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/

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

Megamind

Liam and I finally got around to watching Megamind today.  I know I know, I am WAY behind the times again.  I have to say that it was pretty good.  Not eh best Pixar movie ever.  There was a lot of jumping around going on.  It wasn't bad though and definitely worth watching if you have never seen it before.  It lost Liam's attention after about 45 minutes and he wasn't interested in it much the rest of the way through.  I did watch it to the end to get the full story and it did have a good ending.  I think my expectations were too high because of what I had heard other people say about the movie. 

Megamind is about a super-villain that was basically pushedamerican pretty boy looking Metro Man the hero.  Megamind is supposed to be "super intelligent" but he didn't seem to have any real original ideas and was considered a joke by the people.  He ends up finally getting a plan to work that kills Metro Man.  Now he can take over Metro City and he grows bored without anyone to fight. So he goes about creating a new super hero with which to fight.  The first half of the story lacked much originality but then it did develop into a better story for me.  For a child, it could be hard to track the frequency with which Megamind is changing what his appearance and demeanor is when pretending to be other people.  

into the villain lifestyle due to life circumstance while his nemesis is all-

There are a lot of great people behind the voices with Megamind being voiced by Will Farrell.  The love interest reporter Roxanne is voiced by Tina Fey.  Metro Man is voiced by Brad Pitt.  You will also find Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Ben Stiller.   I did like the fact that Megamind liked 80s rock to fight to haha.

Ben Stiller was originally cast as Megamind and then Robert Downey, Jr.  However there were scheduling conflicts and ultimately the role went to Will Farrell who I think did a good job with the character.

Overall I give this movie a 3.5/5 stars because it could have been a LOT funnier which such an all-star comedic cast.  

You can view the official website at: www.megamind.com

Toy Story Trilogy Contemplations

As my son watched all 3 Toy Story movies this weekend and repeatedly watches 3, I have had ample time to think about these movies and decided it would be a great blog topic, so here it goes!

In case you don't know anything at all about Toy Story.  The original Toy Story came out in 1995.  It is about "Andy's Toys" that come to life when humans are not around and have their own life going on.  They live for being  there whenever Andy wants to play with them.  It is made by Disney/Pixar and features the main characters as Woody a cowboy toy voiced by Tom Hanks and a new intruder
for favorite toy as Buzz Lightyear an astronaut action figure voiced by Tim Allen. Woody is Andy's favorite toy until he receives Buzz as a birthday present.  The movie follows through with Woody being jealous of Buzz, knocking him out of a window and then going to great lengths to rescue him.  During this time the two of them end of becoming great pals and make it back to Andy together. 


Toy Story 2 was released in 1999 and  features the reprisal of the two main characters Buzz & Woody still as Andy's toys of course.  Woody is stolen by a toy collector when he is trying to rescue another
toy from being sold in a garage sale.  Buzz and the rest of the gang set out in search of Woody to rescue him.  Woody contemplates being in a museum forever while adding a few toys that were featured in the western children's television show in which he is famous for.  They have quite the adventure around town for toys to include an apartment complex, Al's Toy Barn, and the airport.  Eventually all is well, Woody is rescues and brings new toys Jessie the cowgirl and Bullseye, his trusty shy affectionate stead home to Andy with him.  This movie has a western feel about it in dedication to Woody's character. 


Toy Story 3 was released in 2010.  It brings back most of our old friends and still include Buzz & Woody.  Andy is getting ready to depart for college and he has not played with any of his toys in a

long time.  They are all depressed and thinking that they will be thrown out with the trash.  Andy intends to put them all in the attack  and take Woody to college with him, separating the friends.  Andy's mom mistakenly thinks that the toys are trash (because they are in a garbage bag) and puts them out on the curb.  They all climb into a box heading for a daycare in hopes for a new and better life.  Woody is the only toy that knows the truth and tries to convince them that they were not meant to be put out for trash.  None of them believe him and they embrace their new life at the daycare, only to realize that it is being run by the evil tyrant: Lotso Huggin' Bear.  Lotso resets Buzz back to factory settings and he turns on his friends, keeping them captive.  Woody has to return to help them all escape.  Eventually after a near miss at the incinerator they end up as a sweet girl Bonnie's toys and the movie ends with Andy playing with her and the toys one last time and Woody deciding to stay with all of his friends together instead of going to college with Andy. 

Toy Story 1 was one of my all time favorite Disney movies.  I remember watching Toy Story 2, but it still was not better than Toy Story 1 for me.  Then the third installment: Toy Story 3 came out and this movie stole my heart.  The first time I watched it, I cried twice for the toys and it does such an amazing job connecting you with each of the characters and not knowing if you will ever see them again.  It makes a person wonder about all of their toys and have a hard time ever getting rid of any toys  (possibly explains my son's 2 play rooms right now haha).  They are all great though and a complete story.  If you have never seen any of them or if you have missed any of them, you are missing out on some of the greatest Disney movies ever created. *Spanish Buzz is my favorite ;)  I highly recommend checking them out.

Fun Facts about the movies: Toy Story 1 was made on a $30 mil budget and brought in over $360 million.  At the time of it's release, Toy Story 2 was the third highest grossing animated film of all time only behind Aladdin & Lion King.  Overall it was ranked 16th highest grossing domestically and 21st internationally.  Toy Story 1 forever changed the computer animated movie industry and Pixar has done nothing but grow since then.  Apple's Steve Jobs was one of the executive produces.  Toy Story 1 was inducted into the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005; its first year of eligibility.  The original script was about Tinny as "Buzz" a ventriloquist doll, going then to a military toy and later settling on a space theme.    
Toy Story 2 was made on a $90 million budget and brought in $485 million.   Toy Story 2 was originally slated to be a straight to DVD release.  It started production in a sperate studio from most of Pixar.  At the time A Bugs Life was the main focus of the Pixar studio.  After story boards came out showing what a great story it was turning out to be, it was immediately rewritten to be a theatrical release and still shot within the original time frame.  The 3-d Re-release in 2009 prompted the creation and later release of Toy Story 3.  Although I disagree, many critics consider Toy Story 2 to be one of the few films to outshine it's original.  At the time it was released in theaters it became the 2nd highest grossing animated film, falling only behind The Lion King.  It was 1999's highest grossing animated film.   
Toy Story 3 was made on a $200 million budget and brought in over $1 billion.  It became the first ever animated film in history to make over $1 billion worldwide.  Currently it is also the 11th highest grossing film of all time.  It was also the highest grossing film of 2010.  This is the only animated sequel in history to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Here are the movie trailers, as borrowed from YouTube, for entertainment purposes only.  I urge you to check them out if you haven't before.  Even if you have it is always a happy place to revisit.  Enjoy!

Toy Story 1

Toy Story 2

Toy Story 3