Pixar's Brave in Theaters Now

Brave seems like a different kind of movie for Pixar (the princess theme being more in line with what Disney has always done), but it is still full of Pixar flair and originality. And with scenery out of Scotland, the animation is absolutely beautiful!

In Brave, Princess Merida is a tomboy, much more comfortable on a horse with a bow in hand than in a corset, learning courtly manners from her mother. Her red, unruly hair characterizes her spirit and the spirit of her land: untamed, wild. When the three clans under her father's rule come seeking her hand in marriage, Merida fights back against tradition. But the manner in which she chooses to do so may cost her dearly.

In several aspects, Brave could have ended up a mediocre movie, but unsurprisingly, Pixar pulls it out of that class just in time. I'll explain.

As with nearly all Disney princess movies, there is a witch. In Brave, she is there as a catalyst to the plot and doesn't play a major role. Nor is she the villain. Nonetheless, I wish the movie had avoided the whole witch thing. I understand why it makes sense to use a witch in a movie set in Scotland. The land is steeped in mythology and ancient paganism. But that, for me, makes it almost worse. Anything that approaches reality where witches are concerned bothers me because I know how dangerous real witchcraft actually is. However, I appreciate the way this movie downplays the witch's role and avoids making her a main character. And the way Merida must solve the problem the witch gives her is both more complex and more true-to-life than many Disney movies portray, carrying a strong message about what it means to be family.

I must admit, I really don't like movies where the kid or teen is rebellious and ends up being "right." Disney does this far too often. Without spoiling too much, I think I can say that this movie handles the issue beautifully.

Another problem, as I see it, that comes up in certain movies is the role of the dad. Dads are often given the shaft or made to seem like bumbling idiots while their female counterparts are intelligent and beautiful. Usually, this is done for comic effect, and Brave is somewhat guilty of this plot device. However, one thing I really appreciate about Brave is that the dad is not simply a fool. He's loving and loyal to his family. He's playful when he needs to be and a fierce warrior when he needs to be. In other words, while Merida's dad sometimes fits the overused stereotype, Pixar diverges, as usual, from the norm and creates a more complex character. This is just one example of why Pixar is a notch above anything else in the animation world.

Altogether, I was very pleased with Brave. Granted, it's a more traditional type of story, not as fully original as WALL-E or Up. But, really, there's no new plot under the sun. I'm happy with a good story, and Pixar knows how to give me that. Four stars.

The Adventures of Tintin

I was pretty sure I was never going to see the movie The Adventures of Tintin, but that was because I had no idea what it was. It's based on an animated TV series from the early 90's, but I didn't know that. I thought it was an animated feature for kids about a kid with a dog. I thought the dog's name was Tintin, due to the unfortunate coincidence of a recently released biography about a dog named Rin Tin Tin. I confess, I was completely wrong, and I would be wrong still if not for that family convention of sitting down to a movie for the sake of togetherness regardless of each individual's movie watching preferences.

The Adventures of Tintin is really rather remarkable, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. This is not your typical animation, in any sense. It's basically a live-action film that just looks animated because that's what they did. They used real people in motion-capture technology, much like they did to create Gollum in Lord of the Rings (in fact, Andy Serkis helped make this movie, too), but rather than creating creatures to use in a realistic-looking world, they animated both the people and the world. I don't mean that you will see any faces of actors you know done up in some caricature (although there are a few that resemble people you might know), but there are real people behind the animated movements you see on screen. And until you see it yourself, you won't believe what a difference it makes in the look of the film.

The story itself is on a level with Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Carribean. Animation lets it be a little over the top as far as reality goes, but weren't those movies a little over the top in live-action? And it's no more a kids' movie than those are. Tintin is a journalist (young, but not a kid) who stumbles onto a big story when he purchases a model boat and then has it stolen from him. The adventures just keep piling up as Tintin, with his smart dog tagging along, uses all his story-sniffing skills to solve a mystery as big as any Jones chased down.

It's completely entertaining fun for adults, though I suppose (grudgingly) kids might enjoy it, too. Ha! It's a perfect family movie (rated PG for action, drunkenness, and smoking) but not the kind you're forced to sit through on a Sunday evening. This is one you all should enjoy!

Cars 2 on DVD

Although I normally love Pixar movies, I was dragging my feet on seeing this one. Cars is so over-popularized with all its little toys and accessories. Kids absolutely love it, so I guess I got it into my head that Cars was more of a kids' show even though I saw the first one and enjoyed it myself. Plus, I'm not a big fan of sequels. Sometimes they can be great, but in general, they try to do what the first one did, which is old news. But it was Pixar, so I got the DVD on Netflix.

I have mixed feelings about Cars 2. Overall, I wasn't impressed. It's a decent movie for a sequel but not on the same level as most Pixar movies. As my husband says, it lacks emotional gravity. The storyline is different enough from the first Cars. Lightning McQueen and Mater have a misunderstanding in their friendship, and when Mater accidentally gets involved with a group of spies, the distance between them widens. Meanwhile, as Lightning McQueen gets ready to try to win the World Grand Prix with a new environmentally friendly fuel source, a group of angry old cars attempts to destroy him and force all cars back to the dark ages of oil. It's up to Mater and his new spy friends to save McQueen and defeat the old cars' evil plot.

For all that plot, the spark that fills movies like Up and Wall-E and even Toy Story and its sequels just isn't there. But there's more to my ambiguous feelings. This movie is one that a lot of young kids will want to see or, really, have already seen. And I don't think it's a kids' movie. It's like a kiddie version of an adult spy movie. It's kind of violent at times, which surprised me. As an adult movie, it would be fine. My husband thinks maybe it was made for the first generation of Cars watchers, and since those kids have grown up some, the new movie was made a bit more grown-up for them. But if that's what the movie makers did, they blatantly ignored the fact that a whole new generation is watching Cars because it's inundated the toy market. My nephew is five and was so excited to see the new movie, but there are parts that really aren't appropriate for that age. There's violence and murder. One car falls to its death in the ocean and is broken into tiny pieces. Another car is tortured to death, though the torture element is greatly underplayed. It just doesn't seem right for a kids' movie.

The entertainment value is there but does not outweigh the PG violence (though the movie is somehow rated G), the lack of depth, and the preachy oil message in my mind. But it's still better than most animation. The attention to detail is amazing. Japan feels just like Japan (according to Nick, who's been there), and I'm sure the other two countries represented are similar. This isn't a bad movie for interested adults. Just be careful about exposing sensitive children to it.

Rango and Unknown

I'm cheating a little this time by not writing full reviews on these two movies I've seen recently. Both Rango and Unknown are new DVD releases. I just have a few words on each, but I will say I enjoyed them.

Rango is an animated film, rated PG, starring Johnny Depp as the voice lead. It's about a nameless chameleon who is accidentally tossed out of his owner's car into the desert, where he attempts to become someone greater than himself to save a town of desert animals from a water shortage. It's funny but somewhat crude. If you took your kids to see this in the theater, I apologize for not being able to warn you sooner. This movie should be rated PG-13 and is an animation for older teens and adults, who will appreciate the humor and storyline. I heard a kid raving about Rango recently and had to cringe because I don't believe it's appropriate for younger ages, despite being animation. It's a bit violent and scary with adult themes kids won't get anyway and inappropriate language. There is some minor innuendo, particularly the top half of a naked Barbie doll. But for adults, this is an entertaining three-star movie.



Unknown stars Liam Neeson as a man who goes to Berlin with his wife to attend a Bio Tech conference and ends up getting into an accident and sustaining a head injury that takes him out of commission for four days and erases part of his memory. When he wakes from his coma without any identification on him, no one believes he is Dr. Martin Harris, especially when his own wife is calling another man by his name and seems not to know him. Things go from strange to dangerous when this other man produces passports and family pictures with his own photos instead of Martin's. Some people have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure Martin Harris disappears from the world, and they're willing to kill anyone who gets in their way. This movie is rated PG-13, mostly appropriately, although I would still advise caution for younger teens. There is a love-making scene in a shower, but nothing is exposed on camera. Also, there is a certain amount of violence and murder. Again, for adults this is an entertaining, suspenseful thriller. Three stars.

Despicable Me, Nicholas Sparks, & Memento

The Last Song
I've seen a run of movies lately, some of which don't deserve their own post. Thus far, the only Nicholas Sparks book-turned-into-movie I have liked is A Walk to Remember. I recently watched The Last Song and Dear John. Both were tear-jerkers, and while that would usually endear me to a movie, I really didn't like either movie. I would have liked The Last Song better without Miley Cyrus. Her character didn't feel genuine to me. I haven't even watched Miley Cyrus act or perform before, and I couldn't stand her. I like her deep voice, and that's about all. I don't know why, exactly. She just comes off as fake to me.

Dear John
As for Dear John, what a horrible movie! In that case, I like the actors but couldn't stand the movie. It was all about two people who fall in love over two weeks, and then he goes off to war and they begin to drift apart. Duh. Finally, she leaves him for a man who has cancer and his autistic son. Was this supposed to endear me to her? Actually, she came off as selfish and weak to me. I totally understood and liked the soldier. Neither of them die, oddly enough for Nicholas Sparks, but all they do is hug at the end. Lame. The book is probably better.

Memento
Memento was crazy. It's a Christopher Nolan film (Inception was awesome!), and it's told backwards. The story is about a guy who can't form any short term memories although all his memories up to a certain point are intact. The last thing he remembers is his wife...dying. He's trying to discover her killer and solve her case on his own, since he doesn't know whom to trust. In order to be able to keep working on a case without short-term memory, he tattoos his body with important information and keeps photographs in his pocket. He does whatever his own writing tells him to do. He has to trust every piece of information he writes down in his own hand. It's fascinating, especially as we begin to put the picture together from the backward fragments of the character's life. The ending totally disappoints, but the movie is worth watching for cinematic value. It's rated R for language, and sections are really bad.

Despicable Me

Despicable Me was a surprise. I wasn't all that interested in seeing it, but a friend recommended it, mainly because she knew the production designer, Yarrow Cheney. You've never heard of him, but if you watch Despicable Me, he gets his very own credit screen at the end of the movie.

The movie is really funny and quirky. Villainous Gru is being upstaged by a young pyramid-snatching villain, so he gets a plan in motion to shrink and steal the moon. Meanwhile, three orphan sisters come into his life, and while trying to use them to further his evil plans, he begins to get attached. Steve Carell voices Gru and does an amazing job with an accent that reminded me slightly of my German grandfather. Gru is all dead-pan serious, but some of the things he says come off hilarious. He struck me as different than other characters Steve Carell has played. The three girls are down-to-earth smart and adorable too. I don't know where the music came from, if it was created just for this movie or not, but the title song is perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed Despicable Me. And it's a family movie. Of the four here, that's the one to see. Leave Memento for the movie connoisseurs.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (all 3 TV seasons)

Just finished the last episode of the last season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Wow. Incredible. Sometimes you just have to love animation for its shear ability to do what no other visual medium can do. And when you have wonderful characters and an epic plot on top of a stunning visual feast, nothing compares.

That's why the real-life movie disappointed Avatar fans (and let's just be clear: this series has nothing to do with huge blue alien men). There is too much life in the series to crop it down and fit it into a little box of a movie. You just can't capture all the emotion, the humor, the beauty, the epic grandeur combined with moments of raw heartache or fun impishness in a two-hour film. Sure, you can duplicate special effects and find look-alike actors who can lay down some wicked martial arts moves, but the TV show is about so much more. I can't completely disrespect what Hollywood tried to do with its movie adaptation: The Last Airbender. As a stand-alone movie for the uninformed, non-Avatar-watcher, it was stunning in its own way.

But let me put it this way. I just sat through two hours of the animated finale, as long as a full-length feature film, and enjoyed it more than I could enjoy any movie out there. That's because there's so much depth and history to the characters, and a movie just can't set that up and get it right. Also, wow, the music of the ending was just perfect.

So, I haven't given any actual details about the show because I wouldn't want to spoil a minute for anyone. You can stream the show on Netflix, but if you want it for your own collection, it would be money well spent.

Five stars for absolutely everything.