The Great Mouse Detective

The Great Mouse Detective is an oft overlooked Disney classic.  Hailing from 1986, The film is based on the Basil of Baker Street book series by Eve Titus and is a reimagining of the story of Sherlock Homes with mice as the protagonists.  The title character, Basil (Barrie Inghamn), lives in the basement of the infamous Baker Street address and shares many similarities with the great detective that lives above him.

Our story begins with a sweet scene between Susanne Pollatschek in her one and only role as young Olivia Flaversham, and Olivia's toymaker father, Hiram.  Hiram is played by the great voice actor Alan Young who possibly is most recognized as the voice of Scrooge McDuck.  The touching moment quickly turns frightening as Hiram is violently kidnapped by a peg-legged bat - the delightfully neurotic Fidget (Candy Candido).  Leaving to seek the help of Basil in finding her father, Olivia ends up lost in London until she is found by Dr. Dawson (Val Bettin).  Together they locate the great mouse detective.  And thus begins a madcap adventure which leads them against flamboyant evil genius, Ratigan, voiced by the late great Vincent Price in his all time favorite villain role.

Despite being a G rated, animated Disney film starring mice, this is a surprisingly intelligent, witty, well executed piece of cinematography that is far more mature than most kid flicks today.  I was surprised to see the G rating - You would be hard pressed to get a G rating for a film that includes alcohol, smoking, violent death, and even overt sexuality.  Not to mention what would be labeled as "frightening imagery and scenes of peril."  Make no mistake, these knives are sharp and the tiny guns shoot real bullets.  This is also, for the most part, not a musical, making it stand even further apart from it's Disney kin.

Barrie Inghamn produces a performance of wild eccentric genius that would give Robert Downey Jr. a run for his money in his portrayal of the timeless hero.  The escape scene is pure genius and reminds me a bit of Action Man's talent of seeing all mathematical possibilities at once.  The real treat, however, is the final fight sequence, showcasing the first extended use of computer generated imagery - by which I mean a computer controlled a robotic hand to draw the sequence.  Despite the primitive start, it is executed beautifully and the animation still holds it's own against today's animated films.

If you haven't reached the point where you feel a G rated cartoon is beneath you - and I pray you never get to that point - this is an excellent throwback to a time before the shclock shoved to kids these days.

***** (5/5 stars)

My Sister's Keeper

This is not a happy movie.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  My Sister's Keeper is based on Jodi Picoult's book by the same name and stars Abigail Breslin, and Sofia Vassilieva as sisters Anna and Kate, respectively.  Kate has spent her life ravaged by cancer and Anna was conceived specifically so that Kate would have a compatible donor for stem cells, bone marrow and, eventually, a kidney.  After a bit of introduction, the story opens up with Anna going to slightly sleazy, but caring, lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) for medical emancipation so that she can have control over what happens to her own body.

Through a series of memoiristic flashbacks we see how Kate's illness has had a profound effect on all those around her.  Eventually the present time story ends up in court as Sara (Diaz) makes her case to Judge De Salvo (Joan Cusack) that one daughter's needs outweigh the personal desires of another.

This movie offers a fascinating concept that is ripe for moral, ethical, political, and ecumenical examination.  Where is one to draw the line when it comes to one person's rights versus another's needs?  My Sister's Keeper sadly doesn't delve quite as deeply into these mysteries as I would have liked as it takes something of a left plot turn near the end, but it is interesting nonetheless.

This is a tearjerker to be sure, and a pretty good one at that.  The only complaint I have is that the ending was a little weak compared to much of the rest of the film.  The ending I thought I saw coming would have been more powerful, though a bit more disturbing.  Non-perfect ending aside, this was a thoughtful, emotional, realistic, and very well done film that demands being watched in close company.

**** (4/5 stars)

Bruce Almighty

I had seen this movie multiple times, or so I had thought, but it wasn't until I popped it into the DVD player this weekend and was presented with a beginning I had no recollection of that I realized that somehow I had managed to never see the entire thing.  So it was an unexpected treat to finally see this near masterpiece in it's entirety.

When I first saw the trailer for a comedy about Morgan Freeman as God giving Jim Carrey his power, a few words came to mind - sacrilegious, stupid, raunchy, irreverent, etc.  I expected something along the lines of The Mask, but with religion taking the blunt of Carrey's often crude style.  I was wrong.

Bruce Almighty tells the story of Bruce Nolan (Carrey), a hard working news reporter who tries to be a decent person and do the right thing.  Despite this, he seems to constantly get the short end of the stick.  When that stick finally breaks, so does Bruce, taking it all out on both his girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Aniston) and God, claiming that the big guy either doesn't know what he's doing up there or he's like a kid with a magnifying glass, having fun with the inhabitants of an ant hill.  Much to his surprise, God answers him in person, offering Bruce his job to see if he could do any better.

There are the predictable antics that Jim Carrey is so known for as he has a little bit too much fun with his new found power, but it never delves into idiotic - unless you count the monkey.  He rights a couple wrongs, plays with his food, gives Grace the night of her life, and serves sweet justice to his arch nemesis Evan Baxter (Steve Carell).  Being a generous, as well as lazy, deity, he offers a sweeping "yes" to all the prayers that had been piling up.  It doesn't take long for him to realize that there are consequences to his actions as his life spirals out of control.

The film never crosses the line in either direction, being neither preachy nor heretical.  It makes some some surprisingly lucid observations and offers a positive, yet neutral, message.  The overall moral of the story is something along the lines of just because you're not getting the answers you want doesn't mean God isn't listening, and don't blame him for shortcomings that you are perfectly capable of working on yourself.  And don't forget the whole free will thing.  On the shallow end of the pool it's a charmingly funny comedy with enough Jim Carrey to satisfy any fan, and on the other end it's a nice spring board into something deeper.

Despite receiving negative critical opinion, I add this film to the must see list.  It was labeled as wasted potential, but I praise it for showing restraint and becoming a little bit more than just a comedy.  As Bruce and the Big Guy would say - "It's goood!"

***** (5/5 stars)

Ponyo

Ponyo - or Gake no Ue no Ponyo - is Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated feature.  It isn't his greatest, but it is without a doubt his cutest.  To be fair, I haven't seen his other G rated endeavor, My Neighbor Totoro, but to think that it could be cuter than the story of a magical human faced goldfish from the ocean falling in love with a little boy and turning herself into a human even though it throws out the balance of nature is preposterous.  By the way, Ponyo is also one of the least strange of Miyazaki's films that I have seen.  If this was the first exposure someone had to this king of anime, that may seem an odd statement since it truly is one strange cookie, but trust me, Ponyo is really rather tame.

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli have something of a legendary reputation and the English versions of their films are given the royal treatment with all star actors and distribution by Disney.  The English direction of Ponyo was even handled by Pixar's John Lasseter and even enjoyed a (unfortunately limited) run in American theatres.

I am often pained to watch dubbed Japanese films because of the lack of quality the voice actors possess, but it was a joy to watch with the voice talent of Cate Blanchet, Noah Lindsey Cyrus (Miley's younger sister), Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Frankie Jonas (yes there is another one of them), Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White.  An odd sounding ensemble to be sure, but it works.

Ponyo was, according to Miyazaki, inspired by the story of the Little Mermaid, but it is nowhere near to being a straightforward adaptation, or even a loose imitation.  Ponyo (Cyrus) is the oldest (presumably) daughter of Fujimoto (Neeson) who was once an ordinary man but now lives under the water in a bubblepunk submarine as caretaker of the sea.  Her mother is the goddess Gran Mamare (Blanchett).  She's an adventurous one and can't be tied down.  This attitude soon finds her stuck in a discarded bottle and washed up on shore where she is rescued by young Sosuke (Jonas).  After tasting human blood and ham, she forms an inseparable bond with Sosuke.  Once back in the keep of her father she once again runs off, this time with extra magic as she sprouts chicken feet and becomes a little girl that still kind of looks like a goldfish.  I can't make this stuff up.

The most creative predictable director I can think of, Miyazaki holds true to his elements of "humans do bad things to nature, balance is upset, and everyone is sad."  These themes are nowhere near as strong in this film though as in many of his others, being more implicit than explicitly preached.  The ending, too, is much happier and G rated than something like Princess Mononoke.

Despite being different than some of Miyazaki's other films, and being so odd, it all works and it's amazingly easy to follow.  I dare even the most hardened guy not to be touched by Cyrus's ultra cute portrayal of the fish who fell in love with a boy.

Despite the obvious advantage of the medium - visuals are often thrown to the side in animated films.  Miyazaki usually doesn't fall into that category and Ponyo is no exception.  Water becomes alive like you've never seen before as it is both solid and liquid in a simultaneous gentle power that is terrifying and lovely.  Despite being a somewhat short movie, the characters are remarkably realized for the short time they're given on screen and deal with more complex issues than you would normally find in a kid's flick.

If you haven't been introduced to the refreshing alternative Japanese animated features offer, Ponyo is a relatively painless way to dive in and is worth the watch either way.

**** (4/5 stars)

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

The marriage of Lewis Carrol's seemingly drug induced trip through Wonderland and Tim Burton's delightfully twisted style seemed to be a match made in Heaven.  Sadly, the honeymoon is over before getting to the good stuff.

Alice in Wonderland introduces Mia Wasikowska as the title character and features Burton regulars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, respectively.  It also stars the massive talent montage of Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas, Michael Sheen, Stephen Fry, and Christopher Lee.  It's like Valentine's Day, but with more weird people.

Alice in Wonderland is a somewhat deceptive title.  It would be more appropriately title "Jabberwock," in the same way the revisit to Never Never Land was called "Hook," because that is what this movie is - a revisit to Wonderland or "Underland."  Alice is all grown up now, though plagued with disturbing dreams of a place where the animals speak and she is never the proper size.  In the real world she is faced with something even more disturbing - getting married.  To a bloke who looks like he could have been cast as a talking animal back in the days of furry costumes and makeup.  He probably would have played a pig.  Not sure what to do when her hand is asked for, Alice does the logical thing and runs away from the situation, predictably falling down a psychedelic hole in the process.

Despite being a sequel of sorts with a plot all its own, the following events feel very familiar.  Alice falls down the hole, finds a door, deals with a Zelda worthy puzzle of growing and shrinking to manage to get ahold of the key while being the right size for the door.  She meets the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar asks her who she is, and she goes to a mad tea party per the directions of a floaty cat.  Each of these elements, however, has been plucked out, given the Tim Burton spiralized treatment, and then plopped back into place, interspersed with a new plot based on an odd interpretation of the poem Jabberwocky.  I'm pretty sure "Frabjous" means fantastically joyous, not the title of some divine day, but ok, we'll roll with it.

Underland is in trouble what with the Red Queen chopping everyone's head and letting loose such creatures as the Bandersnatch and Jub Jub Bird to destroy and strike fear.  And of course Alice has been brought back to save them all - though other than being a destiny fulfiller, her specialness is never really given a reason.

Perhaps the most hyped is Johnny Depp's portrayal of the Mad Hatter.  It is more palatable, though more confusing, than his last Burtonized children's character Willy Wonka.  He seems to have three personalities - a meek mad man, a rough and tough slightly saner person, and Jack Sparrow with an Irish brogue.  Not to mention the flashback version of himself where he is a red headed Weird Al.

The plot, most of the time, feels either half baked or over done, relying too much on the original story and never really getting into the meat of the new one.  There are some innovative aspects to it that do feel both Burton and Carrol while being fresh at the same time, but those are fewer than I would have liked.  The truly bizarreness that such a potentially disturbing story and a twisted director should have created never materialize.  I blame Disney for that - taking something which should have given us the best kind of nightmares and making it into a kid's movie.  Some of that disturbingness does creep through from time to time in the form of such things as skewered eyes and disembodied stepping stones but then you have replaced eyes and Bandersnatches that really just want to be loved.

All of the actors do an admirable job, but I would have liked to see much more of, well, all of them.  The movie is just too dang short to develop any character beyond a few moments.  Christopher Lee felt wasted with the two lines he had as the Jabberwock.  I did fall in love with Matt Lucas as the two Tweedles and would have loved for them to play a more important part in the story.

The visuals were wonderful, if nothing new from Burton.  It was clear he put a lot of thought into the look of everything - perhaps to a fault as the visuals were grander than the story in most instances.  I did not see this in 3D partly because I was underwhelmed by the 3D trailer and partly because after Avatar it will be a while before any 3D film doesn't underwhelm.

The music too, though very nice, was Danny Elfman does Tim Burton, and in some cases sounded exactly like the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory score.

I enjoyed this film a good amount for a good amount of reasons, but just because I liked it doesn't mean I can't be critical of its many shortcomings if only because I know the end result could have been simply frabjous instead of just semi-brillig.

*** (3/5 stars)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I watched this one purely out of morbid curiosity.  As a Star Wars fan it seemed that I should see this latest entry into the franchise, if only to know how bad it really is.  I had low expectations, but I was wrong.  They should have been lower.

The (strangely) animated film is nearly devoid of any original actors, featuring only the brief voice work of Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson who apparently had nothing better to do for a day.  The rest of the cast was made up of people I had never heard of - which wasn't entirely a bad thing since that meant that I didn't have to listen to Hayden Christensen whine throughout the whole thing, and whoever was imitating Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan did a dang fine job.

The whole plot involves strangely wise and heroic - not to mention gravity defying - Anakin Skywalker and his spunky little padawan Ahsoka on a mission to rescue Jabba the Hutt's baby son which, surprise surprise, was a trap set by Dooku (Lee).  Ahsoka and "Sky Guy," as she calls him, bond, learn a lesson, and save the day.  On a side note, we're introduced to Jabba's gay uncle, Ziro.  Yes.

I realize that the whole point of this movie was to introduce a new, much younger, generation to the world of Star Wars and that this and the subsequent television series are probably the first exposure to Star Wars most kids these days have.  That is no excuse, however, for George Lucas to create this steaming pile that falls well below the intelligence of most children's shows today - and that is saying something.  The music too, failed to be anything close to "Star Warsy" except for the opening title and end credits - and even then it was like an upbeat pop version of John Williams.

Kids will probably like it, what with heroic lightsaber battles that never really seem to have a point since you know none of the main characters will die before Revenge of the Sith and the predictable one liners like "Great.  Rolling death balls," or "The medicine, it's working. His fever broke. I think he's going to live to stink another day."  The language is updated for the audience too with phrases like "The shield is putting a crimp in my day."  Because Obi Wan would say something like that.  Kids would probably like driving on a sidewalk too - doesn't mean it's a good thing.

I could go on, but when an hour and thirty minutes of the 1:38 movie are worthy of being brought to the chopping block - well, I don't want to spend any more time on this movie than I already have.

* (1/5 stars)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs falls under the category of beloved children's classic picture book turned into a full length feature film.  This is often a bad idea.  Thankfully this is not the case with this one.  The stellar cast is reminiscent of an episode of SNL.  Led by Bill Hader and Anna Faris, the voice talents include Mr. T, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg, Will Forte, Neil Patrick Harris, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker and more.

The 1978 book, by Judi Barrett, tells of the town Chewandswallow, whose weather is highly unusual - raining things like soup and juice and snowing mashed potatoes.  One day the weather changed - the food grew into dangerous sizes, forcing the town to evacuate.  The movie faithfully takes that premise and expands upon it, giving the weather an origin and reason, introducing us to inventor Flint Lockwood (Hader) who reminds me of Dexter from Cartoon Network.  Flint, in a bid to save the town of (then) Swallow Falls, develops a machine that turns water into food but accidentally launches it into the stratosphere.  Eager weather woman Sam Sparks (Farris) just happens to be on the scene, and the rest is history.  Following the story line of the book almost exactly - as exactly as an hour of a film can follow a 30 page picture book - the weather predictably gets out of hand.  In the meantime, Sam strikes some sparks with Flint - excellent pun intended.

It's after the first hour or so that the film really takes a turn from the source material as ending the story with evacuation would be too much of a letdown given the way the film had been going to that point, so a bizarre plan is launched and the weirdness hill just gets slipperier from that point on.  Kung Fu roasted chickens anyone?

This movie, despite being based on a simple book, and seeming doomed to fail by virtue of taking a beloved short story and turning it into a full blown movie with an actual plot, is wonderfully witty, and creatively clever.  I don't often laugh out loud at movies, but there was something about this "kid's movie" that had me lawling, as some would say.  I'm not sure what exactly it was, but something about this movie just clicked..  From the way Flint self narrates his actions including "saying what I'm doing" to the painfully true representation of how the older generation views computers, every element worked to make this a genuinely funny experience.  My expectations going in were mediocre and most of my hope was based on the fact that the cast sounded interesting.  Coming out, I can say truthfully that Pixar is not the only animation studio out there worthy of five stars.

***** (5/5 stars)