Pete’s Dragon Review (2016)

August 13, 2016 | Rachel's Reviews

Of all the Disney remakes the one I was the most primed for was Pete’s Dragon. That might sound odd but I’m only a marginal fan of the original. In my opinion, the best remakes are films that are good but could use improvement. I don’t get very excited for remakes on films like Beauty and the Beast which are perfect. Anyway, that was my initial interest but quickly I realized this film was remake in name only. This might be concerning but then I read from director David Lowery and loved everything I heard. Then the trailers came out and I really liked what I saw. Here is movie from an indy director with a passion for the project. It is also made for a low budget of $65 million which excites me greatly as I’d like to see Disney make more artistic low budget films.

So all of those factors led me to greatly look forward to Pete’s Dragon. So I went to see it today and I was not disappointed! This is a really special movie. It could probably be called Boy and the Dragon instead of Pete’s Dragon because it doesn’t have much to do with the original. It’s more like ET, Old Yeller, Black Stallion, Sounder or other movies for children about a boy and his dog/creature. These movies were sweet, emotional and helped teach children important life lessons. Such is the case with Pete’s Dragon. It is impeccably made and seems like something from another era.

The story is pretty simple here and it’s not reinventing the wheel but it executes it so well and with such heart. It’s basically about Pete who is raised in the wild with his dragon Elliot. One day Pete gets discovered by Bryce Dallas Howard’s character and they try to help him. Various characters find out about Elliott and have different responses. It’s got an underlying message of faith and believing in things you don’t see (Elliott can be invisible after all).

The story may be simple but it will tug at your heart strings and make you feel really good. All the performances are winning and warm- even the villain is understandable in his fear of the unknown. The child actors are particularly outstanding with Oaks Fegley reminding me of Jacob Trembley in Room. Robert Redford is great. They are all great.

If Disney is going to do these live action retellings this is the kind I want. I want a small film that is carefully made, not a lazy cash grab like Maleficent. This film does its own thing and tells a type of story I haven’t seen at the cinemas in a long time.

Director David Lowery gives us incredible cinematography and the special effects on Elliott are first rate. It looked as good as anything we saw in The Jungle Book. I personally prefer this film to The Jungle Book because that film dragged when it tried to include songs and moments from the original. This is tight storytelling at its best. In a lot of ways it reminded me of The Peanuts Movie. It is old fashioned and simple but full of heart. I loved both movies! There’s no attempt to modernize the characters or make them hip or cool. There’s no cell phones or lame attempts at humor. It is just a boy and his dragon just like Peanuts is about a boy and his dog.

Just everything they did I loved. Even the music I loved. I would encourage you to go see it on the big screen. Let Disney know that this is the type of movie they should be making. It is definitely one of my favorite films of the year and one that I can’t wait to show my nieces someday.

Here is my youtube review: (I’m almost at a 1,000 subscribers on youtube!)

The Art of the Peanuts Movie Review

July 4, 2016July 4, 2016 | Rachel's Reviews

I unabashedly loved The Peanuts Movie last year. And it wasn’t just nostalgia for Peanuts, which I do have but I genuinely thought it was a sweet, charming little film. And I’ve always said that the artistry didn’t get enough credit. Just because it was a familiar property I think people missed the hybrid animation trailblazing the film did. So naturally when I saw they had a Peanuts art book I had to jump right on that!

The Art of the Peanuts Movie starts with a forward from director Steve Martino where he talks about how he related to the entire Peanuts gang growing up. “Growing up in the Midwest, Charlie Brown’s neighborhood felt like my own…the gang were like friends that I visited on a daily baiss through the ‘funny pages'” He then talks about the specials and even a Charlie Brown sign on his coffee table growing up that read “Happiness is a Warm Puppy”. He is then honest about the huge pressure he felt in adapting this work that is beloved to many including himself. “It felt like I was carrying Schroeder’s piano, only it had grown to a grand piano”

Finally he was able to overcome his fears by a quote from Charles Schulz himself”One of the solutions is, as Charlie Brown does, just to keep on trying. He never gives up. And if anybody should give up, he should”. I’m not going to lie I teared up a bit reading his essay. I love when artists admit their fear of the art.

Next is another forward by Vanessa Morrison president of 20th Century Fox Animation. This is a little more corporate although she does express her love growing up on the series and reading it with her mother.

Then we get 2 articles about the legacy and new direction of Peanuts as well as early concept ideas. With all that done, we get into the main meat of the book where they dive into the process of making CG characters. It’s really cool. You see the mold making process and how the characters are designed.

They also have this neat graphic showing the comic to 3D transitioning for the entire gang.

Next we get several pages on each character describing the design and attributes.

Next is a cool article about how you keep characters on model and moving in a natural way. This is something they achieved in spades especially in the skating scenes.

It’s really cool as well to learn about the animation and how the computer uses pin points to bring them alive.

We get an entire section on backgrounds and how they created the pop friendly feel of the Peanuts neighborhood.

The last section is mostly about the story and goes into incredible detail about how every facet was created and designed down to the posters and flags on Charlie Brown’s wall. That is so cool to learn about!

And we get storyboards and anything else you could want to know about the process of bringing this movie to screen.

The Art of the Peanuts Movie is a great book because it is so rich. It covers the incredibly difficult task of adapting the strip to a movie, the design process of characters, and the story development and boarding process. You can learn about all sides of animation through this book and it will warm your heart to see such love going into a work of art. I think it might even give some people more respect for what they accomplished than the film is given. At least it does for me but I already loved it.

But definitely if you love the Peanuts and thought The Peanuts Movie was great you should pick up this art book. It’s fantastic!

Boy and the World Review

January 19, 2016January 20, 2016 | Rachel's Reviews

If you guys read my response to the Oscar nominations you may recall my disappointment at The Peanuts Movie being snubbed for Best Animated Feature Film. In it’s place was a film called Boy and the World or o Menino eo Mundo in Portuguese. I had heard of this film but it had mostly fallen under my radar so the nomination was a big surprise. Today I had the chance to see the film and I can see why it got nominated. I don’t know if I would pick it over Peanuts Movie but a lot of that comes down to personal artistic taste.

Boy and the World is directed by Brazilian animator Ale Abreu and was released in that country back in 2013. It is made using mostly sketch animation with some live action imagery and paper mache thrown in. The film’s biggest strength is it’s wild imaginative artistry. It’s a real joy to watch.

It’s a simple story about a boy who is devastated when his father leaves the family to go and find work in the city.

They plant a tree on his departure but the boy is still very upset.

He goes on a journey to find his father and bring him back to the family but in so doing he dives into the city and confronts all kinds of people, industry, conflict and more.

At one point he ends up living at a trash dump.

As you can see the animation is quite beautiful but what adds to the appeal of the film is the wonderful music. Written by Ruben Feffer and Gustavo Kurlat it combines ‘pan-flute, samba and Brazilian hip hop’ into a delightful absorbing experience that made me smile. Here’s one of the main themes:

The visuals combined with the music at times feel like a kaleidoscope and I never grew weary of the imagery. It is a bit self indulgent and has little to do with the main plot of the boy looking for his Dad, but I liked it. However, I can picture that bothering some people but not me.

The ending of Boy and the World does try to say something about war, commerce, industry and waste but that wasn’t as effective as the rest of the visuals. It felt a little heavy handed where the rest of the film had spread the same message using joy and light. We didn’t really need the contrasting images.

There is little to no dialogue in Boy and the World so there are no cultural limitations or barriers. I know films with no dialogue aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I enjoy them when done right and this is.

So is it better than The Peanuts Movie? Again, it just depends on what you like. They both have simple stories at their centers with depressed little boys and great music. Both are also visually innovative and beautiful. If you like more earthy, surreal art you’ll like Boy and the World better. If you like the more modern realistic pop art than you will like Peanuts Movie better. I personally have an attachment to Charlie Brown so I enjoyed his story more but I also loved the newness and creativity of Boy and the World.

Either way I can see why the academy nominated it. It’s a beautiful film and adds a strong artistic entry to 2015 that we really didn’t have outside of The Prophet. If you get a chance to see it let me know what you think.

My youtube review

Oscar Nomination Reactions

January 14, 2016January 14, 2016 | Rachel's Reviews

Hey guys! Today the Academy released it’s Oscar nominations and here are my reactions:

If you don’t want to watch the video basically I will sum it up. I don’t get the love for Bridge of Spies. It was dull, conventional and average. Particularly the nomination for best screenplay I find baffling but as I seem to be one of the only people I know who feels that way I can’t say I am surprised. At least it isn’t offensive like last year’s baffling nominee and winner Birdman.

I was surprised to see no nomination for Aaron Sorkin for Steve Jobs– especially with how much the liberal Hollywood love his writing. Steve Jobs was way better written than Bridge of Spies. Come on? Nice to see Adam McKay get nominated for Best Director for Big Short and was surprised he took Ridley Scott’s spot for The Martian. There was little love for Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight and that surprised me a little bit.

I’ve actually seen all 8 of the best picture nominations and aside from Bridge of Spies they are fine. I would have subbed out Creed or Inside Out for Bridge of Spies but again in minority on that one.

I was glad to see Inside Out get a nomination for best original screenplay and Brooklyn for adapted screenplay.

I think the documentary Amy is overrated and uses too much home video. I didn’t find out anything I didn’t already know. To me it was kind of shallow but again in minority on that one.

The most absurd nomination of the night is The Revenant for production design. The whole thing is basically set in the snow! Are we giving the team credit for designing the snow, forest and river? Ridiculous. Brooklyn, Carol, Cinderella, Star Wars: The Force Awakens all had much better production design than The Revenant.

But expect The Revenant and Spotlight to take home big awards come February. Sylvester Stallone in Creed and Kate Winslet will win supporting actor trophies.

I was glad to see A Bear’s Story, World of Tomorrow and Sanjay’s Super Team all get nominated for Animated Short. They are all excellent. World of Tomorrow should win if enough voters have seen. I don’t even understand it completely but it should win.

And now for the big snub….

No nomination for the Peanuts Movie. It is ridiculous. To me it was exactly what a Peanuts movie should be. If you think about the specials they are about Charlie Brown trying to gain confidence. The Great Pumpkin is really the only one that has a complex plot. Think about the Christmas special it is about Charlie Brown worrying about the holidays. The Thanksgiving special is about him trying to make a meal for his friends. What were people expecting storywise? I don’t get it!

I at least got exactly what I wanted. A story about Charlie Brown gaining confidence to talk to the Red Haired Girl. It was sweet. It was emotional, and it was funny. And even if you don’t love the plot the animation was so great. The use of the hybrid animation with a flat 2D style combined with CG was brilliant and groundbreaking and deserved a nomination. It really did.

All I know is Boy and the World better be really great. That came out of nowhere but maybe it will be 2015’s Song of the Sea and it will all make sense after I see it.

For now I’m sad for Peanuts but in the end it’s the Oscars. They usually get it wrong (Birdman winning over Boyhood…) so I don’t really care.

And we have to listen to Chris Rock host. Groan. But I’m sure there will be a few nice moments and at least this year I’ve seen all 8 nominees, so there’s that.

What did you think of the nominations? Put in the comments section. Thanks!

Peanuts Movie Review

November 7, 2015November 7, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I tell you guys I am happy, happy, happy right now! I just got back from seeing The Peanuts Movie and I LOVED it!

I went into Peanuts a little skeptical. I love the comics and the shorts that have come out over the years especially Great Pumpkin and Charlie Brown Christmas Special. The thing I love most is the character of Charlie Brown and how he is thoughtful and even depressed at times. There’s something about that which makes him very relatable and easy to root for.

I guess he is the classic underdog who we all like and a lot of the times he speaks the truth whether it is about materialism at Christmas or the difficulty making friends. I was worried this quality of Peanuts would get lost. I was particularly worried when Blue Sky was the studio involved and when they decided to go the CG route instead of the hand drawn of the shorts. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the trailer so I was nervous walking into the theater.

But I’m telling you they pulled it off. This film is a complete delight. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Let’s talk about the animation first. It feels like a hybrid animation like we got in Paperman or Feast. I saw it in 3D and it looked multi-dimensional but also paper thin, so it had both a 2D and CG look to it. Mostly it felt like layers and bold colors to the characters we know and love.

It’s so pleasant to look at and the character design down to the squiggly lines of the smiles was perfect while still having it’s own new look. The scenes with Snoopy, Woodstock and the Red Baron looked bright and wistful, like right out of a comic strip or book.

They also got the voice work perfectly without any of the celebrity voices that can be distracting in films like Home. These are the voices we know from the original shorts.

The story is very simple. It is basically about how Charlie Brown wants to win the attention of a new red-headed girl but he lacks the confidence he needs to even talk to her. He gets some advice from Lucy and decides he wants to be a winner.

On the way he experiences some really sincere and lovely moments of both triumph and success. They got the tone just right in this movie and I was always hopeful and filled with joy even as Charlie Brown was struggling.

The jokes all worked and the kids in my audience were cracking up (and I was too!). There is absolutely nothing offensive in this film. It is G rated and deserves a G rating. You can take any age of kids and I think they will be entertained even small toddlers I think will like it.

I loved the world of the characters. These are no cell phones or laptops. These are kids that have to go to the library to look something up, go skating on snow days and participate in school talent shows for fun. It all felt so innocent and charming. You can tell they had the influence of producers and screenwriters Craig and Bryan Schulz (Charles Schulz’s son and grandson) involved creating a story that will satisfy new viewers and longtime fans.

They have a few songs from Flo Rida, Meghan Trainor but you also get the classic Vince Guaraldi numbers from Charlie Brown Christmas Special and the Christophe Beck score uses Guaraldi as an influence. Jazz pianist David Benoit helps add to the authentic feel of the score.

Over all, I was completely delighted by this film. I really don’t have anything negative to say. I guess if you are looking for something new and challenging than this isn’t the film for you. We got that in Inside Out, which I still think is the better film, but I really did love this film. They had such a tough task in front of them and congrats Blue Sky! You pulled it off!

Here’s my youtube review.

Overall Grade- A+ Definitely one of best of year.