Disney Pixar's Cars 3: Movie Review by Jonathan K

I would like to say a few words about Disney Pixar’s Cars 3.

Pixar knows how to make the feels. They draw you in with a simple story about relatable characters who you grow to care about in a short amount of time.

There I was in the theatre today, caring about an annoying yellow car, caring about her hopes and failures, hoping for her dreams and disappointments.

There I was in the theatre feeling all sorts of things about aging, relevance, belonging, priorities and friendship, while listening to a captivating score by Randy Newman. (At several times, his score reminded me of all the good parts of the Toy Story soundtracks.)

Yes, the animation is gorgeous because they pile tens of millions of dollars into it. Yes, in the back of my minds, I know Disney just wants to make me feel good so they can make more money from me (and like they need any more!).  But this is such high quality storytelling, it almost makes me forgive them for their blatant lack of respect for their fans in many a dodgy direct-to-DVD sequel and slap-dash licensed merchandise (and for ditching the Chronicles of Narnia franchise, but that’s another blog…).

This film is the best of the Cars trilogy. After the Best Picture Oscar-nominated Toy Story 3 and now this wonderful Cars 3, I am in high hopes for any future movie Pixar makes as a third instalment in a series. As a cute child said to me when I worked in a school, “I’ve seen Finding Dory, and Finding Nemo, but I haven’t seen Finding Marlin!”

If you’re reading this, John Lasseter, I will definitely pay to see Finding Marlin, should you ever discover the future classic story that you will tell about Marlin and his family.

I am aware this is a glowing review. But I could not find fault with Cars 3.

And don’t even get me started on the accompanying short, “Lou”, which I enjoyed the most out of any Pixar short since Partysaurus Rex and Day & Night. I hope you enjoy it like I do. Seriously good. Just see it.

Pixar Theory - Is Riley's Mom in Monsters University?

This would be my first addition to the growing Pixar Theory. You can check out Jon Negroni's original Pixar Theory here.

I was watching Monsters University for the first time yesterday and I noticed this character in one of the final scenes (spoiler alert!):

And I recognised this woman – it's Riley's mom from Inside Out!

Picture Source: DailyMail.co.uk

Really? You might say.

Let's see how this appearance in Monsters University fits into what we know about Riley's mom in Inside Out.

We know that Riley's family lived in Minnesota before they moved to San Fransisco during the plot of Inside Out.

We know there are some woods in Minnesota.

"We need assistance on the north side,” Riley's mom is heard as saying during this action scene during the climax of Monsters University. It turns out that there is a place in the States which includes part of Minnesota, called the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, also known as the North Woods.

Da Da Dum!!!!

This is a little clue.

It would seem that the door Sulley and Mike have gone through leads to an orphanage in the Minnesotan woods some time before Riley's family moved to San Fransisco. This makes sense because Riley's mom looks a little younger in this scene than in Inside Out.

What do you think? Is Riley's mom really this cop in Monsters University? She could have worked there sometime before the events of Inside Out. I would love to read your comments below.

Picture Source: TheDisneyBlog.com

Movie Review: Big Hero 6.

When Disney Enterprises purchased Marvel a few years ago, there was plenty of new creative material to add to Disney's production schedule. Some examples are The Avengers 2: The Age of Ultron (2015) and it's associated superhero stories. But they also now owned the rights to a whole library of comic books and graphic novels.John Lasseter saw some pitches from Disney creatives  and decided to make Big Hero 6 - an action comedy with a big heart.

Baymax and Hiro.

The creative aspects of this movie are splendidly excellent.The visual design is delightfully colorful but also classy and appealing. It has an aptly dramatic and emotionally moving score created by Henry Jackman (X-Men, First Class & Wreck-It Ralph.

This movie is well-crafted in it's writing - it is very funny. Many of the jokes are to do with the robot Baymax's unique way of thinking and saying things. Technical aspects like Baymax running out of battery power also give the audience lots of laughter.

There are grand, almost spiritual themes explored such as self-sacrifice and serving others. 

There is a theme of "the darkness within" as a character wrestles with the desire to seek vengeance on another character.  covers deep and personal themes of loss, family, friendship. 

I really enjoyed it. As a Disney movie, I found this was better than Frozen and way, way better than Wreck-It Ralph. There was fun and exciting action that adds to the story-line The movie also appeals to a slightly more mature audience than the other recent Disney films. This is due to the sophisticated story-line and more relate-able characters.

One thing I would say at this point is that it is refreshing  to see a young teenager depicted as the main character instead of a older teenager or young adult. This gives a different perspective to the story. It is also nice to see an animated Disney movie set in a modern city world, rather than a fairy-tale kingdom (Tangled, Frozen) or a fantasy Video Game world (Wreck-It Ralph. There was nothing wrong with those settings for those stories - but this dynamic is something I enjoyed with Big Hero 6.

I'm looking forward to finding out which other new stories Disney brings us - whether they be from Marvel's story bank or elsewhere. And I boldly declare it - we are definitely in a new golden age for Disney animation!

And one last thing - if you like extra scenes in the credits, then stay in the theater through the credits, and I don't think you'll be disappointed!

The Lego Movie - Movie Review

No beating around the bush, The Lego Movie is a very fun, very funny movie. I went to a screening on opening night – one of only a few times I have done so. Why rush out to see a movie like this? Because to me, The Lego Movie is one of a select group of movies that are hilarious, pure fun. It was obvious from the promotional material that this movie would be really fun – and it delivers on that promise.

The Lego Movie is about a regular guy – Emmett – who has a great adventure before him. With friends like the mysterious girl Wyldstyle and Batman, Unikitty (yes, a cat who is a unicorn) and Random 80's Lego Astronaut, the fate of the whole Lego world rests in Emmett’s plungers... I mean, plastic lego hands.

There was a new logo tacked on the front of the movie: WAG “Warner Animation Group”. It was a cool design for a logo and one I hadn't seen before. Perhaps this indicates a renewed focus on animation for Warner Bros. That would be a welcome trend, if the Lego Movie is anything to go by.

Let me go a bit deeper. There are two things I don't like about some family movies.

Case study #1: the Madagascar syndrome. These are the problems with the Madagascar movies: The humour is too crazy and too quick. I need time to think between jokes. This was the case x 1000 with the Spongebob movie which I had the burden of seeing at a school once. And the Madagascar movies are not one big story like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. They are too episodic for my liking.

Case Study #2: Kinda Happy Feet. So, Happy Feet was animated by the same studio as The Lego Movie, Aussie group Animal Logic. But I have a feeling that The Lego Movie was written in Hollywood by different people than Happy Feet. Anyway, The villains in Happy Feet were the elders of the penguin community, of whom the spokesperson was a grizzly old male penguin. The thing I didn't like was that he used religious jargon and all of it was used negatively. I didn't appreciate words I was familiar with through my faith being used in that way. That is was ruined the film for me. That and the egotistic artistry and mostly un-engaging storyline.

So I like to avoid movies I think will fall in the areas of crazy-random-empty to serious-miguided-empty. To me, The Lego Movie was fun, family friendly and hilarious! I wasn't the only audience member laughing their socks off in the theatre. I had to pick all the socks up when the lights came up :P

By Jonathan 

Movie Review: Disney's Frozen

I had the pleasure of seeing Disney’s new animated film Frozen in a Drive-In movie theatre. It was a special experience, and one I won’t forget soon.

Frozen is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. I am not familiar with this story, but my guess is that the story of Frozen is essentially an original story for the screen, and not a direct adaptation of The Snow Queen.

Elsa is a princess with special powers: she can make things frozen with her hands. But she doesn’t have full control over her powers. Her sister Anna doesn’t know about these powers, but finds herself face to face with them on the day of her engagement. Anna now goes on a journey with a new friend Kristoff to help her sister Elsa.

The main characters of Frozen.

This film was always going to get comparisons with 2010’s Tangled, Disney’s adaptation of Rapunzel. In my opinion, Frozen is a much better movie. In Tangled the presentations of the backstory felt rushed. In Frozen the introduction to the story is carefully told, not rushed at all. In fact, Frozen’s pacing is incredibly well handled. The music and animation made me feel something grand and classic was happening, right from the opening sequences.

The animation is excellent, as you would expect from a Disney animation. The music, by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez is much better than Alan Menken’s songs for Tangled, mainly in the fact that they are more singable and memorable.

The characters are well defined and appropriately lovable. And there is some great quality humour throughout the story.

Kristoff on a mission!

A concern for me in Frozen was that the ending came upon us quite quickly. And the fact that  (spoiler ahead!) the inhabitants of Arendelle call the winter that Elsa imposes “an eternal winter” just reminds me too much of the Narnia stories. Plus, it doesn’t make sense, since they have no proof that it is eternal when it’s only been for a few days!

I loved Frozen. It feels like, with Wreck It Ralph, a number of the Pixar movies and now Frozen, that we are in a new golden age of Disney animation. I can’t wait to see more from this current generation of Disney filmmakers. I can’t wait for next year’s Big Hero 6 and The Good Dinosaur.

I gave Frozen 4 stars since it was a very enjoyable movie and I want to see it again.

By Jonathan

Movie Reviews

In early 2012, I volunteered to write movie reviews for a favourite radio station's website. I have lots of fun writing them - and of course viewing the films!

This is a list of links to all my movie reviews over at Light FM's website:

The Muppets (2011)
In this, my first review, I was experimenting and working out my style.

http://lightfm.com.au/movie-reviews/movie-review-muppets

Any Questions For Ben (2012)
From the creators of "The Castle" and ""Thank God You're Here", I enjoyed seeing Melbourne on the silver screen.

http://lightfm.com.au/movie-reviews/movie-review-any-questions-ben

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)
An Academy Awards' Best Picture nominee, this film follows a family whose lives were turned upside down by the New York World Trade Centre Attacks on September 11th, 2001.

http://lightfm.com.au/movie-reviews/movie-review-extremely-loud-incredibly-close

The Amazing Spiderman (2012)
I wrote this review right after I saw the movie. I loved it so much I raced to the computer and got it down.

http://lightfm.com.au/movie-reviews/movie-review-amazing-spiderman

Finding Nemo 3D Re-release (2003, 2012)
This was the first 3D movie I reviewed. I love this movie. I got a lot more out of it as an adult than as a teenager when it came out.

http://lightfm.com.au/movie-reviews/finding-nemo-3d-movie-review


After you have read one or two reviews, please leave a comment on this page - I would love some feedback on my reviewing style.

Update: For a more recent review, this time for a music concert, click for My "Owl City Concert Review" link.