Screenhead

A new trailer for Illumination Entertainment’s 3-D CGI Feature Despicable Me has just debuted online!   

The new Despicable Me trailer doesn’t reveal much about the movie, but it’s worth watching for enjoyment.  The movie includes a wonderful cast including Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Danny McBride, Miranda Cosgrove, Jack McBrayer, Mindy Kaling, Jemaine Clement and Julie Andrews.    

Movie will be in theaters July 9, 2010!

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn.  Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout.  Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world.  He is going to steal the moon. 

Gru delights in all things wicked.  Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way.  Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. 

The world’s (second) greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. 

You know what…the trailer doesn’t show any of this story. You can see it at Apple.

A Christmas Carol is taking shape nicely.  I am impressed with the second trailer offering more information about the film and insight into the making of the film. The animation looks awesome with even more detailed work in the background.

Cute movie, but I am having a hard time understanding the central point of the story. Okay, an inventor succeeds in creating food from clouds.  Perhaps, I should read the book.

It’s been a bad, bad day for me so far, folks–the kind of day that’s got me about one more catastrophe away from throwing up my hands and retreating to Olive Garden for the rest of the afternoon.

My newest problem is the release of a poster over at PVC Blue, a promotional one-sheet for the upcoming Smurfs movie.  Yeah, you read that right–UPCOMING. SMURFS. MOVIE.  And by the looks of it, this strange little wonder will be in theatres just in time for Christmas of 2010.

I don’t know what to say, really I don’t.  Granted, one of my earliest movie memories is going to see The Smurfs and the Magic Flute with my folks when I was like four or something, but come on…do we REALLY need the Smurfs back in action?  That’s so very…not smurfy.  If it were any less smurfy they’d have to invent a whole new classification of nonsmurfiness to adequately classify it.

It would require the existence of Nega-Smurfs.  They’re all bright red.

Of course, it could pick up, assuming that maybe Gargamel gets some actual powers for a change and maybe for once poses a genuine THREAT to the little blue folk…but chances are that won’t happen anyway.

Ah well…a former Smurf watcher can dream about them maturing too, can’t he?

So after seeing–and enjoying!–the trailers for Despicable Me, it’s interesting to see that another supervillain-centrated cartoon will be hitting theatres.

After catching my colleague Kenna’s take on the whole thing, I had to throw in my own two cents–this is just bizarre.  Really, bizarre.  Took about two minutes to scrape my jaw off the floor after THAT little chunk of news hit.  I mean, in what universe do you replace   ROBERT DOWNEY JR. with Will Ferrell?  Isn’t this like replacing A-Rod with Charlie Brown?

And, even on the off chance you’re going to try and replace Robert Downey Jr. with ANYONE, why Will Ferrell?  I can think of a hundred better candidates off the top of my head! Seriously–couldn’t Stiller call in some help from his Mystery Man days?  Surely William H. Macy could’ve handled the job.  After playing The Shoveler, I can’t see how he couldn’t get Metro Man down.  Dan Castellaneta’s Blue Raja comes easily to mind, and even Paul Reubens’ The Spleen could’ve probably done a better job than Will Ferrell.

Will this incredibly brave–or incredibly stupid–move pay off?  We’ll have to wait to see–this is slated for a November 2010 release.

So pretty much every Neil Gaiman fan on the face of the earth was looking forward to this one, even if all he had to do with it was writing the original novel on which Coraline was based.

This one is all about the little girl who’s been named in the title–Coraline.  Coraline’s got two very busy parents, and as so often happens, usually without intent, Coraline grows to feel ignored by her parents, who are, as most parents know, constantly neck-deep in work.  Thus, when Coraline finds a door to another universe located in her own house, she’s pretty eager to plunge into it.  The universe she finds is a lot like our own, only much, much better, with lots of excitement and interesting things happening and people who are actually happy to see her, or at least more inclined to act like it.  But as is generally the case with anything Neil Gaiman comes in contact with, just because it looks like a fantastic netherworld into the depths of a greater universe than our own, doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t actually containing some really nasty unnamed–or possibly unnamable–horrors.

The absolute unsettling beauty of this movie is just amazing.  The figures are all realistic, but without trending toward that “uncanny valley” tendency that would elevate this from unsettling to creepy. The background music is even better, alternating between the soft and gentle to the upbeat and jazzy, with occasional forays into the dark and foreboding.  I don’t ordinarily comment on a movie’s soundtrack, but when it’s as perfect as this one is, it requires some special attention.

Even better, the backgrounds they’re set in are perfect for each character.  Seems like everybody in this movie is insane for any of a variety of reasons, with only the possible exception of our heroine Coraline.  And frankly, the fact that she’s the only one experiencing this “other world” casts serious doubt on the whole thing.

A special note–even the Michigan lore aspect of Coraline is quite real.  When Coraline’s friends refer to her as a “troll” and a “loper”, those are both ACCURATE names.  A “troll” in Michigan is a person who comes from below the Mackinac Bridge, or the LOwer PEninsula, which explains “loper”

The thing that you really need to be aware of with Coraline is that, despite the fact that it’s rated PG, it’s really quite a bit too dark for the younger set.  Seriously–I wouldn’t let anyone under the age of at LEAST eight watch this movie without severe threat of nightmares.  But past that point, you’re likely in for a really rousing family adventure with lots of fun and some amazing sights.  I’m actually really pleased at how this turned out.  It’s got plenty of thrills and a little action packed into this clearly family fare.

Granted, it’s not one for the littler kids, but anyone from probably about eight on up (and don’t think that this is just for kids, either–it’s a solid story with lots of good surprises packed into it and some absolutely beautiful visuals.  Coraline pulls down a full nine out of ten on the Screenhead Ten Scale, mostly because it misses its target market by just a little bit, and not everyone in its upper audience is going to enjoy a–let’s face it–cartoon.  But still, for those willing to try, Coraline will be a fantastic adventure, in every sense.

After watching Planet 51 Trailer #2 compared to the first one, which was lifeless and uninviting, I can clearly say I love this movie. It looks like fun, something that the kids or the whole family can go to this holiday season.

Planet 51 is an adventure comedy rotating around American astronaut Captain Charles Chuck Baker, who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first person to step foot on it. To his surprise, he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world reminiscent of a cheerfully innocent 1950s America, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders like Chuck! 

With the help of his robot companion Rover and his new friend Lem, Chuck must navigate his way through the dazzling, but bewildering, landscape of Planet 51 in order to escape becoming a permanent part of the Planet 51 Alien Invaders Space Museum.

Voiced by Academy Award nominee John C. Reilly, 5 is a caring, nuturing engineer – the loyal, big-hearted “common man” who always tries to play the peacemaker. He is also an apprentice of 2, with whom he shares a special bond. 

When 9 (Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others, stitchpunks, like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 provides evidence to the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

There’s one thing you can always say for a Pixar movie.  It WILL be a box office smash.  Seriously—considering the performance of like the last eight, about the only way a Pixar movie won’t have an eight-figure opening weekend is in the event of a nationwide power outage.  Though I admit, going into this one I was a bit concerned about a possible new direction as set by the previous Pixar smash, Wall-E.

So what was new release Up going to be?  An action smash comedy in the vein of its earlier hits?  Or would I get yet another preachy monstrosity this time exhorting me to honor the elderly and be a friend to the environment (like Wall-E) and maybe even get plenty of exercise (again like Wall-E).

The answer, I’m happy to announce that the answer is the FIRST one—action smash comedy uber alles, baby.

This time around, we join Carl Frederickson, a quiet young man who falls in love with Ellie, a young firebrand dedicated to the pursuit of adventure, both of which share a common love of the tales of industrialist adventurer Charles Muntz. They marry, to Ellie’s family’s intense shotgun-firing joy and Carl’s family’s…moderate interest.  The two grow old together, sharing a common dream of one day moving the abandoned house in which they met (which they subsequently bought, fixed up, and lived in) to Paradise Falls in the same fashion as their hero Muntz.  Fast forward to the future, Carl, now a widower, finds himself in a position to realize his and his late wife’s dream…but it won’t be anywhere near as simple as he imagines.

This begins a tale of adventure and laughs that’ll easily rank Up among Pixar’s best.

That’s the tough thing about writing about Pixar movies.  You go into them expecting them to be good.  Pixar movies are like pizza—even when they’re bad (A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, I’m looking at you) they’re still pretty good.  You wind up saying much the same things about each: they look spectacular, they sound great, the voice acting is top-notch and even the plots are generally at the very least solid.  Not because you can’t think of anything else to say, mind you, but because it’s true.  Pixar movies are a standard of quality all their own.

That having been said, for a Pixar movie to distinguish itself it must do something unusual.  For instance, my current personal favorite, The Incredibles, went above and beyond in the action department.  It still brought the funny, of course, but it was an action movie unlike anything else.  Up, meanwhile, will distinguish itself too…in comedy.

I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much at a movie, even at a Pixar movie.  The fact that I can laugh this much at a movie means they’ve got a superabundance of fresh, unique jokes that can’t help but provoke laughs.  In much the same way as The Incredibles, sure, Up brought the action, but it was a comedy movie unlike anything else.  Truly, this was a movie to love, and now leaves me with an unsettling question as to just which is my FAVORITE Pixar movie.

In summary, folks…you need to see this movie.  It’s too good to miss.  There are too many laughs and too much action and too many carefully tugged heartstrings and too much sheer fun to avoid this.

Up is one movie that provides EXACTLY what it says on the box.  It is happy in a box.  It is a mood elevator like no other, and a downright chronic Up.

How much is the meaning of life? Technically it can cost anything. And perhaps for this stop motion animated feature, it all costs $9.99. Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret, and adapted for the screen by Etgar Keret and Director Tatia Rosenthal, $9.99 is a stop motion animated feature which offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life.

This is the ad that alters the life of the unemployed 28 year old who still lives at home, Dave Peck. In his struggle to share his find with the world, Dave¡¦s surreal path crosses with those of his unusual neighbours: an old man and his disgruntled guardian angel, a magician in debt, a bewitching woman who likes her men extra smooth, a broken hearted man who befriends a group of hard partying two inch tall students, and a little boy who sets his piggy bank free. Their stories are woven together, examining the post-modern meaning of hope.