Jack Black

After opening with a nicely done shadow-puppet-like explanation of how the film’s villain, a peacock named Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), came to be evil, we watch as Po, the chubby Panda voiced by Black, and his martial arts pals attempt to stop Shen from conquering China and wiping out kung fu. Moreover, Shen has a connection to what befell Po’s parents.

The rotund Po is the perfect showcase for Black and his manic comic personality, even more so than any live-action character he’s played. Black makes him an amusing and endearingly goofy character who knows kung fu, sure, but who still has weight issues (“My old enemy…the stairs”) and isn’t quite as clever as he thinks he is. Black also does well enough with Po’s heavier moments.

As well the film has its share of energetic set pieces for the kids to enjoy, from Po and his pals’ first-act scuffle with Shen’s armored wolf goons, to Po careening across rooftops and, later, deflecting flaming cannonballs. An especially enjoyable bit sees Po and the gang taking out Shen’s soldiers while hiding inside a Chinese Dragon.

That unexpectedly darker tone I was talking about, and which I welcome, is rooted in the film’s underlying theme of parental desertion, in how it shaped both Po and Shen. It’s not Freud-level stuff or anything, but it does lend the film some weight, and at the very least allows for a more interesting animated-movie bad guy. And Oldman does great work as Shen, giving him a wonderfully Machiavellian quality, but also making sure we feel his deep-seated anger and sadness.

Freshman director Jennifer Yuh Nelson nicely adds to the darker mood by rendering Po’s unsettling memories about his parents in the kind of old-fashioned hand-drawn animation reminiscent of the darker animated films of the early ’80s, like The Secret of NIMH and The Black Cauldron. She also creates a number of striking visuals, in particular the line of ships making their way down the Gongmen City canal, not to mention ominous thunderclouds and a tall toppling temple.

Now, I do realize this is a movie populated by talking animals, including a raccoon (Dustin Hoffman), a fortune-telling goat (Michelle Yeoh), Po’s goose dad (James Hong, funny and touching), a crocodile (Jean-Claude Van Damme!) and various pigs and rabbits. But you almost forget they’re not human. This goes especially for Angelina Jolie, who exudes Zen-like calm as Po pal Tigress, and Seth Rogen, hilarious as Praying Mantis, chattering on like he does about how the females of his species bite off the heads of the males. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Action/Adventure

Rated PG

Release Date: 12/13/11

I can’t say I was ever a huge fan of the first Cars film to begin with, so a sequel wasn’t exactly what I was craving. The franchise (which also includes the fairly recent direct-to-video release Mater’s Tall Tales) has been leaning more and more heavily on the automotive puns, verbal and visual, which were kinda cute at first (look closely at the buzzing insects in the first film and you’ll see they’re all little VW Beetles), but have become pretty labored (the climax of Cars 2 involves a familiar London landmark referred to as “Big Bentley”). It also becomes harder and harder to ignore the mildly disturbing strangeness of the Cars universe, in which all of the characters are manufactured products in a world that seems to lack manufacturers. Even throwaway gags or lines like “Is the Popemobile Catholic?” raise uncomfortable questions if you think about them too long. If Catholicism exists on a planet populated entirely by motor vehicles, then who was Jesus in this scenario? Was he a chariot or a handcart or a pair of sandals, or maybe his automotive analog should be something like GM’s EV-1?

Whew. Dangerous thoughts. But we’re not supposed to be thinking that much–after all, the film’s hero doesn’t. This time around, the story mostly centers on Mater, the rusty, endearingly unsophisticated tow truck, voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, who played sidekick in the first installment. This time, while he’s ostensibly heading his friend Lightning McQueen’s (Owen Wilson) entourage as he tours the globe to compete in the World Grand Prix, he gets caught up in James Bond-style espionage and international intrigue. His inadvertent spy career is mentored by ace British spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine), who is naturally an Aston Martin DB5 outfitted with all manner of admittedly clever gadgets. Rounding out the Bond analogy is Mater’s improbable love interest, Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer), herself an apprentice agent.

What follows is a moderately entertaining and surprisingly complicated spy thriller plot. I can’t quite grasp how this movie managed to get a G rating, considering the amount of shooting and gunplay going on, not to mention a spy torture scene which might scare younger kids. It’s all decent, diverting fun, but it utterly fails to achieve the heights of heart and humor exemplified by recent Pixar gems like Up and Toy Story 3. The gags here are often extremely contrived, and in one scene, very literally toilet-oriented. Which raises all manner of other uncomfortable questions. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Adventure/Comedy

You see, a shallow but gorgeous blonde (Leslie Bibb) rejected James’ elaborate marriage proposal because he’s a zookeeper. When James gets a chance to win her back, the zoo animals, who don’t want to lose James because he treats them so well (versus the lout played by Donnie Wahlberg), decide to help him out.

To be fair, the film isn’t necessarily bad. No movie featuring Rosario Dawson (as both a zoo doctor and James’ improbable love interest) really could be. And the animal voice casting is mostly on the mark– Sylvester Stallone as a lion, Cher as a lioness, Nick Nolte as a gorilla. I even chuckled a bit at Adam Sandler as a capuchin monkey who loves having thumbs.

James is his usual affable self and earns a few laughs in his scenes working in a high-end car dealership, and he and Dawson, despite the absurdity of the pretty-woman-likes-fat-man scenario, do share a nice dancing scene at his brother’s wedding. As well Nolte manages to make us genuinely care for his despondent primate (an impressively realistic animatronic creation the film doesn’t deserve).

Alas, as a whole it’s painfully predictable, hitting with precision every beat of the oft-told tale of a guy who changes to get a hot girl before realizing the girl for him was right there all along. Plus, there’s a bit too much scatological humor (a wolf shows James how to mark his territory), and James’ competition with an alpha-male bully (Joe Rogan) for Bibb’s affections is outright unfunny.

It’s made for kids to enjoy, anyway, what with James falling down a lot and running into things and the monkey’s wanting to throw poop on everything. Adults might possibly appreciate the end credits, during which we hear Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” to which the animals sing along. Including Stallone, who apparently didn’t learn anything from Rhinestone. – [DVD]

Comedy/Family/Romance

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 10/11/11

The rather straightforward plot involves the attempts of 11-year-old Milo (Seth Green, doing the physical performance but not the voice) to rescue his mom (Joan Cusack) from the red planet after Martians kidnap her so they can physically extract her apparently ideal maternal instincts.

For all the effort Robert Zemeckis (who only produced this one) has put into fine-tuning the motion-capture technology, the human characters here still look a little too unrealistic, their movements a little too unnatural. Normally it would have taken me out of the film, but the film’s whiz-bang pace and incessantly irritating characters, like the ‘60s-talking female Martian and obese fellow human (Dan Fogler) that Milo encounters, prevented me from really getting into it in the first place.

At the very least director Simon Wells (The Time Machine), great-grandson of author H.G. Wells, does give us something nice to look at. The silver Martian buildings are wondrously sleek, while the massive Martian junkyard, where Milo amusingly meets a tribe of boy Martians, is a beautifully rendered creation. The Martian rocket ships launching into the air are also kind of cool.

Unfortunately, Wells seems so focused on the expensive-looking imagery that he neglects making much of the film emotionally accessible. A shame, because the first-act scenes between Milo and his frustrated mom generate some genuine warmth, and even reminded me a little of my own youth. But things turn cold fast when we go to Mars, not to mention creepy, which is the best way to describe the sight of an overweight human man flirting with a female Martian. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

The Perfect Game

Clifton Collins Jr. plays the team’s ex-major league towel boy turned coach. He gives just enough dramatic depth to the role to support his character’s conflict and development. The team is made up mostly of actors I didn’t know, with the exception of Jake T. Austin, a regular on Wizards of Waverly Place. Throw in Cheech Marin, as the priest who helps move the team along, and you have ironic casting at its most effective.

This is a story of a group of poor, rag tag boys who have a dream, and bond together to achieve it. The theme of the underdog working against adversity to fulfill a goal is a familiar one, but it’s executed especially well in The Perfect Game. The film also gives us a view of some of the racial prejudices that existed in the U.S. in the 1950’s, and what the boys were forced to endure on their journey.

This is a movie about dreams, faith, and family. If you’re a viewer looking for a good family movie that is not an action film with lots of explosions, see The Perfect Game. The DVD also offers some very good Special Features, including interesting interviews with the filmmakers and actors. – [DVD]

It is also genuinely, startlingly odd. Set in a palpably parched, hallucinatory Mojave Desert, it is populated by all manner of dusty, eccentric creatures, along with a hero that looks to be the result of Picasso’s formerly unknown lizard taxidermy hobby. The latter is a neurotic, domesticated chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who, as the film opens, finds himself marooned on a lonely, sun-scorched stretch of desert highway. He eventually makes his way to the beleaguered town of Dirt, and through blind luck and Actor’s Studio bravado finds himself appointed as its new sheriff. This puts him in the midst of a water crisis and a sinister conspiracy rather reminiscent of a certain well-known 70’s neo-noir film.

Indeed, Rango is a gleeful exercise in homage. It doesn’t reference just any Western, but every Western, from John Ford’s Stagecoach to Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dollars, even all the way to Robert Zemeckis‘ Back to the Future Part III, and many many more in between. Of course, it is marketed as a family film, but I’m sure most kids won’t detect the plethora of (sometimes quite subtle) nods it makes to films of yesteryear. And, when I first saw it in the theater, I wondered if the writing itself was too colorful and Coen-esque to be understood by younger audiences. Nevertheless, the kids that were present on the two occasions I saw it in public seemed transfixed enough. But then a kid doesn’t need to get all the gags in Blazing Saddles to enjoy the heck out of it. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Adventure/Comedy

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 7/12/11

The fart jokes were not funny at all and really did not make any sense either. I was just glad that I did not see any testicle kicking or more than a few fart jokes. And the parts when a frog tells Juliet that her butt looks fat or that she looks hot made me feel sick that children think that that is funny. The ironic twist to the original ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was not so great, as they had Juliet be a super athletic super ninja. I thought they were garden gnomes, but people who want a sporty princess in a movie are in luck.

Once the Terrafirminator lawn mower (Hulk Hogan) is bought by Gnomeo’s small companion, Benny (Matt Lucas), is where the good part comes in. Of course the ending is not too great for kids my age and maybe a little bit older. Maybe too happy or maybe too fun or whatever it might be. But, I would suggest this to young kids and maybe young parents too. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Adventure/Comedy

Rated G

DVD Release Date: 5/24/11

Disney

Said story, of course, is “Rapunzel,” the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about a girl with really long hair locked away in a tower by an evil enchantress. Here the girl, a princess kidnapped as a baby by a vain woman who wants the kid’s hair for its magical healing properties, is made into a relatable teenager who manages to escape the tower thanks to the arrival of a roguish thief.

Unlike her classic brethren, Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore), while certainly innocent and naïve of the world, is a spirited girl here, wielding a cast iron frying pan (an object turned into an amusing running joke) and tying people up with her lengthy locks. So she makes for a better role model for girls, and, in a nice gender-reversal touch, especially for Disney, essentially gets to save the day.

The thief is voiced by Zachary Levi (TV’s Chuck), who makes the guy both smooth and vain to a hilarious degree. His funniest scenes usually involve a white palace horse named Maximus, whose behavior and facial expressions help make him the film’s funniest character. There’s also Rapunzel’s pet chameleon, who sticks his tongue in Levi’s ear and shows emotion by changing color.

As well directors Byron Howard (who also made Bolt) and Nathan Greno render the film beautifully, wholly succeeding in their stated aim of making it sometimes resemble an oil painting, in particular the wondrous scene in which hundreds of lighted lanterns are released into the air. They also wring some genuine emotion from the story, like when the queen gently wipes a tear from the king’s eye.

Granted, the characters don’t look perfectly real (their eyes are a little too big), and the demise of Rapunzel’s captor (voiced with perfect wickedness by Donna Murphy) might prove a bit intense for some tots. But such darkness, which is present in the best of Disney’s animated films, is easily balanced out here by the sight of a tavern full of brutes singing about having dreams.- [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Comedy/Family

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 3/29/11

Steve Carell

Carell voices Gru, a bald, Nosferatu-looking über villain who hasn’t been very successful in his chosen profession. So he hatches a can’t-miss plan to steal the moon, which involves retrieving a shrink ray from a rival über villain, which itself involves adopting a spirited trio of little girls.

The funniest thing about the film has to be Gru’s minions– short, yellow, thimble-shaped little guys that wear goggles and speak in an amusing kind of gibberish. They’re used as guinea pigs for anti-gravity rays and fart guns, laugh at the bubbles in a water cooler and go shopping for a new toy for one of the orphans. No matter what they do, you’ll laugh.

Almost as funny is the accent Carell creates for Gru, a Dracula-sounding thing that perfectly complements the character’s pointy-nosed appearance. And the character’s all the more humorous for not really being that evil. More like mischievous on a big scale. His biggest claims to fame include stealing the Times Square jumbotron and the tiny Las Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower.

But the execution of all this is surprisingly uninspired, the attempts at cleverness a little too clever and the action a little too frantic. So the rival villain (Jason Segel) being a big-egoed schlub gets annoying fast, watching Gru’s bad-guy ship shrink in mid-air is not funny, and it’s no surprise that Gru eventually warms up to the girls, the youngest of whom is absolutely adorable.

If anything, the film is proof that not every all-CGI flick is a home run, even with the involvement of talent like Carell, Segel and Russell Brand (funny as the voice of Gru’s old-man assistant, Dr. Nefario). That doesn’t mean it’s a despicable movie. Just a slightly disappointing one. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Comedy/Family

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 12/14/10

Since this is an Emma Thompson project, A-list actors appear for choice bits and cameos. This installment had wonderful surprises in the shape of Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes, and Ewan McGregor for the grown-ups and lots of nutty CGI magic (swimming piglets) for the kids. Although the first 20 minutes were a bit cacophonous (noisy children need Nanny McPhee to appear), once Emma T. is on screen the film is an old-fashioned delight for both children and their parents. Also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as the Mom. - [DVD]

Comedy/Family/Fantasy

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 12/14/10