After months of seeing hits and disappointments
of untold hype, the summer movie season has finally come to a close. With
awards season right around the corner, I decided to take some time to review some
animated features I’ve had a chance to see. Many of you have probably already
read my review of Brave, but I haven’t had a chance to review any others. From
what I’ve watched, it’s looking to be a strong year for animation, and we still
have promising movies like Frankenweenie, Rise of the Guardians, and
Wreck-It-Ralph to go. Today you get a four-for-one. Enjoy!
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted:
As someone who really liked the first two
Madagascar movies, this one was just flat out stale. While not without merits,
the movie suffers from an overabundance of characters, both old and new. Some
of these characters are more entertaining than others, but it just makes it
hard to stay focused on any one of them. On top of that, the movie is rushed,
and the humor is inconsistent. King Julien, a comedic gem in the previous
movies, is played up to be such an irritating idiot. Even the penguins have grown
old. It’s still occasionally entertaining, and it looks great as always, but
this beast needs to make way for the next franchise.
**1/2/ *****
ParaNorman:
LAIKA animation follows up their gorgeous
2009 hit Coraline with ParaNorman, an affectionate mixture of John Carpenter
and John Hughes. Even though the first act was making me a little impatient,
once the ball gets rolling, it’s constantly entertaining. Led by an awesome
voice cast, the movie shines with winning humor, spooky atmospherics, and
surprising exploration of kid-specific themes. It’s not always perfect, and
maybe it could have used a little more psychological depth, but at least it
looks absolutely dazzling. Lastly, even though it’s nothing bone chilling, it’s
actually scarier than most modern horror movies.
**** / *****
The Pirates! Band of Misfits:
ARRR! The quirky scallywags of Aardman
animation be at it again! After seven years of waiting, they’ve at long last
made port with their return to stop motion. The Pirates! be a scurvy,
swashbuckling, and laugh-out-loud funny high seas adventure, with Charles
DARRRwin. Okay, I promise to stop talking like a pirate now.
I must say, even though it doesn’t have
the same originality as Chicken Run, or the same comedic bite as Wallace and
Gromit, The Pirates is a very entertaining movie. It’s easy enough to
compliment the animation, and Aardman’s signature style of slapstick, or a terrific voice cast as we’ve come to expect. All that aside, it remains a
constantly funny adventure, with only a few jokes that ever fall flat. It’s
great to have you back Aardman.
**** / *****
The Secret World of Arietty:
So far, the only animated movie I’ve seen
this year that even comes close to being as good as Brave. Based on the
award-winning book The Borrowers, and developed by Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio
Ghibli, Arietty is a gorgeous adventure. The animation is simply a masterstroke
of creativity, and the film balances Ghibli’s signature childlike innocence
amidst mature themes as masterfully as always. The English dub also features a
strong voice cast, Bridgit Mendler and Amy Poehler specifically worthy of
notice.
The most fascinating aspects of The Secret
World of Arietty are extended scenes without any dialogue, scenes that rely on
ambient sound design and visual storytelling to let the viewer take in the size
and scope of this world. There is a point where this starts to become an issue,
but such a thing is easy to forgive, and makes for one great family adventure. As
with Pixar, Studio Ghibli has been making consistently good movies that take
both the older and younger viewers of its audience seriously. That’s no small
feat to accomplish, and The Secret World of Arietty testifies once more to
Ghibli’s sparkling ingenuity.
****1/2 / *****
No comments:
Post a Comment