Title: Coraline
Year: 2009
Director: Henry Selick
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Ian McShane, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David
Rated: PG
Running Time: 1hr. 40mins.
My Review: I was very interested to see this movie, even though I didn't like James and the Giant Peach, and I think Nightmare Before Christmas is highly overrated. I am a big fan of Henry Selick's work. You can't ignore the talent of his teams animations. So I was very pleased that I this came out so well. With a great story written by Neil Gaiman, I was hard to not like this film. Although the voice actors aren't very memorable, (except Ian McShane as Mr. Bobinski) the character designs are very memorable. 9 out of 10 slugzillas
Jonny's Review: This movie was said be a risky movie, even Henry Selick said “Coraline [was] a huge risk. But these days in animation, the safest bet is to take a risk.” I was glad to know that Selick dropped ship on “Corps Bride” to work on this movie, it wouldn’t have down as well. I saw a tiny bit of dark tones, more skin then most uptight parents would agree with, and level of ugliness that most kids know all too well from parents are kind of jerks. But everything was great about this movie, one that can be enjoyed by the family, but also by people who don’t really watch family movies. I kind of found more interest in the side characters then the main ones, maybe because not having a lot of screen time, their character development had to be a little louder. I kind of seemed like a Alice in Wonderland feel to it, but less drug induced. I also thought this movie had a pretty good moral, which I won’t give away, sad that this movie has to teach it rather than parents. Or maybe it’s best most parents are jerks themselves, in order for Neil Gaimen to have written it in the first place. Lastly, even though this movie had a great feel it could work as a video game, that game sucked balls.8/10 Jars of Childrens eyes.
Title: Mary and Max
Year: 2009
Director: Adam Elliot
Cast: Barry Humphries, Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana
Rated: PG
Running Time: 1hr. 32mins.
My Review: I'm going to do my review in two words. "beautifully tragic." I'm a big fan of Adam Elliot's work, all of his shorts are very real stories that come from the brutally honest world that we all live in. And even though they might be depressing, their also have a lot of heart and soul in each of his characters. I'm not ashamed to say the ending made me cry. A must see for animation fans. 10 out of 10 tears in a jar
Jonny's Review: If you ever wanted to find an animation that we meant for adults and didn’t suck, this is the movie for you. This is a very depressing story with a few dark over tones and I say it has a happy ending to it, sort of. I fell on this movie by accident, but new I was in for a treat when I found out it was made by Adam Elliott. What I didn’t realize is that he was given a budget to make a full length movie, and was presently surprised. You really get sucked into the story because of the great narration that Elliott has been known for in all his animations. I can’t say this movie is for everybody, but I would really like everyone to see it, it really is a refreshing story getting to know Mary and Max’s relation that grows through the entire film. If you haven’t seen this movie, go watch it right now, you’ll be happy you did.10/10 Jars of Sherry
Title: The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe
Rated: PG
Running Time: 1hr. 27mins.
My Review: I am a huge Wes Anderson fan. I love all of his movies. From the dry humor, to the set dressing, to the cinematography, and the soundtrack. So when I found out that Wes was doing a stop-motion animation, and adapting a Roald Dahl book, (who is one of my favorite authors) I was very excited. Wes and Roald's styles worked perfectly together. The only thing I didn't like was that stupid whistle click. 8 out of 10 bandit hats
Jonny's Review: I was pretty surprised by this film, I kind of thought it would have been one of those really hippiesc stories that HAD to be as real in the character design. I did enjoy this movie, and realized my mistake on my perceptions. Though I can’t say this is really my type of movie, it’s still worth is way into my collection. This is a very Wes Anderson movie, with all his talent to dry humor and storytelling, but I kind of feel toned down his talents a little, not in a sense that makes it worse than his other movies, but making them not as heavy so that more people can enjoy the movie. I enjoyed the characters most of all, the possum character makes me laugh with his strange blank stare that he does, and having a love hate opinion of Mr. Fox’s son Ash. There are two things that I didn’t like, is I was hoping Bill Murrey should have had a bigger role, and Mr. Fox’s whistle. I think the use of the whistle was just to tell a lame joke at the end of the movie.7/10 Jars of Apple Cider
No comments:
Post a Comment