Gateway Cinephiles

Review: High School Musical

August 1, 2008 Libby Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Musicals Comments Off

2006 (USA)
Director: Kenny Ortega
Viewed: July 31, 2008
Format: DVD - Disney (2006)

Okay, get the teasing done now. You over there, I know you have a smart-ass comment to make about this being posted on a “serious” film blog. Go ahead. I’ll wait. And the oh-so intellectual Disney-gentrification-of-culture comments? Finished? Good.

As a childcare professional who works primarily with school aged children, I have seen this movie many, many times. I’ve seen the sequel. I’ll watch the threequel one too. Why? This is good, age-appropriate entertainment for my students.

Read the rest…

Review: WALL•E

July 29, 2008 Andrew Film Diaries - Andrew, Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Animation, Science Fiction No Comments

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…)

Read the rest…

3-Minute Intro: The Wizard of Oz

July 21, 2008 Andrew 3-Minute Intros, Kid Stuff, Fantasy, Musicals No Comments

Screened: July 18, 2008
Format: DVD - Warner Broethers (2005)
Selected By: Beth

What more can be said of Victor Fleming’s 1939 musical fantasy triumph, The Wizard of Oz, that hasn’t already been said before? It is the kind of film that proudly embodies the best features of cinema. It plucks out the affirming fable in L. Frank Baum’s original turn-of-the-century fantasy, wraps it in Broadway melody, and then adds movie-making opulence at its most wondrous. It is a glorious, shameless kind of film, one that succeeds and endures because of its fierce ambition to be a unprecedented work of imagination. What film before Oz contained such human warmth, such otherworldly delight, such grotesque terror, all in one package, and then had the audacity to add catchy show tunes?

At this point, perhaps we should just journey down the list of rumors and legends that swirl around the film. Most notoriously, no, the film does not capture an on-set Munchkin or stagehand suicide. Yes, actor Buddy Epson was slated to play the Tin Man, but was replaced by Jack Haley after the aluminum dust in his role’s makeup severely poisoned him. Yes, a second-hand coat purchased for Professor Marvel’s costume turned out to have been owned by Oz author L. Frank Baum. Yes, MGM originally wanted W.C. Fields to play the Wizard, and yes, the studio originally intended for the Cowardly Lion to be a live lion with a dubbed voice. Yes, many of Margaret Hamilton’s scenes as the Wicked Witch of the West were cut from the final film because they were deemed to frightening.

Yes, Terry the Dog, who plays Toto, was paid more than twice the rate received by the actors who portrayed the Munchkins. Yes, the original silver slippers of Baum’s novel were changed to ruby slippers to better show off the Technicolor film process. And, of course, yes, there are eerie synchronicities between this 1939 film and Pink Floyd’s 1973 concept album, Dark Side of the Moon. Since awareness of the phenomenon first surfaced on Usenet in the 1990s, it has been dismissed by the band and album engineer Alan Parsons, but this has not dissuaded film and Floyd devotees from exploring this odd coincidence.

Review: Cars

July 4, 2008 Libby Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Animation No Comments

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.

Read the rest…

Quick Review: Happy Feet

July 4, 2008 Libby Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Animation No Comments

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: Akeelah and the Bee

July 4, 2008 Libby Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Dramas, Kid Stuff No Comments

2006
Director: Doug Atchison
Viewed: June 27, 2008
Format: DVD - Lionsgate (2006)

I see a lot of children’s movies. I’m always looking for something inspiring to show my students. They’re older, almost middle schoolers, so enriching entertainment is hard to come by. Recently, a student brought in Akeelah and the Bee. I personally wanted to see the movie because of all the positive things I’d heard about it, but I’d never really pegged it as a movie children would enjoy. My students were captivated, and so was I. This is a moving, entertaining, and challenging film, as suitable for an eleven-year-old as it is for a fifty-year-old.

Read the rest…

Review: Kung Fu Panda

June 14, 2008 Andrew Film Diaries - Andrew, Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Animation No Comments

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.

Read the rest…

Review: Horton Hears a Who!

March 21, 2008 Andrew Film Diaries - Andrew, Reviews, Kid Stuff, Animation No Comments

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.

Read the rest…

Review: Meet the Robinsons

February 22, 2008 Libby Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Animation No Comments

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.

Read the rest…

Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks

January 18, 2008 Libby Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff No Comments

2007
Director: Tim Hill
Viewed: January 18, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print

I’m not sure if words can express how horrible Alvin and the Chipmunks is. This movie-going experience was a field trip with my students. Usually movie field trips are great: once the kids are seated, you just have to worry about trips to the restroom and not falling asleep.

Let me put it this way: I willingly and cheerfully took children to go to the bathroom, because it meant I got to stand in the hallway and wait for them instead of watch this movie.

Read the rest…

Review: High School Musical

Review: WALL•E

3-Minute Intro: The Wizard of Oz

Review: Cars

Quick Review: Happy Feet

Review: Akeelah and the Bee

Review: Kung Fu Panda

Review: Horton Hears a Who!

Review: Meet the Robinsons

Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks

Screenings

Search

Categories

Last Posts

RSS FEED

Blogroll