Tarzan

Liam and I recently watched Disney's Tarzan, which I hadn't seen in forever.  Let me just say that I cried 3 times in the first 10-15 minutes of the movie, and that by the end I had cried a total of 6 times.  I don't remember my heart aching so many times before, I am turning into my mother.

Tarzan was released in 1999 by Walt Disney Animation and is considered the last of the Disney Renaissance films.  It is the 37th Walt Disney Animated Classic and the first animated feature of the story of Tarzan, based off of the book Tarzan and the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Tarzan is a story about a British couple who are shipwrecked on an island with their baby and cannot survive the wildlife.  An ape who has recently lost her own baby hears Tarzan crying and raises him as her own with the gorillas.  As an adult, other humans come to explore the island and Tarzan is torn between wanting to be with his own kind and staying with the family that raised him.


Voice talents include:
Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan (Scandal, Divergent, Law & Order: CI, Last Samurai, Ghost)
Glenn Close as Kala (Simpsons, Damages, Hoodwinked, The Shield, Stepford Wives, Air Force One)
Brian Blessed as Clayton (Peppa Pig, King Lear, Star Wars Episode I, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
Minnie Driver as Jane (Good Will Hunting, Grosse Point Blank, About A Boy, I Give It A Year, Riches)
Nigel Hawthorne as Professor Porter (Amistad, Demolition Man, Yes, Prime Minister, Black Cauldron)
Wayne Knight as Tanto (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park, Space Jam, The Exes, Hot in Cleveland, 3rd Rock From the Sun)
Rosie O'Donnell as Terk (Flintstones, Now & Then, League of Their Own, The View, Rosie O'Donnell Show)

It's production budget of $130 million made it the most Expensive animated film of all time at the time of its release.  Disney's Treasure Planet finally topped it t $140 million in 2002.  Tarzan gross $448 billion worldwide as was the first Disney film to open at #1 since Pocahontas.

For the movie Tarzan, the production team developed a new CGI concept called Deep Canvas, which allowed artists to created CGI backgrounds that looked like a painting.  This technique was awarded a Technical Achievement Award in 2003 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.  The songs for the film were written and performed by Phil Collins.

I loved this movie, and although it has some disturbing emotional scenes for adults, my toddler didn't seem to be negatively affected.  He loved the movie and keeps requesting to watch the "movie with the baby" which is what Tarzan is now called in our house.  4.5 out of 5 stars. 

You can visit the official site: Tarzan

Monster's University

I have been wanting to see Monster's University since I first heard that they were making it.  I was definitely more excited to watch it than Liam (my 3 year old son) was.  He is never too keen on watching new things until you convince him to give it a try.  I definitely enjoyed the movie although it seemed almost more geared towards adults than children.  I would have liked to have seen more of little Mikey and added some of little Sully.  But as always there were some great lessons to be learned for older kids.

In case you know nothing about Monster's University it is a 2013 Computer animated 3D comedy children's film.  It is the prequel to the 2001 movie Monster's Inc.  It is the first prequel that Pixar has created to date and was their 14th full-length film.  This returns to our two friends Mike & Sully before they met when they were both studying at Monster's University to become the top scarers.  They start the movie out as rivals. 

It was produced by Pixar and released by Disney.  Disney had plans to make a sequel to Monster's Inc since 2005 but due to disagreements with Pixar, they tasked their Circle 7 Animation studio to make it.  An early draft of the film was worked on but with the purchase of Pixar by Disney in 2006 it put that film away.  A Pixar made sequel was confirmed in 2010, but they decided on making a Prequel instead in 2011.  Overall the film received positive reviews and was a box office success grossing $743 million against a $200 million budget.  The original sequel was set to come out in early November 2012 but had to be preponed due to coinciding with The Twilight Saga-Breaking Dawn Part 2.  One a prequel was decided on, it pushed everything back to 2013.




Monster's University features a wonderful voice acting cast to include:
Micheal "Mike" Wazowski-Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally, Analyze This, City Slickers)
James P. Sullivan "Sully"-John Goodman (Roseanne, Argo, Community, Saturday Night Live)
Randall "Randy" Boggs-Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, ConAir, Boardwalk Empire, 30 Rock)
Dean Hardscrabble-Helen Mirren (Red, The Queen, State of Play, Teaching Mrs. Tingle)
Done-Joel Murray (Mad Men, Two and a Half Men, Shameless, Dharma & Greg, Still Standing)
Terri-Sean Hayes (Will & Grace, Sean Saves the World)
Terry-Dave Foley (Hot in Cleavland, Dan Vs, How to Be A Gentleman, Will & Grace)
Art-Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Horrible Bosses, Pacific Rim, Third Watch)

Overall I have to say that this was a good standalone film.  When you compare it with it's predecessor Monster's Inc. which was such a phenomenal movie this one falls short of a 5 star rating.  I round it up to a 4 star because it is still good and fun to watch, but could have been better.  There were many great elements in the movie and Mike & Sully stayed in character.  I felt like almost every scene I had watched in previews was not featured in the actual movie such as Mike being turned into a disco ball by Sully.  It seems that the previews painted Sully out to be more of a bully to Mike than he was in the finished product and I am ok with that result but it always sucks when you are watching for certain parts and never seen them.  This film introduced a lot of fun new characters that brought a whole new element of "scary" to the monsters.  It did have a slightly darker tone than the original movie.  Once we got it started my son was definitely into it from the start and there are some great lessons on friendship and cheating and being excelling at what makes you unique.  I would definitely recommend this movie and would watch it again.

Here is the official website: monstersuniversity.com/edu/

We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story

There are a lot of old movie gems that it is hard to find in day to day happenings.  This past weekendI went grocery shopping and at the checkout I happened to see a movie behind one of the magazines.  being the movie addict that I am, I of course looked to see what it was and lo and behold it was We're Back!  I admittedly squealed with glee and of course added it to my purchases!  Liam was a bit hesitant to watch this movie but it did have dinosaurs so I was able to sneak it on without too much of a fight.

In case you missed out on this awesome movie with an all-star voice cast, let me tell you a little bit about it.  We're Back is a 1993 animated Sci-Fi adventure movie that was released by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animated studio.  It was created based on the 1987 children's book of the same name written by Hudson Talbott (which I totally want to read now).   The story is about 4 dinosaurs that are given a brain grain cereal which makes them smart and able to talk and be kind to people and then they are brought back to "modern day" New York.  A giant helium balloon of Rex was flown in the actual 1993 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but midway through the head was popped, but the body made it to the end. 

The all star cast includes:
John Goodman (Monster's Inc, Roseanne, Argo, Community, SNL, West Wing, Blue's Brothers)
Rhea Perlman (Cheers, Matilda)
Jay Leno (Tonight Show, Jay Leno Show, Fairly OddParents)
Larry King (Larry King Live, Larry King Now)
Walter Cronkite (Great Performances, ESPN SportsCentury, Biography, CBS Evening News)
Charles Fleischer (Zodiac, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Nightmare on Elm Street)
Kenneth Mars (Land Before Time Series, Malcom in the Middle, Little Mermaid, Pink Panther)
Yeardley Smith (Simpsons, Dharma & Greg, City Slickers)
Martin Short (Cat in the Hat, Frankenweenie, SNL, Primetime Glick, Santa Clause Series)
Julia Child the famous chef

 Originally John Malkovich was scheduled to play Dr. Screweyes but left due to constant rewrite and due to executive meddling from this movie, he ended up leaving Hollywood for a few years to do only International productions.

The film received mixed reviews, mostly on the negative side citing poor narration as a number one problem.  Pizza hut did carry a line of toys and video games were made featuring different adaptions for every format which had nothing to do with the original story.  The film grossed $3.7 million opening weekend and overall ended with $9.3 million making it a box office bomb movie. 

Overall I have to admit that I liked this movie more as a child, but the nostalgia is still there and I still find it entertaining.  It is an incredibly short movie in terms of children's movies today at a run time of only 80 minutes.  I give this movie a solid 3.  The animation is fine, but nothing special.  I love John Goodman, so that made me like the movie more and the voices are fun with all of the stars.  The story is a bit choppy and features some elements that are a bit dark for children (a scary circus, dinosaurs portrayed as being scary).  It does however provide the lessons that running away to the circus is bad, wishes can come true, and that love can change a person for the better.) If nothing else you need to watch it for John Goodman's singing :)

Lilo & Stich 2: Stich Has A Glitch

As promised, I am here to review the second movie in the Stitch series.  Although there may be some confusion since technically The Stitch movie was made second, this movie actually falls second in terms of story timeline, so I consider it the second movie in the series.  This movie has been the reigning favorite with my son.  I personally like the first one and The Stitch Movie the best, but this one seems to always get Liam's vote. Luckily they have great repeat watch value as a parent and especially for a toddler which is priceless as any parent well knows. 

We are once again brought into the tropical Hawaiian world of Lilo and her pay Stitch in this movie!  Elvis music reigns supreme but in a good way.  Most notably in this sequel, Stitch no longer tries to hide who.what he is, and he is a much more talkative character in this movie.  Stitch is learning how to fit into a human society and learn how to raise his "goodness level".  We get to see our main character Lilo a young girl aspiring to be a hula dancer and her alien friend Stitch who everyone calls a dog for lack of anything better to call him.  Lilo lives with her older sister Nani (their parents were deceased before the start of the original movie).  The character David is trying to further a relationship with Nani throughout the movie.  Lilo's main focus is to come up with the best Hulu dance ever for a competition so that she can win as her mother did before her.  Stitch is to be her partner in the dance when all of a sudden he starts "glitching."  During his "glitch" moments he is quite destructive and actually semi dangerous to those around him but the normal Stitch which is now good does not know what happens during these times or how to stop it.  His creator Jumba and pal Pleakley are on a mission to try to fix Stitch (they decided to stay on Earth after the end of the first movie).   Social worker Cobra Bubbles was absent from his role in this film.

Lilo & Stitch 2 was released in 2005 (the original was released in 2002).  The add-on "Stitch Has a Glitch" was never associated with the original film in any titling but became commonly associated with the movie and was later added on to the title and in advertising.  This is the only film in the entire franchise where you will hear Lilo with a different voice (Dakota Fanning) due to the scheduling conflicts with the Lilo & Stitch tv show that was also airing at the same time as recording for this show.  Chris Sanders (writer/director) of the first film still did voicing but did not participate in any of the production of this film that was a straight to DVD release after an original theatrical release plan.  It received mixed reviews, with most of the negative responses saying that the story was not as engaging as the original and that the humor had gone from intellectual witty to a much more dumbed down younger sort of humor.  To me there was a bit more of dark undertone to a lot of the humor in the original that I admittedly loved.  But this movie showed a lot more lessons in friendship and love. 

Voice acting remained the same with Dakota Fanning, in place of Daveigh Chase (Donnie Darko), although I must admit that having seen all of the films multiple times now, that it is not a noticeable change by any means.


Lilo is voiced by Dakota Fanning (Man on Fire, Twilight Saga, Push, War of the Worlds, Hounddog)
Stitch is voiced by Chris Sanders who also wrote the screenplay
Nani is voiced by Tia Carrere (Wayne's World)
David (Nani's love interest) is voiced by Jason Scott Lee (Bruce Lee's Dragon)
Jumba (Stitch's creator) is voiced by David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth, MASH)

I give this film 4/5 stars.  Although it is not as great as the original film in my opinion, it still has a lot of great values.  I love that the animation is different that you would usually see, especially for a Disney film.  The characters in their personalities, especially Lilo are very real in the way that she feels about people and school and going through sorrow and anger in a way that is not often faced in young children, especially in cartoon movies.  You can see her growth through her friendship with Stitch.  This movie also will always stand out to me because Liam was able to empathetically connect with this movie in a way that I have never seen him do so with other movies.  Towards the end of the movie Stitch is in a possible dead state and my three year old son actually felt the sadness and the loss and had tears welled up into his eyes.  The love of Lilo is what ultimately feeds Stitches life-force and the loss is short lived and then you are able to rejoice in the happiness, so that for younger children this is not ending on a sad note.  This movie held overall a lot less violence than the other films, and mostly featured inner turmoil and the fact that teaching lessons such as hurting a friend and scratching them can be very hurtful to another person.  You can tell that overall the audience for the film was intended to be younger.  I definitely recommend this movie and to continue in the story line to get the full effect don't miss out on the original Lilo & Stitch.


Here is the official website: Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch

In case you missed my review on the original: Lilo & Stitch you can find it here: Lilo & Stitch

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.

Lilo & Stitch

This is the beginning to a run of 3 other movies that were all definitely watchable on repeat with a toddler.  In time I will review them all, but I can't review the following story without starting at the beginning.  Lilo & Stitch is one of those Disney movies that I somehow missed until I watched it for the first time with Liam.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the storyline.

Lilo & Stitch is about a Hawaiian girl whose parents have died and she is being raised by her big sister Nani.  She feels very alone in the world and wishes for a friend.  Nani takes her to the pound to get a dog and she ends up adopting Stitch.  Far from a canine, Stitch is actually an alien that is on the run from the law of his own planet and is hiding out as a fugitive on Earth.  He is the creation of an evil scientist who has been sent with an Earth expert to capture him and bring him back in for justice.  There is a larger Elvis presence throughout the film and his impact on Hawaii and Lilo.

Lilo & Stitch was released in June of 2002.  It is the 42nd animated Walt Disney feature.  It was written and directed by Chris Sanders who also wrote all other Lilo movies as well as both Croods movies, How to Train Your Dragon, Mulan I and II, The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty & the Beast. He also plays the voice of Stitch.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for best Animated Film but did not win. 


There are a lot of famous voices in Lilo & Stitch
Lilo is voiced by Daveigh Chase (Samantha in Donnie Darko and in S. Darko)
Stitch is voiced by Chris Sanders who also wrote the screenplay
Nani is voiced by Tia Carrere (Wayne's World)
David (Nani's love interest) is voiced by Jason Scott Lee (Bruce Lee's Dragon)
Cobra Bubbles (Social Worker) is voiced by Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible series)
Jumba (Stitch's creator) is voiced by David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth, MASH)

Chis Sanders (the writer and director) had originally created the story about Stitch in 1985 for an unsuccessful children's story pitch.   The storyline required a remote non-urban location and was originally going to take place in Kansas.  Deciding to change the location to the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i was a major decision, as no Disney movies had previously taken place in Hawaii.  Dean Deblois cowrote with Sanders ad he had done with Mulan previously. Disney wanted to keep this low-budget so everything remained pretty small until final production which lead the set and character designs to Sander's own personal style.  On location research the tour guide for Kaua'i explained the meaning of the word "ohana" in regards to family.  This ended up becoming a major concept for the movie.  Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee (Both raised in Hawaii assisted in rewriting the script to show true Hawaiian dialect and colloquialism).

Sanders chose to use watercolor backgrounds that had been long abandoned by most Disney films at the time.  They were used in films such as Dumbo and Snow White.  This was to flow with the story and with Sanders unique artwork.  He wanted the artists to be more in tune with their medium.  As you may notice the people in Lilo & Stitch are portrayed vastly different from people in any other Disney Animation.  The body shape especially with the extra long legs and the torsos always stood out as different to me, and now I know why.  Sanders also wanted the extra terrestrial objects to be similar to marine life.

Deleted Scenes include a major change int he original story where Stitch was an intergalactic gang leader and Jumba was one of his followers but that changed to Jumba being Stitches creator.   Also at the end Stitch originally flew a Boeing 747 to rescue Lilo but after the September 11th attacks this was changed to have Stitch flying a spaceship instead. 

Lilo & Stitch opened at #2 less than $500,000 behind Minority Report with $35 million.  Overall finishing with $273 million worldwide. 

Overall I find that this is a wonderful story and possesses a lot of great elements and lessons that don't always exist in Disney movies and can be hard to get the message across including death of parents, being raised by your sister, Social Workers, aliens, depression, bullying, etc.  I give it 5 stars out of 5 and highly recommend it to anyone.  Check it out if you missed out on it like I did and revisit it if it has been awhile.

The official Disney site: Lilo & Stitch

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

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

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

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

Disney's Robin Hood

It has been many years since I last watched Disney's version on Robin Hood.  I must admit that I was very excited when I saw that it had been added onto Netflix's instant watch.  This is the Disney version of Robin Hood as told my animals.

  It was released by Disney in 1973.  It was the 21st animated feature to be released by Disney.  The film is narrated by a singing rooster telling about the story of Robin Hood and Little John and the Sherwood Forest.  It was finished after Walt's death and was as such the first film to be continued on without him. 
Originally Disney considered doing a movie abotu Reynard the fox but there were concerns about whether or not he would be a suitable hero.  Reynard was a trickster fox from European folklore that was based primarily around satirical stories....  Using anthropomorphic tales (animals instead of people) which was probably the base inspiration for anthropomorphic telling of Robin Hood, using a similar casting of a wolf and a lion against the fox.

As the film was made during Disney's financial slump following the completion of Phase One of the Florida Project and therefore allotted a small budget, the artists reused footage from previous animated features. This is most noticeable during the song-and-dance number, "The Phone King of England"; the characters' movements strongly resemble those from The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Snow With

In particular, the section where Little John and Lady Kluck dance together mirrors part of the song "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book with Baloo and  king Louie respectively, and Robin Hood and Maid Marian mirror the dancing movements of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess during the song "Everybody Wants to Be A Cat" from The Aristocats (from which some of the musicians also mirror the movements of Scat Cat and his gang) and Maid Marian mirror dancing the movements of Snow White during the song "The Silly Song".  The animation of Little John, the bear in Robin Hood, is nearly identical to that of Baloo but Little John more closely resembles a brown or grizzly bear (Baloo was based on an Indian Sloth Bear). At one point, one of the elephants who acts as heralds for Prince John attempts to trumpet a warning. Lady Kluck grabs the trunk, preventing the trumpeting and leaving the elephant flapping his ears ineffectually.The movie also reuses the same animated shots several times, including those of the rhinos walking and running and those of Sis, Tagalong and Toby laughing. Several animated clips of the Sheriff of Nottingham are also recycled at different points in the film.

At the time of it's release it was received with mixed reviews, overall consensus being that it was on par with The Jungle Book, but could not touch some of Disney's greats.

I have to say that although this was definitely NOT Disney's finest work.  I still love it all the same.  I have always loved the story of Robin Hood and I always loved it being told in a an anthropomorphic way.  I think that the songs are catchy and generally fun for the time being.  It had a good ol' Disney Love song, that was actually reused in the "The Fantastix Mr. Fox."
Liam was definitely into it.  It would be in the top half of his attention getting movies, but wasn't the best one yet.

With that being said, it is definitely worth watching and fun to relive.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.  I love what it had to offer for the 70s.  Enjoy.

To Visit Disney's website dedicated to Robin Hood go to: Disney Robin Hood

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.

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

I know I watched and loved Winnie The Pooh as a child and it has been so great to share it with Liam and watch him become completely attached to it.  So haven't watched it multiple times recently I decided to do a review on it.

I was very surprised by how old it was and how relevant and recent it still seems when you watch it.  Netflix informed me that I was way off base and that it was actually released in 1977.  How crazy that it can still be so timeless and wonderful.  Having loved this for as long as I can remember I always love Tigger, but it was Eeyore that really stole my heart and in high school and right after I started collecting Eeyore's each time I went to a Disney Store.  Unfortunately I have lost some of the most awesome special edition ones in moves :(  But I still love Eeyore all the same and will buy one if I find any different than I already own.  Liam has also taken to loving the many wonderful characters of the movie.

Liam especially loves the songs, most notably "I'm Just a Little Black Raincloud."  I catch him around the house and in the car saying "Tutt Tutt Looks Like Rain."  This movie is great for little attention spans because it is really just a compilation of shorts linked together to create the movie.  The topic changes help keep smaller people more interested throughout the entirety of the film.  I love the way that the story is a part of a book at times :)

The characters are wonderful and loveable-even if they have been linked to the faults of man in each character, which only a negative person would look for in the film.  Although the timeless question of whether Eeyore is a boy or a girl with the pink bow on his tail, is definitively answered, at least in this movie with a deep many voice for him, leaving no other option. I love that Pooh sings a song about being "short fat, and proud of that."

The songs are catchy, there are Heffalumps & Woozles, many lessons about friendship and sharing.  Overall I definitely recommend this movie with 5 stars.  Don't miss this, due to it's age especially if you have children of your own now.  They are sure to love it, just as much if not more than you did as a child.  If you ever missed out on this 1970's classic, be sure to add it to your repertoire.  It is definitely worth the time to sit down and watch it! 

Here is a link to the official site: Winnie The Pooh: Disney