Oz: The Great & Powerful

Having wanted to see this one for quite some time, I was very happy to finally find the time to watch it last night.  I am a huge James Franco fan and it had some other fantastic actresses and voice actors as well.  The cinematography/CGI was beautifully done and I give the highest of honors to it.  The movie started out so beautifully and when OZ gets to Oz initially you feel like he may have made a wrong turn and ended up in Wonderland...  Unfortunately by the time he gets to the Emerald City things start to get weird.

Oz The Great and Powerful is about the Tale of Oz from the Wizard's point of view and is a prequel to he Wizard of Oz, and Return to Oz.  It was released in 2013 and directed by Sam Raimi.  The film is based on the Oz novels of L. Frank Baum and is supposed to be set at a time-frame 20 years previous to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.  Oscar Diggs (otherwise known as Oz) is a struggling traveling magician who arrives in the Land of Oz in a similar fashion as Dorothy (by way of tornado) while riding in a hot air balloon.  Oscar finds himself recruited to restore order to Oz and in the middle of a three-way fight with powerful witches Theodora, Evanora & Glinda.

Despite mixed reviews it was considered a box office success with a general theatrical release date of March 8, 2013.  It grossed $493 million worldwide, $234 million in the US & Canada.  Oz is supposed to be dated in teh year 1905 (placing it 20 years before the original film The Wizard of Oz).

There are quite a few instances of paying homage to the original film in this one.  Such as the starting out of the film in Sepia and then fading into color once Oscar arrives in Oz.  Cameo appearances of characters in Kansas that are also characters in Oz.  Annie (when in Kansas) informs Oscar that she has been proposed to by a man name John Gale...  Possible relation to Dorothy Gale.  The rest you will have to view for yourself as they may present themselves as spoilers if you do not know the story.



There is quite an all-star cast in this movie as well to include

Oscar Diggs/Wizard of Oz: James Franco (Spider-Man franchise, 127 Hours, General Hospital)
Theodora: Mila Kunis (That 70s Show, Black Swan, Family Guy, Ted, Friends With Benefits)
Evanora: Rachel Weisz (Mummy franchise, Constantine, Constant Gardener, Agora)
Glina/Annie: Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn, Shutter Island, Dawson's Creek)
Frank/Finley: Zach Braff (Scrubs, The Last Kiss, Garden State, Chicken Little)
Also featuring Bill Cobbs, Joey King and Tony Cox)

The original Wizard of Oz was put out by MGM in 1939 as they had bought the rights to it first.  Walt Disney had always dreamed of working on an Oz film and later acquired rights to the remaining books of Oz, which lead him to start working on  The Rainbow Road to Oz with his Mousketeers.  Unfortunately he didn't like the way that it was going and didn't feel that it was worth of the Oz story and it wasn't until after his death that Return to Oz was released becoming a cult classic.

Initially Robert Downey, Jr was sought after as the role of Oz but once Sam Raimi was hired on and discovered the disinterest in the film by Downey they decided to look to Johnny Depp.  Depp declined due to his working on the Lone Ranger at the time and it wasn't until 5 months before filming began that James Franco was signed on for a 7 million dollar deal.  Franco & Raimi had previously worked together on the Spiderman franchise.  Art Director Robert Stromberg (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland) went with an art deco approach to the emerald city.  (This explains why the opening feels like Wonderland).  There were many artistic stipulation placed on this production to include the ruby slippers, the color of green of the original witches skin as well as the mole on her chin,  and they could not use a yellow brick swirl for Munchkinland.  This led to the green of the wicked witch being significantly darker, it has a special name but it could be a spoiler.

On March 7th, 2013, a sequel was confirmed.  Mila Kunis stated that all acting talent had already signed on for a sequel.  Sam Raimi was already made it known that a sequel would be directed by someone other than himself.  The sequel would reportedly NOT contain Dorothy and it was stated that 20 years between the prequel and the original allow for a lot to happen.

Overall I have to say that I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.  It was good, but not fantastic.  As I previously stated, it started out SO well with the lead up to Oz and then things started to get weird, there was a weird kind of love triangle interest int he beginning of meeting both witch sisters which was kind of left hanging in the air.  The movement of the witches was very irritating to me during battles, they were very jerky and much too fast and strange feeling.  Glinda didn't have the feel of being as good as you wanted her to be, I felt like she was more on par with the Wicked Glinda which was ok, but not expected.  Overall the story was really good when it flowed consistently, with the background of how the Wicked Witch came to be and with the Wizard of Oz.  However there were some seriously choppy parts that felt like things had been cut or taken out and then never smoothed over to make the movie flow as one.  I loved the use of the brain as opposed to magic and the belief in something to make something come to pass.  I also loved the costuming in the movies, some very awesome takes on witchy dresses and Oscar look svery dapper throughout in his suits.  It was a great backdrop as to how the Wizard became what we saw in the Wizard of Oz.  The scenes were very beautiful but the weird jerkiness and some of the witch battles that had some really tacky feeling CGI as well as choppy parts leave me with a 3.5 for this movie.  If you are a lover of Oz though it is definitely worth the watch...  but maybe not more than once.

If you would like to view the movie website you can go here: Oz The Great and Powerful

WALL-E

I was sure that I had already done a review on this awesome movie, but it looks like it got missed somehow.  I introduced Liam to it about 6 months or so ago and he loved it so much that I finally bought it for him.  It is a great story with a very intense message that revolves around a robot named WALL-E and his robot love interest EVE (WALL-E calls her Eva).

WALL-E Was released in June of 2008 by Pixar studios and is considered a CGI romantic comedy.  WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class) Is a robot that was created to help clean up the trash on Earth in the future (2805) when Earth has become covered and uninhabitable.  He falls in love with a robot that is brought down to Earth named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator).  When she is taken by a spaceship back out into space he follows her on an adventure that will change the destiny of robots and humans alive.

WALL-E grossed over $63 million in it's opening weekend ranking it 5th in the Pixar movie releases.  However it took over in the award wins and got excellent reviews all around.  2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Film, 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation the final Nebula Award for Best Script the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Film as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards. WALL-E ranks first in TIME's "Best Movies of the Decade".

The film was seen as a critique on larger societal issues. It addresses consumerism, nostalgia, environmental problems, waste management, the immense impact humans have on the Earth, and the direction in which the human race is headed.

In my research as to the making of WALL-E because I like to include some of the background in my reviews it was so extensive that I was blown away.  WALL-E was originally worked on in 1995 after Toy Story was completed but it wasn't until 2002 that it was really picked up again.  Originally it was to have a lot darker tone and aliens would have sent EVE to Earth instead of humans.  There was originally no happy ending and I have to say that I like what they ended up going with a lot better than the many concepts.  Most Pixar movies require abotu 75K story boards, whereas WALL-E took over 125K to give you an idea. There was extensive thought to go into the lighting and the colors that were to be used. 

Suffice it to say this movie required a lot of work, and the hard work paid off phenomenally.  This movie stood out spectacularly with a very limited amount of speaking, but it was not needed to get the point across. The visuals and the communication of the robots was done brilliantly and my son loves the movie and can connect with it.  I give it 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone.  Somehow you find yourself lost in the robtos and rooting for WALL-E and wanting him to get the girl and have his true love. 









Here is the official Disney site: WALL-E

Oliver & Company

I always loved Oliver & Company as I was growing up.  With Liam's continued request to watch Bolt again and his love of dogs and cats I was sure that he would love this movie.  Unfortunately from the very beginning he was seriously not feeling this movie.  He kept begging me to change it and he did not feel very engaged by it at all.  In his defense it wasn't as good as I had remembered.  There was a serious lack of action in terms of current Disney movies.  The coloring and backgrounds were not as bright or interactive as most movies are now and it had the older animation.  The story was more adult-based themes rather than something that Liam could really get into and was over his head.  I of course still watched the entire thing and was happy that I had.  I was sad that it wasn't as awesome as I had remembered, but it was still good and worth watching.  Still had some catchy tunes with  a great voice staff, a few cameos and  of course the voice talent of the late Dom Deluise making you want to go back to Itchy in All Dog's go to Heaven and Tiger in An American Tale and Jeremy in the Secret of NIMH and Stanly from A Troll in Central Park.....

Olive & Company is loosely based on the story of Oliver Twist.  Oliver is a kitten and gets in with a gang of dogs, led by Dodger who are owned by a down on his luck guy named Fagin.  Fagin borrowed money from a thug (possible mafia ties) who is wanting his money back in 3 days.  The gang goes out to hustle for some money for their owner when the come across a limo with a little girl inside named Jenni who takes Oliver home with her.

Oliver is an orange tabby kitten voiced by Joey Lawrence.
Dodger is a apparently supposed to be a Jack Russell Terrier, which I did not know until I looked this up.  If that is true, he is drawn disproportionately with the rest of the characters as he should be much smaller than he is in comparison with the other dogs.  He is voiced by Billy Joel
Tito is a ballsy Chihuahua voiced by Cheech Marin
Rita is a Saluki, and Dodger's love interest voiced by Sheryl Lee Ralph
Fagin is the owner of the dog gang and voiced by Dom Deluise
Georgette is a prizewinning show Poodle and is voiced by Better Midler

Oliver & Company was released in 1988 as Disney's 27th animated film.  The working title of the film was Oliver & the Dodger.  At a certain point this film was being tailored as a sequel to The Rescuers.   This was the first Disney film to make heavy use of computer animation.  CGI (computer generated imagery) was used for skyscrapers, cars, trains, the chase scene with Fagin's scooter.  This film signified the first time the Disney had created an actual department dedicated just to computer animation. 

Oliver & Company was Disney's test film back into the musical venue that they had steered away from since 1981 with the Fox & the Hound (somehow I don't recall the Fox & the Hound being much of a musical).  Although after watching Frozen, I think that Disney may have gone too far into the musical scene and lost actual speaking to tell a story ;)  After the success of this film at the box office, Disney created all of it's films as musicals for the next decade (ironically only excluding The Rescuers Down Under). 

This movie was also a test for new sound effects that would regularly be used by Disney studios, the next movie to attempt a plethora of new sound effects was The Little Mermaid in 1989.  It was also the first animated film to include real-world advertised products.  Such as, Coca-Cola, USA Today, Ryder and Sony.  Reportedly this was merely for realism and the mass amount of advertising in NYC that would have made NYC unbelievable without advertising and was not product placement. 

Cameo appearances are made in the beginning of the film when after recently watching the Lady & the Tramp I thought for sure I had seen some familiar faces and was just losing my mind.  When in fact there is a cameo appearance from Peg, Jock & Trusty as well as an appearance from Pongo from 101 Dalmatians. 

Oliver & Company was released on the exact same day as The Land Before Time which was released by Don Bluth (a Disney expatriate).  I am sure there was some drama going on behind the scenes with that one.  The box office success of the movie lead Disney to make plans to release at least one movie annually from then on.  The only years thus far this has not happened were 1993 and 2006.  It also started the partnership with McDonald's and joint licensing and product promotion with christmas musical ornaments of Oliver & Dodger.  Despite box office success it got mixed to low reviews at best.

My final review on this movie is a 3.9.  I still love it from when I was a kid but it can't quite push itself over to a 4.  I still love the Why Should I Worry (main theme song sung by Billy Joel) and am happy that I got to see it again. 

*If you watch closely you can see Pongo's cameo

If you want to see the Disney Link go to Oliver & Company