Breathe a sigh of relief, TOY STORY 3 is going to be great
Mar 23
The 3rd and presumably final chapter in the Toy Story trilogy isn’t set to hit our theatres till June, however those who were lucky enough to attend the Showest Film Festival in Las Vegas don’t have to wait any longer.
Director Lee Unkrich was at the festival to screen a still-in-development version of the film. A lot of the animation was not finished and the score was still temp music. The basics of the film were there though; the story, the editing and the voice acting.
So what did people think of it then? Well, I’m happy to see that pretty much everyone came out with extremely positive things to say. Here are a few early impressions that appeared immediately after the screening:
slashfilm
Toy Story 3 was great, last 30 minutes were pure brillance.elguapo1
Toy Story 3 was fantastic. People were crying at the end.firstshowing
Toy Story 3 was wonderful, so much fun and heartwarming, too! Totoro is in it a few times as well. Pixar at their best as always.colliderfrosty
Toy story 3 continues pixars streak of brilliance. Last 20 or 30 minutes wrecked me
A couple more in depth thoughts via slashfilm and latinoreview:
Peter Sciretta at slashfilm.com
The story is a fun ride to places unknown, and takes some twists and turns you might not expect. The conclusion is a fitting end to the series, and will probably leave you in tears. The last 20-30 minutes are pure brilliance. I can’t wait to see the film again when it’s completed and in 3D.George ‘El Guapo’ Roush at latinoreview.com
Like I said I can’t talk about the plot but the story about how we outgrow the things we grew up with seemed to hit a lot of people in the theater. The last act had some around me crying, probably thinking back to when they had favorite toys of their own growing up. The voicework was great. Jim Varney is still missed as Slinky Dog but Blake Clark was so dead-on you couldn’t tell the difference. It was also cool to hear a now grown up John Morris play Andy once again.
I was super pleased to read that the ending packs an emotional punch, as Pixar have been building upon the emotional core of their films with each release (like the beautifully constructed montage at the beginning of Up). While the Toy Story films are perhaps the most comedic of all Pixar’s releases, it’s nice to see that they’re continuing to carry on that old Walt Disney mantra “For every laugh there should be a tear”.
The general consensus seems to be that this will be the last Toy Story film (unless Disney put an extreme amount of pressure on Pixar I guess).
The major theme in the 2nd film put the toys in an almost paternal position as they came to terms with Andy growing up and dealing with the eventuality that he’ll stop playing with them.
Toy Story 3 seems to continue this trend, presenting us with the future that Woody in particular was so afraid of. Judging from the comments that the last 20-30 minutes are quite upsetting, I’m guessing that Woody has one final moment with Andy before he has to move on forever. Kind of makes me sad just thinking about it!
The 24th of June can’t come quickly enough. It’ll be bittersweet enjoying one last adventure with this group of characters, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world!
WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY promises to shed light on unsung Disney heroes.
Mar 03
If you asked a group of people in their twenties what films come to mind when you hear the word “Disney”, you’d most likely get responses along the line of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.
These films have managed to stand the test of time with all of them having reached, or nearing, their 20th anniversaries (how old does that make you feel?). But what is it that makes these films so special?
Like many great works of art, they were created under extreme pressure. The animation team at Disney was facing one of the worst periods in feature animation since it’s beginning. Their last few theatrical efforts left a lot to be desired, and audiences were making it known with their wallets (or lack thereof).
Executives being the fiscially focused group that they are, were eyeing the animation department very closely. Another flop, and they were at serious risk of being downsized or closed indefinitely.
Luckily for us, the team responded to this crisis by firing on all cylinders and delivering some of the most memorable films of all time.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is the real life story of how all of this went down. It looks to be a tale not only of artistic achievement, but of a group of artists banding together and doing what they love FOR the love of it.
It’s great to see the guys behind these films getting the recognition they deserve. Any praise that’s showered on animated films is generally only given to the studio as a whole (“That was a great Pixar flick” etc). Because of the sheer number of artists working on any given film, it’s very rare that they’re put in the spotlight. It’s a shame really, because many of these guys are tremendous artists whose names will never be known…hopefully Waking Sleeping Beauty helps to curb this effort a little.
People are quite happy to inform everyone that The Lion King is their favourite family film, but have no idea who made it!
It’s commendable too that Disney are releasing this film, as it apparently has a ‘real-world’ take on what was happening within the studio at the time. Very little sugar coating, in other words.
So while the film ultimately looks to be about a bunch of ‘great Disney artists who pulled together through a tough time’, it’s also not holding back on the darker, mistake ridden past of the studio.
Filled with footage from the 80s taken by the employees themselves (it’s pretty awesome to see a young John Lasseter, Tim Burton and Joe Ranft), plus interviews with some past and present Disney giants, Waking Sleeping Beauty looks to be an entertaining insight into the studio that managed to capture our hearts and minds all those years ago…and occasionally still does.
Waking Sleeping Beauty hits US theatres on the 26th of March, no word yet on an Australian release date.
UP secures both Best Animated Film and Best Picture nominations and it totally deserves it.
Feb 24
[Writer's note: This review was originally written when Up was in theatrical release and my thoughts on it haven’t changed since then. I’m thrilled to see it nominated for both best animated feature and best picture at the Academy awards. When reading over this, I found it funny that I compared it to District 9 and Inglourious Basterds in quality, both of which have also been nominated for best picture awards.]
I was on the train just a few days ago, travelling into the city (I live on the outskirts of Melbourne) and I couldn’t help but notice that the guy sitting opposite me was rather desperately trying to flirt with the girl he was seated next to. He was attempting to get a conversation going, constantly asking her questions, leaning against her when he laughed and just generally making things painfully obvious. At one point, she began leafing through a magazine and pointed to a small advertisement for Pixar’s latest film: Up.
“I really want to see that” she said to him, either being polite or flirting back, I couldn’t tell. The guy threw his head back and laughed a little too hard, saying “Oh, you child!” The girls face went a little red and she muttered something like “whatever, I think it looks good”.
Meanwhile I was sitting opposite this guy, silently stewing with thoughts of anger. Didn’t he know anything about Pixar? Hasn’t he seen any of their films? How could he say that?
I came to the conclusion that it’s a common misconception that Pixar films are only for children.
I think there is a very important distinction to be made between a ‘kids’ movie’ and a film for ‘everybody’.
Pixar make films that are for everybody. I’d argue too, that as the studio has expanded it’s been allowed to take more creative risks and thus, the last few Pixar films have been quite mature in their themes. Sure, they’re often bright and colorful and feature characters who revel in slapstick humour – but that’s a part of animation, the ability to stretch the boundaries of your imagination, to present you with a world that could not ever exist in live action.
In a way, Up is perhaps their most mature effort yet. It tells the story of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who sets out to fulfill a lifelong dream shared by both himself and his deceased wife. How does he travel? By attaching hundreds of helium filled balloons to his house, ripping it from its very foundations and taking flight. It’s not long in his journey when Carl discovers that there is a stowaway in his house; 8 year old Russell, a local wilderness explorer (which is basically a cub scout). The two find themselves caught in a terrible thunderstorm which sends them crashing to the ground…
This is the plot synopsis that you’ve probably heard before, but it’s really all you need to know. Part of what makes this adventure so exciting is the sheer amount of discovery along the way. It’s been years since an adventure film was made which really pulls you along for the ride (the less said about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the better), but Up manages to stand on its own purely as an exciting romp through the fantastical South American wilderness. It’s this aspect which is most likely to keep the younger members of the audience entertained, along with some fantastic character humour.
Don’t get me wrong, this adventure/action will also entertain the elder members of the audience. As I mentioned, UP contains some of the best adventure set pieces to be seen on the silver screen for years. It will keep you on the edge of your seat for a majority of the running time.
The most impressive element to me, aside from the brilliant character animation, was the fairly mature thematic content. On a simplistic level the ‘moral’ of the film is that life’s real adventure is made through the time you spend with the people you love. How many of us have big plans for the future, yet often neglect the little pleasures? It’s a curse which plagues almost everyone at one time or another and brings to mind the famous John Lennon quote “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans”.
The film also explores themes of death and loss. Again I do not want to give too much away, but there is a painfully beautiful montage only ten minutes into the film that will leave you breathless and reaching for a tissue or sleeve. In fact, the emotional impact of Up is vastly superior to any other Pixar effort to date. I found myself wiping away a tear or two quite often.
I suppose you can’t talk about an animated film without mentioning the animation itself, but it’s almost a moot point when it comes to Pixar films. They are constantly improving and delivering the best feature animation around, hands down. Up is no exception. Never once do you question the reality or consciousness of these characters. One moment in particular, involving a character flipping through a scrapbook is animated so subtly that despite the caricature design, you’d swear you were watching a live action performance.
The art design is simply stunning, with the wilderness of South America practically leaping off of the screen with its colour and vibrancy. The film is worth seeing for the visuals alone, although they’re really just the icing on the cake.
Along with District 9 and Inglourious Basterds, Up is one of the best films to come out this year. If I was forced to pick a flaw, it’s that the middle of the film doesn’t quite stand up to the beginning and the end, but this is really just nitpicking. If you’re reading this, then you probably know that it isn’t just a ‘kids’ film’, that the concept of animated features as nothing but childish fluff is a deeply flawed logic. You know this, but maybe your partner doesn’t, maybe your housemate doesn’t, so why not show them something different? Take someone to see Up right now, and then go again. It’s one of the most action packed, adventure filled, emotionally satisfying films to come out in a long time. What more can I say?
Oh, that guy did end up getting the girls number. Hopefully she forces him to see this movie.
“I think there’s a ‘cleverness’ to our films that’s pretty deep, I think there’s an emotion that’s deep. It’s very different from most animated films where people think ‘ah, these are just for kids’. Our movies are for everybody. And we really do mean that, they’re truly for everybody” – John Lasseter, director of Toy Story 1/2, A Bugs Life, Cars and an Executive Producer on Up.
Up score
85/100
A personal reflection on M.NIGHT SHYAMALAN
Feb 23
Remember the first time you watched The Sixth Sense? Perhaps you were lucky enough to not know the ending upon your first viewing – making the twist all the more powerful. I remember hearing about the film long before I saw it, there was always someone at school talking about how they went with their older brother and it scared the shit out of them. ‘The ending is amazing’ was a phrase I found myself hearing all too often.
The Sixth Sense was pretty much a cultural phenomenon during its release. It was heralded as the savior of the ‘traditional’ thriller, said to be one of the scariest films of all time and had an ending which caught everyone by surprise. When I finally saw the film – on VHS – my 13 year old self immediately agreed with the buzz. This was one of the greatest films I’d seen and its writer/director M. Night Shyamalan was my new hero.
Oh how heroes can fall.
M. Night’s last film The Happening is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. If I think about how bad it is for too long, I get the same dizzy feeling that occurs when I try to fathom how big the universe really is, and how tiny and insignificant we all are. If I were able to go back in time and show my 13 year old self The Happening, I’m positive my 13 year old self would think I’m joking and try to push me down some stairs for lying to him. Luckily, another version of me would travel back in time to save myself, creating a time paradox in the process.
I guess it’s a good thing time travel hasn’t been invented.
M. Night didn’t fall from grace quickly though, he wasn’t a ‘one hit wonder’. Instead, his fall was a slow and painful one. After the success of The Sixth Sense, Night was practically able to make any sort of movie he wanted, he had total creative freedom. Not only that, he was offered some of Hollywood’s biggest properties with Night famously turning down the opportunity to write a script for Indiana Jones 4 (this was well before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was announced, although the basic story would have been the same). Rather than taking whatever he could get, Night opted to write and direct his own story once again. The result was Unbreakable.
Unbreakable is arguably Night’s best film and seems to be getting recognized as such the more that time passes. Unfortunately, it didn’t fare so well at the box office during its release because it was marketed as a thriller from “the writer/director of the Sixth Sense”. The general moviegoer went in expecting another supernatural thriller and what they got instead was a slow paced drama about a man discovering he is a super hero. Keep in mind as well that Unbreakable was released before the Hollywood onslaught of ‘comic book’ movies.
The story took its time to develop characters and plot and Night’s cinematography reflected this. Unbreakable has less than 500 cuts (or edits) in it. To put this in perspective, a large action scene can have well over 500 cuts in it, particularly if it’s of the modern Transformers variety. Although Unbreakable also contained a twist ending, it didn’t feel tacked on and served as a natural climax to the story.
Following the relative commercial failure of Unbreakable, Night again set out to write and direct an original idea of his own. Signs was written with a large movie audience in mind and the result was another box office hit. Thankfully, Night didn’t simply ‘phone it in’ to make a quick buck. The whole film was a homage to the classic thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, with James Newton Howard’s eerie score conjuring up images from Psycho. Much like his previous films, Night lets the tension build slowly, hinting at horrific images and creatures without ever showing them fully. I still remember sitting in a packed theatre and almost jumping out of my seat when that ‘birthday party footage’ was shown…you know what I’m talking about.
The performances were great and while the ending usually splits people down the middle, I found it very satisfying. In terms of pure entertainment, I think it’s Night’s best effort.
Unfortunately this is where we must pause and take a moments silence. Night could seemingly do no wrong. The man was able to create audience friendly films without sacrificing story and artistry.
Something went wrong after this period though. His films started to show cracks, weaknesses that had never been apparent in his other works began to rear their ugly heads. I won’t dwell too much on the following 3 films because their faults far outweigh any good.
The Village: Although it was beautifully shot, contained a stellar cast (all of them delivering pretty good performances) and was home to one of James Newton Howard’s best scores, its script was extremely lacking. The plot was quite thin and unnecessarily contrived, containing 3 twists – the major of these feeling tacked on simply for “shock value”. To be fair, the love story was quite appealing, although it is ultimately lost in the mess of everything around it.
This was Night faulting a little, I was prepared to accept that.
Lady in the Water: Based on a bedtime story Night used to tell his daughters. The concept is sort of interesting, but the narrative is one of the most needlessly complex scripts to be put on screen in a long time. Lady begins as a simple fairy tale, and the first 30 minutes or so are quite innocent and charming. Unfortunately it goes downhill rapidly after this, breaking the 4th wall in the most absurd ways. A film critic addresses the camera halfway through the film, announcing that he won’t be killed because the story is following a formula…only to be mauled to death. I suppose this is Night saying that he isn’t following the standard structure of a script, which would be fine were it not for the horrible path he chooses to take instead. Likewise a central character – a writer who will save the world – is played by none other than M.Night himself. Whilst I don’t think he intentionally meant to seem so full of himself, it’s hard to ignore.
Lady in the Water was the last straw for a lot of film buffs; they’d officially lost interest in Night.
Unfortunately, it was only going to get worse.
The Happening is currently M.Night’s most recent theatrical release. It tells the story of a supernatural disaster which hits the eastern side of the USA. What kind of disaster? Well, the planet has decided that we (humans) are treating it like shit. Not content with going down quietly, trees, grass, and whatever other plant life you can think of release a toxin into the air. When inhaled by us pesky humans, this toxin causes us to kill ourselves in the most creative way possible.
I guess the bare bones of the concept are interesting, but that’s all The Happening has going for it. The script has some of the worst dialog I’ve ever heard in a movie. Characters spout their motivation without any subtlety “Hey be careful with that [ring], it has meaning to me”. The horror elements were clearly thrown together with very little effort. A scene involving characters running away from the wind may seem chilling on paper (although probably not) but on the big screen it just looks, well, silly.
It seemed as though it was all over for M.Night. I had desperately tried to hold on to something, anything from his films that could inspire me. For a while the cinematography and acting was enough, but alas, that too failed after a while. How could this be the same man who wrote and directed The Sixth Sense all those years ago? While I’ll always love his first 3 films, I can’t ignore the fact that something has gone wrong with one of my filmmaking heroes…
…or at least, something was wrong. I could be speaking too soon, but Night’s next film The Last Airbender seems to be showing all kinds of promise. We won’t know for sure until it’s released, but it seems as though the process of adapting a story – as opposed to constantly writing his own – has done wonders for Night. Perhaps it’s what he needed all along. I’ve written some thoughts on the trailer itself and what we can expect from the movie, so I won’t reiterate that here.
In terms of M. Night Shyamalan as a film maker, I’m living in hope again. My inner monologue is once again offering excuses; Sure The Village was a little weak, but it looked great! Lady in the Water was pretty silly, but he just needed to get that out of his system. The Happening…well, The Happening was plain awful. He’s back in form with The Last Airbender though, I’m sure of it…I’m sure…
I truly hope The Last Airbender is as exciting as it looks. It’s a chance for Night to redeem himself in the eyes of critics and film lovers, it also provides him with a fresh start and the opportunity to establish himself as the master filmmaker we all know he can be…or was…or something.
Come on Night, you can do it!
Spike Jonze’s I’M HERE looks amazing… but so did WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.
Jan 23
The trailer for Spike Jonze’s next film has surfaced. It’s a 30 minute short film, sponsored by Absolut Vodka, titled I’m Here.
A library assistant plods through an ordinary life in LA until a chance meeting opens his eyes to a the power of creativity and ultimately, love. When this new life and love begin to fall apart, he discovers he has a lot to give. This short film proves that ordinary is no place to be.
For one reason or another, I’d heard very little about this film until now (obviously that’s due to Sundance currently screening it) and after reading the premise I was instantly drawn to the idea. There’s a huge amount of room for this film to say something about us as humans, how we form relationships and what exactly ‘love’ means to us. Like all good science fiction, I’m Here has the potential to turn the camera around and point it directly at us.
I’ve watched the trailer several times now, and it’s created an emotional response from me on each viewing. The character design, while deceptively simple, seems hugely expressive and thanks to Jonze’s amazing eye, fits into the world perfectly (he seems to have mastered the mix of live action and CGI elements). In my opinion, there’s no doubt that cinematography is Jonze’s strongest talent and he seems to be putting it to good use here; every frame of this trailer looks beautiful.
The music sets a sombre, bitter sweet tone which no doubt helps with the atmosphere, too.
However, I had a very similar response to the trailer for Where The Wild Things Are. It also presented us with a bunch of beautiful images, emotionally moving music and very little dialogue.
I was severely disappointed by Where The Wild Things Are when it was finally released. Whilst it looked beautiful there was very little substance, the plot was almost non-existent and the characters seemed far too emotionally distant for me to ever care what happened to them. In my opinion, Spike Jonze went for style over substance with ‘Wild Things‘ and the film suffered because of it. The dialog in particular was very light and fluffy, reminding me of the sort of graffiti you’d read on a toilet wall in some hip alternative club in the city. A little of that is okay, but if you’re going to make a character speak so profoundly you need to develop them as characters, otherwise they’re simply void pawns who speak for the writer/director.
I’m Here has a lot more promise however, as I think that the 30 minute length could be extremely beneficial to the more stylized films Jonze likes to make (something narrative heavy like Being John Malkovich aside). It gives him enough time to establish the world, it’s characters and their motives, whilst also pushing the narrative forward at a constant pace.
I obviously haven’t seen I’m Here yet, so this is all just speculation, but the positive buzz from Sundance has me very excited for it. It also raises the question, perhaps Where The Wild Things Are could have benefited from a 30 minute length?
They’ll keep making trash as long as we keep buying it– and we do
Nov 15
The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week had this interesting tidbit:
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” has stormed into the No. 1 position on the national DVD sales charts.
The action film scored a whopping first-week North American sales tally of 3.8 million discs, 500,000 of them on Blu-ray, during the week ended November 8.
Some of those units wound up in as rental items, but the majority were sold directly to consumers, making “G.I. Joe” the third-biggest title so far this year in first-week sales, behind “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and “Twilight.”
“G.I. Joe” handily trounced the competition on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart and the Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray Disc sales chart.
Did you read that closely? The to three selling DVDs and Blu-rays (so far) this year are:
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Twilight
- G.I. Joe
Now, I’ll admit right now that I have not seen G.I. Joe. I just cannot justify dropping the dollars on what I know will be a complete waste of time, so, I’m not really allowed to rip into it. But, judging by online response and general consensus, it was a stinking pile and I was right in giving it a miss so far. (I might see it one day…)
I have seen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Twlight, both of which were mediocre and cumbersome–yet there is no doubting they have an audience. I just had no idea the audience was THIS big.
It’s no wonder ‘Hollywood’ keeps turning out utter cheeseball films – they’re getting permission to do so! Free reign, go for it, cock it up — they’ll buy it anyway! And we do. In droves, it seems. Someone reading this right now has all three of these titles on their shelves.
It goes to show that the majority rules. The majority out there aren’t in it for the art form, or the discussion or the comparison. They aren’t keen to critique. They do not care as much as we do. You’re here now reading a random film blog (thanks, by the way!) because you give a shit more beyond some action sequences and special effects. The majority do care about those things, and so long as they can be wowed in such a brainless manner, they’ll continue to come to the cinemas then follow up with disc purchases.
It’s just frightening that there is no end in sight.
OPINIONS COUNT