Gateway Cinephiles

Review: WALL•E

2008 (USA)
Director: Andrew Stanton
Viewed: July 27, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print

WALL•E delivers to the anemic landscape of science fiction cinema a much-needed shot of vitality and depth. This is especially the case for that rare subspecies of sci-fi film that WALL•E delightfully embodies, one that is at once engaging, challenging, and appropriate for children. If the film has a flaw–and its flaws are rare indeed–it is the filmmakers’ dogged insistence on exploring a proflieration of ethical and philosophical quandries when a sublime little allegory might have sufficed. Lest I damn with faint praise, let’s be clear about one thing: WALL•E is simultaneously the best animated film, children’s film, and science fiction film of the year. The electricity that tingles within its comfortable tropes signals a turning point in Pixar’s oeuvre, not to mention Disney’s. Although it lacks the virtuosity that made the studio’s Ratatouille one of the best films of 2007, WALL•E has an ache of grand ambition in its bones, one that bodes well for the potential of “children’s entertainment” to still take people of all ages to undiscovered worlds without and within. (Minor spoilers follow…)

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Review: Cars

2007
Director: Jon Lasseter and Joe Ranft
Viewed: July 2, 2008
Format: DVD - Disney (2006)

I don’t get this movie, and I think it’s because I don’t like NASCAR, nor am I a 3-year-old boy. I know the filmmakers want this to be a heartfelt movie about small towns vs. interstates, moving fast vs. slowing down and smelling the roses–but I don’t buy it, okay? They’re cars, right? With eyes, mouths, and apparently opposable thumbs to build modern civilization as it exists in our world. Cars that have funny voices, cars with consciences, cars that fall in love. Right.

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Quick Review: Happy Feet

2006
Directors: George Miller and Warren Coleman
Viewed: July 3, 2008
Format: DVD - Warner Brothers (2007)

As far as children’s movies go, this is fuzzy, happy entertainment. It’s mildly entertaining (despite the presence of Robin Williams), and, dare I say, cute. The goofy environmental message at the end seemed muddled and misplaced, and that the film’s greatest flaw. I think the filmmakers got greedy, and instead of stopping at an entertaining fable about a penguin who didn’t fit in, tried to make a movie about a penguin who saves the planet. It seemed a bit much to me. However, if the idea of penguins singing pop songs and tap-dancing makes you giggle even a little, see this movie. It’s certainly worth the rental price. Story aside, the animation is gorgeous and impressive, and the wildlife represented is not anthropomorphized. Penguins look like penguins, and sea birds look like sea birds, rather than cutesy, almost-human winged creatures. It was less painful than most kid’s movies, and that’s saying something. Recommended for the very young or the curious.

Review: Kung Fu Panda

2008
Directors: Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
Viewed: June 12, 2008
Format: IMAX Theatrical Print

It’s tempting to damn Kung Fu Panda with faint praise. In some respects, it’s a fairly middling film in the pantheon of animated children’s fare. However, Panda is blissfully uncorrupted by the pervasive sins of recent kiddie cinema. It’s a completely linear and uncluttered approach to the genre that even adults—parents and non-parents alike—will likely appreciate. In place of pandering, pop culture references, and potty humor, Panda focuses its energy on sparkling visual design, engaging characters, and, since this is twenty-first century computer animation, eye popping action set pieces. I can forgive its creaky, shallow message, and even its shrink-wrapped Daoist-Buddhist pearls of wisdom, for one simple, delightful reason: It’s an utterly pleasurable bit of digital escapism, executed with martial arts precision. Oh, and it’s about a panda who knows kung fu. And he wears little shorts. If I have to explain why this is appealing, there’s no hope for you.

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Review: Horton Hears a Who!

2008
Directors: Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino
Viewed: March 20, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print

Dr. Seuss’ stories have rarely translated smoothly to the big or small screen, perhaps because the charms of his works are entwined with the medium itself. There’s a particular pleasure to paging through a Seuss book, to following the predictable rhythms aloud, to lingering over the whimsical illustrations. The occasional successful Seuss adaptations—the 1942 Looney Tunes short “Horton Hatches the Egg” and MGM’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! from 1966—rest as much on terrific, witty character design and voice talent as on the strength of the source material. I’ll resist discussing the recent, manifestly awful live-action adaptations of Grinch and The Cat and the Hat.

20th Century Fox’s Blue Sky Studios—creators of the successful Ice Age films—returns to the Seussian well with a feature-length computer animated adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! It’s a successful, if forgettable, children’s film that strikes closer to the distinctive Seuss appeal than any other attempt in recent decades.

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Review: Meet the Robinsons

2007
Director: Stephen J. Anderson
Viewed: January 31, 2008
Format: DVD – Disney (2007)

Yet another installment of “Children’s Movies that Do Not Suck. Unless They Do.”

I was pleasantly surprised by this somewhat throwaway Disney title. I rented it for my students to get through a dreary winter afternoon. When I announced the title of the movie I’d rented, I learned that most of the kids had seen and loved it. This sort of recommendation can go either way. It either means the movie was terrible, childish, and gross, or it means the movie was great and had the universal appeal of a Ratatouille or Beauty and the Beast. Happily, Meet the Robinsons falls under the latter category.

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