The Peanuts Movie

Posted on November 5, 2015 at 5:26 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Some tense scenes of anxiety, hurt feelings, and shyness, some mild action scenes and peril (Snoopy’s flying ace battles)
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	November 6, 2015
Date Released to DVD:	February 29, 2016
Amazon.com ASIN:	B018WXLHVM

I admit that I approached this film with some of the same trepidation Charlie Brown approaches the football, knowing Lucy’s history of pulling it out of the way at the last second. I’m a fan of Charles Schultz’s original comic strip and fond of many of the animated specials and features that were careful to preserve the simplicity of his aesthetic. I was concerned that a more fully-animated version (in 3D!) would drown out the gentle storylines. But Schulz’s family has been careful to preserve his legacy. The script is co-written by his son and grandson and is timed to appear on the 65th anniversary of the strip and the 50th anniversary of the classic “Charlie Brown Christmas” special. And Blue Sky (which made the “Ice Age” and “Rio” movies) understands the material and its audiences — the older generations who are attached to the original version and today’s children, who are new to these characters.

The brightly colored, rounded figures were easier to get used to than I feared. The iconic details — Charlie Brown’s yellow shirt with the brown zigzag (it turns out he has a whole closetful) and wisps of hair are familiarly iconic. It’s not a period piece but there is a timeless quality. Phones are corded landlines. We never see a laptop and no one ever checks Google or GPS. Indeed, one of the most important items in the story is a pencil. It has glitter and a feather decorating it, but it also has the teeth marks of its sometimes nervous owner, and that is something you won’t find on a smartphone.

The movie does not commit any serious blunders. There are pleasant moments and welcome echoes of the past, but it does not justify its existence by adding anything of value to the canon already available. The first and best of the television specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas, is less than half an hour long, but it has more wit, charm, poignancy, than this feature film, and it includes one of the most beautiful holiday songs ever written, the piercingly bittersweet Christmastime is Here. In almost two hours, this film has time for just a snippet, to make room for inferior contemporary pop songs. A joke about “merch” seems ill-advised given the strip’s history of selling its characters for everything from insurance to toothbrushes.

The film begins promisingly, with Schroder playing the studio’s theme music on his piano and an immersive soft, gentle snowfall. It’s the most joyous day of the year — a snow day — and we meet the characters as they wake up and choose the winter activities they most enjoy. Charlie Brown decides it is a good time for him to try the kite again, figuring that the “kite-eating tree” will be out of commission in winter. It does not go well. Once school is back in session, a new student arrives, a girl with red hair, and Charlie Brown is smitten — and terrified. How can he impress her?

The Schulzes are true to the spirit of the original. We squirm with Charlie Brown as he agonizes over his insecurity, especially when he is faced with a dilemma at the school talent show and when he is awarded an honor it turns out he did not deserve. The sections with Snoopy’s Red Baron fantasy are of less interest and appeal and the 3D effects and the talents of top-tier musical stars (Trombone Shorty playing the “waa waas” for the adult voices and Kristen Chenoweth as Snoopy’s daring aviatrix love interest) are underused. The best use of this film is as an introduction to the classic television specials — and the original comic strips that inspired them.

Parents should know that this film includes some tense scenes of anxiety, hurt feelings, and shyness, and some mild action scenes and peril (Snoopy’s flying ace battles).

Family discussion: Which character is most like your friends? Which would you most want to be like? Why don’t we hear the grown-up voices?

If you like this, try: The Peanuts comic strip collections and the television specials.

Fantastic Four

Posted on August 6, 2015 at 4:53 pm

Three things a superhero movie should not be: dreary, dull, and tedious. Three things this movie is: see if you can guess. I am a huge fan of the comic book series Fantastic Four, which I first read as a teenager, ready for something with a little more edge and attitude than my beloved Superman. I have suffered through previous efforts to make their stories work on film, and dared to hope that this one would be better. It is awful in every category. The script is terrible, wasting much too much time on a revamped origin story that goes back to 5th grade(!) and the high school science fair(!) and still does not tell us anything interesting about the characters or how they got their powers. The characters are dull and all seem to be acting in separate bell jars, with no indication that there is another human being in the scene. Even when they are supposed to be friends, siblings, parent and child, or possible romantic partners, they act as though the other person was a tennis ball hanging in front of a green screen.

People who are supposed to be super-smart do things that are super-stupid. Like constantly. One thing scientists understand very well is that empirical data matters. So when things go terribly wrong when you try something, what’s the deal with doing the same thing again without taking any new steps to prevent further disasters? And Reed Richards’ only complaint is that the new pod is not as pretty as the old one and needs ten minutes of corrections to the code?

The dialog is filled with appalling clunkers like, “Do you ever think about what would have happened if you never came to the science fair?” “We cannot change the past. But we can change the future.” It even has locker-room style pep talks like, “He’s too much for each of us, but if we all work together we can beat him!” And many of the comments are just pointless and there are developments that have no logic of character or plot, indicating that the movie was even worse at some point and was cut like someone was slicing the bruises off a banana. The special effects look like they were created on Fiverr. The action scenes are muddy and static. At just over 90 minutes, it still feels endless.

And another boneheaded decision: while the comic book characters are adults, somebody decided to age them down into teenagers for this version so we could add in some adolescent angst, a love triangle that is about at the level of who will ask Sue to the prom, and, I am not making this up (I wish I were), the whole superpower thing happens because those darn kids get drunk one night and take the dimensional traveling machine thing out for a tipsy joyride. Think “Fantastic Four 90210.” We’ll have fun, fun, fun ’til Daddy takes the dimensional traveling pod away!

And what is the number one requirement for a superhero movie? A great villain. No such luck here. The bad guy is just a moody misfit who likes the same girl as the other guy and just might blow up the planet over it. And somehow when he’s abandoned for a period of time in another dimension on what looks like another planet with no life forms of any kind, somehow he manages to eat enough to stay alive AND come away with a really cool new cape and hood, sewn for him I guess by little elves? And unless Sue Storm’s new powers include hairstyle changes, the continuity people on this film have some ‘splaining to do.

There is a legendary Fantastic Four movie, available only on bootleg, made in 1994 as an “ashcan” film, not intended for release, just to preserve the studio’s rights to the characters. My bet is that it is better than this version. There is no bad guy in the history of the characters who has inflicted as much damage on the F4 as this sorry, soggy mess. (Thankfully, the plans for the sequel have been scrapped.)

Parents should know this film features extended sci-fi/comic-book peril and violence, some disturbing images of characters getting fried and exploding, parental death, domestic violence, some strong language, and drinking and drunkenness.

Family discussion: Why did Reed run away? How are Reed and Victor alike?

If you like this, try: “The Avengers” and “Iron Man” and the Fantastic Four comics, especially those featuring Galactus

Ant-Man

Posted on July 16, 2015 at 5:48 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence
Profanity:	A few bad words
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Extensive comic-book style action violence, characters injured
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	July 17, 2015
Date Released to DVD:	December 7, 2015
Amazon.com ASIN:	B011DHP3GY

San Diego Comic-Con is known for big, loud, and splashy promotions for movies and television series, especially those featuring superheroes. So it was a delight to come across the tiny “billboard” for “Ant-Man,” smaller than a shoebox, that was the only indication that a major comic book movie was about to open. That same wry, refreshingly unassuming tone lends a lot of charm to a superhero character whose powers may seem at first unimpressive.

And the man who plays that character brings a lot of charm as well. Paul Rudd, for two decades one of the most appealing actors in Hollywood, plays Scott, an electrical engineer turned Occupy Wall Street-style Robin Hood, about to be released from prison after three years, and determined to go straight and spend as much time as possible with his young daughter.

But no one wants to hire an ex-con, and when he gets a job at Baskin-Robbins by not telling them about his record, they find out and fire him. Desperate to make the child support payments he needs to be able to get visitation rights, he agrees to crack a safe that his friend Luis (Michael Peña) promises him is a sure thing. It isn’t. The only thing in the safe is a strange-looking suit.

It is the invention of Dr. Pym (Michael Douglas), who trains Scott to become Ant-Man, able to shrink himself to the size of an ant and to bring with him legions of ants. He can ride a flying ant and he can send stinging ants to torment his foes.

His foe in this case is a rival scientist who wants to weaponize the shrinking technology. And there is also the rival scientist’s most trusted colleague, Hope (Evangeline Lilly).

There is a “Honey I Shrunk the Superhero” element to the story, and director Peyton Reed has a lot of fun with it. Scott has one scene in an architect’s model rendering of a new facility and another in a child’s room, where the thundering locomotive turns out to be, to normal-sized eyes, a Thomas the Tank engine toy. Rudd is just right as the sincere, smart guy who wants to do the right thing and Douglas is terrifically charismatic as Pym. There’s nothing snarky or air quote-ish about the story, but there is a recognition that this is a superhero the size of a grain of rice. In this case, that’s super enough.

NOTE: Stay THROUGH the credits for TWO extra scenes, one involving members of a very special group of crime-fighters starting with an A.

Parents should know that this film includes extensive comic-book/superhero peril and violence, guns, fights, animal and human characters injured ad killed, some disturbing images, family issues including divorce, child support, and custody, some strong language

Family discussion: Why did Dr. Pym trust Scott? Which of Ant-Man’s powers would you like to have and how would you use them?

If you like this, try: “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Avengers,” and “Iron Man” and some other shrinking person movies like “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “Fantastic Voyage”

Exclusive Clip: Richie Rich — Coming 5/22 on Netflix

Posted on May 18, 2015 at 9:36 pm

We are delighted to have a sneak peek at Netflix’s new Richie Rich series, premiering May 22, 2015.

Trailer: Supergirl

Posted on May 16, 2015 at 8:00 am

The new “Supergirl” series on CBS stars Melissa Benoist (“Glee,” “Whiplash,” “Danny Collins”) as Superman’s Kryptonian cousin, with Calista Flockhart as her “Devil Wears Prada”-style boss. Former Superman (“Clark and Lois” Dean Cain and former Supergirl Helen Slater play her adoptive parents. It looks great! Coming this fall on CBS.