The Last Movies You Saw... and What You Thought Of them!

Mary and Max, I just seen for the second time and it still blows me away...

This movie shows that not all animated films has to be for kids, its a odd coming of age film? I guess even so it gave me more than what I could ever expected. Its on Netflix so check it out some time. I don't what to spoil it, the movie has way to much to offer and its really under rated.

So I saw this today, on French opening day.

It was very nice.

I am not that attached to Finding Nemo - saw it on DVD a dozen years ago and thought it was okay - but hey, it's Pixar. They can hardly go wrong. Even at their worse, they're at least very decent.

Finding Dory looks very beautiful, has great visuals that manage to not be too realistic but still defined enough so it can be appealing. It's cartoony, but feels solid.

The plot is a bit of a role-reversal of the first movie where Dory is the one who goes away - although she tags along with Marlin and Nemo - and the new characters are very charming, including Hank the stealthy octopus (he's great!) and others that I'd rather let you discover on your own. They are also very funny, including some great running gags.

The plot structure feels a bit "classic" when you saw many blockbuster animated movies. But I didn't mind in this one because I was attached to the characters and the set-up was appealing.

For fans of the original movie, there is also some "fan-service", but enough new material to keep it fresh. Then again, I have kinda fuzzy memories of Finding Nemo so maybe I am a bit biased on that last aspect...

Note: stay after the end credits!

So I have been feeling like seeing this movie for some time! Turns out it was the first MTV movie...
This movie is VERY mid-90s. You have your whimsical atmosphere, with cartoonish stunts and outrageous props, talking live-action animals...
However, the film seems to have a problem with knowing who is its intended audience. Is it for kids, with the cartoonish slapstick and animals, or for older audiences, with its profanity and vulgarity?
The film feels like a mishmash of many '90s movie clichés (you WILL feel them), and lacks some depth, playing many of these elements a bit too straight to be enjoyed to the fullest.
There are some funny moments, and the cockroaches themselves hold up quite well even today, being a kinda impressive mix of CGI, stop-motion and real cockroaches.
However, those cockroaches feel a bit... "déjà-vu". They constantly talk, trying to be funny in a generic way (you know what I mean if you ever saw a kid movie or cartoon in your life), and in a Chipmunk voice. That's right, it was the modern Chipmunks movies before there were modern Chipmunks movies! Using their small size to be playing with household objects and foods while singing and throwing quips!

Can't say I hated this movie, but it could definitely have been better...

EXACTLY!! And that's why I hate this decade for movies.

Lemme guess: they use that Inception "BWAAAM" sound in the soundtrack?

Just got back from Ghost in the Shell.

Not sure what all the negativity is about; as a fan of GITS and anime in general, I thoroughly enjoyed it Definitely worth a watch!

Coraline. This one's been on my to-watch list for a while, but why would I watch another beautiful Tim Burton animated film when there's stuff like The Killer Shrews and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians? It took me getting sick to finally sit down and watch it (I didn't feel like getting up to swap hard drives). Sure enough, this is another beautiful animated film under the direction of Tim Burton - done by another team, however. So I did miss the spring-like animation style of Nightmare Before Christmas. Coraline's animation is more like Life With Loopy: a bit more cartoonish. Upon the movie's opening, I was informed that the film was adapted from a book of the same name - a fact I was not aware of beforehand, but became prevalent very quickly. Throughout the movie, I felt like I was missing something - like I was not getting the full story. How did Wybie's grandmother even get the Coraline doll to begin with? I understand that details need to be trimmed when adapting a book to film, but this feeling was with me through the whole viewing. Other than that, I did enjoy the film. The atmosphere was perfect, the spider imagery when combating the Other Mother blew me away as it wasn't hammered into me, but instead slowly pieced together as it should be. I've always been a fan of stop-motion animation, just ask anyone who knows me around Christmastime. But that wasn't the only stop-motion film I saw that night. I guess I felt like some stop-motion that night.

Mighty Joe Young, the original 1949 version. For those that aren't familiar the story is about a gorilla raised by a young girl into adulthood who forms a strong with her, becoming her faithful protector. After twelve years together, an entrepeneur travels to Africa seeking an act for his new night club where he stumbles across the duo. He signs the two up to work for the club as a weekly act, but the two quickly start to grow weary of the show fairly quickly. The effects where done by the same team as the original King Kong, but with 16 more years of experience, and boy does it show. Unlike the goofy expressions of King Kong, Joe actually looks threatening and emotes very well for a puppet. But what really impressed me were the seamless transitions between stop motion shots and live action shots, nearly frame perfect. Particularly whenever Joe picks someone up. The puppet is always perfectly positioned in the way the actor was in the previous frame. I enjoyed every minute of it... whenever I wasn't sneezing my brains out.