The LEGO Movie

Posted on February 6, 2014 at 6:00 pm

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Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for action and crude humor
Profanity:	Some schoolyard language ("butt")
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Cartoon-style peril and violence, no one hurt
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	February 7, 2014
Date Released to DVD:	June 18, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00HEQOC2A

Everything is awesome in this fast, fresh, funny, and utterly adorable movie set in the vast world of LEGOs.

Last year at Comic-Con the filmmakers said that there are two great things to do with LEGOs — you can follow the instructions and make something awesome. Or, you can ignore the instructions and make something awesome. Here, they pay tribute to both in the storyline and in their own meta-approach to the material, deconstructing classic movie narratives over here, re-constructing them over there, and adding in some delicious humor and sublime guest stars of both the LEGO and human variety. So when a Gandalf-y looking guy with the deep, familiar voice of Morgan Freeman intones a prophecy about a chosen one, we file it away as the underlying frame for the story — for a couple of seconds until he advises the confused crowd that it has to be true because it rhymes. Big-time Lugnuts and Brick-heads will find plenty of in-jokes and wonky charm and those who don’t know their minifigures from their master builders will enjoy the wit, the silliness, and the surprisingly touching conclusion.

The movie winsomely begins with LEGO logos, immediately welcoming us into a playful, tactile world. And then we meet our unassuming hero, the cheerful Emmet (a terrific Chris Pratt), who greets each day with joyful energy and loves everything about his life. At least, that’s what he tells us as he follows the instructions for getting ready for work on a construction site. The song “Everything is Awesome” (from Tegan and Sara) plays brightly everywhere. Instructions are clear and faces are painted in a smile. But Emmett is lonely. Everyone seems to have friends to hang out with but no one invites him to come along. He loves being part of a team but kind of misses having something special and different.

And then, the brave and glamorous Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), with her fetching streaked ponytail, shows up and he follows her down the LEGO equivalent of a rabbit hole to discover that everything he thought he understood about his world of following instructions and being part of a team is at risk. President Business (Will Ferrell) is about to unleash a terrible weapon, and apparently Emmet is the only one who can stop him. There are worlds beside and under worlds and within other worlds here — you could make an “Inception”-style map that takes you from the wild west and Middle Zealand to Cloud Cuckoo-land. The film makes clever use of the properties of LEGOs, their endless variety of characters and projects and their comforting sameness of structure and inflexibility. It avoids becoming an infomercial by keeping the focus on the story and the goal of creativity. Emmet and Wildfire are joined by Batman (Will Arnett’s dry baritone nails it), Vitruvious (Freeman), a pirate cyborg (Charlie Day), and a rainbow unicorn-kitty (Alison Brie). Their foes include President Business’ two-faced henchman whose head swivels to allow him to be both good and bad cop (a very funny Liam Neeson). It would be criminal to give away any of the movie’s many surprises and the mind-bendingly cool guest appearances, but I will mention that a couple of them arrive from a galaxy far, far away.

There are some unexpectedly heartwarming moments about family and the importance of imagination. The bad guy is not called President Business for the usual reasons. And there’s an unusually astute resolution to the final confrontation. I especially enjoyed some very clever satire about the kind of entertainment we too often settle for. If only they had known about Facebook’s 10th anniversary gift to each of its subscribers of “look back” mini-movies of their own lives — but not even “The LEGO Movie” could have come up with anything that solipsistically deranged. But this movie is itself the best possible antidote to the tendency to settle for lowest-common-denominator formula story-telling. It won’t just inspire you to see better movies; it will inspire you to make your own.

Parents should know that this film has cartoon-style peril and violence with many threatened injuries but no one hurt, a parent-child confrontation, some potty humor, and schoolyard language.

Family discussion: How do you decide whether you are special? Is it more fun to follow directions or make something up? What parts of the LEGO world do you recognize?

If you like this, try: the “Toy Story” movies and “Robots” — and build something with LEGOs!

Let It Go from “Frozen” — in 25 Languages

Posted on January 22, 2014 at 2:44 pm

And the LA Times explains how they do it.

As the film business has become an increasingly global one, Dempsey’s job has become ever more complex, with languages in emerging territories added every year. The newest additions include Bengali, Malay and Vietnamese. While “Frozen” is available in 41 languages, Dempsey recalls casting for about 15 languages on “The Lion King” in 1994….For Dempsey, “Frozen’s” music posed a special challenge: He had to mimic the vocal tone and texture of Menzel, a Tony Award-winning soprano famous for her penetrating pipes. “Idina has one of the best voices, period, in terms of her smooth tone, the warmth when she hits the lower end,” Dempsey said. “In certain territories — Taiwan, Cantonese — the voice might want to be thin because that’s part of the culture. It was always a challenge to find her match.”

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Animation Music Shorts

The Nut Job

Posted on January 16, 2014 at 6:00 pm

I miss the days when the economics of animation were so daunting that we were assured a certain level of quality. Yes, there were some low points that don’t even qualify for a Disney re-issue (I could find some affection for “Chicken Little” and “Treasure Planet,” but even I can’t find much to like in “The Black Cauldron” or “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”). Unfortunately, now that computer modeling makes animation more affordable, movies are getting made that don’t meet the minimum standards for a feature film.

“The Nut Job” is not an awful movie, nowhere near as bad as last year’s “Free Birds” or “Escape from Planet Earth.” It is just not very good, with sluggish pacing and a weak script that is both over- and under-written. One telling detail is the movie’s reliance on the 2012 Psy hit song “Gangnam Style.” When a two-year-old song is a movie’s high point, it’s in trouble. The thanks to the tourism bureau of South Korea in the credits is also an indication that entertainment and story-telling were not the sole purpose of the film.

The voice talent is fine, especially Maya Rudolph as a bulldog, but the visuals are not especially imaginative. As we see so often in sub-par animation, the focus (literally) seems to be on making every hair distinct rather than in finding a visual way to move the story. Very simple, basic fundamentals like a sense of place and the relationships of the various locations to each other are poorly handled and the 3D is entirely unnecessary.

If you want to see an entertaining and funny movie about backyard creatures trying to steal nuts, take a look at an old Disney “Chip ‘n’ Dale” cartoon. This has essentially the same idea, but weighed down with complications that, like the hyper-realism of each hair in the animals’ fur, overtakes the big picture.

A squirrel named Surly (Will Arnett) is a cynical loner with just one friend, a rat. They live in a city park. Surly has no interest in cooperating with the rest of the animals, who work together to gather food. Their leader is Raccoon (Liam Neeson), and when he warns that they do not have enough food, the responsible, loyal, and dedicated Andie (Katherine Heigl) and dim, overconfident Grayson (Brendan Fraser), regarded by all the animals as their hero, go off in search of food and find the same target already identified by Surly, a nut cart. When their competition over the cart results in disaster that destroys the animals’ entire store of food, Surly is banished. He is lost at first as he explores the city for the first time, but then he finds the nut shop behind the cart, which turns out to be a front for a group of bank robbers.

So there’s conflict between Surly and Andie, the animals and the humans, the squirrels and some scary-looking rats, the squirrels and the bulldog, the squirrels and various perilous spots, the robbers and each other, the robbers and the bank, and the only thing the kids enjoyed at the screening I attended was the bodily function humor and some slapstick. Then there’s the issue of looking out for oneself only versus being part of a group, which feels like it was thrown in at the last minute. Most of the movie is about two elaborate robberies but the one I minded was the loss of the time I spent watching it.

Parents should know that there is a good deal of cartoon-style peril and violence, including guns and scary rats, but no one gets badly hurt (stay through the credits to be reassured). There is some mild language and some crude potty humor. Human and animal characters spend most of the movie plotting thefts with little recognition that this could be wrong or hurting anyone.

Family discussion: Why did Surly and Andie have different ideas about being part of the community? Which characters trusted the wrong people or animals?

If you like this, try: “Over the Hedge”

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3D Animation Scene After the Credits

Trailer: How to Train Your Dragon 2

Posted on December 28, 2013 at 8:00 am

This is one of the movies I am most looking forward to in 2014. I met with the director and had glimpses of some of it and it looks sensational!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iguVBUEkeg

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Animation Trailers, Previews, and Clips

Frozen

Posted on November 26, 2013 at 5:00 pm

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Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some action and mild rude humor
Profanity:	Brief schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Scary wolves, snow monster, peril, sad death of parents
Diversity Issues:	Strong female characters
Date Released to Theaters:	November 27, 2013
Date Released to DVD:	March 17, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00G5G7K7O

Smart, exciting, funny, sweet, tuneful, and gorgeously animated, the Oscar-winning “Frozen” adapts Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale into a story of two sisters kept apart by a scary secret. Scary wolves, an enormous snow monster, a perilous journey, a warm (yes)-hearted snowman, a loyal reindeer, a sleigh ride, a sensational ice castle, and a little romance keep things moving briskly, but it is the relationship of the sisters that makes this movie something special. There’s a surprisingly strong emotional connection.

The king and queen of Arendelle love their two daughters, Elsa and Anna, and the girls are best friends. Anna loves to ask her big sister to “do the magic,” because Ilsa was born with the special power to create snow and ice. But an accident almost becomes a tragedy, and the trolls who heal Anna remove her memory of her sister’s gift.

Their parents lock the gates around the castle and keep the girls apart. They tell Elsa to “conceal it, don’t feel it.” They want to protect her from those who might be afraid of her ability and protect those she might hurt as she grows up and her gift becomes more powerful. She wears gloves all the time and stays in her room. Anna wanders the castle alone, singing to the paintings, with no one to talk to. Although she no longer remembers the details of their former closeness and the time they spent together, she is devastated that her sister will not see her.

Their parents are lost at sea, and three years later Elsa (Broadway star Idina Menzel) is about to be crowned queen. Anna (Kristen Bell of “Veronica Mars”) is overjoyed to be seeing her sister and excited about meeting the people who will come through the gates that are opened at last. She is charmingly awkward, having had no opportunity to learn any social skills, but that does not seem to matter to the very handsome Prince Hans (Santino Fontana), who proposes just a few hours after they meet. Anna is overjoyed.

But Elsa forbids the marriage and when Anna objects, her frustration and fury explodes, turning the balmy summer into a frozen winter. Elsa runs away, locking herself into a dazzling palace made of ice in the mountains. Anna follows, sure that she can make things right if she can just talk to Elsa about what is going on. And that is where the adventure begins. She meets a rough-hewn ice harvester named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff of “Glee”) and his reindeer Sven and a sunny-spirited, warm-hearted, and familiar-looking snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad of “Thank You for Sharing”). And when they get to the ice palace, things do not turn out the way she expects.

Human animated characters tend to be bland-looking, but the voice talents have enormous spirit that gives them a lot of life. Broadway stars Menzel, Groff (“Spring Awakening”), Bell (“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”), and Gad (“The Book of Mormon”) make the most of a tuneful score featuring the Oscar-winning “Let It Go.” The songs are beautifully acted as well as sung. Highlights include an adorable ode to summer from Olaf, who is not quite clear on the physical properties of snow as temperatures rise, Kristoff’s “duetted” ode to reindeer with Sven (he sings both parts), and Menzel’s powerful “Let it Go.” Bell’s sweet voice is lovely as she sings to the paintings in the castle about her longing for people and then exalts in her love for Prince Hans. There is also a charming ensemble with trolls singing about how we’re all in our own way “fixer-uppers.”

The animation is everything we hope for from Disney, one “how did they do that?” after another, with ice and snow so real and so touchable you may find yourself zipping up your parka in the theater. But the effects and action are all in service of the story, with a contemporary twist that is as welcome as summer’s return.

NOTE: Be sure to get to the theater in time as one of the highlights is the pre-feature short, starring a vintage Mickey Mouse voiced by Walt Disney himself. It is a masterpiece of wit and technology that must be seen a couple of times to fully appreciate. And be sure to stay through the end of the credits for an extra scene re-visiting one of the film’s most powerful characters.

Parents should know that this film include characters in peril, some injuries and action-style scares, monster, the sad deaths of a mother and father, some potty humor, and kissing.

Family discussion: What’s a fixer-upper? Why did Elsa’s parents tell her not to feel? Why was she afraid of her power? Why didn’t her parents want anyone to know the truth, and how did that make Elsa and Anna feel? Who do you think is a love expert?

If you like this, try: “Tangled,” “Brave,” and “The Princess and the Frog”