24 Days of Christmas – “Happy Hannukah, My Parents Are Dead, Now Leave Me Alone” Edition

These days, it is simply accepted that Adam Sandler movies are going to be difficult to watch and yet increasingly generic. He’s made a very comfortable living by continually playing to the lowest common denominator, whether it’s through paint-by-numbers romantic or over-the-top absurdist comedies. But there was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when it didn’t have to be that way. Adam Sandler’s early films were goofy, endearing, hilarious messes, awesome little pieces of a unique comedic voice. Around the time that 8 Crazy Nights came out, he was still in the “could go either way” sweet spot.

One of the most endearing parts about Adam Sandler has always been (at least for me) his SNL-featured Hanukkah Songs. It may seem clichéd at this point to say that it’s rough growing up envying the pop culture prominence of Christmas, but it’s nice to have something to sing while lighting the menorah besides dreidle dreidle dreidle. Even worse is the dearth of Hanukkah movies. And so it’s obvious that when Sandler decided to make a bizarrely crass, animated Hanukkah movie he made it with a sincere intention of helping to right the injustice done to Jewish kids forced to sneak Rudolph under their disapproving parents’ noses.

And to a large extent, he does a good job of co-opting the Christmas movie traditions that are so prevalent. From the cheesy, after-school special animation to the “bad guy turns good” plotline to the over-the-top narration, 8 Crazy Nights does a good job of creating a holiday narrative that uses the themes and traditions of Hanukkah as effectively as movies like A Christmas Story play on Christmas.

Unfortunately, this is also a really gross and weird Adam Sandler movie. The same off-putting mixture of sentimentalism and gross-out humor that has characterized some of Sandler’s worst offerings plays awkwardly within this otherwise conventional holiday tale. It’s hard to enjoy the Hanukkah goodness, or even the actually moving tale when you’re also forced to endure disgusting body hair, jock-strap eating, and absurdly offensive stereotypes.

Anyway, the plot: Davey Jones (Adam Sandler) is an all around awful guy. He drinks and drives, does horrible things to the people around him, and hates other people almost as much as he hates himself. He is saved from jail time by Whitey, a four foot tall volunteer basketball ref who is as over-the-top nice as he is often disgusting. Whitey tries to rehab Davey’s broken spirit, while Davey tries to seduce a single mom who used to be his childhood sweetheart. Actually, rehabbing Davey turns out to be surprisingly easy, and basically consist of having him help Whitey and his bald, crazy sister clean cobwebs and play practical jokes on each other.

For Jewish parents looking for a happy-go-lucky movie to show their kids how cool Hanukkah can be, this movie is probably as ill-fated as the Hanukkah armadillo. Unless their idea of Rankin/Bass special is filled with poop, sex jokes, and alcoholism. But if you occupy the sweet spot of being Jewish or at least sorta Jewish, and between the ages of 9 and 16 (as I was the first time I saw 8 Crazy Nights), it’ll help tide you over until you realize that most Christmas movies are actually written by Jews, and that at the very least we’ll always have Seth Cohen.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• 99% Watch: Whitey is an impoverished nice guy, I guess, but this is about as close to the 99% watch as I’m getting with this movie. There’s no bad guy rich guys, no greed-destroying lives. I’d make a joke similar to that “Christmas presents at Hanukkah prices one,” but that’s anti-Semitic and far too easy.

• Adam Sandler once played the son of the Devil, but early-movie Davey is definitely the closest he’s been to pure evil

• People who should be offended by this movie: Short people, Asians, Reindeer, Fat people, bald people, parents, Jews, the footlocker.

24 Days of Christmas – Existentialism Installment

To say that A Charlie Brown Christmas is melancholy is not exactly a news flash, but it’s nonetheless affecting.

From the first chords of Vince Guaraldi, you’re 100% into the existential despair that Charlie Brown finds himself in. It’s sort of strangely appropriate that I find myself watching a movie all about finding the meaning of Christmas when I’m right in the middle of this little experiment and experiencing, I’ll admit it, a bit of Christmas movie fatigue. “I feel depressed, I know I should be happy, but I’m not,” says Charlie with aching sincerity. He’s caught in the middle of a glorious winter landscape, and surrounded by people full of Christmas Cheer, but he’s feeling empty and lonely and lost. Anyone over the age of 10 has had this moment, staring at all the Christmas lights around the house and wondering why it doesn’t hold the same joy it did when they were young. He sees the commercialism and hollow ritual that can seem to overwhelm any real gestures of “peace or goodwill towards men.” And the more disconnected he feels from the people around him (even when he’s helping them by directing the Christmas play), the emptier the whole ritual of Christmas seems.

One of the joys of Peanuts has always been the contrast between Charlie’s functional depression and Snoopy’s imaginative tomfoolery, a kind of metaphorical representative of the dichotomy between how terrifying and lonely being a kid can be with how freaking exciting it can be. Here, that dichotomy is represented beautifully by the contrast between the omnipresent “Christmas time is here” score and the hyperactive music that represents the play. And just like childhood, Christmas is a time of great contrasts. Of loving our rituals while feeling trapped by them, Of seeing relatives and friends whom we have missed while simultaneously finding them kind of annoying. Of trying to find the perfect representation of what Christmas means to us while also trying to make that representation run deeper than just the surface.

And so Charlie finds himself becoming obsessed with a pathetic little survivor of a Christmas Tree, as alone and unable to fit in as Charlie himself. But in the spirit of the season, and with the magic of a great Christmas special, the other people come together, creating a makeshift family for Charlie and the spirit of togetherness and joy that he was searching for. Not to get all film-major-y, but the use of sound in this movie really blew me away. The contrasts created by the ample use of silence, and the slightly echo-y quality to the voices, makes for a movie that feels like an avant garde film that just happens to feature characters who regularly show up in the funny pages of your local newspaper. And the great crescendo of this cacophony of sound and silence is the movie ending sing along with all the characters “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” a song that perfectly encapsulates the spiritually wandering Christmas offering. “I know nobody likes me, why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?”

24 Days of Christmas – Nazi Referencing Edition

Now that’s more like it.

From the first frames of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (fake newsreel footage of kids trying to get ready for the arrival of Santa Claus), I was sold. It’s filled with lush claymation landscapes, witty songs, a surprisingly complicated original plot, and themes that range from trying to be the best you can be to the power of being kind to people around you (no matter how weird, mean, or cruel they mean seem, or how comically weird their name may seem). It is also an enormous Nazi analogy, mixed with a Robin Hood story, but more on that later.

Santa Claus is Coming To Town is probably the least well known of the classics by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass (who also did Rudolph and Frosty). But here are the bare bone facts: Fred Astaire sings, dances and narrates the piece as a postman who knows everything about Santa. Mickey Rooney voices Santa. The movie features a character named Burgermeister Meister Burger who lives in Summertown. Basically, it wants to tell the story of Kris Kringle’s transformation into the one and only Santa Claus. Santa arrives at Burgermeister Meister Burger's as an orphaned baby, but he’s sent away. Then, a crazy wind pulls him towards the lair of the Winter Warlock (who is 17 kinds of evil), so the animals save him and bring him to the Kringles (specifically, Dingle Kringle, which is the greatest name I’ve ever heard, until you hear his brothers’ names). The five brothers bring him to the Elf queen, who lets him live with them (and names him Kris).

The elves can’t get their awesome toys to the little boys and girls because of the awful mountain, but Kris promises to do just that when he grows up. So grown up Kris (who’s a ginger, natch) tries to walk to the other side of the mountain to deliver toys and on the way encounters a penguin, thus confirming that penguins are indeed the Christmas bird. Kris and the penguin (Topper) arrive in Summertown, but Burgermeister Meister Burger has outlawed toys (in an Alan Menken-esque musical monologue). But Kris comes in, all red-trimmed and exuberant, and gives toys to all the girls and boys if only they’d stop pouting. But when Burgermeister Meister Burger is ready to put the kibosh in the whole communist love-in, Kris and Topper have to take off, and Kris suddenly turns out to have all the nonconformist agility of Aladdin and ends up right in the grasp of the Winter Warlock. But Kris’s kindness, and desire to give the Winter Warlock a toy, causes Winter’s heart to melt. Winter helps Kris start making a list (to check twice) of all the children to help him deliver illicit presents.

Burgermeister Meister Burger is, understandably, unhappy and he and Kris start a nice little covert war that actually kind of reminded me of communications in the Warsaw ghetto. Actually, the whole series of scenes of herr Bergermeister with his German accent tearing apart people’s homes to try and find the illegal toys puts Santa in the odd position of playing the role of the Jews in this World War II homage. Or maybe he’s more of a toy-ferrying Harriet Tubman. Either way, he is captured by Herr Bergermeister, who lights their toys on fire and HOLY CRAP this is a Nazi analogy, I’m not just being overly flippant. This is totally intentional.

Anyway, Kris’s lady love (distressed about Kris’ arrest) starts singing an acid-trip-styled ballad about being changed by Kris and fascism (or something), which also causes her hairstyle to change from uptight bun to flowy hippie locks. At this point, it is abundantly obvious that this movie wants more than just to tell the story of Santa. It’s actually providing trenchant political analysis about greed and fascism being overcome by kindness and generosity. Also that hippies have better hair.

Badass Jessica then frees Kris and his friends using magic reindeer. Kris grows out his beard (like a dirty hippy) to hide from Burgermeister Meister Burger, and then changes his name to Santa Claus, before marrying Jessica “in front of the lord.” The Winter Warlock (who has been losing his magic throughout the movie) summons up one last ounce of magic and lights the first Christmas tree. The movie ends with the beginning of the tradition of exchanging presents with the people you love on Christmas. A now-married Santa Claus takes on the task of giving out secret presents every year to the boys and girls. Thus Santa is recast from lovable philanthropist into the role of exiled revolutionary building his own castle outside of the society that banished him.

After the Burgermeisters fall from power, cool guys in jeans come and throw out their paintings and Santa is revered as the nice guy he truly is. But Santa gets old, and can no longer go out all the time delivering gifts, so he has to switch to just Christmas (because it is the holiest night of the year).

Even more than Rudolph, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town takes abundant advantage of the expanse of claymation. Every scene is full of countless awesome little details, and the characters are full of little visual quirks. And from the Nazi analogies, to the movie-ending monologue begging us to “learn Santa’s lesson” about peace on earth and goodwill towards man, no one can accuse this movie of being paint-by-numbers. It is the rare childhood classic that actually grows in estimation when watching it as an adult. 

Random Observations: 
• Does Kris Kringle look like the brothers in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers to anyone else? I half expected him to throw some ladies over his shoulder and bring them back as his bride.

• “Watch out for the doll. She’s a hardened criminal I hear.” This movie is freaking adorable.

 • “Why look here, changing from bad to good is as easy as taking your first step.” Who knew this movie was actually super helpful for New Year’s Resolutions as well as Christmas Cheer?

• Jessica kind of looks like Joan from Mad Men. Just sayin’.

 • 99% Watch: Besides Santa’s intense Socialist values, disregard for property laws, and distrust for authority (especially law enforcement), there’s actually less overt class warfare references here, just a general disdain for tyranny, except when it comes in the form of jolly men with beards.

• The point by point Santa explanations (“and that’s how he started going down chimneys”; “So that’s how he got the red suit!”) should be annoyingly on the nose, but they’re just so cute, I couldn’t get annoyed.

24 Days of Christmas – Frosty Reception Edition

The second of our classic animation trifecta is Frosty.

Shorter and less revolutionary than its reindeer brethren, Frosty looks less like Coraline and more like a classic Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon.

A bunch of kids get together after school on the day before Christmas to make a snowman. A magician’s magic (and very argumentative) hat falls on old Frosty’s head and he immediately comes to life. The kids and magician accept this remarkably quickly. Frosty is much more of a goofy children’s special, with very little to recommend itself outside of nostalgia and painfully catchy musical numbers.

With a dastardly, mustachioed magician, a wily bunny rabbit, and a precocious blond sidekick named Karen, dimwitted Frosty makes his way to North Pole salvation and encounters a series of trivial obstacles and adorable woodland creatures’ Christmas. Along the way, he seems to hit about 1,000 lame children’s movie clichés. Then Frosty melts, and the children cry, and the jazzy/bluesy theme comes on, and Santa has to console poor abandoned Karen. Here, the movie gets as close as it comes to metaphor, talking about how “Christmas snow” is always around us, even when it seems like Spring or Summer. 

Now, it may seem grumpy or un-Christmas-like to complain about a lack of substance in a half-hour animated special designed for children. But if I’ve learned anything throughout the other installments of this series, it’s that Christmas makes for particularly ripe creative ground, home for all sorts of stories about love and acceptance. So, as somewhat nauseous as it makes me to admit it, I’ll say it – Frosty kind of sucks. It’s not a particularly substantial story to begin with, but the animated special could be more fun to make up for its lack of real stuff. Instead, it feels surprisingly paint by numbers.

Random Observations: 
• I love that the movie felt the need to make clear to children that it is only okay to steal a hat from a mean old magician man (even if you are an adorable bunny rabbit)

• “Those silly snowmen, once they come to life, they don’t know nothin’.”

• 99% Watch: The children and Frosty’s lack of money keeps them from getting him to the North Pole, but some clever Robin Hood’ing by Frosty (jumping a refrigerator car on a train, naturally) gets him there anyway.

• Maybe Karen is so cold because she’s not wearing pants.

24 Days of Christmas: Claymated Installment

Ah, claymation. The most sacred purview of Christmas movies. The next few installments of the 24 Days of Christmas will be going through the Christmas classics of the claymated and classically animated variety: Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. First, to Rudolph.

Narrated by Sam, the talking Snow Man, Rudolph starts with the devastating news that bad weather is threatening the celebration of Christmas. Luckily, as the narrator Snow Man tells us, Santa has Rudolph. We don’t know how, yet, but we know that plucky little reindeer is going to save the day.

The first thing I noticed was how gorgeously old school this animation is. Since it’s been a while since I’ve sat down with originals, my most recent memories of this particular school of animation were from Community and It’s Always Sunny. But on this old school track, you can see every tuff of awkwardly constructed reindeer hair. You can see the precarious puppetry behind surprisingly Trotsky-looking Santa. And you can really see how adorable Rudolph is. The story of how Rudolph became the savior of Christmas is, as you probably remember, the tale of “nonconformist,” red-nosed Rudolph becoming accepted for exactly what he is by the reindeer and the surprisingly mean and judgmental version of Santa. There’s also an awesome abominable snowman who traipses around Christmasland, scaring reindeer, elves and Santa alike. Then, there’s also the goofy Herbie, an “unhappy in his work” elf who is messing things up at the Elf factory because of his desire to be a dentist.

In this version of the North Pole, apparently Santa is a conformity minded task master who grooms reindeer to do his bidding while oppressing his elven workers (99% WATCH). After the elves put together a beautiful musical number for Santa, he dismisses them with a “well it needed work” and then jets off to go judge (overly harshly) the reindeer. In fact, increasingly as I watched Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, I was reminded of the fact that this movie came out in 1964, and it feels intensely like a product of that time. In fact, the reindeer flirting scenes seem taken straight out of a cheesy 50s beach party movie. Comet the reindeer seems like the quintessential 60s era overbearing sports coach. And if Donnor, in the role of Rudolph’s father, had started talking about fighting the Japs in WWII, I would not have been surprised.

And there’s an intense counter culture vibe running through this. I’m not kidding, by the way. Rudolph could be one of the most subversive movies to ever feature an extended musical number with singing snow bunnies. While being a dentist and having a red nose may not seem like counter culture statements, the whole theme of “independence” and being a misfit and going against society’s rules, especially in view of the movie’s early 1960’s release, is pretty profound. It’s even kind of feminist, with douchebag Daddy Donnor trying to keep Mama Donnor in the house, to which she basically says "screw you" and heads out with Rudolph’s future gal pal, Clarice, to search for her missing toy*.

And that’s all before they get to the Island of Misfit Toys, where hundreds of toys sit alone and abandoned due to manufacturing defects. A thriving subculture develops (complete with carefully harmonized musical numbers!) among Santa’s rejects, who nonetheless spend their time yearning for the Christmas day that will never be theirs. It’s a case study in thwarted desire and the beauty of solidarity among society’s cast offs. Substitute misfit toy for any oppressed subculture, and the movie sounds even more radical. After all, this is a world in which even the abominable snowman, when shown some understanding, wants to come in and help decorate the Christmas tree. Eventually, the elves, reindeer and Santa realize they were being jerks and welcome Herbie, Rudolph, the abominable snowman, and Yukon Cornelius into their midst, just in time to take advantage of the things they once hated about them.

And so Reindeer and his glowy nose guide Santa and his sleigh straight to the Island of Misfit toys. They rescue the misfit presents, and then bring gifts to all the good little boys and girls the world over. And thus, in the minds of millions of little boys and girls the world over, was planted the idea that the weirdo you made fun of in gym class is one day going to totally beat you at your own job. And if only they’d taken that lesson to heart, instead of getting distracted by the cute fawns across the way, then the 80s would have never seen the Revenge of the Nerds franchise.

Random Observations: 
• “Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a nitwit.” I DARE you not to feel bad for the sad little Rudolph.

 • The name Clarice has been ruined by The Silence of the Lambs.

• “From now on, gang, we won’t let Rudolph join in ANY reindeer games, right?”

* Okay so maybe I overstated the feminism, since very quickly thereafter: “of course, they were very sad about the loss of their friend, but they realized the best thing to do is get the women home safely.”

24 days of Christmas: Mickey Mouse Edition

by Rachael Nisenkier

Christmas Carols are a dime a dozen. But versions, that don’t make me want to skip through half the ghosts? Well, those are much further and farther between. Mickey’s Christmas Carol is one of those, primarily because it’s only half an hour long. Also, apparently I just can’t handle the classic story if it’s not populated with anthropomorphized animals playing the characters. I’m not sure what this says about me.

Anyway, the Mickey version helpfully condenses a story that can sometimes justify an up to 3 hour play into 30 minutes (WITH COMMERCIALS) and greatly simplifies the themes. Scrooge McDuck is a miser who loves money, and is crappy to Bob Cratchett (Mickey) and everyone. Jiminy Cricket plays the ghost of Christmas past and carries Scrooge quickly to the golightly past. The ghost of Christmas present is The Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk (okay…), and it’s amusing to watch him struggle with lines like “it’s the food of generosity, which you have always denied.” The ghost of Christmas present is pretty much always a profound dolt, all about short sighted kindness and absentminded goofiness, but here he’s much more profoundly buffoonish. The scary Goofy villain type guy plays Christmas Future, and he’s a lot more malicious than you’re probably used to in the normally Dementor-like ghost. Plus he smokes cigars, which is just gross.

The jokes are cute, and surprisingly witty, and the super brisk pace may cut out a lot of the nuance, but it leaves in a lot of the fun. Overall, this is far from an essential Carol offering. It turns out I actually enjoy the nuance. But it is enough to prove that Mickey and co. have the capacity to make enjoyable entertainment that can play to adults, even while it’s way better at spreading communist propaganda to children.

Random Observations 
• Scrooge McDuck should be nicer to his nephew, Fred (Donald Duck). The poor guy clearly has serious learning problems.

• Going along with my 99% theme for these reviews, here’s a good quote for the 1%ers out there “You work all your life for your money, and people expect you to give it away!” 

• It really, profoundly disturbs me in all the version of A Christmas Carol when the door knocker turns into Marley, but I think it’s worst here, when it not only turns into Marley, but Marley is played by gosh darn GOOFY. What is this world coming to?

• How come Scrooge wears slippers, even though he never wears shoes?

• Okay so yes this version is goofy, but I do like mouse Tiny Tim better than frog Tiny Tim (from the Muppets), because he doesn’t wheeze annoyingly “The Turkey! The Turkey! The Turkey!” and sing obnoxiously optimistic songs.

• I’ll talk more about this in more substantial Christmas Carol offerings, but it always kind of seems like a cop out to me that Scrooge turns his life around after finding out about his own death. It seems like showing him that first, then building up his compassion for other people, might be the more profound route. THAT’S RIGHT, DICKENS! EDITED!

'Tis the Season... Installment 7 Halloweentowne Edition

I'm sure I've seen The Nightmare Before Christmas at least three or four times in my lifetime, yet it's never been one of my Christmas movies. I think maybe I seceded it to the goth kids shopping at Hot Topics in high school, and just never bothered to take it back.

So it is that watching The Nightmare Before Christmas as a (semi) adult, it felt almost like the first viewing. In fact, the closest thing I can compare it to is watching Casablanca for the first time and feeling that vague sensation of deja vu even though you know you've never actually seen Humphrey Bogart's face before.

It's worth it to remember just how revolutionary this movie was when it first came out. In a way, Tim Burton was perverting the claymation magic of Rudolph and Frosty and the other classics of the stilted absurdist medium to make his Halloween-ified Christmas movie. Now it seems almost cliched to see the love interest with her stitched up mouth, and Jack's elongated skeleton frame dancing through the screen, but back when this movie came out it was pretty new and different.

And yet The Nightmare Before Christmas is really the most classic of holiday movies: one that grapples with the meaning of Christmas, especially since most of us don't forever live in Christmastowne. It's protagonist, Jack, is the king of Halloweentown (in a metaphorical sense), a man who has made his fortune and reputation on scares and danger. He becomes obsessed with the glee and happiness he briefly glimpses in Christmastowne and looks to bring it back to the cold dreariness of his Halloween world. Unfortunately, as he attempts to apply the scientific method to the study of Christmas, he horribly misjudges the meaning and attempts to take Christmas and pervert it to the world of perpetual All Hallows Eve.

When Jack realizes his mistake and starts to grasp the true meaning of Christmas, he still has to contend with the evil Oogie Boogie in order to save Christmas. It's a classic Christmas adventure made all the more moving and intriguing for its imagery of vampires and werewolves (working together? Now that IS Christmas magic!). For Jack, Christmas is ultimately a time for him to exceed the supposed limits of his life and to realize his dreams, as long as he doesn't hurt anyone else in the process (such as the poor, mistakenly kidnapped Easter Bunny).

A Nightmare Before Christmas is a movie that is simultaneously dated and timeless. The visuals are still pretty impressive (if not quite as unique), but it's really the stories and the endlessly catchy songs that make it worthwhile.

Tangled Up

Posted by Rachael

I have a confession to make. Despite years of soccer-playing, action-figure-collecting, comic-book-reading, action-movie-loving tomboy-ery, I've always, truly, wanted to be a Disney princess. But I didn't want to be just any princess: I wanted to be Belle, the confident heroine who ultimately saves herself and her love with her brains and good heart.

This is hardly a unique statement. Generations upon generations of girls the world over have day dreamed about being a disney princess. But it's the neccessary context around which to understand my reaction to Disney's Tangled.

The newest Disney film follows Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) and Flynn (Zachary Levi) as they evade a wicked wit, uh Old Lady, chase their dreams, banter, interact with adorable anthropomorphized animals, and, inevitably, fall in love. It was cliched before Enchanted came out and set it in the real world, but it definitely feels worn in this hour of post-modern Shrek-ery and Pixar films.

But god damn. That so doesn't matter. The beauty of a true Disney film is not in the shocks of the plot (although Tangled is an excellently constructed story), but in the magic that floats off the screen. The animation is top-notch, the voice work across the board excellent, and the songs (as drafted by Disney vet Alan Menken) are fantastic.

top of that, Rapunzel is a heroine for the ages. The movie feels at once classic (there's no meta-winks at the camera, no irony to be found here) and modern (yet the film doesn't feel the need to relegate Rapunzel to a pre-Mulan damsel in distress mode). As voiced by Moore, she's spunky, intelligent, innocent, engaging, and active, constantly working towards her own freedom and her own happy ending. If the feminist in me has always had a sort of love-hate relationship with the princess side of me, both sides happily coexisted while I was in that theater.

A lot of reviews I've read feel the need to explain now what Tangled isn't (oscar-worthy, a Pixar film, going to cure cancer), as if the reviewer feels a little ashamed of how much they fell in love while in that movie theater. But screw it. If my life was the Disney movie I wish it was, then walking out of that theater I was in full blown ballad-mode, and not the beginning, heart-felt longing ballad, but the near end of movie I'm so happy my head could burst ballad. And if that's all a movie has to give me, I feel no need to appologize for my adoration of it.

Disney recently announced that Tangled is the last of their princess movies, and seeing the film made me realize what a shame that truly is. It isn't just the songs or the pretty dresses or the cute animals; it's the princesses themselves who, when done right, are much better than just future dolls, they're the fully-realized version of who we wish we were. and as long as the princesses are as fantastic and interesting as Rapunzel, that's a good thing.

Not At All Despicable Me

By Rachael

I've come to take it as a granted that my favorite movie of the summer and year will probably be a Pixar film. I've learned to accept that the film that's going to bring me to the highest level of pathos and enjoyment will inevitably be something brought to me in animated form. This has been true since Ratatouille. But since last year*, it seems like the other animated studios are stepping it up,and, with absolutely no offense to Toy Story 3 (which was brilliant, fantastic, moving and amazing), actually challenging Pixar for its dominance of brilliance. And while Despicable Me doesn't quite unseat Toy Story 3, it comes so damn close it's pretty remarkable.

Despicable Me tells the story of Gru, a super villain by trade, who comes up with a plan to increase his super villain cred that requires the adoption of three little girls. It doesn't seem like a great premise, but damn if this movie doesn't make the tired "maladjusted guy needs children to make him grow up" premise and ring every laugh, joy, and tear out of it.

Major props should go to Steve Carrell's excellent voice work (the accent alone is enough to power at least half of the movie's jokes) as well as a fantastically surprisingly witty script (that doesn't fall into the "cheap pop culture" joke camp OR the "cheap fart and poop" joke camp that dog children's movies). But it shouldn't be understated how fantastic the art direction is on this piece. Although it forgoes the soaring landscapes of a typical lauded film, the overall look of this film (campy, ridiculous, and yet still beautiful and deep) really helps to keep the constant, goofy jokes and engaging narrative alive. Look no further than the brilliantly crafted "Minions" than to see how excellently these guys do silent physical comedy.

In the end, the result is a movie that is one part classic Mel Brooks farce (or maybe old school Pink Panther film, the Peter Sellers kind, not Steve Martin), one part The Incredible, and one part Big Daddy. Yet despite that weird concoction, the result is something fantastic, surprising, pee-your-pants funny and infinitely quotable.

*which saw The Princess and The Frog, Coraline, and Monsters Vrs. Aliens all stepping up the non-Pixar-studio game

Welcome and What to See

Hi Movie Fans, 


Welcome to My Entertainment World's newest site: My Cinema. Here we'll be discussing our thoughts on current and classic cinema, sharing movie news and actor profiles.


To kick off the site, here's a list of films currently in theatres that are worth the watch, or completely skippable: 


DEFINITELY GO SEE:

Toy Story 3. This touching last installment of the wonderful Pixar trilogy lives up to its predecessors and sometimes even improves upon them. All your favourite characters are back and better than ever with a couple all-new personalities joining them in the toy chest (including a quotable Barbie and Ken pair and a hedgehog thespian that I particularly enjoyed). If the ending doesn't make you cry then you really need to re-evaluate your emotional response system.  Unlike most kids movies, even the truly great ones, Toy Story 3 never lags and throughout the whole thing it had a theatre full of adults feeling like kids again.

The Trotsky. A Canadian comedy about the reincarnation of a Russion revolutionary, The Trotsky is a lot more fun than it sounds. Perhaps the smartest film I've seen in years, it's the kind of funny that's sadly rare in this day and age. Starring Jay Baruchel and Canadian stage legends Colm Feore and Domini Blythe alongside a host of phenomenal young stars, The Trotsky is not to be missed.

Babies. It'll make you desperate to have a baby and dread the day you do. This documentary is almost completely wordless. Set in The USA, Mongolia, Namibia and Japan, Babies needs no translation. It's captivating to watch how different all of the newborns are and even more remarkable for the fact that they are essentially all the same.


IF YOU HAVE THE TIME AND SOME EXTRA TICKET MONEY, CHECK OUT: 

The Karate Kid: Jaden Smith will be a giant movie star in 5 years (maybe less). He's got the coolest pedigree there is, an easy charm, an insatiable work ethic and some really cool moves. Take him, a fun script and Jackie Chan's best performance in years and you've got yourself a film that's not legendary by any mean but is an incredibly enjoyable couple of hours at the theatre. 

Letters To Juliet: It's kinda cute. Incredibly predictable and super cheesy, Letters to Juliet is one of those movies that if you're in the right mood can be really exactly what you need. It's sweet, stars talented people, is set in Italy, has a Taylor Swift-y soundtrack and is generally very, very pretty. 

Prince of Persia. The always lovable Jake Gyllenhaal got a little lost beneath the formulaic dialogue and gross muscle mass of this epic Disney production. It was a little dumb, a lot predictable and way longer than it should have been, but Prince of Persia is not an altogether unenjoyable movie. In fact, it's kind of fun in a stupid summer movie kinda way.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS: 

Sex and the City 2. WAY too long, mildly offensive at times and chock a block full of that infuriating nitwit Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City 2 is sort of saved by a couple of things. First there's Miranda, the most mature woman by a long shot, who keeps the others at least mildly grounded, brings out the film's best scene with Charlotte and tries to maintain at least a grain of respect for the culture they are vacationing in. Second is Charlotte. for 3/4 of the film it seems as though her story is about as inspired as, well, Carrie's. She flits about Abu Dhabi worried about her cell phone reception. It isn't until that climatic and charming scene with Miranda that we realize that she actually had some very human motivation all along. John Corbett, usually a welcome figure on screen, was a disappointment as the film entirely undermined the character of Aidan. Husbands (and one ex) Steve, Harry, John and Smith were all suitably charming, once again proving that the men are better than the women in this obnoxiously man-hating world. John (aka Mr. Big) had a lovely story that proved once again that Carrie's an undeserving moron. But if you can sit back and ignore the obscene clothing choices, the culturally offensive behaviour and the sheer idiocy of the lead, Sex and the City 2 is kinda fun I guess. But really, it's stupid, don't go. 

Robin Hood. I haven't been so bored since Flags of our Fathers. Robin Hood is way too long, incredibly muddled and stars people who are much too old for their parts (especially considering it's supposed to be an origin story). Robin's merry men were far from merry, there was very little stealing form the rich and giving to the poor and the whole thing just made me sad remembering how good Gladiator was (the last time star Crowe and director Scott teamed up for a similar historical epic). Oscar Isaac's Prince John was kind of engaging and the casting of Lost's evil Keamy (Kevin Durand) as Little John was amusing but  overall Robin Hood is the most skippable film I've seen in quite some time.