Movie Review: Inside Out (2015)

by Tony Dayoub


There are Pixar films for kids, and there are Pixar films for grown-ups. Inside Out is definitely one for adults, and that grants it a kind of longevity. See, movies like Monsters, Inc., Cars, and even Toy Story have to depend on cutesy characters and sequels to extend their shelf life because, fun as they are, once you've seen them there isn't much there to revisit. Their concerns are those of children: finding what you're good at, fitting in among new friends, coping with a loss of popularity, etc. Movies like The Incredibles, Wall-E, and Up may still have cute characters but they have a more mature focus: adjusting to middle-age and familial responsibility, overcoming our consumerist tendencies, remembering you're only as young as you feel, and so forth. Inside Out definitely falls into the latter camp.

Movie Review: Penguins of Madagascar (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

The mistake made with the holiday release of Penguins of Madagascar is a common one. Expanding the franchise by spinning off its comic relief into his/her/their own project rarely works. It's the reason Seinfeld's Kramer never got his own show. Or the reason Happy Days floundered once Ron Howard left the show and it became all about the Fonz. Eccentric sidekicks are often so potent that they overwhelm the story, and it's no different with Madagascar's four lovable clowns, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights).

Movie Review: Big Hero 6 (2014)

by Tony Dayoub


The idea of Disney exploiting its newly acquired Marvel properties for an animated film is a great on its face. The first of these films, but hardly its last I believe, is Big Hero 6, a cute superhero movie that should prove to be a font of unending merchandising opportunities directed to young boys the way Frozen has been to young girls. Cute as it is however , Big Hero 6 still comes up short as a children's fantasy.

Movie Review: The Book of Life (2014)

by Tony Dayoub


Many years ago, I made the mistake of dismissing The Nightmare Before Christmas as a visually spectacular but hollow animated musical. Yeah, I didn't get it. It isn't that nostalgia has made the movie feel closer to a classic or that over time its style has eclipsed its substance. In a fundamental way, I've come to realize, its style is its substance. I shall not make the same mistake with The Book of Life. While not the animation game-changer that The Nightmare Before Christmas may have been, The Book of Life perhaps has even more room to grow into a classic in the coming years. And curiously it has a similar pedigree.

TV Review: Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion is the debut episode of the first Star Wars animated series to debut on Disney XD since its parent company acquired the Lucasfilm franchise. Think of it as a Firefly take on characters populating the fringe of the Star Wars universe and you'll get an idea of what it feels like. The irony is that Joss Whedon's short-lived Firefly was itself a western outlaw take on the original Star Wars that focused on a Han Solo-like smuggler and the crew of his ship (a Millennium Falcon in all but name). In Star Wars Rebels, young viewers are meant to identify with Ezra Bridger, a clever ruffian who scavenges his way through life on the Empire-occupied planet Lothal unaware that he has greater powers than he realizes.

Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

Its poor box office returns are by no means an indication of the quality of How to Train Your Dragon 2, a worthy sequel to its high-flying predecessor. Like the first, this follow-up is the rare movie actually worth seeing in 3D because of its plenitude of dynamic point-of-view shots. You're continuously immersed in the action, often seeing things from the same vantage point as Dragon's underdog hero, one-legged Hiccup (Jay Baruchel). Hiccup is the resourceful dragon rider of Toothless, a rare Night Fury with his own handicap in the form of a mutilated tail.

Movie Reviews: Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014) and The Lego Movie (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

With one unorthodox animated feature (discussed at the end of this post) capitalizing on parental nostalgia at the box office, it's expected that another more conventional one would try and do the same. And Mr. Peabody and Sherman is that... conventional. Admittedly, it is funny, with many of its jokes sailing over younger heads and right towards the hearts of their gen-x parents. But they aren't anywhere near as dryly hilarious as the one-liners which seemed to fly out a mile-a-minute in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964).

Movie Reviews: Kids for Cash (2014) and The Wind Rises (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

A first glance at Oscar weekend's new theatrical releases might be misleading. Though most of the movies look like they lack any kind of heft—whether we're talking about substance or even just plain, old entertainment value—here are two films worth your time.

Movie Review: The Nut Job (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

You're looking for a family movie this long weekend, but you've seen Frozen one time too many. Or maybe you're just tired of taking in another awards contender and would prefer something light and fluffy. Either way, The Nut Job should do the trick. By no means an instant classic or even what I'd call a pretty solid film, The Nut Job is an animated heist comedy that occasionally surprises.

Holiday Viewing: Delivery Man (2013) and Frozen (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

Just checking in with some words on a couple of films I saw this past holiday week, sort of a bad news, good news deal. Let's start with the bad.

Movie Review: Free Birds (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

Remember the last time you ate turkey for Thanksgiving? The alluring smell of garlic and herbs wafting through the house as your mother-in-law took care to keep an eye on the roast bird while you watched the Macy's Day parade and got ready for some football? As it was placed on the table you took a picture of it in all its resplendent, golden-brown glory. You couldn't wait to dig in. And then, one bite of the turkey your father-in-law carefully carved, and you realize that you'll need either a ton of gravy or the tallest glass of water ever to counter its dryness. Well, that's what the new, animated Thanksgiving movie Free Birds feels like... a pretty, overcooked turkey.

Movie Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

Be assured, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is definitely better than the first. That being said, this is not a major accomplishment since the first movie was a major slog to get through. With a color palette that ranged from day-glo to rainbow-tastic and rubber-band-shaped characters with malleable, indistinct personalities to match, it was a forgettable movie where scientist Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) was forced to sabotage his own invention-gone-wild after it starts creating gigantic food-based weather issues for his island town, Swallow Falls. Overlong and predictable, it was a dull affair even for pint-sized animated film fans. In this respect, Cloudy 2 is a success; the kids at the screening I attended (including my own) were engaged throughout, as were a good number of the adults.

Invoking the Spirit of the West

How DVD extras enhance the experience of viewing the animated Rango

By Tony Dayoub

It’s unusual to see my annual list of best movies and not find some animated piece by either Pixar or Disney or both in a prominent position. Stranger still is finding that slot occupied by a first-time offering from an upstart animation company. But 2011’s offerings from the House of Mouse are weaker than in years past. Cars 2 is a hackneyed attempt to capitalize on the franchise’s licensing longevity, repositioning an annoying secondary character — popular with kids — as the new star of the series while jettisoning any of the emotional content that made the first film palatable to adults. And though the new Winnie the Pooh redo is an earnest stab at satisfying adults’ appetite for nostalgia, it adheres a little too closely to tradition to have the broad appeal of most recent Disney/Pixar movies: You’re not going to see Junior shutting down the PlayStation to go check out the cool, new animated designs of Tigger, Eeyore, or Piglet at the multiplex with his friends. No, for that there’s Rango (Paramount Home Video), just out on Blu-ray and DVD...

CONTINUE READING AT NOMAD EDITIONS: WIDE SCREEN

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.

Waiting for Hulot

by Tony Dayoub

In this week's Wide Screen, I look at the recent Blu-ray release of last year's Oscar-nominated animated feature, The Illusionist. Here's an excerpt from my column, "Tatischeff or Tati?" in which I use the scene most resembling one of Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot gags as a starting point in contrasting the iconic Hulot from the new film's titular magician, Tatischeff:

But outside of this one sequence in The Illusionist, Tatischeff (as his name underscores) is not meant to invoke the character of Hulot, as much as he is meant to recall the artist who assumed the name, Jacques Tati. (For Playtime, Tati built a virtual city with its own power plant at great expense to him both financially and in terms of his cinematic career.) Like the director, Tatischeff is a man who patiently sets up acts involving sleight of hand, appreciated by a rare few (as represented by Alice), but is fighting a losing battle in a world growing ever faster in its pace, its technological development and its disdain for artists who aren’t simply pretty tabulas rasa; a running joke in the film involves Tatischeff repeatedly encountering a boy band that acts masculine in front of their screaming female fans while relaxing into effeminacy backstage.

CONTINUE READING AT NOMAD EDITIONS: WIDE SCREEN

Movie Review: Rango (2011)

by Tony Dayoub

You know what's the best feeling for a moviegoer? Going to the multiplex with average to low expectations about a movie only to be greatly surprised by how much you enjoyed it. Though the buzz was starting to get around that the animated western Rango was the first great film of 2011, I still went into it with some trepidation. Animated movies seem to touch the heart of even the most stone-faced critics who often seem to give such pictures a pass simply for displaying a modicum of visual originality (I'm thinking of such mediocrity as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Despicable Me, Megamind, etc.). But with a glut of animation beginning to hit theaters as each studio tries to get into the game, it is harder and harder to predict which will be memorable and which won't be. I'm happy to report Rango exceeds expectations.

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

The Mohawk Memoirs: You Sound Awfully Familiar!

by "Rooster" Clayborne

So I drag my six-year old daughter to the theater to see Tangled, the new 3D animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Why? Because I’m occasionally struck with the compulsion to watch films based on beloved classic tales—unless it’s called The Nutcracker in 3D and features rat-faced Nazi storm troopers (don’t believe me? check out the trailer). As I sat and watched Tangled, engrossed by the STORY, I found myself trying to crack the voice recognition code. Perhaps you’ve done it too, “That voice—I’ve heard it before. It’s…”

Blu-ray Review: Avatar Extended Collector's Edition

by Tony Dayoub

Sorry I've been scarce, but I've been contending with the nastiest cold, plowing through end-of-the-year screeners and some voluminous Blu-ray gift sets, all while caring for our youngest son as we prepare for a vacation. Before we part ways for the Thanksgiving holiday, however, to follow up on the ones reviewed here last week (and in anticipation of Criterion's amazing 70s-era set "America Lost and Found: The BBS Story", which is so thick with supplements I haven't yet gotten past disc 2 of this 6-disc set since receiving it this past Friday; I'll make it up to you with an in-depth look into the stunning package soon) I wanted to fill you in on another wonderful Blu-ray package well worth your time, Avatar Extended Collector's Edition Blu-ray.

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.