Rio

Rio is one of those movies that I had heard about but never got around to watching until recently.  Everyone told me how great it was so I had very high expectations.  I must say that the first time we watched it I was a little disappointed.  However Liam got into it more and more to the point that he kept asking for it, once we sent it back to Netflix.  Finally I conceded and we found it on sale and bought it.  The more that we watched it the more that it grew on me.  I definitely love the music and the bright colors.  There are a lot of big stars doing voices.  I love that the main character is kind of dorky and out of his element.

If you aren't familiar with Rio it is about a Blue Macaw that was a black market smuggled bird.  He ends up with a loving owner in Minnesota and lives his life domesticated, never learning to fly.  He is the only known documents male left of his species and so he must embark on a journey to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in order to help populate his species.  The crazy adventure begins there.  The story is cute and the characters are unique from ones that we have seen in the past.

Rio came out in 2011 and connected the main character Blu (the male blue Macaw) with his female counterpart Jewel.  His owner is named Linda and lives her life around Blu as a bookstore owner in Minnesota.  Tulio is the ornithologist who finds them in Minnesota to bring Blu to mate with Jewel.



Rio was released in 2011 by Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age) as a 3D Computer animated musical-adventure-comedy.  It was directed by Carlos Saldanha.  Originally the concept was for a penguin to wash ashore to Rio.  But when the concept was being developed in 2005, Happy Feet and Surf's Up were also coming out.  This caused Saldanha to change the concept from a penguin to a blue macaw.  The film was considered a box office success grossing over $484 million worldwide.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for "Real in Rio."  Originally Neil Patrick Harris was approached to voice Blu, but due to other obligations he had to pass and Jesse Eisenberg was selected to voice Blu.  Originally the film was given a PG rating for "mild off-color humor."  Due to the target audience being children, it caused the film to be edited and re-submitted to the MPAA in order to achieve a G rating.  The release of Rio caused Pixar to cancel the 2012 release of their movie Newt due to similarities in the plotline. 

The amazing voice talents of Rio include:
Blu voiced by Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network, Zombieland, Adventureland)
Linda voiced by Leslie Mann (This Is 40, Funny People, Knocked Up, Big Daddy)
Tulio voiced by Rodrigo Santoro (Xerxes in 300,  Love Actually)
Jewel voiced by Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables, Dark Night Rises, Bride Wars, Devil Wears Prada)
Nico& Pedro (Friends of Jewel) voiced by Jamie Foxx & Will.I.Am (From the Black Eyed Peas)
Rafael (Toucan) voiced by George Lopez (the Comedian)
Luiz (A Bulldog) voiced by Tracy Morgan (30 Rock, Cop Out)
You also get cameos from Wands Sykes and Jane Lynch etc.

Overall I give this film a 4 out of 5.  It definitely grows on you and you learn to love it more and more but initially you don't feel that it is the greatest film that you have ever seen.  The animation is done beautifully and you get to know a lot of characters individually.  Rio 2 is set to be released in April of 2014.  I definitely recommend checking it out if you have never seen it, and giving it a second chance if it didn't stick with you the first time you saw it.

Finding Nemo

Liam is branching out in his movie watching and I got him to watch Finding Nemo for the second time tonight in the past year and I always love watching this movie.  I loved this one before Liam was born and I love being able to share it with him.  This is one of those timeless classics that you can watch over and over again.

 In case you have been missing out and don't know anything about Finding Nemo, let me fill you in on the background of it.  Finding Nemo is a Pixar film that was realeased in 2003.  It was the 5th film released by Pixar.  Nemo is about a clown fish that is captured by a scuba diver and taken fromt he great barrier reef to Sydney, Australia.  His father (Marlin) an overprotective clown fish then goes in search of him and comes across an unlikely partner Dory who is a tang (bright orange fish) with short-term memory loss.  Together they must cross the ocean to try to find and rescue Nemo.

Finding Nemo is a comedy-drama adventure film that is computer animated.  It was the first Pixar film to be released in the Northern Hemisphere during the Summer.  It won the Academy Award and Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and was the second highest grossing film of 2003 with a total of $936 million worldwide.  It is the best selling DVD of all time and sold over 40 million copies in 2006.  It was the highest grossing G rated film of all time until took over.  And it is the 23rd highest grossing film of all time.  In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest animated film ever made. 

Voice talents of Andrew Gould who plays Marlin.  Ellen Degeneres who plays Dory, Alexander Gould who plays Nemo, and also features Willem Dafoe who plays Gill and Geoffrey Rush who plays Nigel.  The director Andrew Stanton voiced Crush himself. 

The inspiration came from childhood memories and intrigues of Andrew Stanton and actually began turning into a move in 1997.  Ellen was brilliantly cast thanks to the Stanton's wife watching the show and he watched her change subjects 5 times in a single sentence.  (Sounds like Ellen would fight in perfectly in my family haha).  In order to get the brilliant animation of the ocean the directors took oceanography classes and went on many of their own scuba diving trips. 

An unforeseen negative drawback of the film: The reaction to the film by the general public has led to environmental devastation for the clownfish, and has provoked an outcry from several environmental protection agencies, including the Marine Aquarium Council, Australia. The demand for tropical fish skyrocketed after the film's release, causing reef species decimation in Vanuatu and many other reef areas. After seeing the film, although some aquarium owners released their pets into the ocean, they released them into the wrong ocean, which introduced species which were harmful to the indigenous environment and is harming reefs worldwide.

The excitement of a sequel in the making:   In April 2013, Disney announced the sequel, Finding Dory, confirming that Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks would be reprising their roles as Dory and Marlin, respectively. It was scheduled to be released on November 25, 2015, but the film's ending was revised after Pixar executives viewed the film Blackfish. On September 18, 2013, it was announced that the film would be pushed back to a June 17, 2016, release.  It is interesting to me how far the reaches of Blackfish have been to even change things in a huge Pixar movie.  

You can find the movie at the official Pixar website: Finding Nemo
And also at Disney's websites once they partnered with Pixar: Disney Finding Nemo

Despicable Me 2

Liam picked this one out to get for Christmas, so we have finally been able to watch it :)  I must say that it was a delightfully great movie.  More minions, more Gru, more of the girls, plus some awesomeness with Lucy Wilde voiced by one of my favorites (Katherine Wiig from Bridesmaids).  Liam was definitely into it and loving it the whole way through!

This is the sequel to Despicable Me (obviously) and you don't need to have watched the first one to enjoy this one, but it will give you some background to the story.  However this one easily stands alone as a great movie.  They did a great job with the sequel with bringing back a lot of the stuff that you love and adding in a lot of new elements, such as a new arch enemy for Gru.  Gru teams up with Lucy Wilde and the Anti-Villain League to stop the spread of a horrible serum that turns good creatures into purple furry evil creatures. 

Despicable Me 2 came out in 2013 as a sequel to the 2010 film of the originating name.  It was released by Illumination Entertainment and is the first ever sequel to be produced by them.   With a budget of $76 million dollars it grossed $918 million, suffice to say it was a box office success. It was the second highest grossing film of 2013. 

Benjamin Bratt voiced the villain El macho who was originally supposed to be voiced by Al Pacino who left the film due to creative differences just a month before premiere. At the time of his departure, Pacino's character had been already fully voiced and animated.  It always cracks me up to think of Russell Brand voicing Doctor Nefario.  No matter how many times I watch the films I just have a hard time picturing Russell Brand behind his voice haha. 

I must admit that I didn't realize that Kristin Wiig also voiced Miss Hattie in the original film, so that makes sense that they would bring her over into this one as well.  Her and Steve Carrel (Gru's voice) play off one another very well.  I would love to see them in a real-live comedy together someday. 

Excited future news is that a spinoff film titled Minions is set to be released in July of 2015 and will focus on the awesomely amazing minions of Gru.  It will features the Minions in the 1960s before meeting Gru as they try to compete to work for Scarlett Overkill voiced by Sandra Bullock.  There is also rumor that a Despicable Me 3 is in the works.

Overall I highly recommend this film to anyone and give it 5 out of 5 stars



If you would like to see the Move site go to: Despicable Me.com

Bolt

I was so pleased that Liam seemed to love one of my top favorite Disney movies just as much as I did.  The last five days have had us watching this movie at least 8 times now haha.  You know it's good when you can still sit down and continue to enjoy it that many times in a row.  In case you have been missing out on this truly awesome Disney adventure or in case you need to revisit it, let me tell you what the story is about.

Bolt is a Disney movie that revolves around a dog named Bolt that is an action/sci-fi star for a tv show.  He is the protector of a teenage girl (his human) named Penny and has been altered to have powers such as super bark, super strength and heat vision.  His entire life he has been led to believe that he truly has all of these powers, and the tv sets are set up so that he can never know that it is all just a show.  When the show ratings start to drop, they decided to leave a cliff hanger episode that ends with Penny getting kidnapped and Bolt has not saved her at the end of the episode like he used to doing for years.  This makes him go on an adventure to try to rescue her when he thinks she is in danger.  He accidentally ends up instead across the country in New York and must make his way back to Hollywood to Penny, all the way he truly believes that he has the super powers from the show and ends up on a cross country voyage with an alley cat and a true believe fan hamster as they try to save Penny.

 This movie is just amazing!  I love everything about it.  The elements of the show.  How much thought went into the entire thing.  The way that the characters all play off of one another and work together in this show.  I think this is one of the top genius shows that Disney has put out. 

Bolt was originally released in 2008 as the 48th animated film by Disney.  Bolt is voiced by John Travolta, and Penny by Miley Cyrus.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Film but ended up losing out to Wall-E.  What a great year for animated films. 

At first, the film was going to be titled American Dog, the story of a dog named Henry, a famous TV star, who one day finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a testy, one-eyed cat and an oversized, radioactive rabbit who are themselves searching for new homes, all the while believing he is still on television.  However once reviewed it was decided that some changes need to take place, the original director was removed and the new directors were given just 18 months to complete the Bolt which we see today.  Normally computer animated films are slotted with 4 years to create, so 18 months is quite a feat and to have such an amazing result, I have to say that I am incredibly impressed with the result.  It opened up at the box office in the 3rd position behind Twilight and Quantum of Solace.  It grossed a worldwide total of $309,979,994.

Alice in Wonderland Review

Last night I watched Alice in Wonderland the 1951 Disney version with Liam for the his first time.  He was really into all of the different songs and noises and interesting characters.  I had the general sense as a mother at how much darker and different children's movies were in the 1950s than they are now.  I wasn't sure if it was good to have my son see the part that always bothered me with the Walrus and the Carpenter leading the oyster babies into the house and gaining their trust and than eating them.  It always bothered me and despite all of the craziness within the movie, it seemed like the most messed up part to me.  However I am also aware that my son is young and may not grasp this, but we did call the Walrus a bad man and talk about the oyster's being sad and going bye bye.  The movie score was actually not bad and definitely fit in well with the movie.

I have always thought that Alice in Wonderland really looked a lot of the dark personas and the character flaws of society by putting them into each of the characters, we see forgetfulness and time management issues, lack of responsibility, vanity, liar, etc.  Of course becoming older and becoming a parent makes you look at movies (especially kid's movies) in a whole other light.
Alice in Wonderland is based off of the Novels "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carrol.  I have always wanted to read these books, and definitely need to add them onto my list of classics to acquire.

I found a lot of VERY interesting information about the Disney version of the story when I was researching it for example that parts of this film were created as early as 1923 when Walk Disney was merely 21 years old and was working for a different movie studio.  Before finishing the short comedy series the studio was closed and Walt Disney went on to use the adapted short film as a sort of pilot to show to new prospective distributes.  The Alice's comedies series was on air from 1924-1927.  Now remember the movie version wasn't actually released for another 24 years after that.
In 1932 Walt was toying with the idea of making Alice into a feature length film but ended up turning his priorities to Snow White & the Seven Dwarves instead.  However Lewis Carrol's books still resonated with him as he made the Mickey Film "Through the Looking Glass" in 1936.  (Still 15 years before the film came out).
 In 1938 Walt officially registered the title of "Alice in Wonderland" and started working on it, but did not like the dark and grotesqueness of the script and the way that the animation was turning out.  This was also during the economic devastation of WWII and Walt decided to shelve Alice and created instead the films Pinocchio, Fantasia & Bambi.

In 1945, after the war had ended Walt decided to revive Alice but found that the scrip had taken on too literal of a translation of the book.  He had it changed to focus on comedy, music and the whimsical side of the book.  It almost became a live-action animated version but ended up all animated due to the difficulty of doing justice to the book.
Alice did not do well and was one of Disney's lowest grossing films.  British critics felt that Walt Americanized the story and ruined it and Walt felt the film failed because the character of Alice had no heart.  It was the 13th film released by Disney.

 Another interesting fact was that Alice was voiced by Kathryne Beaumont who later went on to voice Wendy Darling in Peter Pan. 
So what is the story of Alice in Wonderland?  Loosely it is a dreamland created by Alice in which nothing is at is seems and everything is as it is not.  Alice falls asleep and ends up in this psychedelic dreamland, where flowers talk and she is about tall, although sometimes growing and shrinking due to mushroom, pill and liquid substance use.  She is constantly chasing the white rabbit who she sees to lead her into the world, and she meets lots of interesting characters.  In the end it was all a dream. 

Wreck It Ralph Movie Review

I finally was able to watch the awesomeness that was Wreck It Ralph.  It is an overall great movie!  If you have ever had an affinity for video games, especially arcade games than this movie will hold a special place within your heart.  However, do not shy away just because you aren't interested in video games.  The voice cast features an all-star comedy cast and the story line is great and grabs your attention.  I definitely recommend checking out this wonderful Disney children's movie regardless of your age.

Wreck It Ralph is about an arcade game villain who is tired of being the bad guy and just wants to have friends and spend his life with other people, instead of living alone in a garbage yard.  In his quest to try to prove that he can be a good guy he wants to attain a medal for proof.  This leads him to visit several other games in search of a medal and then when lost in an unlikely girly racing game (Sugar Rush) he loses the medal.  In it's loss he makes an unlikely friend with a character who is a glitch in her game.  In the end they must team up to save their games from being unplugged and protect the other games from being over-run by something that could destroy every arcade game plugged in. 

As far as the hilarious voice cast the main characters are voiced by:
John C. Reilly voices Wreck It Ralph (Step-brothers, Walk Hard the Dewey Cox Story).
Sarah Silverman voices Vanellope Von Schweetz-Ralph's unlikely and glitchy go-kart racer from the Sugar Rush game (School of Rock, School for Scoundrels)
Jack McBrayer voices Fix-It Felix the good guy to Ralph's bad guy in the game Fix it Felix (30 Rock)
Jane Lynch voices Sgt Calhoun from a bug killing game in which Ralph obtains his medal (40 Year Old Virgin, Glee)

Fun facts:  Wreck It Ralph is the 52nd animated feature by Disney Animation studios.  It earned $471 million world wide.  The concept for the movie was initially developed over 30 years ago int he 1980s.  At that time it was thought that the title would be "High Score."  It was also reworked in the 1990s and the 2000s.  There are many different video game cameos and references to even include a video game version of the musician  Skrillex as a DJ.  See how many you can find.


Here is the awesome trailer, go check it out or revisit it to find more things to love about it!

You can view the official Disney page dedicated to Wreck-It Ralph at: Wreck It Ralph Site