Screenhead

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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

You know that old philosophical argument? The one that supposes that we’re all just tiny specks comprising the atoms and molecules of some other, much larger universe?  Possibly even a much simpler one?  I once saw one version of this that postulated that we were all actually part of Ziggy’s big toe.  Yeah, the comic strip Ziggy.  Anyway, it might surprise you to know that Dr. Seuss, in his own inimitable style, actually took that ball and ran with it.  And since we were talking The Lorax yesterday, we may as well switch gears and talk Horton today, or, fairly recent release Horton Hears A Who.

In this animated movie, an elephant with more charm than good sense (and some unkind folks would substitute “good sense” for “sanity” here) one day discovers a tiny civilization living on a speck.  A speck of DUST, I believe–and he discovers it by way of his superior elephant hearing.  This civilization, known to all and sundry as Whoville   Previously they’d survived by living in a cave in which conditions were relatively static, but now their emergence into the larger world has left them at risk.  Thus it’s left to Horton to find them a new, similar cave-like environment.

Sure, this story only makes sense to small children and the clinically insane (where does Whoville get all the minerals it so clearly needs to build all that crap they’ve got in town?  The Whoville Iron Mines? Located on the speck of dust?) but once you work around the utter impossibility of it all, you’re left with a charming, raucously comic tale.  Even better, you’ve got great voice acting in the form of Jim Carrey and Seth Rogen, among others, plus some commentaries on the nature of faith in existence.  Just because you can’t see it doesn’t necessarily follow that it isn’t there.

The Screenhead Ten Scale rewards the stalwart pachyderm with a seven out of ten.  This plot couldn’t be much more far-fetched, but it will be entertaining.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I admit that I didn’t have a whole lot of hope going in to The Tale of Despereaux, a strange little fairy tale involving mice that were entirely too brave for their own good, and royalty whose headgear featured spoons in mass quantities, and needles used as swords.

And yet, when I settled in to watch it, and watched this impressive little animated story that was almost nominated for an Oscar unfold, I was just amazed by it, especially by how it managed to keep so many disparate plot threads straight at once.

What do I mean, you wonder?  Simple—there’s a LOT going on in this plot, and it truly is a wonder how they managed to keep it all together.  For instance, a rat manages to inadvertently kill the queen of the land of Dor, a land whose specialty is soup.  Dorians love soup.  It’s their primary industry, conversation topic, commercial product AND art form.  Their royalty has soup spoons featured prominently in their crowns.  Anyway, as a result of this accidental death, the king of Dor declares both soup AND rats to be illegal, as he blames both for killing his wife.  The land goes gray and bleak, and enters a multiple-year drought.  Meanwhile, the mice, whose primary export, import, ideology and entire way of life appears to revolve around fear, are hiding out in the walls, as is normal for mice.  One mouse, Despereaux, isn’t satisfied with this life, and is thus thrown out of the mouse world to live with the rats.  And thus, a quest is born for both Despereaux and the rat that accidentally killed a queen.

There’s actually more to the plot than this—doing a complete synopsis would actually take a lot more room, because like I said, there’s a LOT going on in here.  And at first, it will actually seem like they’re jumping around from plot point to plot point with little or no regard for coherence.  It’ll seem like that because that’s exactly what they’re doing, but it won’t take long for the whole thing to coalesce into a greater whole.  It’s almost like watching a loom or something, where all these threads come together while you watch, and out the other side pops this greater whole.  How does this happen?  I’m not sure.  But I’m sure that I like it, and that’s strange enough.

There’s plenty of great voice acting in here—both Christopher Lloyd and William H. Macy show up in this, and on my own personal scale, that makes this a movie on par with Mongolian barbecue and Harry Turtledove novels.  It’s just that awesome.  And the graphics are plenty pretty in their own way; sure, it’s not like these are realistic portrayals of mice and rats and such, but if mice and rats and such ever built their own civilizations, they would probably look a lot like this.

For the kids out there, they are going to absolutely love this.  But this isn’t just a movie for kids, no sir—this one’s a movie that just about everybody can get a piece of.  Doesn’t really matter if you’re young or old, innocent or jaded, lover of fairy tales or raging horror-movie buff, you will find something to like about this movie.  The Tale of Despereaux will keep you riveted until its fairly predictable but still rather heartwarming end.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The documentary makers Patrick Creadon and Christine O’Malley plan to write, direct and produce a one-hour documentary about “SpongeBob SquarePants” creation as a top-rated animated program for more than seven straight years while the cartoon series hits it 10 year mark on the air.

Nickelodeon executives took the first official trip to Sundance in the networks 30-year history to announce the documentary. They also staged a cast reading in Park City on Sunday with the show’s voice talent

Popularity: 1% [?]

John Boorman, known for directing Deliverance, Point Blank, Hope and Glory and The General, is attached to direct the $25 million, CG-animated movie The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Based on L. Frank Baum’s original novel the movie will be Boorman’s first cartoon movie.

The story is written by Boorman, Ron Mita and Jim McClain (Robots) and is set for summer 2010 delivery.

Unlike MGM’s classic the movie is not a musical, but maintains the main characters and setting.

This is quite a change in genre for Boorman. I am sure he will create a great movie.

Popularity: 1% [?]