Jamie Daily

Frozen (2013) Review | Jamie Daily

Frozen (2013)
86th Academy Awards
5/5 Stars
Nominated for 2 awards, of which it won both.
Won Best Animated Feature Film (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho), and Best Music-Song ("Let it Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez).
Watched May 1, 2014.

 

Frozen is probably on of my favorite films that I have seen in a long time.  While still slightly more childish and more princess-y than the popular Pixar films, this new Disney princess installment makes a giant leap in its franchise.  It has a modern take on the typical formula and even pokes a little fun at common missteps in the original princess films.

 

The animated success is a story about sisters.  The girls are princesses, happy and carefree.  They love each other and Elsa's (voiced by Idina Menzel) uncommon ability to create ice and snow out of nowhere keeps them entertained for hours.  After a freak accident where the youngest, Anna (Kristen Bell), almost dies because of Elsa's powers, she and her parents are forced to keep her abilities a secret.  Even Anna has her memories removed and Elsa is confined to her room where she attempts to control her feelings and her powers.

 

When Elsa comes of age to take the throne, the girls are finally together again, but the coronation doesn't go as planned and Elsa flees the kingdom, turning the carefree summer fjords into an untimely winter wonderland.  Anna teams up with an ice salesman named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) to track her sister down and bring an end to the winter.

 

The film has good humor from the begging, but one of the best characters is definitely Olaf, a snowman come to life as the comic relief.  Olaf combined with Kristoff and his personable reindeer Sven make excellent companions as they try to solve first one problem, and then the next.

 

I saw Frozen for the first time with my sister, so anyone who has seen the film will understand why it made everything that much more special for me.  My sister lives on the other side of the country and I rarely get to see her, which is hard when we're best friends.  Getting to see an animated princess movie with songs and cute animated boys and ridiculous humor was the best.  The end made it that much more sweet.

 

The most important message of the film, which is a bit of a spoiler so watch out(!), was that the love of family is just as important and powerful as romantic love.  In fact, when Anna is so preoccupied with finding The One, especially because she has been alone and dreaming for so long, she and Elsa both take each other for granted.  It isn't until the dire end when all might be lost that they find each other again and rekindle a bond they once had in childhood.  Elsa has likewise been preoccupied, but more with hiding her true self.  She has a personal crisis that most people never experience and her sister is one of the only people who can help her come out all right.  While the story has some side plots, its main message is that true love heals everything, and the love of family is just as powerful, if not more so, than other types of love.  This is a really big step for Disney and I am exceedingly proud of this film and its message.

 

I could tear apart the film a lot farther (I tend to do that with movies that I really enjoy), but I will stop here except to say that the animation was stunning, the music was wonderful, the voices were perfect and a-typical Disney corny magic, and I want an Olaf… or a Sven of my very own.  If you have yet to see Frozen, do yourself a favor and add it to your Netflix list.  Now.

 

Paperman (2012) Review | Jamie Daily

Paperman (2012)
85th Academy Awards 2013
5/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award, which it won.
Won Best Animated Short Film (John Kahrs).
Watched March 4, 2014.

 

Paperman is one of the cutest shorts ever and the clear winner from the 2013 nominations.  It is a black and white short with little to no dialogue and a love story involving paper airplanes that takes up a whopping seven minutes of time.

 

The story opens in old school New York City on a man and a woman at a train station.  The man in his suit and his stack of papers and the woman with red lipstick engage in a tangle with papers blown by wind, and then suddenly the woman boards a train and disappears.  A turn of fate finds them just across the street from one another at their end destinations and, convinced that she is The One, the man employs his killer paper airplane skills to try to catch her attention.

 

The story is cute, quirky, and magical.  It does not waste its seven minutes and nor does it over pack them.  There is just enough repetitive action to create a tension the audience can feel, and then as if in response to the viewers, the man changes course into something unexpected and humorous.  

 

Seven minutes of this cute film is certainly not a waste of time.  I definitely recommend it, and it is very easily found online.  Enjoy!

Despicable Me 2 (2013) Review | Jamie Daily

Despicable Me 2 (2013)
86th Academy Awards 2013
4/5 Stars
Nominated for 2 awards.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Chris Meledandri) and Best Original Song ("Happy" by Pharrell Williams).
Watched March 7, 2014.

 

I liked Despicable Me 2 quite a lot.  It has been a while since I have seen the first film, and as such I possibly had a more positive reaction than true lovers of the original and its main character Gru, but I felt completely satisfied by the end of the animated feature.

 

Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is a retired villain who is now embracing the home life--raising his three adopted girls and throwing the perfect birthday party.  He has his famous lair full of minions working on a new line of jams and jellies that no one, not even Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) can deny are disgusting.  As a result, it is hard for Gru to turn down the Anti-Villain League when they come to him in need of some assistance.  

 

A research facility in the north was stolen--completely disappeared.  They have determined that a shop owner at the local mall is likely the culprit, which means that Gru and his new partner Lucy (Kristen Wiig) must go under cover.     

 

For lovers of the original, they may be dissatisfied with Gru and his character arc.  His story is wrapped up very nicely in the first film and there is little left to develop in him.  It is true that he is pretty one note.  His one conundrum is dating, which is humorous but hardly comparative to the life altering changes he encountered previously.  He has funny lines and quirks, but the red headed Lucy tends to upstage him constantly.  

 

Despite this huge flaw, the rest of the story is pretty solid.  My favorite aspects of these films has always been the Minions, second only to Agnes, the precious, big eyed little girl who will tug at your heart strings.  The Minions are hilarious, charismatic, and blessedly stupid.  For those who have seen the film, "BAH!" has become my new favorite exclamation, but for everyone else I cannot explain because it would be a huge spoiler!  

 

If you are having any doubts as to if you should see this film, let me assure you that the final scene itself is worth the entire film.  Hint: 90s music sang entirely by Minions.  J'adore.  If you like animated films, particularly what usually comes out of Universal and Illumination, you will likely love this film as well.

 

ParaNorman (2012) Review | Jamie Daily

ParaNorman (2012)
85th Academy Awards 2013
4/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award. 
Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film (Sam Fell, Christ Butler).
Watched January 31, 2014.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by ParaNorman.  I have not been impressed with 2013's animated features so far, and something featuring zombies is rarely something I seek out on my own.  Suffice it to say, I was not stoked about watching ParaNorman, but luckily it pulled out the comedic stops and pumped in enough story that I wasn't hating my life while watching it.

 

Here we see yet another claymation, stop motion animation, not unlike the recently reviewed Frankenweenie.  Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an oddball, by even his family's standards.  His best friend is his Grandma (Elaine Stritch) and he talks to her about everything.  The only hitch is that his Grandma is dead.  Norman sees and converses with a lot of dead people, but everyone who is living thinks he is absolutely bonkers.  One day, the only man in the town crazier than Norman warns him that an evil is about to be set loose on the town, and only Norman can stop it.

 

Norman grew up in a small town not unlike Salem.  Its history is rich with dead witches and every year they celebrate the demise of one named Agatha (Jodelle Ferland) who supposedly put a curse on her judgers and the town.  This centuries-old curse is more than something that sells t-shirts to the community, but this year things go down differently.  Several zombies rise from the grave and Norman, his sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick), and a few odd sidekicks have to save they day.  

 

While Norman is your normal misunderstood lead character, and Kodi voices him well, the real show stopper was his only friend Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), the classic fat kid whose lines and physical comedy make every scene he is in.  His muscled brother Mitch (Casey Affleck) is a classic jock without brains, which is perhaps how he gets roped into the adventure so easily.  The film also dwells on Norman's poor relationship with his father (Jeff Garlin) who, as his wife points out, is scared for Norman, not of Norman.  

 

The end of the film goes a little off the deep end but the animation is so wild and cool that I didn't mind at all.  The colors and the fluidity of every motion were truly breathtaking.  This is actually one animated feature from 2013 that I wouldn't mind viewing more than once.  It was funny, appropriately scary, albeit incredibly predictable.  If you don't like being able to figure out the plot (which in that case maybe you shouldn't watch kid movies) you won't like this film.

 

I highly recommend ParaNorman to you.  It might be a little scary for the kids but in this day and age, who knows what they can stomach!

  

 

Head over Heels (2012) Review | Jamie Daily

Head over Heels (2012) 
85th Academy Awards 2013
1/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award.
Nominated for Best Animated Short (Timothy Reckart, Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly).
Watched January 28, 2014.

 

Head Over Heels  is a claymation, stop motion animated short that has a really cute concept.  It is about an older couple who has obviously been together for a long time--so long that they have forgotten what it means to be in love.  The symbolism for this is a little unique and extremely obvious--Walter lives on the floor and Madge lives on the ceiling.  They may share the same fridge, but that is about it.  One day, their house literally falls out of the sky and they are forced to reassess the way they have been viewing their relationship.  

 

While the concept is cute (and solid), the execution is not.  It seems more like an exercise in animation than a success at story telling.  What could have been told in less than five minutes instead is told in eleven and we spend a long time watching the couple fight over a picture, vacuum the floor, fiddle with antennas, and take a walk outside.  It is hard to make their faces communicate their emotions, and after watching ParaNorman (another nominated film that I will be reviewing next week), the animation seems extremely lacking.  

 

I really enjoyed the concept of this film, and it was certainly cute, but it is sad when an eleven minute short is too boring.  Unless you are studying stop motion animation and/or claymation, I would not recommend this film to you.

   

 

Frankenweenie (2012) Review | Jamie Daily

Frankenweenie (2012)
85th Academy Awards 2013
2/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film (Tim Burton).
Watched January 13, 2014.

 

I will be one hundred percent honest, I am not a big Tim Burton fan.  I do not mean this in a particularly negative way, it is just that his form of artistry does not always grab me in the way it does others, and that isn't a bad thing.  Despite this, his films and in particular his stop motion animations are so incredible that from a technical standpoint, it is hard to hold a candle to his skill.

 

Frankenweenie is no different.  While the animated winner Brave from this year wasn't necessarily better in story and execution (big ambitions that fell short of expectations), Frankenweenie has a little of the bizarre we expect from Burton and a good amount of emotional connection that works well to keep audiences watching.

 

The film is a black and white story of Victor Frankenstien (voiced by Charlie Tahan), a genius kid who has a knack for science and a best friend who just happens to be his dog Sparky.  His science infatuation is stoked by new teacher Mr. Rsykruski (Martin Landau) and bemusedly endured by his parents.  All of his classmates are classic Burton odd balls with funny shaped heads, spooky accents, and fortune telling cats.  They are all gearing up for the science fair, which has sparked an odd amount of competitiveness in the class, and everyone is looking to Victor for inspiration.

 

While Mrs. Frankenstien is all for Victor's classic weirdness, the Mr. insists he takes up a sport.  Unfortunately, at his first baseball game, tragedy strikes and good old Sparky gets hit by a car.

 

Cue the classic Frankenstien reanimation sequence in which Victor patches his dog back together and brings him back to life by utilizing a lightning storm.  While the new and improved Sparky needs a recharge now and then, and perhaps a new patch or stitch here and there, he is back to normal and all pet adoring audiences can relate to wanting their pet back again.

 

The science fair and competitive classmates make the story take a turn for the worse.  Will Victor be able to save the day and convince the town that Sparky should stay?

 

Let me tell you, I have lost some precious pets in my day and I cried right along with Victor when he lost dear Sparky.  However, when Sparky comes back with a sewn on head and his tail goes flying if wagged too vigorously, I was properly grossed out and very appreciative of the black and white versus color imaging.  The story was cute, the characters were quirky, and there was an emotional connection to the relationship between Victor and Sparky, but other than that I felt like Frankenweenie was a distinctly kids movie.  Pixar often maneuvers their stories to be equally appreciated by both kids and adults alike, but this nomination was a little too childlike for my taste.  Despite that, there is some morbid, racist, and fecal humor that might amuse some people. 

 

While it certainly wasn't the worst movie I have seen this year, it will never make my top 10.  If you want to appreciate Burton's exquisite art in the form of stop motion animation, then you will certainly appreciate aspects of this film.  The lead characters were strong and their story lines were decent.  It was the side plots I was more let down by, and the quirky classmates that had me scratching my head.  I have no idea how Victor did not have any friends in such a town of odd balls.

Wreck it Ralph (2012) Review | Jamie Daily

Wreck it Ralph (2012)
85th Academy Awards 2013
3/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film (Rich Moore).
Watched July, 2013.

 

My husband was very excited to watch Wreck it Ralph.  Video games have always been a huge part of his life, and a movie about the bad guys from those games was bound to peak his interest.  I, on the other hand, was fairly indifferent although I had heard good things, so when we finally sat down to watch it I think my expectations got the better of me.  The story is cute and the characters are endearing, but it is hardly the classic I thought it might be.

 

Ralph is the bad guy of a made up, 30 year old arcade game in which he demolishes a downtown apartment building and Fix it Felix swoops in and saves the residence and the residents.  But once the arcade closes down for the night, the characters of the games don't sleep.  Ralph is still the villain and outcast who lives in the dump (offscreen), full of the wreckages of days gone by, whereas Felix has the penthouse in the apartment building and the residents are throwing (him) a party.  Ralph was not invited.

 

But Ralph has had enough!  He invites himself to the penthouse party and angrily insists that he should be accepted just like Felix!  One of the residents condescendingly tells him that if he wins a gold coin, he can leave the dump and join them.  The snag is, if he goes to another game to get a coin and dies, he doesn't regenerate like in his own game but is gone forever.

 

This is when the movie should have gotten good, but instead Ralph only visits two other games, the second of which he gets stuck in.  It's pretty cute, somewhat reminiscent of today's Candy Crush, but with racing and fiercely jealous driving girls.  Ralph encounters the famed "glitch" named Vanellope who steals his coin so that she can enter the Sugar Race.  Little does he know but Ralph is going to dig up some pretty gnarly stuff in his attempts to get his coin back.

 

There are some cute romantic moments between Felix and the warrior Calhoun (Jane Lynch) from the first person game Here's Duty who was programed to have the saddest back story ever.  With their help, Ralph has to save Vanellope and the arcade before he can even think of returning back to his own game.  

 

The movie is colorful and cute, with the proper amount of villains, action, comedy, and sappy relationships.  The plot gets a little wild, blending the arcade story lines together into something toxic, and things get a little hairy for a kid movie.  I liked it for the most part, but like I said, it isn't quite the classic that I thought it would be.  There were a lot of elements to the story and I think it would have been a lot stronger if they had taken some of them out.  However, I did appreciate that Ralph's golden coin wasn't as big a focal point as it could have been.  He had his own selfish reasons for wanting it, but in his pursuit of social acceptance, he found something much more important, and something worth fighting for.

 

If you have kids, I would recommend this film, although watch out for some scary sequences.  Otherwise, it might be worth your while to skip this one and re-watch a classic that you already know and love.

 

 

Brave (2012) Review | jamiedaily

Brave (2012)
85th Academy Awards 2013
2/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award, which it won.
Won Best Animated Feature Film (Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews).
Watched April 28, 2013.

When it comes to kids' films, Brave is pretty good.  When it comes to Pixar films, it doesn't quite meet expectations.

 

The animation is nothing to complain about--it is the absolute beauty that we have come to know and respect from a Pixar film.  However, except for Cars 2, Brave almost hits the bottom of my list of watch-worthy Pixar films.  I was more than excited when it came out in theaters--Pixar's first female lead is a fiery Scottish red head who wants to ride through the glen shooting arrows instead of getting married.  The story is indeed what holds this film back, and I hardly felt it was worth 93 minutes of my time.

 

Perhaps my expectations got the better of me when it comes to Brave (and who can blame me with the song they chose for the trailer--see below).  It starts out well enough, following a predictable yet charming and entertaining storyline that is very well in line with the trailer.  Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald)has a long, unruly, incredibly red mane of hair that goes deep down into her soul.  While her father is distracted by hunting bears and telling the story of how he lost his leg, her mother is preoccupied by making lady out of her daughter, who is in fact a princess.  

 

As is true in many royal situations, and other cultures besides, Merida is going to have an arranged marriage, although the method of choosing her suitor is rather barbaric and the candidates are bleak.  They participate in games to win her hand--such as throwing heavy objects and other manly displays.  Merida is furious with both of her parents, but most especially her mother.  The two of them have a strained relationship, fueled by both who refuse to see the other's point of view.  

 

I won't say much else about the story, else I should give away some major plot points, but it is the rest of the story that I was very disappointed with.  There needed to be some way to solve the situation.  If Merida lay down and accepted the marriage, she wouldn't have become a Pixar leading lady.  However, there needed to be some way to bridge the communication gap between herself and her mother, and frankly I found the results a lot more childish than most Pixar blockbusters.

 

There are a few twists and turns in the story that don't lend much, and actually weigh down the plot, although I cannot embellish lest I give too much away.  Therefore I will leave you with this: the animation, colors, and scenery are all beautiful.  The music is fairly good, and although the men are all one dimensional, they were my favourite bits of the film.

 

If you enjoy Pixar, I would say that Brave is probably worth seeing at least once, but there are a lot more films on my list to watch before I would see this one again.  Maybe I can satisfy my need for more Celtic culture in my life by listening to the song from the trailer ("Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain" by Julie Fowlis) over, and over, and over again.

 

The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

The Pirates!  Band of Misfits (2012)
85th Academy Awards 2013
1/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film (Peter Lord).
Watched March 14, 2013.

 

Photo Source: Cartoon Excellence

The Pirates! Band of Misfits is like a bad Saturday cartoon, only with much better animation.  

 

I couldn't sit still through the film and kept my eye on the clock, which is worse than watching water boil because the film was an hour and a half long.  When your favourite part of the film is the end credits, there is something significantly wrong with the story.

 

The Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Jackman) has been trying for years to win the Pirate of the Year award, and has lost every time.  It's not hard to see why when his competitors fly in on waves of booty with excessive Pirate pizzaz.  Although his crew of misfits--albinos and "surprisingly curvaceous" pirates among them--stand behind him wholeheartedly, their luck never seems to come, until they ironically discover Charles Darwin out at sea.  He excitedly points out that their parrot is actually an "extinct" Dodo bird and talks them into going to London to win an award for scientific discovery.  Although Queen Victoria is a well known pirate hater, The Pirate Captain can't see reason and thus makes the trip to London, crew in tow.  All is well and good, with good laughs and all, until around this portion of the film, where everything seems to get confused and I got lost among the plot points that began sprouting out of nowhere.  

 

The plot kept going and going--circling back in on itself and exploring areas that had already been revealed and discussed.  The bad guy keeps resurfacing, the good guy somehow always fails miserably until the opportune moment, and you're never quite sure how many movies you are watching--be it one or seven.  By the end of this film, I wanted to rip my eyeballs out… or run around the block a couple times to get my impatience out.  While the claymation was great, the redeeming qualities were few and the film as a whole was absolutely terrible.  Despite all of this, I ended up watching almost the entire ending credit sequence because it tied all of the plot lines together in minute shorts that were more funny than the rest of the movie put together.

 

There were hilarious supporting characters voiced by even more amazing actors.  The Aardmans have such an incredible reputation for producing some amazing claymation stop-animation films with hilarious stories and wonderful charters, but unfortunately I found much to be desired in this film and am not surprised that the film fell short of an Academy win.

 

Personally, I would not recommend this film.  However, your kids might like it, and I have read several reviews in which adults quite enjoyed the film as well.  Perhaps my patience with meandering stories has been frayed lately, but I doubt I will ever watch The Pirates! Band of Misfits again.

 

 

Rio (2011)

Rio (2011)
84th Academy Awards 2012
2/5 Stars
Nominated for 1 award.
Nominated for Best Music, Song ("Real in Rio," Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett).
Watched February 10, 2013.

 

Photo Source: The 360 Degree Review

One of the last animated films that I am watching from this year, Rio, is not the strongest film, but was certainly a better option than last week's Bullhead.  There is action, humor, romance, and culture--these four positives mixed with excellent animation makes for a fairly good evening movie option.

 

Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) is one of the last two blue Macaws left in the world.  When he was a young hatchling, he was stolen from Rio de Janeiro, but somehow finds his way into the loving hands of Linda (Leslie Mann).  The two grow up together in small town Moose Lake, Minnesota, and eventually own a book shop.  When Tulio comes around, everything changes.  He convinces Linda that she and Blu need to travel to Rio so that he can mate with another blue Macaw.  When they arrive, in the midst of Carnival, we discover that the tropical bird smugglers are still at it, and Blu and his ravishing counterpart Jewel (Anne Hathaway) are the targets.  Through thievery, colorful jungles, and touching attempts to teach Blu how to fly, we watch as both Blu and Jewel, and Linda and Tulio grow closer as they search frantically for the other pair.

 

Although the film is beautiful and the idea seems legit, it turns out to be a pretty forgettable film.  It won't wow you like Shrek or  entertain you like Nemo.  It is a fun filled adventure where you root for the good guy and want the right people to fall in love.  There are small side parts that bring a little amusement, and none are overdone.  However, the whole film is so low key and so not over the top that once it was over, I promptly forgot about it.  

 

I liked the characters, the voices, the animation, and even the story.  The execution was lacking, and that was what hurt Rio.  If you have some time to kill, it wouldn't be a bad film to watch, but I would rather curl up with an old classic than add this one to my Netflix list.

 

Sources: The 360 Degree Review, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, NY Times, The Film Reel