Disney's Winnie the Pooh (2011) Marketing Failure

by Tony Dayoub

As the latest entry in the Harry Potter franchise began its run this past weekend (a series I'd given up on once the movies started to blend together in my recollection) I sat with my 2-year-old in a movie theater introducing him to the wonders of cinema with his first film, Winnie the Pooh. I couldn't have selected a better movie to hold my hyperactive child's attention. My older son, J, is a placid little fella, zen-like in his ability to quietly transport himself into the same imaginative universe populated by his Marvel superhero action figures. He loves sitting at the movies with me and falling into the same escapist's world of pleasure I do. The little one, K, is more of a show-me-what-you-got, rampaging ball of hellfire prone to daredevil-like stunts of frightening proportions. But he's always held a soft spot for stuffed animals in a way his older brother never has, cuddling them tightly as he sucks his thumb to lull himself to sleep. Pooh is his favorite. So while I was terrified of exposing him to the adrenaline rush of the vacuous Cars 2 earlier this summer, I had no such reluctance when it came to Winnie the Pooh.

Blu-ray Review: Alice in Wonderland (1951) at Nomad Editions: Wide Screen

by Tony Dayoub

Sometimes the two hats one wears can be at rather stark odds with each other. In the case of Disney animated films, being a cinephile and being a parent of very young children can provide some interesting counterpoints. The 60th-anniversary edition of Alice in Wonderland (1951), released in a high-def Blu-ray/DVD combo pack for the first time last week, proves to be a great example. On the one hand, the inclusion of rather superfluous features for the kiddies can seem like a space-waster, even given the volume of memory available on a Blu-ray disc. But on the other hand, the film’s brilliant transfer provides a glorious demonstration of the heights that a dedicated DVD production team can reach with not just a relatively old film but the now-dying art of hand-drawn animation.

CONTINUE READING AT NOMAD EDITIONS: WIDE SCREEN

Sunday Interlude With Sleeping Beauty (1959)

by Tony Dayoub

Happy Sunday. I caught Inception yesterday, so I'll have some thoughts on it in my next post. In the meantime, today's post is inspired by Tom and Mary Russell, two Michigan filmmakers who I follow on Twitter (@tomandmary). Of Sleeping Beauty, they recently tweeted:

It is the greatest animated film that Disney ever made: the apex of their artistry. Beyond beautiful. A formalist's delight.

Then subsequently:

Hey: my CPU can't do DVD screen captures. Would someone be willing to grab some specific SLEEPING BEAUTY shots for me & help a blogger out?

Since I am in complete agreement about Disney's underrated, ethereal classic, and because it serves as the perfect bridge between my look at The Red Shoes (1948) and Inception (all three of which share similar concerns)... Tom and Mary, here is a look at Sleeping Beauty.

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

by Tony Dayoub

This post contains spoilers.

With the release of the near-universally praised Toy Story 3, the latest offering from Pixar, has come the inevitable backlash from dissenters. Ignoring two of the most high profile reviewers, who just seem to be aiming their contrarian rhetoric at those of us misguided enough to provide their sites with more traffic, let me instead zero in on writer (and friend and reader of Cinema Viewfinder) Ryan Kelly's well argued piece at his blog Medfly Quarantine, which honestly seems motivated from a desire to be objective about this box office phenom. You should read it for yourself, of course, but the general gist can be found in the post's second paragraph, which reads:

Movie Review: Up

Up is perhaps the first Pixar movie I can think of that is specifically aimed at a general audience rather than child viewers. Sure, the other films have a broad appeal. But none of them seem especially geared towards adults as much as this one. Its storyline focuses on love, commitment, loss, and renewal... adult subjects that will certainly go over the heads of young ones. Ed Asner voices Carl, a crotchety old man who, as we learn in Up's prologue, wasn't always this way. Like in last year's Wall·E, this sequence is almost completely devoid of dialogue, and recounts the story of Carl's lifelong romance with Ellie, an audacious girl who fanned Carl's smaller spark for adventure into a grand flame. Their dream was to search for a long missing hero, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), who had disappeared in South America. But like John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Their meager savings end up redistributed towards more urgent needs, and dreams get put on hold. And one day, Ellie is gone. Carl is alone, holding onto everything he owns, his house a mausoleum erected in Ellie's memory. Enter Russell (Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer (Pixar's version of a Boy Scout). The last badge he has left to earn is the one for assisting the elderly. Russell's timing brings him into Carl's life at the moment he embarks on an harebrained exploit to South America, flying in his house, which is held aloft by hundreds of helium balloons. It's an evocative image, dredging up childhood dreams of magical journeys for any adult. And the movie pays it off unpredictably, as Carl and Russell end up forming a nuclear family of sorts with an exotic bird named Kevin as the mother, and a talking dog named Dug filling the role of family pet quite hilariously. But most impressive is the natural way the filmmakers forge the bond between Carl and Russell through each character's personal loss, Russell's being the distancing from his own father after his parents' divorce. These may seem like common points of identification nowadays. But any longtime Disney film fan can tell you that divorce is usually a taboo subject in their animated films. Adult or child, Up has a lot to offer anyone seeking a gentle reminder that life's adventures begin when and where one isn't looking.