The film really drives home the idea that domesticated animals (well, dogs, mainly) would do anything for us, even when we mistreat them. Their whole world revolves around their human, and this film nails that idea perfectly.
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Continue reading Bolt
Like its predecessor, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is fine it its way, but never even seems to flirt with capturing the imagination. One wonders how many more of these disposable computer animated children’s films will be created in future given the decreasing time and money required to make them. Heaven help us all.
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Continue reading Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
I still don’t quite understand how one spends a 180 million dollar budget, but it’s easily the best looking animation in a long time. The Earth scenes and the robots have an ultra-realistic appearance, whilst the filmmakers haven’t been silly enough to try and replicate real humans.
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The aggressive theme of humanity’s evil aside, there is enough here to satisfy most viewers, although it is hard to reconcile the stellar first sequences with the run-of-the-mill second half. Pixar continues to make solid if unspectacular children’s films that are an easy sell, but this certainly isn’t a world-beater.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading WALL-E
The tale is narrated by a trio of traditional Indian shadow puppets, who bicker casually about the specifics of events, and add their own modern-day interpretations. Interspersed with the retelling is the rather autobiographical tale of Nina and her partner, the latter of which travels to India to leave her behind.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Sita Sings the Blues
There are a couple of sequences that astonish – one of the ‘angels’ attacking Tokyo is a masterpiece of visual and sound design, but overall this is the sort of animation one would expect on television, not the big screen.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
It’s only with such auteur-driven animation pieces that we can truly see all the possibilities of animation – Idiots and Angels is jerky and somewhat primitive in comparison to the cartoons with which we’re familiar, but it’s so much more powerful.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Idiots and Angels
The story is archetypal, but never pretends to be otherwise, and in many ways this works for the film instead of being a weakness. Watching Kung Fu Panda is a comfortable experience that allows the audience to just sit back and enjoy its indefinable alchemy of animation, voice and plot.
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Much of Kung Fu Panda is lacking in substance. It may have a lazy kind of instant appeal, but doesn’t really have a story worth telling. Po’s underdog antics are amusing, but the story doesn’t really have a point other than the typical ‘you can achieve whatever you set your mind to/American dream’ type shtick.
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Thank goodness he still has a chance, the film tells us, as it’s all his fault so he’d better take steps to put things right – but did anyone ever actively decide they wanted Jerry Seinfeld to be their child’s tutor in environmental fundamentalism?
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Bee Movie
The main problem with Ratatouille isn’t its depiction of humans, however, but its failure to inspire any sense of urgency or concern. Remy gets to work, we feel like we want him to succeed, but there is never a doubt that he won’t.
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This is the most dramatic of the Pixar films, and thus will be disappointing for anyone who’s up for a laugh. I can do without the ‘joke every 30 seconds’ rule, but a little more humour would have been nice.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Ratatouille
The Simpson family have been joined by all manner of fancy animated characters and creations, and they have stayed resolutely the same. In spite of the wizardry of Pixar et al in their attempts to bring human characters to life, The Simpsons still presents the most realistic collection of animated humanity going around.
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It isn’t as good as the series’ peak (somewhere around and after season 5, so say I), yet it is significantly wittier than the last few seasons.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading The Simpsons Movie