Pixar Review 14: Finding Nemo

June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Anyone who knows me knows I love being in the water. All summer long I am in every open water event and group I can get my hands on but most of all I live for getting to the ocean. I think about it daily. I dream about it. I LOVE the ocean. I love the waves, swimming, beach and snorkeling to see all the beautiful aquatic life.

So naturally I love Finding Nemo! Pixar really knocked it out of the park on this one.

It had been a while since I had seen it and I honestly regret not putting it on my Most Artistic Animated Films list. It’s stunning. I mean look at these images and how every inch is animated with sea life and colors.

They are so good at keeping the fishes and water moving while they are talking and having their facial characteristics look natural (unlike Dreamworks Shark Tale…). It looks like if a clown fish was going to talk that’s how their mouths would move. Nothing feels off-putting or grotesque (again unlike Shark Tale).

But all that would mean nothing if the story wasn’t great (remember It’s All About the Story). Luckily the story is even better than the visuals. This last time I really paid attention to little moments of great writing. I totally see why it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay which is a huge rarity for an animated film.

If you don’t know the story is an adventure about a widower clownfish named Marlin (Albert Brooks) who has to go on a journey to find his son Nemo who has been taken by a dentist in Sydney, Australia.

The film starts out very sad and without giving too much away Marlin promises his son that he ‘will never let anything happen to him”.

Thinking he is being loving, he is overprotective and Nemo even says that he hates his father and it’s hard to blame him with how neurotic he is.

As I said Nemo ends up getting taken and Marlin must find his son with little clues and a great big ocean to search through. In addition, the only creature to come to his aid is a memory-challenged fish named Dory (Ellen Degeneres). Dory is such a likable, genuine, sweet character. She finds when she is helping Marlin she can remember things, even hard details like addresses. The two have ups and downs but develop a lovely friendship. Dory even says to him as only a friend “when I look at you I’m home and I don’t want that to go away” which gets a tear from my eyes every time…

Meanwhile Nemo is off to the dentist office where he meets a group of aquarium fish most of whom are from pet stores.

Except Gill who is from the ocean and dreams of escaping and going back. These sections are an entirely different color palate than the ocean but it is fabulous. Gil is pretty down-trodden for a Disney film (kind of like Eeyore) but he believes in Nemo (or Sharkbait as they call him) in a way Marlin doesn’t.

Everyone in the aquarium is most afraid of becoming toilet fodder for the dentist’s niece Darla- the true villain of the film! So funny!

Marlin gets stopped on his trip several times including a hilarious segment with 3 sharks going to an AA type meeting for eating fish. “Fish are friends not food”. When you see these giant sharks it is the last thing you expect and so funny.

They also have a gorgeously animated sequence in a jellyfish colony.

Marlin is rescued from the jellys by a turtle named Crush who is also very funny. I love his line “Dude, you’ve got some serious thrill issues”. However, Crush isn’t just a throwaway comedic character. He actually teaches Marlin something about parenting and letting your little one’s make mistakes and try things on their own. Like the sharks he defies expectations.

When they actually get to Sydney the writers solve how he can possibly get to the dentists office by a bird named Nigel who knows the aquarium fish and likes to watch extractions.

He also saves them from one of the best gags in the movie- the seagulls who say exactly what most would guess a seagull would say ‘mine, mine, mine, mine’. So funny.

There are so many other great parts. Like I love Dory speaking whale and Marlin thinking she is nuts. (Despite her memory Dory is one of the smartest characters in the film).

The voice cast is as good as it gets with famous names but more importantly voices that work. Again unlike Shark Tale, these are voices that make sense for the story not just the celebrity. We get DeGeneres, Brooks, William Dafoe (Gill), Brad Garrett (Bloat), Alison Janney (Peach), Stephen Root (Bubbles), Geoffrey Rush (Nigel), the list goes on…they are all perfectly cast.

It’s exciting, sweet, touching, scary, tragic (especially beginning) and absolutely hilarious all at the same time. Mostly it’s a movie the entire family will love and it is stunningly beautiful at the same time.

And I won’t give it away but the ending is perfect. It shows all that Marlin, Nemo and Dory have learned from their journey and it makes me want to cheer. They could have just ended it with the rescue but they don’t. They take it a step further and show the real growth.

It is movies like Finding Nemo that make a Pixar ranking almost impossible. I sincerely believe they have 8 films that are close to perfect. How the heck do you rate a Wall-e vs Ratatouille vs Finding Nemo vs Toy Story movies? They are all total delights. That says something for a studio when you have 9 pictures including Monsters Inc that are so exemplary. Amazing!

I really have no criticisms of Finding Nemo. I had my computer out ready to write them. The music is away from Randy Newman to his cousin Thomas Newman (very musical family!) but it has a very different feel of the previous Pixar films.

I’ll just end with some of my other favorite lines:

“It doesn’t sound like orca. It sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard” Marlin

“Whoa Dude, Mr Turtle is my father. The name is Crush” Crush

“Hey clown boy, let the lady guess” School of fishes.

“Yes, I’m your conscience. We haven’t spoken in a while…” Marlin to Dory

“When life gets you down what do you do? Just keep swimming” Dory

“Yes I’m a natural blue” Dory

In a great Shining reference “Here’s Brucey!” Bruce the shark

“Humans think they own everything Propbably American” sharks

“Sea cucumbers- normally they don’t talk but in a joke everyone talks…” Marlin

“He’s not very funny for a clown fish” Fish parents.

That’s just a handful of the great writing. It looks fabulous. It has great characters and a good story. What more can you ask for?

Overall Grade- A+ (I told you before doing this project there would be a lot of those!).

The only content recommendation is for very small children I might just start at the first day of school as the beginning scene may be a little too upsetting for them.

Pixar Review 13: Boundin’

June 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Next short to review before Finding Nemo is both big and small in the world of Pixar. It is called Boundin’ and it is big because it is the first real short (not counting Mike’s New Car) that has words or vocal performance. It is small because it is the creation of one man- Bud Luckey.

Boundin’ is written, directed, narrated by, and music written by Bud Luckey. You have to go back to the very first shorts done primarily by John Lasseter to find that kind of all-in-one creation, and I think that is kind of neat. It would be fun if Pixar did more of that with their shorts so you could get a real taste of each animators vision and style- kind of like a showcase in a gallery of animation.

I guess the next question is what Bud Luckey came up with any good? I think it is. It has the feel of one of the Melody Time skits, which you may not remember is my favorite of the package films. It particularly has a strong homage to Pecos Bill with the scenery of the Southwest.

Boundin’ is about a sheep that loves his wool coat so much it makes him dance. This is interesting because he is kind of vein but it’s in a very likable way . It’s more like self-confidence than overly prideful. He is so joyous with his dance that all the other critters around him start dancing too.

But then disaster strikes and our sheep looses his fur and with it his self-esteem. Here’s a clip (I couldn’t get the entire short this time) which will give you a feel for the show.

Just when he is feeling depressed he meets a jackalope who teaches him how to jump and that “bounding is better than dancing”. The message is “getting up when you fall down”. The sheep tries it out and is won over.

The next winter his coat has grown back and cut again but this time he has bounding and won’t get depressed any more.

This is an extremely old fashioned short and so I could see it not being everyone’s cup of tea but I like it. I think it has a really nice rather nuanced message about not just self-confidence but finding joy even when things aren’t perfect. I like that the sheep learns to be happy without his fur that he still loves when it grows back.

From an animation standpoint it looks gorgeous with beautiful dessert (and snowy) vistas.

Like I said it reminds me a lot of Pecos Bill but also the old Warner Brothers shorts that had a simple message with lovely animation and some laughs. I like that vintage quality.

The music is also very sweet and nostalgic. It feels like Roy Rogers telling a story around the campfire!

Nice job Mr Luckey. You’ve done good!

Overall Grade- A

Pixar Review 12- Mike’s New Car

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I just finished watching Finding Nemo but before I post about that I have 2 shorts to review. The first is Mike’s New Car which was made in 2002 and included in the DVD of Monsters Inc.

There’s not a ton to say about it because it is more like a deleted scene than a true animated short. Basically Mike has purchased a complicated new car. He wants to show it off to Sully and all hijinks occur.

It’s amusing and cute and if you like these characters than you will like the short.

However, even more entertaining is to listen to the audio commentary for Mike’s New Car. Instead of the normal directors or writers they have director Pete Doctor and Roger Gould’s two sons Nicholas and Liam (respectively) do it. It is the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.

My favorite line is little Liam’s idea of what goes into making an animated film:

“”they put it on computer and then they work all together having lunch and then they come home at night and when it’s finished we can see it in the movie theater but then when its been in the movie theaters for a while it gets on a video”.

I like how the eating of lunch is an integral part to the completion of the movie.

Nicholas says “I’d like it if they could transfer the car into a boat and drive it into the water”

Liam responds as if he has made this same suggestion before “I think water is really hard to do with computer animation” (funny with Finding Nemo in production!

“And why is it really hard to do water in communication” asks Nicholas

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just hard to get the blue on the screen?” says Liam.

I thought that was adorable.

Liam says “There’s one part I think is scary when Mike gets hurt in the engine and when gets inside the engine”

“That’s my favorite part” says Nicholas.

When they get in the car and it jumps around and the wipers go off the two boys were cracking up. It was so cute.

I think more children of directors should do an audio commentary! It was much better than the short itself.

“I think maybe when Mike’s car goes off the screen he never see’s it again and he buys a new car” says Liam.

I bet he is right.

Overall Grade- B- Audio Commentary- A+ (Great job kids although they are probably like 18 now!).

May Youtube Videos

June 1, 2015June 1, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

As is my tradition I like to keep you all informed on the latest movie related videos on my youtube channel. Please give them a watch, thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already done so. Thanks so much!

And this one doesn’t really have anything to do with movies but it turned out pretty well and I think you all might enjoy it.

If you have any suggestions for movies you’d like me to review either here or on the channel (or TV or anything else) let me know!

Maya the Bee Review

May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

All right gather your toddlers because I have a movie for them- Maya the Bee. This is based on the 1991 anime series that used to air on Nick Jr here in the states. I have a fondness for the original series so when I saw this on vuduu I had to give it a rental. The original show only aired for 2 years but was about a bee named Maya and her attempts to shake up the robot-like bees at her hive.

The episodes are extremely simple usually with Maya trying to cheer a grumpy bee up and help make everyone happy. When I rewatched much of the first season I thought of Dora the Explorer. They have a very similar demographic. Cheerful, happy, sweet and no attempt to be cheeky or entertain grown ups, which I think is great.

The movie is pretty much the same with some plot thrown in. We get all the main characters of Maya, Willy (Maya’s friend), Flip (friendly grasshopper) and Miss Cassandra (Maya’s teacher). It’s bright and colorful and I thought looked much better than I expected it too.

The story is nothing new in Maya the Bee. Basically Maya doesn’t fit in with the hive. She wants to do everything differently- even when she is born is different than the rest. This is a challenge for Miss Cassandra who is her teacher and guardian. That part is straight from the original TV show.

It annoys the bad girl in the movie Buzzlina vonBeena (great name!) voiced by the great Jacki Weaver.

Buzzlina develops a scheme she is going to hide the prized royal jelly the queen needs to live and blame their enemies the hornets. This will be her chance to usurp power and take control. The hive falls hook line and sinker except of course for Maya who is banished and her friend Willy comes along.

She goes to the meadow to try and get bugs to help her and find Flip the grasshopper who promised if he could do anything he would. Flip is a musical grasshopper and has a song and dance number at the meadow that is forgettable but little tikes might enjoy.

Along the way they meet a little hornet who is lost from his father and Willy is initially scared but Maya wants to give him a chance. Just because he is a hornet doesn’t mean he’s a bad person after all 🙂

There are also a band of ants sent by Miss Cassandra to find Willy and Maya led by 2 numskulls that were amusing idiots.

Eventually the hornets confront the bees and Maya exposes Buzzlina’s dastardly plot and we end with a big party that includes the all of the bugs from the movie.

It’s very easy to eviscerate a movie like Maya the Bee. The story is trite and something we’ve seen a million times, the voice casting is sub-par and the message is very corny.

There is no attempt like The Lego Movie to appeal to a broad audience but I actually think that is a strength. It is made for little children (2 to 4). There is nothing scary and the message is digestible for that age. Something like ‘be unique’ and ‘don’t be afraid to stand out’ may be better told in the Lego Movie but I think it probably gets lost on the very young audience. Lego is a better movie for sure but all the in jokes (Star Wars rave for instance), the batman schtick, and the live action scene are probably not compelling for toddlers.

This is what Dreamwork’s Home got wrong. It is bright and colorful and trying to appeal to very small children but then it gets muddled and the premise of all the humans getting abducted and a girl on her own is too much for the small tikes. Home didn’t know what it was trying to be and so it failed- even in the characters which were inconsistent and frustrating. Maya the Bee is certainly much better than Home.

Maya the Bee is just a sweet simple movie made for little one’s and it should appeal equally to boys and girls which is a little unusual in that demographic. It is one the parents may want to put on and go do the dishes but I wasn’t miserable watching it and I don’t have kids.

For the target demographic, I do think it is a little bit too long. It really should be more like the 2011 Winnie the Pooh, which is 63 minutes. (I still hold that Winnie the Pooh to be one of the best movies for 2-3 year olds ever made from the music, animation, pacing, time everything is perfect for that group). There are definitely segments that could have been cut out like the song.

They perhaps could have tried a little harder to do something original with the story or gotten better voice talent because the animation is lovely but for what it is I liked it. I thought they did an ok job.

You parents out there- what do you think of Maya the Bee? Look like something worth checking out? If you do let me know what you think and if your kids like it.

Overall Grade- C+

Here’s the trailer if that helps give you more of an idea on the film.

San Andreas Review

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I guess some spoilers below if you care about that kind of thing.

I’ve been trying to go out of my comfort zone in the last few months. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex-Machina, and Furious 7 are outside of my wheelhouse and all 3 of those I enjoyed or was at least entertained by.

So today I had the choice to see Aloha or the new disaster film San Andreas and normally I would go right for the romance but it had such horrible reviews and I like Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson so I decided to give San Andreas a shot. Unfortunately even as an absurd dopey action movie it didn’t work for me. To put it in perspective it is more Armageddon than it is Deep Impact. It is more 2012 than Independence Day. There is a way to do these types of movies and make them work. The first is the cast has to be charismatic and large. If you think about movies like the Poseidon Adventure or Airport from the 70s they had huge casts and all of those people got time spent with their characters.

In Independence Day we spend the majority of the time with three huge talents of Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman. In San Andreas The Rock is very charismatic but he needed two or three stars of that caliber to carry the film. That is one thing that Michael Bay gets right is he does stack the Transformers movies with a lot of charismatic talent.

Which brings me to the next thing that needs to happen. There needs to be a sense of a superhero to the leads. The Rock does that but it is nearly always in the service of his family only. There is one scene where he gathers a bunch of San Francisco citizens on the safe side of the stadium and they all thank him for saving the day.

That was a good scene but it is one of the only one’s that is not exclusively The Rock saving his daughter or wife. We really needed a Vin Diesel or a Kiefer Sutherland to round out the cast and co-save the day. As it is San Andreas ends up feeling like the Sylvester Stallone turkey Daylight than a great disaster flick. Another thing is the special effects need to give us something new or forget it. When we saw the white house blow up in Independence Day none of us had ever seen something like that before. When a tornado races through Twister none of us had seen that before. All of the effects in San Andreas we’ve seen before and especially on the 4th or 5th building that topples over it feels more like Transformers 3 than a quality movie.

I thought the scenes on the ground in San Andreas were much better than anything we saw aerial. The real howler is a scene on a boat where the rock out races a giant tsunami with a little medical coast guard boat. It’s so absurd. (At least there is no comic relief like Michael Bay would have had. That is the worst!). A movie like Deep Impact or Independence Day stick pretty close to the disaster going on whereas movies like Armageddon venture off into stupid romance and really bad dialogue. (When I was in high school I remember watching Armageddon with my friends and looking mystified they were enjoying the garbage. My least favorite movie for many years). San Andreas isn’t that bad but the little asides are pretty groan inducing. We get The Rock and his wife Carla Gugino arguing about their divorce and her new squeeze Ioan Gruffudd who we are supposed to instantly dislike because he is rich and has his own plane. No The Rock is the helicopter guy. That’s legit! Ha. There is an absoloutely ludicrous scene where The Rock rescues Gugino from off of a skyscraper in the middle of a 9.3 earthquake. (and again back to main problem where we are only concerned about rescuing one person). There’s also his beautiful daughter Blake played by Alexandra Daddario who I guess is the Liv Tyler of this movie and she’s ok but there is little to no chemistry with her rescuer Ben played by Hugo Johnston-Burt. Let’s just say you can see why Ben is highly motivated to help rescue Blake because it’s definitely the only shot he has of getting a girl like her! The last group is Paul Giamatti as an earthquake expert who laughably discovers how to predict earthquakes literally about 2 minutes before the first giant earthquake that destroys the Hoover Dam. And then later he is upset because nobody listened to him. When were they supposed to listen? I guess because nobody bought his book but according to the movie they hadn’t been able to predict anything so why should they have listened to him? It’s kind of a joke when Giamatti has to get students to hack into the local media and warn the people in San Francisco to evacuate after the first earthquake. I don’t think any hacking would be required to have an expert on the 24 hour news cycle and I think people were evacuating after a 9.3 earthquake already! Plus, the half a day notice he gives them is hardly the lifesaver that the narration claims at the end.

It had me howling with laughter and the rest of my theater as well. I so wish I could have tweeted Giamatti’s line when asked, ‘who do we need to call?’ . ‘Call everyone…”. Ha.

On a certain level you know what you are getting into with San Andreas but even with those limited expectations it fails. On the wikipedia page it only has 13 listed in the cast. Only 8 get any major screen time. That’s just not enough for a movie like this and like I said the spectacle isn’t new. It feels stale and the sideplots aren’t very engaging. I can see if people think it is a dopey good time but I feel there are many movies where dopier is done much better.

Are you guys going to see San Andreas? Let me know what you think when you do. What disaster movie do you like?

Overall Grade- D I’m sorry. It’s bad folks. Rent Twister, Independence Day or Deep Impact and skip this.

Pixar Review 11: Monsters Inc

May 28, 2015May 28, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Ok. Do I like Monsters Inc? This should give you some idea.

Yes, I like Monsters Inc!

As the 4th feature film from Pixar and their 3rd original story Monsters Inc is a total delight. This time we get a new director with Pete Doctor with Lee Unkrich and David Silverman (of Simpsons fame) co-directing. The story is wildly creative with humor, adventure and something to appeal to the entire family.

Monsters Inc takes us to a ‘parallel city’ of Monstropolis that is full of different monsters of all shapes, sizes and varieties. In order for the city to run they rely on human screams that are collected when top monsters go into the closets of human children and scare them. So the monster really is in the closet!

Our lead characters are a Jewish eyeball Monster named Mike Wazowski voiced by Billy Crystal and his best friend James P Sullivan or Sully voiced by John Goodman. They are a great duo with Mike being the neurotic optimist and Sully being a bit lazy top dog at the plant.

When you think about the characters in the previous films and look at Monsters Inc it is remarkable. Look at the fur on Sully’s coat. It’s amazing! All the monsters are that way. They are all lush and textured.

Randall is the other top scarrer and main competition for Sully and he is a chameleon who’s leathery skin looks so real. He kind of looks like his voice actor Steve Buscemi who is very creepy (much better here than in Home on the Range!).

The plant is ran by an Octopus Monster named Henry J Watermoose voiced by James Coburn.

And Jennifer Tilly is a delight as Celia Mike’s girlfriend with the oddest hair you’ve ever seen.

I’m sure from those character descriptions you can get a little bit of a feeling for how creative Monsters Inc is. It’s also bright and colorful and Billy Crystal is hilarious as Mike.

The people in Monstropolis believe a human child is toxic and that even the touch of a clothing will require decontamination for a monster. They have an entire defense team that sanitizes and cleans anyone who has contact with a child. Well , the story starts into gear when a little girl gets let into the scare floor and ends up in the possession of Mike and Sully.

The little girl who is named Boo is super cute, so much so that she might annoy some more jaded viewers. I think she kind of needed to be that cute in order to warm over the hearts of monsters who think she’s a killing machine. Imagine if she was some bratty little girl? They would have disposed of her right away. But Sully becomes attached to her and they end up on an exciting adventure to get Boo back home.

The highlight is an amazing chase sequence in the library of doors they have both chasing Randall and trying to find Boo’s door. It is so exciting and one of Pixar’s best animated scenes. I mean look at this scene!

All the while the tension is cut by humor from Crystal who evidently loves playing the part. On the audio commentary the directors said they got both Crystal and Goodman in the same recording sessions which almost never happens in animated films and you can tell. There is a kinship and closeness the two friends. There is also a great little cameo from the Abominable Snowman voiced by Pixar favorite John Ratzenberger.

The only caveat I would say on Monsters Inc is it might be a little scary for children under 5, particularly when the monsters are scaring kids at the beginning. Randall is also a very scary villain and the fact he is hunting down a child may be too much for little ones.

That said, the relationship between Sully and Boo is just lovely and something you don’t see that often between a male character and a child. Usually such tenderness is reserved for maternal female characters.

Sully is willing to do anything to help Boo, even risking his and his friends safety because he knows he needs too. That kind of bond is rare and gives the film a heart elevating it beyond a silly kids film.

Randy Newman’s score is great especially during the door scene and I love the finale song between Mike and Sully.

I went into this rewatch wondering if Monsters Inc would hold up and it is better than I remembered it. It’s a delight. Full of humor, amazing animation, adventure and as I just said real heart. It just shows how great the Pixar movies are that it still will probably rank 9th but we’ll see. (who cares about stupid rankings anyway!).

Overall Grade- A (only because I think those 8 are just a hair better but its amazing! I also still stand by a recent debate I had with online friends that Frozen is better than Monsters Inc. It has characters I related too more, a story less predictable and gorgeous songs. Frozen A+, Monsters Inc A. That’s how I really feel!).

Pixar Review 10: For the Birds

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

We come to the next of our delightful Pixar shorts, For the Birds. This short was done entirely so they could work on feathers for the technology of Sully’s fur in Monsters Inc. Indeed the texture they were able to achieve on the birds is really quite remarkable. They were also able to get different personalities on each of the cute birds. That’s pretty good considering all they do is chirp!

A big bird comes to spoil the party and the little birds think he is a real nerd. They don’t like having him around one bit but he just wants to hang out. Like all the Pixar shorts For the Birds is basically a silent movie bit. I love how happy the big bird is. He’s having the time of his life.

On the audio commentary they talk about the feathers as “pringles” and that it was the first time they could move such details around and manipulate them. It really is quite remarkable when you look at the big bird and all those layers of feathers.

The pay off at the end is very funny and the music by country band Riders in the Sky is just right (same band who does Woody’s Roundup theme).

For the Birds won Pixar another Best Animated Short Oscar in 2000 which was well deserved. It’s so likable, colorful and sweet. Check it out. I don’t have any criticisms on this one.

Overall Grade- A+ (I told you guys there would be a lot of those if I reviewed Pixar)

Tomorrowland Review

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

It’s very interesting that I would post about boring movies just last weekend and today I would see a movie that belonged on that list. I’m sorry friends I keep it real but I fell asleep for about a minute in Tomorrowland. As a movie on my ‘So excited!!!- I’m on board and anxiously awaiting these films’ list for 2015 it was a big disappointment. Before I vent a little of my problems with the movie I’ll say a few positives. The world building is beautiful and I admire Brad Bird in trying to tell an original story. I also liked the little winks at the Disney park and original attractions like the Carousel of Progress song. Raffedy Cassidy is very good as an AI recruiter of geniuses for Tomorrowland named Athena. She is the only complex character in the movie. (My mind started to wander and I wondered if she is the child version of Ava in Ex-Machina 😉 ) That said- there are a lot of problems. First it starts out too episodic, like an episode of a TV show and not a movie. We get a long segment with George Clooney as a kid and his introduction into Tomorrowland. We get all the awe and wonder of the land and learn it is a place for the brightest. The problem is when we get introduced to Casey played by Brit Robertson she goes through the same introductions which makes it again feel episodic and slow. Plus, with Clooney’s child character we see his invention. It’s clear he is smart. With Casey we see her tell her father where to put an electrical wire and she can run a helicopter from her phone. That’s about it. People keep saying she’s a unique genius but I never saw it. The whole Savior trope is twaddled out and I had no idea why. Why was she so special? Most of the time she was either asking questions (seriously you’d think a genius could figure out a few things on her own) or shrieking at some shock. I normally don’t use gifs but this one was so perfect. She’s like this the entire movie. With a movie like this you have to feel emotionally connected to the characters and I didn’t. Clooney is miscast as a reclusive genius trying to keep tabs on the world after being exiled from Tomorrowland. He’s just not nerdy enough. He’s also missing for long chunks of the movie so we can’t feel that attached to him. Kathryn Hahn and Keegan-Michael Key are fun as novelty store owners but they are in the film far too briefly. There are two long battle sequences I guess you’d call them with Casey and Frank dodging the robots and both are boring. Even a long scene at the Eiffel Tower with a rocket which is supposed to be exciting was so repetitive of other scenes that it is where I fell asleep. And then the ending is extremely trite and corny. It just doesn’t work. Hugh Laurie is okay as the bad guy but we don’t get to know him well and isn’t given much to do. That might sound like a spoiler but it is so obvious he is the bad guy. I am probably one of the few people who will give Tomorrowland a lower score than Jupiter Ascending. Cry foul all you want but I was more entertained by JA. It made me laugh. It’s in on the joke. It’s campy and ridiculous. This is just blah. JA even has stronger world building than this. I was really let down by Tomorrowland.

This is going to sound like a nitpick but another thing that bothered me is the sound mixing is very badly done. Whenever there is a fight the sounds of a punch or kick was way too loud which had a jarring effect. All the sound effects were too loud. There is a segment that kids will like with the young Clooney but the blaring action will be too much for small children and older kids I think will be bored. Sad day. Very disappointed in Tomorrowland. 🙁 Overall Grade- C- Content Grade- B+