum’s original story). As part of the early prequel setup, a sweet visitor from Diggs’ past runs through town, Annie (Michelle Williams – “Dawson’s Creek” and “My Week With Marilyn”), tries to goad him into committing by notifying him that she’s been offered the hand of Frank Gale. Diggs decides to let Annie go to a better future with a better man, but before he can truly finish saying goodbye he finds himself chased out by the circus’ strongman, intent on punishing him for taking advantage of a female member of the troupe. Diggs seeks shelter in a hot air balloon, taking with him only a few key belongings tossed up by his faithful assistant, Frank (Zack Braff – “Scrubs” and “Garden State”).

A tornado soon enters the picture, pulling Diggs seemingly to his doom. It’s here that the 3D effects start to pour in; the twister is far more terrifying than the one in the 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” based on Baum’s tale (which I still find frightening to this day), with projectiles coming at Diggs from nearly every possible angle. His trip finally ends as the twister spits him out the top of the funnel and down he descends into a technicolor world that suddenly expands the picture to fill the entire screen: the land of Oz. The landscapes unfold in blistering bursts of color and sound that are lushly beautiful in a way that down-on-its-luck early century Kansas can’t match. He soon meets Theodora (Mila Kunis – “That 70’s Show” and “Black Swan”) and works his charms on her as she explains that he must be the one who will fulfill the prophecy that looms large over the kingdom: the wizard who comes to Oz bearing the very same name will be the one who frees it from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch. As they begin traveling together, they come across Finley, a small flying monkey of the variant from the “The Wizard of Oz”, voiced by Braff in one of several multi-role turns evocative of the 1939 film.

Diggs and Theodora approach the Emerald City

Diggs and Theodora approach the Emerald City

Theodora brings Diggs to the Emerald City and introduces him to her sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz – “The Mummy” and “The Bourne Legacy”), the King’s advisor. Evanora wastes little time in trying to drive a wedge between Theodora and Diggs, while she seduces him with the idea of wealth beyond his wildest dreams. All he has to do is go to the Dark Forest and kill the Wicked Witch. Diggs resists, but ultimately his greed wins out and he heads out on his quest. On the way to the Dark Forest, Diggs and Finley find Chinatown and rescue a young China Girl (Joey King – “Ramona and Beezus” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”) who joins them on their quest. The witch Diggs has been sent to kill turns out to be none other than Glinda (also played by Williams), the Good Witch of the South.

Diggs and Glinda

Diggs and Glinda

At this point, Diggs’ life takes a serious left turn. What he thought was up turns out to be down, and what he believed to be true turns out to be completely otherwise. The various characters sprinkled throughout played by the same actors (such as Braff’s Frank and Finley, or Williams’ Annie and Glinda) serve much the same purpose as those from the 1939 film, providing the same measure of support and guidance in each of the worlds without the protagonist really understanding why. Of course, knowing that Diggs remains in Oz until Dorothy’s arrival, you don’t expect him to wake and find them all standing above him. So, to that end, this movie serves as a point for you to search for the clues – how will they make the origin story?

Diggs and Finley

Diggs and Finley

Much to my enjoyment, several pieces from the original book live on in the movie: Chinatown existed in the book but never made it to the 1939 film, and Glinda is restored to her role as the Good Witch of the South (instead of the North). The Quadlings, who had little billing before, took center stage for the latter third of the film. The silver slippers (turned ruby for the 1939 film to help showcase the advance in color film technology) did not appear, that I was able to discern, but the measure of Diggs’ ingenuity in setting up the mechanisms to allow him to appear omnipotent to his subjects is explored well enough that you get the sense that he really is the savvy con man seen both in the book and the 1939 film.

Evanora and Theodora

Evanora and Theodora

So, what does the movie do well? The CGI and 3D are really the stars of the show. Oz is gorgeous, otherworldly and magical, just as you would expect if you’d read Baum’s work. King is lovely as the China Girl and Williams is as sweet and gentle as Billie Burke had been in 1939. Kunis and Weisz give decent performances, although some of the contrivances added to Kunis’ performance in the latter quarter of the film seem a bit forced and unnatural. Still, it all comes together quite nicely. The beauty of “Oz the Great and Powerful” isn’t the attempt to get the Oscar – it’s the aim to tell a part of a story we never really heard before in such a way as to fascinate and excite us. It’s escapism at its height, pulling us so far our of our reality that we fall into another world entirely, just like Diggs.

If the movie suffers from one down side, it’s a bit too much James Franco. He’s one of these incredibly frustrating actors who may have potential but seems to spend a bit too much time not feeling comfortable in his character’s skin. I had a hard time finding myself convinced that he was a slick con-man. It’s only towards the very end of the movie that he seems to be fully in command of Diggs, and perhaps that’s just because it’s only then that Diggs really sees how he himself is able to do what must be done. Still, it leaves too much of the film with Franco putting in a performance that doesn’t match quite as well as those of sweet, earnest King or the amusingly eager Braff. Keep an eye out for a late appearance by Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead”); he’s a staple of director Sam Raimi (the “Spiderman” trilogy) and one of my favorite easter eggs in any Raimi production.

As for the question of whether this movie is appropriate for young kids, I’d have to say that it’s not really one I’d recommend for those under the age of 8. There are some scary scenes, especially towards the end of the film, and the Wicked Witch’s flying baboons might be enough to send a Kindergartner into a crying jag. Add the extra punch of really well-done 3D (which this really was) and it might be a bit much for the truly younger set.

Having years ago read the presumptive (and completely unrelated) literary prequel, “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, and having walked out during the intermission of the eponymous musical (which I couldn’t have loathed more if I tried), I can say this is a decent enough take on the prequel concept without the political intrigue built into Maguire’s book. There’s plenty of setup without it all being over-the-top, and you could follow from this right into the 1939 movie without all of the drama and nerdy shouts of “CONTINUITY ERROR!” that occurred when Lucas decided to make prequels for the “Star Wars” trilogy.

Lastly, make sure you’re there for the start of the film. The opening credits take full advantage of the 3D in a way that’s just utterly lovely, and they’re not to be missed.

3-1/2 out of 4 stars

“Oz the Great and Powerful 3D” opens nationwide on March 8, 2013. This movie is rated PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) for sequences of action and scary images, and brief mild language.

Movie Review: “Wreck-It Ralph 3D”

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Wreck-It Ralph

For those of us who spent good portions of our youth feeding quarters into arcade games, “Wreck-It Ralph 3D” is a sweet return to long-lost friends, like Q*bert and Pac-Man. And, of course, it’s our introduction to a supposed game from the same time period, “Fix-It Felix, Jr”, the home for the eponymous good-guy foil for the movie’s namesake. As the story goes (illustrated in a song run over the end credits), Ralph (John C. Reilly – “Talladega Nights” and “Boogie Nights”) was living well enough on his own until his land was taken by eminent domain and had a high-rise apartment building put on it. As his revenge on the interlopers, he takes took his huge hands and starts bashing in windows, all the while spouting his tag line: “I’M GONNA WRECK IT!” Enter Fix-It Felix (played by Jack Brayer, well-known for his work on “30 Rock”), who uses his magical fixing hammer to reset everything back to normal. As Felix undoes all of the wrecking wrought by Ralph, he climbs the high-rise and is presented with a medal by the apartment building’s residents, the Nicelanders.

Wreck-It Ralph: Felix is presented with his medal

Felix is presented with his medal

Once the arcade closes for the night, you see an arcade version of what happens to the toys in “Toy Story” when no one is around: they play, they eat, they hang out with each other, and they even travel between each other’s games via a conduit system known as “Game Central Station” – a vast transfer point embedded within the power plugs and power strips that feed electricity to the machines. As “Fix-It Felix” reaches its 30th anniversary, Ralph finds himself in a support group for bad guys, trying to understand why he doesn’t ever get to be presented with a medal, why he’s never the hero. His fellow baddies assure him that this is never meant to be – that he should accept being the bad guy – and they try to make him take it “One Game At A Time”. When Ralph returns to his game, he finds the denizens of the apartment building lighting it up (literally), celebrating the game’s anniversary with dancing, fireworks, and even a cake…but not with him. Since he considers himself an integral part of the game’s success, he tries to insinuate himself into the party. But, in the end, it all falls apart on him – leaving him frustrated and vowing to return with his own shiny medal to rival the ones won by Felix at the end of every successful game.

Wreck-It Ralph: Bad Anon meeting

BAD-ANON: One Game At A Time

As he broods in the “Tapper” barkeep game, Ralph comes across a soldier from a first-person shooter game fighting “cy-bugs”, evil, fast-breeding bugs that destroy or eat everything in their path. He learns that the soldier’s game, “Hero’s Duty”, ends with the surviving soldier getting a medal, and he immediately sets off to join the unit. At this point, Ralph meets up with Sergeant Calhoun (voiced wonderfully by the incredible Jane Lynch – “Glee” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, among others). She tries to lead him into battle but he manages to make his way through on his own, eventually reaching his coveted medal and then immediately making a complete mess of everything. Ralph ends up in an escape capsule with a cy-bug and mistakenly trespasses on yet another game: the deceptively sweet, candy coated go-kart game, “Sugar Rush”. His game-jumping creates a problem in “Fix-It Felix, Jr.”, since the villain isn’t there to create any wreckage for the hero to fix, and the game is labeled “Out of Order” – a literal sign that it will be turned off and put on the scrap heap without Ralph’s return. A distraught Felix decides he needs to go in search of Ralph to set things right and bring him home.

Wreck-It Ralph: Sergeant Calhoun

Calhoun is locked-and-loaded

It’s at this point that Ralph makes the acquaintance of Vanellope von Schweetz, a pint-sized antagonist played to bratty perfection by Sarah Silverman (“The Sarah Silverman Show” and “Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic”). Vanellope gets her hands on Ralph’s medal and uses it as her entry fee to the road race to determine the nine top avatars that will be offered in the next day’s go-kart races. As Ralph soon discovers, Vanellope is as much of an outcast as he is, and he agrees to help her in her quest to compete in the race. Unfortunately for Vanellope and Ralph, it seems as though all of the other citizens of “Sugar Rush” are out to stop them, especially King Candy – a Mad Hatter-looking figure voiced by the wonderful Alan Tudyk (“Firefly”, “A.I” and – for those, like me, who saw him on Broadway – “Spamalot”).

Wreck-It Ralph: Vanellope

Vanellope – the sugary thorn in Ralph’s side

Meanwhile, Sergeant Calhoun and Fix-It Felix, Jr. have teamed up, Felix aiming to find Ralph and bring him back before his disappearance spells the end for the game, and Sergeant Calhoun hoping to destroy the cy-bug that hitched a ride in Ralph’s escape pod. As she describes it, the cy-bug will eventually take over and completely obliterate all the games, and Calhoun is the last line of defense. The latter third of the movie is action on top of action – Vanellope and Ralph clashing and colliding with King Candy and his loyal subjects across the sugary landscape while Calhoun and Felix work feverishly to chase down the deadly cy-bug that threatens the survival of all of the games.

Wreck-It Ralph: King Candy

King Candy tries to reason with Ralph

While many gamer jokes are hidden within the earlier scenes, it’s the time spent in the land of “Sugar Rush” where all the candy jokes come into play, some of which are incredibly silly (yet wholly amusing) puns. As you would expect, there are a number of cameos from real-world video game characters, like Clyde from Pac-Man and Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog. Q*bert probably has the best (and largest) cameo of the bunch. This is a cute, sweet film that uses the gamer (and candy) in-jokes as seasoning, rather than as the main meal. “Wreck-It Ralph 3D” is, at its core, a movie about what it means to be a hero.

It’s worth sticking around through the credits (more gamer jokes), including a small scene at the very end of the credits. The 3D in this movie is fairly well done, although I found that I had trouble with fuzziness at times. I’m not sure how much of that was the placement of the glasses with respect to my eyes, but some shots just seemed crisper than others. It is worth noting, however, that the animators clearly took great pains to make certain levels of graphics or certain movements by characters matched the quality and style of their time. The characters in “Sugar Rush” are much more like what you’d expect to see today – slick movements and glossy graphics, while the choppy movements of the “Fix-It Felix, Jr.” characters is clearly fitting for a 30-year-old game.

“Wreck-It Ralph 3D” is a clever film, answering a question I don’t know that we could have imagined without “Toy Story”, and it’s really very nicely executed by the team at Disney. (Pixar had a hand to play, as well, as John Lasseter executive produced.) Some of the early time spent in “Sugar Rush” is a bit lengthy, and I wonder if the 3D was really necessary for many of the shots, but overall I think it was a really cute and often amusing film.

Also worth noting: “Wreck-It Ralph 3D” is preceded by the 3D version of “Paperman”, which I saw earlier this year just prior to a special screening of “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”. “Paperman” was just as sweet and wonderful in 3D, although I don’t even think it needed to be presented in 3D. It didn’t gain a ton other than a slight amount of visual depth by pulling the characters forward and making the backgrounds more clearly backgrounds. The heart and soul of the story is still the same, and I still think it’s Oscar-level material.

Lastly, while there were plenty of kids in the audience at the screening I attended, “Wreck-It Ralph” does have a couple of scenes that some small children may find scary, particularly the ones with the cy-bugs and the final showdown at the end of the film. Kids unfamiliar with shooter games may also find the gunplay overwhelming for the handful of scenes where guns are used.

3 out of 4 stars

“Wreck-It Ralph 3D” opens nationwide on November 2, 2012. This movie is rated PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) for some rude humor and several scenes of action/violence.