What would happen if the humans left Earth and left the robots on to clean up? And if one robot out lived all the others? Would he have a personality? Would he have learned to love? Would he have an amazing tale of his survival?...
700 hundred years after man has left Earth, on what was originally supposed to be a five year trip, one robot is left working. The humans of Earth left because they polluted the world too much and then they created robots to clean up after them. After these 700 years only one is left in existence and still working away at the clean up. His name is WALL-E and that stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class. This WALL-E goes around the Earth compacting garbage into little cubes and then using the cubes as building blocks for huge building type structures. The Earth is overrun by garbage mostly from the Buy ‘N Large Company. WALL-E loves to collect things and even watches a videotape of an old romantic musical every night. One day WALL-E sees a spaceship land and out from it comes this other robot; EVE, who was sent to Earth to scan for any life forms in order to find out if Earth has come back to a life sustaining level. EVE and WALL-E meet and he falls in love with her. To show EVE his love he gives her a plant that he found and this triggers her programming to kick in and sends a signal back to the spaceship. After days of waiting, the spaceship appears and takes EVE away with WALL-E hanging onto the outside of the ship. This ship takes them to the Axiom, which is an interstellar cruise ship that has all the remaining humans on it. Due to the 700 years of being served by robots, the humans have turned fat and lazy and dependent upon these robots for survival. WALL-E follows EVE around the ship, up to the Captain (Garlin) to inform him of their findings. The ship’s computer tells them to put the plant into a specific plant dock so the ship can properly calculate the coordinates of Earth and take them home. However, the autopilot robot knows that they cannot go back to Earth because it is too polluted. WALL-E and EVE uncover the plot and go through a series of problems before they inform the whole ship, get the plant where it needs to be, and return everyone to Earth to save the day and restart human civilization. Through saving the human race WALL-E continues to fall for EVE, while she eventually learns of his love and returns the feelings, and they all live electronically ever after.
Wow!!! WALL-E was out of this world!! There has never been a movie that is more right up my alley. It has robots, space, is science fiction, and to top it off; it is animated. This movie, to put it simply, is amazing. I do not think I have seen a better animated feature film, and believe me, I have seen at least five times as many as the average Joe. I will tell you now that if you do not see this movie in theaters then you will regret it the rest of your life. The reasons for that being that the sound of this movie is a miraculous thing to behold and then the look of computer animated outer space on the big screen is just as stunning as the photographs we see in the papers.
To start things off; the look was amazing and very well thought out. Seeing the Earth over run with garbage and having no one on it was pretty cool. It certainly gave it a space type feeling. Speaking of space; that was another incredibly designed thing in this movie. You see satellites surrounding Earth, stars, belts, all sorts of awesome cosmic bodies. The look they gave to outer space really gave it the lonely feel that it requires to help with the story of the film. The Axiom, the spaceship, was well designed too. It looked reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise and looked very futuristic inside. Everything was clean and holographic. They even designed the humans’ lifestyles to be futuristic. They had lunch in a cup!! There were floating chairs, holographic screens in your face, color changing clothing and the list continues on. Even all the robots and machines on the ship were well designed to meet specific directives.
All the robots in this picture have intelligent design behind them. There is a massage robot with big arms, a paint robot that has a big extending brush, an umbrella robot, and even a little robot with a bristle brush that follows WALL-E and cleans. EVE’s design is particularly important since she is meant to complement WALL-E. Since WALL-E is blocky, angular, and rusted; EVE is round, clean, new, and sleek. As a matter of fact all the robots were made to look brand new so that WALL-E could stand out more, and he did. WALL-E is a different breed of robot, and that is for sure. Granted, yes, he has similar looks to Johnny 5 of Short Circuit, however, they couldn’t be further apart. WALL-E is smaller, not animatronic, can move his eyes separately, is more mobile, and has a lot more character. The way the PIXAR animators figured out how to give WALL-E character through his motions was by going back and studying PIXAR’s first short Luxo Jr. John Lasseter made an animated short about a lamp when PIXAR first started. The lamp has springs and can only stretch to certain lengths, but Lasseter figured out how to convey emotion and character through static objects. Most of WALL-E’s emotions are shown through his teardrop shaped eyes and by his movements. How WALL-E uses what he was built with is what truly gives him life. A normal WALL-E robot would probably use their parts for their normal directives alone and not for personality functions, but WALL-E did and that is what made him so cute and amazing.
There really is so much to be said about this movie, but I do not want to spoil things for you since I am such a fan of the movie. There are a few inside PIXAR jokes in the movie, as usual. One is A113 appears a few times in the movie and A113 was the room in which animation was taught at Cal Arts when Lasseter was there. A Luxo lamp appears in a garbage block that WALL-E makes. There was a Billy Bass that appears and sings Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy, and he did the music to the PIXAR short Knick Knack. To top things of the Captain tells people they can grow a pizza plant which sounds very similar to pizza planet. This movie really had a lot to offer to people of all ages; adult and childish humor, a story that will steal your heart and an unbelievable amount of cool characters. Even the short Presto that preceded WALL-E was just as amazing as the movie and even more so in the realm of cartoony-ness. WALL-E was by and large a stunning film and you will regret if you miss it in theaters. So put on your Sunday clothes and go see what WALL-E has to offer you. See it glisten, Barnaby!
And that is all!
Run time: 103 mins.
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Written by: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Ben Burtt, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Najimy, John Ratzenberger, and Elissa Knight.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Ratatouille 2007
Usually when you think rats you think; gross, and it gets worse when you think of rats in a kitchen. Well PIXAR sheds new light on the thought of a rodent infested culinary laboratory.
When a young aspiring rat gets separated from his family he finds himself in the sewers under Paris. This rat, Remy (Oswalt), then takes advantage of the greatest culinary city in the world by exploring. He eventually gets caught in a kitchen and through a weird happening befriends a human named Linguini. Linguini knows that Remy can cook and Remy wants to take advantage of the fact the Linguini is human and welcome into the kitchen. They eventually work out a strange partnership where Remy sits on Linguini’s head and tugs at his hair to control him. This ends up working so well that they become the best chef in Paris and have all sorts of critics knocking at the restaurant’s door. One critic in particular had tried to shut down the restaurant years prior and has now returned for another try. Ego, the critic, ends up being incredibly surprised and please by the food he tasted, and waits to meet the chef. Ego is fine with the fact that his food was cooked by rats; however, the health inspector and former head chef had been at the restaurant that night and get it closed down due to health code violations. Nonetheless Remy and Linguini open a new restaurant with Ego as the primary investor and they all live on in happiness through culinary bliss.
To be able to cook is a difficult task, but to be able to cook well and be creative in the kitchen takes talent. On the surface this movie is about food & cooking, but when you read between the lines you find out that it is about following your dreams no matter how farfetched. Take a rat that wants to cook good food in a professional kitchen for example; that is pretty out there to me. To follow your dreams and accept all of the consequences that follow is a truly brave and admirable thing. The story of this film can even be thought of as a “coming out” story because Remy reveals who he truly is inside to the ones he loves. At first he is afraid of their judgment but soon realizes that he should be proud of who he is and stand up for what he believes in, and that is the true message of the movie.
What made this very creative and subliminal lesson easy to take in were the look, style, and entire feel of the film. The movie, having been set in Paris; one of the most well known cities for its culinary expertise, gave the look for the need to cook a more believable feel. Besides the setting, the overall look of the film was very saturated and that gave it a more solid state. However, the greatest visual aid to Ratatouille was the phenomenal character animation. As you can tell, provided you have seen most or all of the other PIXAR films, they try to one-up themselves every movie they make, and they succeed at it. For Ratatouille their one-upper was the character animation. The animators went back through history to study some of the masters of character animation such as Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. If you take an in depth look at the film you will see exaggerated movements and expressions on the characters. In animation that is how we make the characters more expressive, or for lack of a better word; animated. Besides the character animation, the characters themselves were exceptionally impressive. Each character looked as though their design reflected their personality, and it ended up that they did. A perfect example is Chef Skinner, who is physically short and ends up falling short in personality and in the brains department as well. Another great character is Anton Ego the food critic, or as I call him; the cryptic critic due to his look of knocking at Death’s door. The PIXAR designers try to communicate how evil he is so much that they designed the room that Ego works in to be shaped like a coffin.
Yet again these scrumptious characters would be nothing if it were not for their mind-blowing actors lending their voices. In the line-up we have the accomplished and world renowned actor; Peter O’Toole as Anton Ego. There is also the adept Ian Holm as Chef Skinner. The big man with the echoing deep voice; Brad Garret, pulls off an amazing French accent as Chef Gusteau. The up and coming Lou Romano takes the lead as Alfredo Linguini alongside Patton Oswalt as Remy and even Janeane Garofalo as Colette, the only female in the kitchen. PIXAR seems to have a knack for voice casting, which is another reason they are so impressive. PIXAR is also very inspiring, so much that I was inspired to cook ratatouille for my family, and it turned out to be astounding. If you can’t take my word for it that Ratatouille is a tasty delicacy among films; then you need to go sink your teeth in it for yourself. Bon Appétit!!
Run-time: 111 mins
Directed by: Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava (Co-director)
Written by: Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Janeane Garofalo, Brad Garret, Ian Holm, Peter O’Toole
When a young aspiring rat gets separated from his family he finds himself in the sewers under Paris. This rat, Remy (Oswalt), then takes advantage of the greatest culinary city in the world by exploring. He eventually gets caught in a kitchen and through a weird happening befriends a human named Linguini. Linguini knows that Remy can cook and Remy wants to take advantage of the fact the Linguini is human and welcome into the kitchen. They eventually work out a strange partnership where Remy sits on Linguini’s head and tugs at his hair to control him. This ends up working so well that they become the best chef in Paris and have all sorts of critics knocking at the restaurant’s door. One critic in particular had tried to shut down the restaurant years prior and has now returned for another try. Ego, the critic, ends up being incredibly surprised and please by the food he tasted, and waits to meet the chef. Ego is fine with the fact that his food was cooked by rats; however, the health inspector and former head chef had been at the restaurant that night and get it closed down due to health code violations. Nonetheless Remy and Linguini open a new restaurant with Ego as the primary investor and they all live on in happiness through culinary bliss.
To be able to cook is a difficult task, but to be able to cook well and be creative in the kitchen takes talent. On the surface this movie is about food & cooking, but when you read between the lines you find out that it is about following your dreams no matter how farfetched. Take a rat that wants to cook good food in a professional kitchen for example; that is pretty out there to me. To follow your dreams and accept all of the consequences that follow is a truly brave and admirable thing. The story of this film can even be thought of as a “coming out” story because Remy reveals who he truly is inside to the ones he loves. At first he is afraid of their judgment but soon realizes that he should be proud of who he is and stand up for what he believes in, and that is the true message of the movie.
What made this very creative and subliminal lesson easy to take in were the look, style, and entire feel of the film. The movie, having been set in Paris; one of the most well known cities for its culinary expertise, gave the look for the need to cook a more believable feel. Besides the setting, the overall look of the film was very saturated and that gave it a more solid state. However, the greatest visual aid to Ratatouille was the phenomenal character animation. As you can tell, provided you have seen most or all of the other PIXAR films, they try to one-up themselves every movie they make, and they succeed at it. For Ratatouille their one-upper was the character animation. The animators went back through history to study some of the masters of character animation such as Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. If you take an in depth look at the film you will see exaggerated movements and expressions on the characters. In animation that is how we make the characters more expressive, or for lack of a better word; animated. Besides the character animation, the characters themselves were exceptionally impressive. Each character looked as though their design reflected their personality, and it ended up that they did. A perfect example is Chef Skinner, who is physically short and ends up falling short in personality and in the brains department as well. Another great character is Anton Ego the food critic, or as I call him; the cryptic critic due to his look of knocking at Death’s door. The PIXAR designers try to communicate how evil he is so much that they designed the room that Ego works in to be shaped like a coffin.
Yet again these scrumptious characters would be nothing if it were not for their mind-blowing actors lending their voices. In the line-up we have the accomplished and world renowned actor; Peter O’Toole as Anton Ego. There is also the adept Ian Holm as Chef Skinner. The big man with the echoing deep voice; Brad Garret, pulls off an amazing French accent as Chef Gusteau. The up and coming Lou Romano takes the lead as Alfredo Linguini alongside Patton Oswalt as Remy and even Janeane Garofalo as Colette, the only female in the kitchen. PIXAR seems to have a knack for voice casting, which is another reason they are so impressive. PIXAR is also very inspiring, so much that I was inspired to cook ratatouille for my family, and it turned out to be astounding. If you can’t take my word for it that Ratatouille is a tasty delicacy among films; then you need to go sink your teeth in it for yourself. Bon Appétit!!
Run-time: 111 mins
Directed by: Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava (Co-director)
Written by: Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Janeane Garofalo, Brad Garret, Ian Holm, Peter O’Toole
Cars 2006
Lightning McQueen (Wilson) is a rookie racecar that is leading in the race of the Piston Cup when he decides not to pit and get fresh tires. At the last lap his back two tires blow out and he ends up tying the race with the two other top leaders Strip “The King” Weathers, and Chick Hicks (Keaton). Due to the tie it is decided that there will be a tie breaking race held in one week in California. Lightning, being the self centered racecar that he is tells Mack (Ratzenberger), his trailer, that they need to get to California right away so that he can “schmooze” the major sponsor before the other racers. Along the way Lightning accidently gets lost from Mack and he ends up in trouble in a small town just off interstate 40 and along route 66; called Radiator Springs. Here Lightning has ruined the street when freaking out due to his disorientation during the prior evening. The cars of Radiator Springs put him on trial and eventually sentence him to repave the street he destroyed which should take five days. Through these five days Lightning learns that there is more to life than just worrying about himself. He also discovers that going off the beaten path can often be a lot more exciting than staying on it. Just after finishing the repaving Lightning begins to become accustomed to the town when suddenly he is found by the press, taken away, and forced back into his racing life. During the tie breaking race Lightning pulls tricks that he learned in Radiator Springs and eventually some of the cars from there come to the big race to help him out as his pit crew. Lightning loses the race because he shows compassion for “The King,” since Chick cheated and made him crash, by pushing him across the finish line. Even though Lightning didn’t win the race he still won the respect he needed, learned the lessons he needed to, and got the friends and support he needed as well. The movie ends with him moving his racing headquarters to Radiator Springs.
In the ways of PIXAR films this one may actually be my favorite. No it is not because of the animation. Seeing as animating cars can be vastly limited and difficult. I think it was my favorite because of the story. As a small child my family would take lots of road trips around the U.S. I had been to 31 states by the age of 15!! My father has always liked to drive on old highways instead of the interstate so we found many interesting places and things off the beaten path. I also relate to the story because I have actually driven the Mother road of Route 66 twice, once to L.A. and once back here to Chicago. When a movie is easy to relate to it can often and easily make it a better movie, thus is why I liked Cars so much. This movie inspired me so much that I created a self-portrait character combination with my car.
Granted since it was a PIXAR film the animation was phenomenal as usual and what impressed me the most was the lighting. If you go back and watch the original trailer for Cars, the one that was before The Incredibles, and then watch the movie you will notice all sorts of differences in the lighting of the characters and objects in the film. To be able to handle smooth metallic surfaces with the proper reflections from all different light sources in a live action film is difficult, therefore, in animation it had to be murder, which is why it was so amazing. Upon reading the book “The PIXAR Touch” I actually learned how they did the amazing lighting of Cars. Cars was the first PIXAR film to be rendered using ray tracing. Ray tracing actually figures out how light would fall and reflect upon different surfaces, thus creating a much more realistic and believable feel. Besides the cars themselves being ridiculously impressive; the animators at PIXAR figured out how to make neon with computer animation. I have to say that the scene with the neon lit main street was the most dazzling piece of eye candy you can get from this movie. It is just like being there. I do not know how many of you have been to Gallup, New Mexico but it is located right on 66 near the Western most edge of the state, and they have a fair lot of neon on at night. Gallup is not the only town on 66 that does it though, there are many others.
Nonetheless, although Cars was the least liked by die-hard PIXAR fans I still loved it and think that everyone should see it just to see how amazing it looks. Whether you like cars or not it is just a visually incredible film. The cast was an unbelievable bonus in this film with a perfect mix of all sorts of actors from classic films to modern low brow comedy. The voice actors were truly represented by the cars they played extremely well. Paul Newman was a classic “Hudson Hornet” and he is a classic actor. Owen Wilson as the up and coming racecar and he is an up and coming actor. George Carlin as the hippie VW Bus and he is a fantastic comedian from that same era, and is still funny to this day too. However I thought they could have had John Ratzenberger as a mail car, named Cliff, instead of the truck named Mack, just as a little tribute to Cheers. Anyway the casting helped pull it all together and made the movie all the more enjoyable. I hope someday I can see this movie at a drive in theater. Coming to the finish line I want to tell everyone to go see this movie and just relax and watch it. Remember life isn’t something you speed through so please put your seat in the recline position and enjoy the in-drive movie.
Run time: 116 mins.
Starring: Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Keaton, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, Paul Dooley.
Directed by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft (Co-director)
Written by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
In the ways of PIXAR films this one may actually be my favorite. No it is not because of the animation. Seeing as animating cars can be vastly limited and difficult. I think it was my favorite because of the story. As a small child my family would take lots of road trips around the U.S. I had been to 31 states by the age of 15!! My father has always liked to drive on old highways instead of the interstate so we found many interesting places and things off the beaten path. I also relate to the story because I have actually driven the Mother road of Route 66 twice, once to L.A. and once back here to Chicago. When a movie is easy to relate to it can often and easily make it a better movie, thus is why I liked Cars so much. This movie inspired me so much that I created a self-portrait character combination with my car.
Granted since it was a PIXAR film the animation was phenomenal as usual and what impressed me the most was the lighting. If you go back and watch the original trailer for Cars, the one that was before The Incredibles, and then watch the movie you will notice all sorts of differences in the lighting of the characters and objects in the film. To be able to handle smooth metallic surfaces with the proper reflections from all different light sources in a live action film is difficult, therefore, in animation it had to be murder, which is why it was so amazing. Upon reading the book “The PIXAR Touch” I actually learned how they did the amazing lighting of Cars. Cars was the first PIXAR film to be rendered using ray tracing. Ray tracing actually figures out how light would fall and reflect upon different surfaces, thus creating a much more realistic and believable feel. Besides the cars themselves being ridiculously impressive; the animators at PIXAR figured out how to make neon with computer animation. I have to say that the scene with the neon lit main street was the most dazzling piece of eye candy you can get from this movie. It is just like being there. I do not know how many of you have been to Gallup, New Mexico but it is located right on 66 near the Western most edge of the state, and they have a fair lot of neon on at night. Gallup is not the only town on 66 that does it though, there are many others.
Nonetheless, although Cars was the least liked by die-hard PIXAR fans I still loved it and think that everyone should see it just to see how amazing it looks. Whether you like cars or not it is just a visually incredible film. The cast was an unbelievable bonus in this film with a perfect mix of all sorts of actors from classic films to modern low brow comedy. The voice actors were truly represented by the cars they played extremely well. Paul Newman was a classic “Hudson Hornet” and he is a classic actor. Owen Wilson as the up and coming racecar and he is an up and coming actor. George Carlin as the hippie VW Bus and he is a fantastic comedian from that same era, and is still funny to this day too. However I thought they could have had John Ratzenberger as a mail car, named Cliff, instead of the truck named Mack, just as a little tribute to Cheers. Anyway the casting helped pull it all together and made the movie all the more enjoyable. I hope someday I can see this movie at a drive in theater. Coming to the finish line I want to tell everyone to go see this movie and just relax and watch it. Remember life isn’t something you speed through so please put your seat in the recline position and enjoy the in-drive movie.
Run time: 116 mins.
Starring: Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Keaton, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, Paul Dooley.
Directed by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft (Co-director)
Written by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
The Incredibles 2004
15 years after the glory days of super heroes; Bob Parr (Nelson), a former super hero named Mr. Incredible, loses his job due to a short temper from not being able to save an innocent citizen. When emptying out his desk contents back at his house Mr. Incredible comes across a secret message from a woman named Mirage. Mirage is asking for his help to destroy an evil robot on a remote island. Mr. Incredible goes and does his job, comes home and starts to get back into shape. He gets called onto another mission and ends up getting captured by the inventor of this evil robot. This inventor; known as Syndrome (Lee), had been Mr. Incredible’s biggest fan that turned evil after he lost faith. While Mr. Incredible had been getting into shape he also enlisted the help of notorious fashion designer Edna Mode (Bird) to make him a new suit. She ends up making suits for all five members of the Incredible family since they are all super heroes. Mrs. Incredible (Hunter) discovers that her husband had been to see Edna, and this prompts her to investigate, which leads her to finding out that Mr. Incredible had been captured. Mrs. Incredible leaves to go save her husband and both her older kids, Violet and Dash, stow away on the plane and end up coming with to rescue their Dad. This rescue mission eventually turns into a mission to save the entire Earth from evil invading robots, controlled by Syndrome, and in time brings the super heroes back out of the wood work.
Director Brad Bird seems to have a knack for directing science fiction animated features; his other having been The Iron Giant. Both of these pictures have the old sci-fi film feel to them like the old War of the Worlds or The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Being able to create that illusion is a fantastic feat to accomplish in live-action and is just as incredible in animation. The Incredibles was always the child of Brad Bird, seeing as he had been trying to get it to the silver screen for years before joining the PIXAR force. Bird finally made it happen and not only did it safely land on the silver screen, but it exploded on it with charisma of super heroic proportions. The Incredibles is the absolute best super hero film out there and I feel it will stay that way throughout my entire life. It is not as though the characters were actual known super heroes before the movie; however, they have similar powers to the famous super heroes of comics past and present, and now rival them in popularity.
The characters of the film are definitely what attract you to it because almost anyone can relate to them. The Parrs are a regular nuclear family that most everyone can find common ground with because most people have been members of a family dynamic like that. Even the villain, Syndrome, is easy to relate to since most everyone idolizes someone at sometime, and his part of the story was what happens when that goes awry. Even Frozone, Edna Mode, and Mirage are likable and that is because they and all the others are such logical characters that go with the story. All of the characters fall into place so…incredibly in this film. I think there is no better word to describe The Incredibles, than incredible, or rather there has yet to be a more appropriately titled film than this one.
These characters would be nothing without two things; one being the complementary cast, and the other being the story of the film itself. The cast is full of goodies like Craig T. Nelson who we all know as Coach; being a big masculine man with a softer sort of voice he became perfect to play the super strong yet still sensitive Mr. Incredible. Jason Lee plays Syndrome who is this evil and conniving former super fan gone wrong. The funny part about Lee’s role is that Mr. Incredible calls him Brody real quick and by accident, when in fact it is to pay honor to Kevin Smith’s character of Brody that Lee played. Brody was a comic book collecting geek in one of Smith’s films, thus, an Insider joke. Even the director picks up a role in the film as the accomplished former super hero costume designer Edna Mode. There even was Samuel L. Jackson in the mix and he is always good because he has been in numerous action films and even played the super villain Mr. Glass in Unbreakable. I could be wrong about this but during the scene when Frozone and Mr. Incredible are in the jewelry store it seems as though it is a tribute to the scene when Sam played Zeus in Die-Hard 3 and was in the subway answering the phone.
Anyway these characters would be nothing without the cast and the cast would have nothing to work with without the story. The story of this film has a lot of interesting twists and turns and can go one way at one moment and a completely different one the next. My favorite parts of the story would have to be when the kids start to harness their powers and discover what they are truly capable of doing with them. I also like how much hate Syndrome had that fueled his entire life and I found it interesting and terrifying that he slaughtered so many superheroes to get where he needed to be before his plan was fool proof. The whole thing was like a very elaborate comic book, one that has at least four parts to it, maybe even graphic novel material. This story really grasps the edge of your seat entertainment that an action and super hero flick should. From the moment you lay eyes on the movie you will be hooked to watch to the end because it really is incredible. They even did the usual PIXAR thing and created many programs to assist with the animation like one that created and calculated the physics, one that helped in the illusion of skin, and even a program that created unimportant characters such as henchmen and crowd members. The one thing I never found out about The Incredibles was what “Kronos” meant. As you can tell I absolutely loved this movie and think you will too, so just go and watch it already and have an incredible time viewing this work of art.
Run time: 115 mins.
Directed by: Brad Bird
Written by: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson
Director Brad Bird seems to have a knack for directing science fiction animated features; his other having been The Iron Giant. Both of these pictures have the old sci-fi film feel to them like the old War of the Worlds or The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Being able to create that illusion is a fantastic feat to accomplish in live-action and is just as incredible in animation. The Incredibles was always the child of Brad Bird, seeing as he had been trying to get it to the silver screen for years before joining the PIXAR force. Bird finally made it happen and not only did it safely land on the silver screen, but it exploded on it with charisma of super heroic proportions. The Incredibles is the absolute best super hero film out there and I feel it will stay that way throughout my entire life. It is not as though the characters were actual known super heroes before the movie; however, they have similar powers to the famous super heroes of comics past and present, and now rival them in popularity.
The characters of the film are definitely what attract you to it because almost anyone can relate to them. The Parrs are a regular nuclear family that most everyone can find common ground with because most people have been members of a family dynamic like that. Even the villain, Syndrome, is easy to relate to since most everyone idolizes someone at sometime, and his part of the story was what happens when that goes awry. Even Frozone, Edna Mode, and Mirage are likable and that is because they and all the others are such logical characters that go with the story. All of the characters fall into place so…incredibly in this film. I think there is no better word to describe The Incredibles, than incredible, or rather there has yet to be a more appropriately titled film than this one.
These characters would be nothing without two things; one being the complementary cast, and the other being the story of the film itself. The cast is full of goodies like Craig T. Nelson who we all know as Coach; being a big masculine man with a softer sort of voice he became perfect to play the super strong yet still sensitive Mr. Incredible. Jason Lee plays Syndrome who is this evil and conniving former super fan gone wrong. The funny part about Lee’s role is that Mr. Incredible calls him Brody real quick and by accident, when in fact it is to pay honor to Kevin Smith’s character of Brody that Lee played. Brody was a comic book collecting geek in one of Smith’s films, thus, an Insider joke. Even the director picks up a role in the film as the accomplished former super hero costume designer Edna Mode. There even was Samuel L. Jackson in the mix and he is always good because he has been in numerous action films and even played the super villain Mr. Glass in Unbreakable. I could be wrong about this but during the scene when Frozone and Mr. Incredible are in the jewelry store it seems as though it is a tribute to the scene when Sam played Zeus in Die-Hard 3 and was in the subway answering the phone.
Anyway these characters would be nothing without the cast and the cast would have nothing to work with without the story. The story of this film has a lot of interesting twists and turns and can go one way at one moment and a completely different one the next. My favorite parts of the story would have to be when the kids start to harness their powers and discover what they are truly capable of doing with them. I also like how much hate Syndrome had that fueled his entire life and I found it interesting and terrifying that he slaughtered so many superheroes to get where he needed to be before his plan was fool proof. The whole thing was like a very elaborate comic book, one that has at least four parts to it, maybe even graphic novel material. This story really grasps the edge of your seat entertainment that an action and super hero flick should. From the moment you lay eyes on the movie you will be hooked to watch to the end because it really is incredible. They even did the usual PIXAR thing and created many programs to assist with the animation like one that created and calculated the physics, one that helped in the illusion of skin, and even a program that created unimportant characters such as henchmen and crowd members. The one thing I never found out about The Incredibles was what “Kronos” meant. As you can tell I absolutely loved this movie and think you will too, so just go and watch it already and have an incredible time viewing this work of art.
Run time: 115 mins.
Directed by: Brad Bird
Written by: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson
Finding Nemo 2003
Marlin (Brooks) is a clownfish that is recovering from the recent loss of his wife, Coral, and his 399+ kids that were taken from him after a barracuda attacked. Marlin managed to save one slightly damaged egg that hatched and grew into his son; Nemo. Marlin finally lets Nemo start at school and on the first day Nemo gets captured by divers. Marlin instantly tries to follow the divers’ boat and to find his son. Marlin ends up meeting a blue tang named Dory (DeGeneres), who helps him travel across the ocean in search of Nemo. Along the way they meet sharks, an anglerfish, sea turtles, whales, and a whole assortment of other creatures in this aquatic epic of a film.
Finding Nemo is the most visually pleasing of all the PIXAR films. There is not much that one can say about this film besides the fact that it should not be missed. It has so many colors, shapes, and amazing visual elements in it. Simply stunning would be the best words to describe Finding Nemo. The animators at PIXAR had to study all sorts of marine life to be able properly capture all the creatures and settings that they needed to so as to create this optical marvel. Specific programs were created to emulate the ebb and flow of the ocean water. The designers had to figure out ways to make the fish more animation ready, or rather to bring human characteristics to aquatic creatures. The eyes of the fish were moved closer to the front of the face, the fish were given small and thin lips, and they even changed the ways certain fish swam to make it more believable. Unfathomable limits were reached to create the entire look and feel of this movie from the figuring out how to animate specific types of sea creatures down to the very specks of debris in the water.
Just from taking a brief look at this movie you can tell that it is brilliantly designed and animated but you can’t grasp the story from that. Andrew Stanton wrote this story and kept it so it conveyed the true love of a father for his son perfectly, and that it did. A little unknown fact is that male clownfish change gender when the mother disappears from the picture; however, Andrew Stanton kept Marlin as male, obviously, to assist the story of the movie. The story of the struggle that Marlin goes through just to get his son back is an absolutely amazing and heartfelt story that cannot be beat. I will admit that every time that Marlin finally finds Nemo I tear up a little. Marlin meets sharks, almost eaten by an anglerfish, lost because of a short term memory fish, stung by jellyfish, swims with a group of sea turtles, gets lost in a whale, and then almost eaten by sea gulls. That is a lot to go through for one person and all of it pays off in the end because both Marlin and Nemo learn lessons by being separated. One of the things I love most about PIXAR films is that there is always more than one lesson to learn in each film, no matter how big or small or important the lesson is, there are always multiple lessons.
This movie deserved to win the Oscar that it got and it isn’t only because of the look, feel, and story of the film because they would be nothing without the all star cast. Finding Nemo has to be one of the movies with the biggest stars in it that I have ever found. There are comedy actors, drama actors, action stars and a whole other assortment of crazy amazing actors that lend their voices to this picture. It truly brought about a plethora of character for these characters. Each character had such unique personalities that you wanted to learn all of their back stories and I don’t ever feel that way about movie characters. Rumor has it that Ellen DeGeneres started to tear up when she said the line; “When I look at you…I’m home.” You can even hear it in her voice, and when an actor can get that involved in his or her character that just shows that everything came together brilliantly and couldn’t be better. Finding Nemo is a movie that should not be missed and if you have not seen it then rush out and get it or just go watch it again. Also when you are watching the movie keep your eyes peeled for a familiar face hiding in the dental office and a familiar vehicle on the streets of Sydney.
Run time: 100 mins
Directed by: Andrew Stanton, Co-director Lee Unkrich
Written by: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds
Starring: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton, Stephen Root, Vicki Lewis, Joe Ranft, Geoffrey Rush, and Andrew Stanton.
Finding Nemo is the most visually pleasing of all the PIXAR films. There is not much that one can say about this film besides the fact that it should not be missed. It has so many colors, shapes, and amazing visual elements in it. Simply stunning would be the best words to describe Finding Nemo. The animators at PIXAR had to study all sorts of marine life to be able properly capture all the creatures and settings that they needed to so as to create this optical marvel. Specific programs were created to emulate the ebb and flow of the ocean water. The designers had to figure out ways to make the fish more animation ready, or rather to bring human characteristics to aquatic creatures. The eyes of the fish were moved closer to the front of the face, the fish were given small and thin lips, and they even changed the ways certain fish swam to make it more believable. Unfathomable limits were reached to create the entire look and feel of this movie from the figuring out how to animate specific types of sea creatures down to the very specks of debris in the water.
Just from taking a brief look at this movie you can tell that it is brilliantly designed and animated but you can’t grasp the story from that. Andrew Stanton wrote this story and kept it so it conveyed the true love of a father for his son perfectly, and that it did. A little unknown fact is that male clownfish change gender when the mother disappears from the picture; however, Andrew Stanton kept Marlin as male, obviously, to assist the story of the movie. The story of the struggle that Marlin goes through just to get his son back is an absolutely amazing and heartfelt story that cannot be beat. I will admit that every time that Marlin finally finds Nemo I tear up a little. Marlin meets sharks, almost eaten by an anglerfish, lost because of a short term memory fish, stung by jellyfish, swims with a group of sea turtles, gets lost in a whale, and then almost eaten by sea gulls. That is a lot to go through for one person and all of it pays off in the end because both Marlin and Nemo learn lessons by being separated. One of the things I love most about PIXAR films is that there is always more than one lesson to learn in each film, no matter how big or small or important the lesson is, there are always multiple lessons.
This movie deserved to win the Oscar that it got and it isn’t only because of the look, feel, and story of the film because they would be nothing without the all star cast. Finding Nemo has to be one of the movies with the biggest stars in it that I have ever found. There are comedy actors, drama actors, action stars and a whole other assortment of crazy amazing actors that lend their voices to this picture. It truly brought about a plethora of character for these characters. Each character had such unique personalities that you wanted to learn all of their back stories and I don’t ever feel that way about movie characters. Rumor has it that Ellen DeGeneres started to tear up when she said the line; “When I look at you…I’m home.” You can even hear it in her voice, and when an actor can get that involved in his or her character that just shows that everything came together brilliantly and couldn’t be better. Finding Nemo is a movie that should not be missed and if you have not seen it then rush out and get it or just go watch it again. Also when you are watching the movie keep your eyes peeled for a familiar face hiding in the dental office and a familiar vehicle on the streets of Sydney.
Run time: 100 mins
Directed by: Andrew Stanton, Co-director Lee Unkrich
Written by: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds
Starring: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton, Stephen Root, Vicki Lewis, Joe Ranft, Geoffrey Rush, and Andrew Stanton.
Monsters Inc. 2001
In the city of Monstropolis the monsters get their power from children’s screams. There is a major power plant called Monsters Incorporated where the monsters scare kids and absorb power from their screams and then supply it to the city to power all their electronics and such. The top monster that scares kids is James P. Sullivan or Sulley. Sulley is a giant bear like monster that is blue with purple spots, and his green one eyed helper is Mike Wazowski. Mike manages the technical aspect of the scaring that Sulley does. When Sulley nears breaking the all-time scare record another monster, Randall, sneaks in some extra scare time. Sulley notices and goes through the closet door to see what Randall is up to and accidently lets a kid into the power plant. Kids are thought to be toxic in the world of monsters and there has been an agency formed for the protection of monsters from children. After Sulley accidently lets the kid into Monstropolis he informs Mike of his problem and all hell breaks loose to try and get the kid back where it came from.
Monsters, Inc. is the most lovable of all the PIXAR films; I guess that would be the best way to describe it. Besides actually having a giant cuddly main character, it has the most lovable story from its very childish antics and heartfelt lessons. The imagination is a limitless element when it comes to the human mind and the folks at PIXAR know how to tap into the bottomless wells of it. Everything in this film was from the depths of imagination. Even the concept of monsters needing to scare children as their source of power and to have a factory floor full of doors that open to a parallel universe was an incredible reach into the creative psyche. There is no better word than amazing for the look of this film. Everything was specifically designed to work with one another. The people at PIXAR even plotted out the look of Monstropolis so it could accommodate the monsters of different shapes and sizes. They also created a special program to handle fur/hair, its movements, and shadows; called FIZT. If you look closely on the door control panel in the movie you will see a button with “FIZT” on it as a PIXAR self joke. Even in the design of Sulley they paid homage to the monster from Little Monsters by using the blue with purple spots and the small horns.
However, the look of the main monsters brought forth some issues. Stanley Miller, accomplished artist for the Grateful Dead, filed suit against PIXAR because the main characters looked eerily similar to the monsters he had been most famous for drawing. The lawsuit was mostly over the design of Mike Wazowski, and it was found that one-eyed creatures had been in existence in numerous places throughout history. This was just one of the lawsuits PIXAR had to face while creating Monsters, Inc. Lori Madrid was a children’s song writer and she also wrote a story called “There’s a Boy in My Closet,” which had its share of similarities to Monsters, Inc. She found out about the movie and filed suit against PIXAR and they were on trial the day before its release. They decided to not postpone the release; however they continued with the lawsuit and eventually found it coincidental. The story had not been conceived from some woman’s children’s short story that hadn’t even been published and distributed yet.
This brings me to my next point that the story was beyond my expectations. As a little kid I think everyone feared monsters in their closet but never thought about it the other way around. At that they took it even further with screams powering the city and having an energy crisis and then figuring out that laughter was much more powerful than screams brings a lot of heart to the story because it is a ridiculously happy ending. Although the general animation may not have been the focal point of impression in this movie, it sure had a lot to offer. It was visually attractive because of the variety of monsters, it was conceptually appealing because of the doors and energy, and it had an edge-of-your-seat story because of the importance to get Boo back home. Monsters, Inc. may not be my favorite PIXAR film but it holds one heck of a high ranking. If you haven’t seen it yet then go watch it because it is like seeing dreams actually come to life. If you don’t like Monsters, Inc. then you might not be human…in which case I recommend moving to Monstropolis.
Run time: 92 mins.
Directed by: Pete Docter, David Silverman (co-director), Lee Unkrich (co-director)
Written by: Pete Docter, Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon, and Ralph Eggleston.
Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Mary Gibbs, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, and Frank Oz.
Monsters, Inc. is the most lovable of all the PIXAR films; I guess that would be the best way to describe it. Besides actually having a giant cuddly main character, it has the most lovable story from its very childish antics and heartfelt lessons. The imagination is a limitless element when it comes to the human mind and the folks at PIXAR know how to tap into the bottomless wells of it. Everything in this film was from the depths of imagination. Even the concept of monsters needing to scare children as their source of power and to have a factory floor full of doors that open to a parallel universe was an incredible reach into the creative psyche. There is no better word than amazing for the look of this film. Everything was specifically designed to work with one another. The people at PIXAR even plotted out the look of Monstropolis so it could accommodate the monsters of different shapes and sizes. They also created a special program to handle fur/hair, its movements, and shadows; called FIZT. If you look closely on the door control panel in the movie you will see a button with “FIZT” on it as a PIXAR self joke. Even in the design of Sulley they paid homage to the monster from Little Monsters by using the blue with purple spots and the small horns.
However, the look of the main monsters brought forth some issues. Stanley Miller, accomplished artist for the Grateful Dead, filed suit against PIXAR because the main characters looked eerily similar to the monsters he had been most famous for drawing. The lawsuit was mostly over the design of Mike Wazowski, and it was found that one-eyed creatures had been in existence in numerous places throughout history. This was just one of the lawsuits PIXAR had to face while creating Monsters, Inc. Lori Madrid was a children’s song writer and she also wrote a story called “There’s a Boy in My Closet,” which had its share of similarities to Monsters, Inc. She found out about the movie and filed suit against PIXAR and they were on trial the day before its release. They decided to not postpone the release; however they continued with the lawsuit and eventually found it coincidental. The story had not been conceived from some woman’s children’s short story that hadn’t even been published and distributed yet.
This brings me to my next point that the story was beyond my expectations. As a little kid I think everyone feared monsters in their closet but never thought about it the other way around. At that they took it even further with screams powering the city and having an energy crisis and then figuring out that laughter was much more powerful than screams brings a lot of heart to the story because it is a ridiculously happy ending. Although the general animation may not have been the focal point of impression in this movie, it sure had a lot to offer. It was visually attractive because of the variety of monsters, it was conceptually appealing because of the doors and energy, and it had an edge-of-your-seat story because of the importance to get Boo back home. Monsters, Inc. may not be my favorite PIXAR film but it holds one heck of a high ranking. If you haven’t seen it yet then go watch it because it is like seeing dreams actually come to life. If you don’t like Monsters, Inc. then you might not be human…in which case I recommend moving to Monstropolis.
Run time: 92 mins.
Directed by: Pete Docter, David Silverman (co-director), Lee Unkrich (co-director)
Written by: Pete Docter, Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon, and Ralph Eggleston.
Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Mary Gibbs, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, and Frank Oz.
A Bug's Life 1998
A colony of ants has been accustomed to gathering food for themselves and their bullies the grasshoppers for years. When an ant, Flik (Foley), that thinks outside of the box comes along and starts messing things up for the ants and grasshoppers, so Princess Atta (Louis-Dreyfus) sends Flik away on a mission to find warriors to help save the colony from the wrath of the grasshoppers. Flik eventually comes across a group of bugs, unknown to him that they are circus bugs, and brings them back to the colony. They all start devising a plan to scare away the grasshoppers when they find out the truth and send them away including Flik for betraying them. Just as they leave the grasshoppers come back for the final confrontation. One of the younger ants sneaks away and finds the group of exiled circus bugs and brings them back to help. Everything goes down at the ant colony and the ants and circus bugs end up defeating the evil grasshoppers and send them running away screaming. The ants and circus bugs then live happily ever after.
This was the second PIXAR film in the line-up of their never-ending masterpieces. Thus it had to live up to its big brother’s standards and while it was a really fascinating film, in my opinion it did not scratch the Toy Story surface. However, A Bug’s Life was still an incredible film. The animation bar for PIXAR was beginning to be set with this since it was the second of PIXAR’s films. There were a whole host of impressive things the animators did with this film. One of the biggest things to come from A Bug’s Life was all the textures. Almost everything looked how it should in regards to its texture i.e. the dirt the bugs lived on, the grasshoppers’ exoskeletons, even the bird’s feathers. The colors and shapes were a lot more vivid and diverse in this film which helped the progress. Also since it was set outside instead of inside of a bedroom the animators were forced to figure out how the natural light sources would work within the film.
I would actually have to say that the most amazing thing about this film was the uncanny interactions between characters. That was so interesting how they had a plethora of entomologic creatures and how they all moved and acted as if these bugs were actually real humanoid characters. Apparently the designers took away two legs from the ants and added two to the grasshoppers just to make things easier to work with for the ants and to make the grasshoppers seem more intimidating. As amazing as the characters were visually they would have been nothing without the incredibly talented cast that filled the vocal void. Is there anything funnier than the very masculine voiced Dennis Leary playing a male ladybug? How about the lovely and hilarious late Madeline Kahn playing a beautiful gypsy moth? Or even David Hyde Pierce as a walking stick? All these famous actors mostly comedic playing as circus bugs just adds so much more character and life to the film itself.
In comparison to A Bug’s Life’s competition; Antz, I would have to say I liked Antz better only because of the story. While I am extremely fond of the animation and characters of A Bug’s Life, the story did not catch me as much as Antz did. I am a little sorry to say that only because it is believed that one of the people at DreamWorks animation had worked with Lasseter at PIXAR, got fired, and hired at DreamWorks and stole the idea of a computer animated film about bugs. Nonetheless, A Bug’s Life is my least favorite of the PIXAR line-up; however it is still an unbelievably amazing film and will remain in my list as one of the best animated films so far. Anyway you should go check out A Bug’s Life for yourself and see if you are as fond of computer animated creepy crawlies as I am.
Run time: 96 mins.
Directed by: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (Co-director)
Written by: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton
Starring: Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dennis Leary, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Bonnie Hunt, Kevin Spacey, Madeline Kahn, Richard Kind, and Jonathan Harris
This was the second PIXAR film in the line-up of their never-ending masterpieces. Thus it had to live up to its big brother’s standards and while it was a really fascinating film, in my opinion it did not scratch the Toy Story surface. However, A Bug’s Life was still an incredible film. The animation bar for PIXAR was beginning to be set with this since it was the second of PIXAR’s films. There were a whole host of impressive things the animators did with this film. One of the biggest things to come from A Bug’s Life was all the textures. Almost everything looked how it should in regards to its texture i.e. the dirt the bugs lived on, the grasshoppers’ exoskeletons, even the bird’s feathers. The colors and shapes were a lot more vivid and diverse in this film which helped the progress. Also since it was set outside instead of inside of a bedroom the animators were forced to figure out how the natural light sources would work within the film.
I would actually have to say that the most amazing thing about this film was the uncanny interactions between characters. That was so interesting how they had a plethora of entomologic creatures and how they all moved and acted as if these bugs were actually real humanoid characters. Apparently the designers took away two legs from the ants and added two to the grasshoppers just to make things easier to work with for the ants and to make the grasshoppers seem more intimidating. As amazing as the characters were visually they would have been nothing without the incredibly talented cast that filled the vocal void. Is there anything funnier than the very masculine voiced Dennis Leary playing a male ladybug? How about the lovely and hilarious late Madeline Kahn playing a beautiful gypsy moth? Or even David Hyde Pierce as a walking stick? All these famous actors mostly comedic playing as circus bugs just adds so much more character and life to the film itself.
In comparison to A Bug’s Life’s competition; Antz, I would have to say I liked Antz better only because of the story. While I am extremely fond of the animation and characters of A Bug’s Life, the story did not catch me as much as Antz did. I am a little sorry to say that only because it is believed that one of the people at DreamWorks animation had worked with Lasseter at PIXAR, got fired, and hired at DreamWorks and stole the idea of a computer animated film about bugs. Nonetheless, A Bug’s Life is my least favorite of the PIXAR line-up; however it is still an unbelievably amazing film and will remain in my list as one of the best animated films so far. Anyway you should go check out A Bug’s Life for yourself and see if you are as fond of computer animated creepy crawlies as I am.
Run time: 96 mins.
Directed by: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (Co-director)
Written by: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton
Starring: Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dennis Leary, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Bonnie Hunt, Kevin Spacey, Madeline Kahn, Richard Kind, and Jonathan Harris
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