The year of 2012 actually surprised me with some good films... and some sort-of-good ones. However, they all had some level of appeal and so I'm obligated to give them a special place of honor right here, a list of my five picks from the large host of animated family matinees that were released over the course of the season, as I always hold a soft spot for films intended for younger audiences (especially the ones done in stop-motion).
Director: Sam Fell, Chris Butler
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, John Goodman
Release Date: August 17, 2012
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5
Appearances can be deceiving. This is most certainly the case in regards to the recent Laika film Paranorman, which on all appearances is a cheeky zombie-themed children's comedy flick, but in actuality is a heartfelt thought-provoking story which, though grotesque, delivers rich and compelling narrative material. Of course, Paranorman reveals itself as such in slow fashion, changing what you think you know about its universe and its characters in subtle ways as events progress. Paranorman operates around the ability of Norman (the film's designated child protagonist) to speak with the dead- and as he lives in Blithe Hollow (a fictional town intended to be a close cousin to Salem, MA), there are naturally four hundred years' worth of ghosts to keep him company. Unlike practically every other film in its vein, Paranorman takes the idea of death pretty seriously, despite being a dark comedy. In Tim Burton movies like The Corpse Bride, or, say, more recent knock-off films like Hotel Transylvania- the "spooky" imagery is taken on as an aesthetic choice- it doesn't mean anything that the main characters are ghosts, vampires, or zombies- they're just a part of the story because creepy things like witches and monsters are "cool" to kids. Paranorman turns that on its head entirely: in fact, it makes fun of people who try to reduce dark and important chapters of history to kitschy amusement and tourist bait. In the first scene, we see Norman conversing with the ghost of his dead grandmother; his family doubts his abilities and believes that he is simply coping with his own grief through delusion- and they're actually more sympathetic towards him than any of the other characters in the first act, save his geeky friend and his crazy paranoid uncle (John Goodman!). As the anniversary of a famous event in the town's history is approaching, Norman finds himself suddenly faced with tremendous responsibility, and a power as old as the town itself is awoken as an age-old mystery unravels before him, drawing things ever closer to a climax that is both thrilling and powerful. To get too deep into details about the pneumatology and eschatology presented here would only raise unanswerable questions at this point, so I won't go too far. I'll just leave it at this: when a children's movie shows you the dead coming out of the ground and nearly brings you to tears half an hour later, that's something special. In fact, without any hesitation I believe it's the best children's film of the year. I mean, to discuss the polished artistry of the visuals would take another paragraph altogether- just take a look at the scenery in the trailer! But what it all comes down to is this: Laika knows what's important when it comes to storytelling, and what's important is the theme at the center of it. Paranorman is a story about fear and love: if you don't recognize your own fear, it can not only be dangerous to you, but also to other people- but it's not just that, because it also demonstrates the power of love to triumph over fear and anger. Either way, its ideas are addressed from a lot of angles, and will give parents and kids a lot of good stuff to talk about after the film is over. While other studios are struggling again and again to maintain course par with the same old story, Laika is putting down one original idea after another, and this is a fine demonstration of this company's bright future.
Director: Rich Moore
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk
Release Date: November 2, 2012
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rating: 4/5
In its marketing stage, my expectations for Wreck-It Ralph were that it would be a movie based around video game characters and pop-culture references, using that gimmick as a foundation for a plot. But rather than operate around a single gimmick, Wreck-It Ralph develops its own story and uses the gimmick to enhance its core emotional themes, working through an ensemble cast of likable characters and a series of imaginative settings. Within Wreck-It Ralph, video-games are a world within themselves, where after the game is over, the good guys and the bad guys interact with each other as regular characters who are just "doing their job". In fact, most of the "villains" in games are pretty friendly people (they even have their own support group), and one of these bad guys, Ralph, one day decides that he's tired of being the bad guy and goes off to prove that he's worth something by trying to obtain a medal of honor... and the rest is just how it plays out. Wreck-It Ralph takes us through some interesting twists and turns as it leads us to a new series of characters with a variety complicated backstories- the most central of these characters being Vanellope von Schweetz, an outcast in her own racing game "Sugar Rush" who Ralph befriends in an effort to help her win a race. The most intriguing thing about Wreck-It Ralph to me is the message. Upon finishing the movie, it seems to be a story about friendship, but in retrospect it's really more about accepting your lot in life- working with the card's you're dealt with and learning to be happy with your position through friendship. And of course, once you understand that as the theme of the film, things can get very political very fast, with Ralph as the disgruntled working-class searching for meaning in the financial success of Felix's world, the military honor of "Hero's Duty", and the political race of "Sugar Rush". But discussing that in any more depth would require a whole other essay. Where Wreck-It Ralph succeeds is in telling its own story. Sure, it's a bit crowded, albeit littered with common Disney tropes, and it very nearly loses its own path. Yet the solidity of the structure and how it's all relayed to us is flat-out captivating, and best of all, it's bound to be a very big hit with kids of all ages.
Director: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Starring: Kelly MacDonald, Emma Thompson, Billie Connolly, Julie Walters
Release Date: June 22, 2012
Running Time: 93 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
Brave was made at a time when we definitively knew the Pixar golden age was over, and though it's not a bad movie itself, it sadly demonstrates a level of mediocrity that doesn't seem to measure up to the seemingly unstoppable climb of Pixar's progress. I guess the first issue that I had with this movie came when I was first watching it and I realized that I wasn't getting anything new. If you strip the movie down to its core, what it becomes is a mother-daughter misunderstanding movie. Now even though a parent-child conflict is the oldest trope in the book of kids' movie plots, it's often been seen in father-son scenarios and it's about time that an animated film focused on parental relationships between females... but did it have to be Pixar that picked it up? To be frank, this cliche is so dull that it doesn't matter which gender it works with because it just brings down the rest of the movie. Ditto for Merida in her whole "asserting independence in context of a forced marriage and the upper class restrictions of the time period" subplot. As for the rest of it- the medieval setting, the witch, the Scottish designs- they're all great. I just wish that these same key elements had been placed within a more original story. I mean, the quirky-bordering-on-crazy witch is hilarious, and what happens with the magical transformation at the center of the story is pretty great... and yet it doesn't really go anywhere. The misunderstanding becomes resolved through the cooperation of the mother and daughter to tackle a shared problem. How unexpected. This "problem" really doesn't come into the story until at least half of the movie is over, so up until then we're just given all sorts of exposition as to Merida's family circumstances. Then, after the big problem is introduced, it's resolved surprisingly quickly by means of an underwhelming climax. Even with magic as a major plot element, it still feels more like a Middle Ages relationship drama than an adventure story. The humor also takes a backseat in this film, with all the best lines being in the trailer, and all the other jokes being left out of the trailer because they were crude or goofy. Given all that, I still feel like there are a lot of redeeming qualities here. The visuals themselves are no doubt bound to impress, and the world of Old Scotland as presented here is immersive and fascinating. The characters will probably be criticized for lack of appeal by annoyed fans of the old Pixar, though they're not bad characters. In fact, they're fairly likable and very well animated. For me, Brave is just about on the same level as Cars. It's an entertaining film with a lot of interesting ideas, and there are a lot of opportunities that are presented by the setting which the writers take full advantage of, so we're rewarded with some great moments here and there. But like Cars, Brave suffers by using an old plot as its backbone, and its many components result in a conflicted tone, creating a film not dissimilar to Merida's hair: beautiful but messy. Nevertheless, the end result is not unsatisfying and although it probably won't wind up a family favorite, it will definitely please the kids, while not being too juvenile for the parents to enjoy.
Director: Peter Ramsey
Starring: Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, Jude Law
Release Date: November 21, 2012
Running Time: 97 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
In age where characters like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are disgustingly commercialized and mocked in every way as childish fantasies, Rise of the Guardians takes a new edge on pop-culture childhood mythos by re-designing all the characters in a surprisingly serious fashion. I always thought the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were ridiculous, at least in the way that they were represented in popular lore. This movie makes them look freaking awesome. I mean, I love all of these characters, and considering that they are what they are, like, this is a huge deal. A backdrop of fascinating mythology is added to the characters, giving them a purpose and a reason to be who they are and do what they do: they are the guardians of childhood, protecting children and keeping alive the things that bring joy and wonder to children's lives. More specifically, North (Santa Claus) is the Guardian of Wonder, Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny) is the Guardian of Hope, Sandy (the Sandman) is the Guardian of Dreams, and the Tooth Fairy is the Guardian of Memories. More mysterious than their responsibilities are their origins: each Guardian, at some point, was appointed to become a Guardian by the Man in the Moon: no matter how powerful any of them are, they still remain subordinate to some mystical higher power who is as old as the earth, shapes the destinies of characters, and remains ever-watching over humanity with caring and love (so basically, God). But, seriously- how cool is it to see a tough-as-nails Australian jackrabbit voiced by Hugh Jackman, or to hear Santa use Russian composers' names as swear words ("Rimsky-Korsakov!")? That's not even the greatest thing this movie rewards us with: the artistic designs for each of these guardians' headquarters are stunning. the Tooth Fairy's castle takes on a gilded Arabian look, Santa's workshop is welcomingly Russian, and the Easter Bunny's underground burrow seems highly reminiscent of a mossy Pacific Island. And we shan't forget the Japanese torture-chamber appearance of the Nightmare King's fortress. But above all its visual beauty and ingenious ideas, what Rise of the Guardians really brings forward is a story about identity, as trickster Jack Frost is called forth to become the next Guardian, forcing him to call into question who he really is and what is truly important to him. Things become all the more intense as the Nightmare King steps forward with a plan to remove joy and hope from the children of the world, and the Guardians must bounce back against insurmountable odds. What Rise of the Guardians succeeds at is its level of soul; within the emotional moments of this film you can there find a genuine feeling that comes straight from the heart of the storyteller. But it's still far from perfect. There are a lot of segments where the story could have been more tightly held together, and you can easily tell where the strings come loose. It could just be the climax, or it could be all the moments leading up to the climax, but it seems like with the exception of a few poignant scenes, the story itself isn't really that well developed, and as a result, the writers stumbled through difficulties in getting the tale across. Notwithstanding, within this film there is a lot to be treasured. Its memorable characters and beautiful imagery promise to settle down in a warm place in the hearts of its viewers, and I anticipate seeing more of these characters later on in the decade.
Director: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt
Starring: Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant
Release Date: April 27, 2012
Running Time: 88 minutes
Rating: 3/5
Despite my love for the up-and-coming Laika Entertainment, I also have to give a nod to the original masters of claymation: Aardman. Though they have classics like the "Wallace & Gromit" shorts and Chicken Run on their repertoire, not many of their recent films have gotten much credit or recognition, and probably for good reason. We're still waiting for Aardman to give us the next big thing to talk about, and while the The Pirates! isn't good enough to signal the studio's comeback, it's still a decent watch, even if its ideas are bigger than its humor or its heart. At a glance, The Pirates! Band of Misfits doesn't look like much- it does seem like it's about time that kids had a good pirate-themed animated movie, but no one was really expecting it to do much beyond the simple pirate schtick. But to assume so is to seriously undercut everything good about the film- that is, the imagination of this story, which is simply unbelievable. We have here in center stage a band of quirky scalawags, headed by their pirate captain (Hugh Grant), whose name is simply "The Pirate Captain." There are some memorable crew members: the "albino pirate", the "surprisingly curvaceous pirate", and "the pirate with a scarf" (Martin Freeman). This ragtag crew pulls together well enough onscreen; they have good enough chemistry with each other, and they each have individual features that present them as distinctive parts of a well-oiled machine. But the crew itself, on the whole, doesn't seem to have enough chemistry to set it apart from other "misfit teams" shown to us in kids' movies. They seem like the kind of pirate crew full of minor characters that a main character in a different movie might come across during the second act of their journey. This sort of make sense in this movie, if you bring in the fact that Charles Darwin (David Tennant) and Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) are the characters that really steal the show. This is where the big imagination that I was talking about comes in. When the pirate crew attacks Charles Darwin's ship, Darwin notices that their beloved parrot Polly is actually a dodo bird, a species believed to be extinct. In an effort to win vast treasures, the pirates decide to enter Polly into a science competition, where they come under scrutiny of the pirate-hating Queen Victoria (whom the movie playfully transforms from a benevolent historic figure to a bloodthirsty villain). Now the film's humor is of a peculiar variety- it is superlatively clever, as usual for Aardman, with a joke in practically every shot. On my first viewing, the comedy was rarely laugh-out loud funny and a lot of the jokes fell flat on me. Yet on a second examination of some scenes, I realized that there were a lot more subtle visual jokes snuck in between the dialogue. Though it is a much funnier movie than I had taken it for, it's still at fault if half of the jokes are over the heads of most audiences- but as much of the humor will probably will reveal itself to viewers the second or third time around (if they'll give it that chance), I won't count this as being anything to hold against the film- for now. The adventure's real shortcomings would lie in its tone. The plot, the characters, and the jokes are so outlandish and heartless that passing this off as a warming family adventure would be impossible. Still, the film tries to crowd moments of sentimentality and moral lessons in as well, thus corrupting the mood of the film with uncomfortable inconsistencies. If this film were like, say, Panique au Village, it would work. That is to say, lesson-free: Panique au Village portrays characters that feel real enough because they have their own emotions, but the film still keeps a carefree and silly tone, so it doesn't ask you to share their emotions, only to empathize with their dilemma as you naturally would. The Pirates! Band of Misfits could have done this if it had stayed scurvy and nasty all the way. Either that or it should have gone all the way in the other direction by giving us a good reason to really feel for the characters' plight like we did in Chicken Run. In this movie, we are only half-invested in the characters, but we still are able to enjoy ourselves if we learn to just sit along for the ride.
-Julian Rhodes
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