Movie review - Up

Up is a great movie, with great animation and story, plus, it's very funny. What else would you expect from Pixar? They keep their perfect record here with one of their best movie to date. It is rating PG in many countries, probably because it deals with losing a loved one near the beginning and some dogs that are, well, bad dogs... Grrrr! Nothing really frightening, but very young kids may be in search of comfort on a few occasions.

Most of the movie is quite funny for the whole family. The theatre I was in, at Montreal's AMC, was packed and there was a lot of kids. But they didn't bother me during the movie, as I rarely heard them. That's a good indication that they must have been captivated by the movie. Of course, since there is a 3D version of this movie, that's the one I saw. It's well done and not too much "in your face", as some other movies are. It gives it depth, rather then throw stuff at you. I think as movies matures in their use of 3D, this will become the norm. If you can't see it in 3D, or don't want to, I'm sure it will be as enjoyable in 2D.

The story is that of Carl, a boy who dreams of adventures and who meets a girl, Ellie, with the same dreams who becomes friend with him and who he later get married to. They always want to get to live a big adventure, but life doesn't always let you do these thing, when you become responsible adults. As they grow old, the adventure seems less likely to happen. When his wife dies, Carl is alone and old. One day, something happens and he gets to live his adventure, for himself and in memory of Ellie. The way it happens is absolutely unreal, but this being an animated movie, we can forgive that little detail. As it can be seen in the trailer, Carl attaches a lot of helium-filled balloons to his house, which then simply floats away.

So get the whole family and go see Up, in 2 or 3D. Everyone will find something fun in it.

All the previews before the movie are in 3D (I assume they show the 2D versions with the 2D version of Up...) and shows that this is more then just a trend. As movies gets competition from big screens TV and surround-sound systems at home, movie studios must find a way to keep people going to movie theatres. 3D is one way to do this. Expects more movies to be in 3D in the near future. One of the preview was a teaser for Toy Story 3, opening Summer 2010.

Finally, as it is the tradition with Pixar movies, we get a short film before the main feature. Also in 3D, Partly Cloudy is a fun animation which answer the question "where do storks get the babies they deliver from anyway?". Very funny as well.

Movie review; Star Wars: The Clone Wars

There wasn't supposed to be anymore big screen Star Wars movies, but I guess that didn't include animation films... But don't be mistaken, this is a Star Wars films, including major characters, story continuity and look. Most voices are from different actors then from the movies, except for Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Daniels and Christopher Lee.

If you saw the first Clone Wars cartoon from a few years ago, you will be in familiar territory. There's a unique style to the characters' look, which is quite interesting, but I found that the animation was a little rough sometimes, not as smooth as it could have been. But that wasn't enough to spoil it for me. I liked this movie, with it's story and style. It's funny, fits perfectly in the Star Wars theme and we get to discover new characters. Possibly because it's a cartoon, the tone is much lighter then the movies in this time period, despite the fact that they're in a war.

If you didn't know, there is two TV series coming based on Star Wars. One will be live action and one will be a cartoon. The Clone Wars is basically the pilot for the cartoon one, but they will probably be able to finance the series with this big screen version. I don't think Marketing ever sleep at Lucasfilm...!

I don't know why people don't seem to like this movie. Maybe they were expecting too much from a cartoon. Maybe I'm not normal. Maybe a little bit of both. I don't care. Your loss. :-P

Movie review: WALL-E

So far, I have not been disappointed by any Pixar movie, so I was not worried when I decided to go see WALL-E. The different trailers and teases I had seen seemed to support this view as well. I can now affirm that this is one of their best movie ever! Animation, Sci-Fi, comedy, social criticism, positive message, it has it all. It deals with the fact that we are transforming our planet in a giant garbage can and what leads to it.

As we can see in the trailer, WALL-E, which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, is a mobile trash compactor. He goes around picking up all the garbage and piles it up in giant mountains, some of them taller then the tallest sky scrapers around. He is the last working unit and has been at it for about 700 years and still has a lot of work to do. All humans have evacuated Earth to live on a mostly automated ship, full of robot servants, the Axiom. The two elements that are mainly criticized are over-consumption and laziness. The first made our planet inhabitable and the second made everyone fat. But it's still a very funny movie, with hope in the end.

We are treated to high quality animation, as usual, with a bit of live-action sequences in the form of prerecorded messages by the BnL CEO, played by Fred Willard. It's a very funny comedy for the whole family and you really should go see it if you haven't done so already. I'll probably go see it a second time myself...

Movie review: Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda is a DreamWorks Animation production and it is very funny! Good animation, good story and a lot of humour. It has an all-star cast of voice talent such as Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Michael Clarke Duncan, Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan. It's about a panda who dreams of being a Kung Fu master, but doesn't have what it takes. Or does he? I don't think it would be much of a spoiler if I said that, of course, he does achieve his dream in a big way...

I know I wasn't the only one enjoying this movie, from the laughs I heard all around me throughout the movie. It is PG, because of the animated violence, but I don't think it should be a problem for most kids, so bring the whole family! I saw the Imax version and it looks beautiful.

I didn't hear about a sequel being planned for this movie, but I can easily imagine they are already in "secret pre-production"... Talking about sequels, one of the previews was Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, another DreamWorks production. It looks like it's going to be another funny one!

Movie review: Dr Seuss' Horton Hears a Who

In my never ending pursuit of becoming a kid again (as Goku did in Dragonball GT), I saw the movie Dr Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. I don't think I got any younger, but it was a fun experience just the same. While this is a movie made mainly for kids, I still found a few funny scenes and otherwise interesting parts to the story.

The animation is very good, as it is to be expected. It stars the voices of Jim Carrey (Horton) and Steve Carell (the Mayor of Whoville). Based on the book of the same name, the story is that of Horton, an elephant, who one days hears a voice coming from a speck of dust, thanks to his big hears. On that speck is a whole city called Whoville, where tiny little creatures live peacefully. Horton is the only one that can hear anything and is being mocked by many of the others living around him, none of them an elephant. His best friend is a mouse with a heavy voice tone, called Morton and voiced by Seth Rogen. Most hostile to Horton's believes is a kangaroo, voiced by Carol Burnett. She thinks it is nonsense and wants the speck destroyed.

Of course, there is a moral or two in that story. Working together is very important to achieve big goals (in this case, the survival of Whoville) and the one that is repeated many times is so many word; "A person's a person, no matter how small."

I found the movie "cute" and entertaining. Unlike my last few movies, you can absolutely bring your kids to this one. Or maybe they should bring you...

Fans await return of Star Wars - CNN.com

We knew the George Lucas was working on two TV shows based on Star Wars, one live action and one animated, but there was no plan for any more big screen movies. That is until Lucas thought "why not?". The upcoming movie will be based on the animated TV series, itself based on the Clone Wars, which already had a run on TV, between Episode 2 and 3, which happens to be when the story takes place on both animated TV series.

Click the title above for more details from CNN.

'Phantom' Star Joins 'Dragonball' - Emmy Rossum joins Justin Chatwin and James Marsters in manga adaptation - Zap2it

'Phantom' Star Joins 'Dragonball' - Emmy Rossum joins Justin Chatwin and James Marsters in manga adaptation - Zap2it

A live action version of Dragonball? I'm very curious to see that! Whatever they do, I hope they will keep the humourous tone that the animated series have. And it's going to need a lot of special effects for the battle scenes, to say the least...

Kamehamehaaaaaa! ;-)

ReBoot is making a comeback!

Good news for ReBoot fans, one of the first computer animated TV series. Rainmaker Animation, who bought Mainframe Entertainment, have announced a movie trilogy featuring our digital heroes. This should be interesting! With today's 3D technology, it should look great, but will it be as fun? We'll see. Here a link to a PDF version of the press release.

Movie review: The Simpsons Movie

I've been watching The Simpsons for many years now and I was looking forward to their big screen debut. I was not disappointed! It's very funny. It's like a big episode (bigger size and duration), but I didn't mind paying money to see it, because, well, it's a movie!

And I'm sure there will be more. First, it is very strongly hinted near the end of the movie. The real end, that is, the one after the end-credits start scrolling. There's plenty of little bits during the credits, so if you're the type that leaves as soon as the credits starts, you will not see the whole movie. D'oh! Second, it's making a ton of money.

The short version of the story is: Homer makes a big mistake, the whole family gets in trouble, Homer takes it upon himself to fix his mistake and against all odds, he succeeds! I hope I didn't spoil it for you... ;-)

To be seen by all Simpsons fans!

Movie review: Ratatouille

Can Pixar produce a bad movie? It doesn't look like it! They certainly have another success with this one. As expected, the animation is really good, the story is funny and the whole movie very enjoyable.

This one takes us to Paris, famous for it's good food and rude manners. Our hero, Remy, is a rat with great cooking abilities but have a big handicap to be a chef. He's a rat. Rats and restaurant kitchens do not mix well. In comes Linguini, a boy with no particular talents and gets hired as the garbage boy. Long story short, Remy and Linguini gets together to become an excellent chef. See the trailer for a visual explanation!

I really liked Ratatouille. It's really funny, looks great and even has a few surprises. If you like other Pixar movies, you will love this one. There is also a short animation presented before the movie, about alien abductions, which is very funny as well.

Movie review: Surf's Up

On June 17 (still catching up!), I saw Surf's Up, the latest computer generated animation from Sony. Another penguin movie...! will they take over the Earth? I won't hold it agaisnt Sony, since these movies takes a long time to do. I mean, I see plenty of movies with humans in them, after all. And the animation is very good, has we have come to expect. Some of the evening/night scenes in particular looked absolutely real.

The story, as the title implies, is about surfing and the creatures that practice it, mainly penguins, but also a chicken. It's very funny and the voices are well chosen for the characters. If you like funny animations, you should like this one. For those who leave during the credits, be warned that there is one final little scene at the very end...

Movie review: Shrek the Third

After a failed attempt to go see this movie on Sunday night (I was refused access because I had my camera in my back-pack. Not a video-camera, a still pictures camera...), I saw the newest Shrek after work today.

I liked this movie, which made me laugh quite often. It's not as "fresh" as the first one, but it's still very funny and the animation is top-notch. A movie for the whole family, where everyone will find something to laugh at. The story revolves around the fact that Shrek is next in line to be King, but he doesn't feel like he's up for the task, so he seeks the next heir to the throne, a certain Arthur. Of course, plenty of things happens to make this task harder then it might have been.

Enjoy! :-)