Quick Round-up: Movies

I seem to have seen so many films recently, on TV, DVD and at the cinema and I've not had time/inclination to write a lot about each one. So for the sake of completeness, I'm going to zip through what I've seen here, starting with TV drama Page Eight (2011), a slow yet solid tale of espionage starring Bill Nighy. Then there was Bringing Up Baby (1938), the hilarious screwball comedy that sees Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn trading barbs as they try to track down the titular Baby, a pet leopard on the loose, and Hepburn tries her darndest to snag her man. I've seen this film before and it's an absolute hoot, so I was eager to get Andrew to watch it to see what he thought - for the same reason we watched The Birdcage (1996), the hilarious US remake of La Cage aux Folles starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as a gay couple who are shocked to learn 'their' son is to marry the daughter of a Republican senator. Funny and unexpectedly touching, The Birdcage doesn't do a great deal for the gay cause, but it's hard to be offended when everyone's having so much fun. 

A change of tack to documentary and Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (2011), where Nick Broomfield investigates the strange world of the one-time VP hopeful through interviews with family and friends. And once it becomes clear that Broomfield is making an honest documentary rather than a puff piece about how amazing Palin is, the access to family dries up pretty quick. I didn't think that Broomfield set out with a liberal agenda per se, but he soon uncovered a lot of dodgy back story and delusion behind the soccer-mom smokescreen that painted a convincing and scary picture of Palin. 

Panned by the critics and shunned by audiences, I went into John Carter (2012) with an open mind (and a buy-one-get-one-free email voucher from Disney) and was completely blown away. I cannot see why everyone is down on this movie, it's exciting, it's funny, it's original and it is much better than many other CGI sci-fi epics I can think of (yeah, Phantom Menace, I mean you). I've not stopped talking about it to friends and colleagues since. Taylor Kitsch is hunky and a hero to route for as the title character, a widowed US Civil War veteran who is mysteriously transported to Barsoom/Mars where he gets caught up in the red planet's own internal fights. Filled with spectacle, non-irritating CG characters, suprisingly dark moments and much more, John Carter's fully-realised world is one I'd love to go back to in future films, but alas that's unlikely. 

Special effects on a much smaller budget and screen made last Christmas' The Borrowers (2011) a believable and fun tale that up-dated Arrietty's family and found them living under Victoria Wood's floorboards. Stephen Fry's scientist gets wind and determines to expose the little folk to the world in a plot that is bigger than the Ghibli movie but less sweetly engaging. A much more odd interpretation of a classic children's story, Wes Anderson's stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) features an assortment of indie voices plus George Clooney and Meryl Streep as Mr and Mrs Fox, and a laconic tone that suits the story to a tee. 

After reading William Goldman's novel I revisited The Princess Bride (1987) on DVD. I didn't get the big deal the first time around, and while I can see why it has earned cult status, like the book before it I still felt it was lacking an extra something to expand the idea of a parody fairytale into a roaring success. What the movie did was make me want to watch Cary Elwes really letting loose in Robin Hood: Men in Tights again! The Princess Bride felt oddly low key as a whole, something that could also be said of Monsters (2010), the economically made movie about two characters who are thrown together to travel across alien-infested landsThe low budget meant that this was more a character study than a John Carter style action-fest, with the CGI aliens only briefly glimpsed. Perhaps actually it is more of a love story than anything else, as well as a pretty trip around the jungles of Central America. 

Finally, last Wednesday we went to the cinema to see The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012), in 3D, Aardman Animation's latest claymation feature. The most joyfully silly movie I've seen since The Muppets, The Pirates is packed full of sight gags and witty lines, run through with an earthy Britishness and randomness reminiscent of Monty Python. While not as consistently laugh-filled as Chicken Run, I found The Pirates more satisfying than Curse of the Were-Rabbit and left the cinema with a massive smile on my face. And that concludes the movie part of the update!

December Round-up: TV & Books

The Christmas / New Year period was fairly busy for some reason, and it's only since this last weekend I've been able to unwind, at least that's how it feels. So I'm going to do a quick catch up on the stuff I've been watching and reading to bring me up to date to start the new year. 

Back at the end of 2011 I loved every minute of Forbrydelsen II / The Killing II (2009). While not as long or perhaps as compelling as the first series, the second still held my rapt attention. Sarah Lund returned to Copenhagen to track a series of killings involving the army and incident in Afghanistan many years before. Grisly murder scenes and lots of pensive Lund moments mixed with new politician Thomas Buch's investigations into his predecessor's conduct as Justice Minister combined for some pretty exciting TV. I did not see the ending coming AT ALL and it was super intense. The intelligent way that The Killing handles plot, character and drama makes it one of my favourite show of the year. Roll on series 3!

Another returning series was Merlin: Series 4, which kicked things up a notch early on by dispatching Uther (and Lancelot) and crowning Arthur King of Camelot, before treading water with some ho-hum warlock-of-the-week episodes before shifting gear again on the overarching plot and marrying off the new king to Gwen. Still no sign of Merlin revealing his magical secret to his best mate and boss, but there were more interesting developments that almost got forgotten in the final episode of the series when the boy magician finished off evil Agravaine! I'm sure that's going to come back to haunt Merlin and add some angst to series 5.

The small yet perfectly formed Rev came back with a new series that saw some big name guest stars in Reverend Adam Smallbone's tiny congregation. Still funny, endearing and often unexpectedly, refreshingly rude, Rev still feels like a hidden gem.

While in Crewe for New Year I had the 'pleasure' of watching a few bits and pieces on my in-laws' new 3D TV, including some Kylie concert, a bit of a CGI movie and a whole programme in the form of nature documentary The Bachelor King 3D. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough the over-long one off followed the life and times of a king penguin - at least it purported to do, until the closing credits revealed that the penguin lead was actually 'played' by several different birds. The 3D was a nice touch, but as I've said before, watching something in 3 dimensions does not improve the actual experience. It's a novelty and nothing more, and after 75 minutes with heavy 3D glasses it's also a bit of a headache. The programme was good, though didn't shed any new light on the lives of a well-documented species.

TV short Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas was charming though distinctly odd. I understand the conceit of talking mammoths, sloths, etc, but I just cannot credit the presence of a human Santa Claus or the very notion of Christian Christmas many thousands (millions?) of years too early. I know it's a kids' holiday special but come on! Paradoxes aside, the short was a lot of fun and made me want to finally watch the movie sequels to the not-quite-classic-but-better-than-most-cgi-movies original.

I found time to read a couple of books over Christmas. The first I actually received as a gift last year, The Interrogative Mood (2010) by Padgett Powell. A bizarre 'novel' constructed entirely throughout its 164 pages by a random string of questions. It's an odd beast, and not really my idea of a novel, but it's hardly non-fiction either. Occasionally there seem to be groups of questions that link but there is no connected through-line. Strangely the overall impression of the book is that whatever it is, it works. It really has to be read to be believed.

More straightforward was Kate Mosse's Labyrinth (2005), an epic grail quest that feels incredibly sedate compared to the Da Vinci Code. I say grail quest, it's not until the last third of the novel that the relic evens merits a mention. Before that the story is split between Alice in the present and Alaïs in the 13th century as the former pieces together bits of the life of the latter until both narratives cleverly converge in the same cave in the French Pyrenees. I rarely had this book out of my hands over New Year, I very much relished the dual-narrative style, the subject matter and the wonderfully drawn characters. I particularly liked Alaïs' experiences in a foreign country and a dim and distant past for the fact that both aspects of her life were so different and original. Where Dan Brown's book felt like a thriller for the MTV generation, Labyrinth was more like a 20 part Danish drama, slowly unfolding over time to reveal a deftly plotted adventure.

Christmas TV & Movie Round-up

We began the Christmas break on the 24th by not leaving the flat and enjoying the time together. This trend continued through the big day itself - we plan to go out today and visit the sales for a bit - and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Our Yuletide viewing began on Christmas Eve by popping in the DVD of Home Alone (1990), a festive classic that I've not seen for years. What struck me on this watching was how little of the film is actually made up of Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) fending off the hapless burglars (Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci). Even though I must have seen the movie lots in my youth there was plenty to enjoy, and it had us laughing out loud at the hilarious set ups and prat-falls. A great way to ease into the festive mood.

The only TV Christmas special we watched that same night was Outnumbered, which saw the unlucky Brockman family trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to go away on holiday. It was a nice little piece, with superb performances from Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner, who would pop up again on Christmas Day. We happened to catch and laugh uproariously at a Best of Les Dawson 25 minute special too, just before bed.

As usual, I was up first on the 25th, excited to open my presents. While Andrew had his breakfast we watched the Disney animated TV special Prep & Landing (2009) and the two shorts on the DVD. The 22 minute piece sees elves Wayne and Lanny teaming up to prepare a house for Santa's visit, almost causing a disaster and then saving the day. It's a good natured film, with the highlights being the modern takes on the old-fashioned Santa scenario. So technology is imployed to scan for 'creatures stirring', to test the temperature of Santa's milk, and to knock out waking animals and children - this ingenuity is what the Tim Allen movie The Santa Clause only began to address. I enjoyed the piece, and the Operation: Secret Santa (2010) short as well, especially as the latter featured Betty White as Mrs Claus.

As with most recent years, the TV didn't stray away from BBC1 all evening. Following a successful and tasty lunch of chicken, potatoes, veg and all the trimmings, we podged out on the sofa with the festive edition of Top of the Pops, sadly still fronted by personality vacuums Reggie Yates and Fern 'Amazing' Cotton. Again, as usual most of the best songs of the year (for me) were either skipped through in the round up sections or completely missed out - where's Melanie C, goddammit!? There was a memorably weird performance from Will Young and his dancers, the women holding their pony tails aloft, and a nice albeit brief set of clips featuring the late Sir Jimmy Savile, and some atrocities from Olly 'punch me' Murs, some new group called Little Mix and the massively over-rated Jessie J. All in all a pretty piss poor effort.

Much better was her majesty The Queen in her usual 3pm slot, talking about the importance of family and doing her mother of the nation bit. Thank goodness Prince Phillip didn't take a turn for the worse.

Full of food and not really having the need or want to move from the sofa, we settled down with the rest of our fizzy rosé to watch Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), a movie we first saw on its release in 3D at IMAX. Even without the bells and whistles and size of a barn door extras, this is still one of the best non-Pixar CGI movies, full of loving sci fi references, subversions of cliches and utter randomness - an example of the latter being the President's decision to play a little of the Axel Foley theme, and later, the alien spaceships' password/dance machine playing Aqua's 'Roses Are Red'. The voice cast are excellent and the action is non stop, as are the laughs. A perfect way to unwind on Christmas afternoon.

Later on that evening we saw the sequel to 2009's animated TV special, The Gruffalo's Child, in which the titular protagonist goes on a hunt into the dark woods to find the mythic, scary creature of the Mouse, only to encounter Snake, Owl and Fox. It was pretty much the same storyline as The Gruffalo, except with the roles of Mouse and Gruffalo switched. I didn't feel that this special was quite as magical as the original, but it was sweet enough.

Another sweet Christmas special came in the form of Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, which wasn't as beautifully realised and pretty as A Christmas Carol, yet still had so much heart and warmth, mainly as a result of Claire Skinner's peformance as a strong minded mother dealing with the loss of her husband in wartime and the disappearance of her children along with the Doctor in a snowy winter wonderland where the trees are alive. She also comes across an odd group of people intent on culling the forest, and the extended cameos from Arabella Weir, Bill Bailey and some other bloke are dotty and wonderful. I'd quite happily see Skinner joining the Doctor on his travels once he leaves Amy (and sadly Rory) behind - he needs a strong willed older woman to counter his youthful (looking) exuberance.

I didn't write a full post on Strictly Come Dancing this year, mainly as I only dipped into it here and there, and only watched a couple, including the final, from beginning to end. I do wish I'd watched more though, as I particularly became entranced by Harry Judd's performance. And it seems the judges and rest of the public were too as he won over the dumb blonde Chelsee whatnot from something or other. Judd impresses with his well-toned body, polite demeanour and stunning dancing ability. I did watch the whole of Strictly Come Dancing Christmas which saw the return of all of the 2011 contestants in a disappointing finale, following one-off performances from Charlie Brooks, Simon Webbe, Debra Stephenson, Barry McGuigan and the deliriously potty Su Pollard. It was a camp spectacle that out-gayed even the series proper.

Final treat of the evening was the first return of Absolutely Fabulous (following an hour's break from the TV as Eastenders came on to depress the shit out of an undiscerning audience). The first two series of Ab Fab will never be beaten, and indeed I'd lost faith with the show so much I didn't even see Series 5, but I was hopeful for a return to form for this revival. I was pleased with the result. It may not be a classic, and the plot involving Saffy's ex-prison companion / Patsy's drug dealer was uninvolving stuff, yet the performances from all the J's (Jennifer, Joanna, June, Jane and Julia) were as if the show had never been away and the jokes on modern celebrity were well aimed. The highlight was of course the unnecessary yet somehow essential dream-cameo from Sofie Gråbøl as The Killing's Sarah Lund. Wearing her trademark jersey and hunting around Edina's bedroom for evidence, she made me ache for more (my thoughts on The Killing II will follow at a later date). The main annoyance with this and the next two Ab Fab specials is that now my 'complete' DVD boxset is no such thing! 

All in all a rather wonderful day's viewing complemented a peaceful, loving Christmas day with the man I love.

The Lion King 3D (1994/2011)

basics...
Not long after seeing the re-released version of Jurassic Park I got to see another of my top ten favourite movies at the cinema, and this time in spiffy 3D. 

brilliant...
There is simply no better Disney Classic animation to beat The Lion King. Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Lilo & Stitch all come pretty close, but The Lion King has it all. Perfectly cast with recognisable names that aren't there just because they are names (Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Irons), humour that lasts, a Hamlet-referencing story of redemption, pain and duty, with romance, comedy sidekicks and a cracking set of songs from the mighty pen of Elton John and Tim Rice... The animation is breath-taking, the 3-dimensional rendering a cherry on top of a gorgeous whole. Hans Zimmer's score is one of the biggest stand-outs in a movie bulging with top moments, and the piece that plays during the stampede and Mufasa's death (...To Die For on the CD soundtrack) is hands down the most powerful few minutes of music in any film ever. Never mind Bambi's mother's (off-screen) death - Mufasa's murder at the hands of Scar and the following shots of his dead body are harrowing and pack a real emotional punch.

briefly...
I've seen The Lion King many times before yet I still laughed at the jokes, tapped my foot to the songs and got caught up in the emotional drama. A film this good deserves to be seen on a big screen, with a music system that can properly handle the truly epic score. A masterpiece.

Batman: The Animated Series - Volume 1 (1992)

basics...
The first DVD volume of the 1990's animated Batman series contains 28 episodes and features the Penguin, the Joker, Catwoman, Clayface, Killer Croc, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze and a whole host of 'colourful' new villains who face off against Bruce Wayne's alter ego. 

brilliant...
I'd only ever seen bits of this series when it first went out years ago, and I'd read so many positive things about the show that I decided to give it a shot - and wow, it's one of the best adaptations of Batman ever. Kevin Conroy's voice-work as the Dark Knight and Bruce sends shivers down your spine, while Efrem Zimbalist Jr's Alfred adds a welcome light touch to a very dark animation - both in terms of the colour and content. The well-known rogues gallery of villains are given new origins (apart from Joker and Penguin, who arrive fully formed and appear to have been pestering Gotham for some time), and new one episode bad guys impress as well. The animation is stunning, Gotham looks suitably gothic, and is equipped with docks, trains, caves, springs, suburbs, anything the script calls for, but always in keeping with the same grimy asthetic. Batman really feels like a detective here rather than a super-hero, which he's not really since he has no superpowers, just the money and strength to outwit the badguys. I hope to watch more of the series soon. 

but...

Aside from a couple of weaker scripts here and there the only weird thing about Batman: The Animated Series is Robin. He popped up in the second episode, then disappeared only to reappear a couple more times. Inbetween-times he's never mentioned and there's no explanation as to a) who Robin is and how he came to be in Batman's life, or b) where he is most of the time, particularly when things look dicey for Batman and he needs assistance. Robin's appearances don't detract from the episodes, but his absence is curious. He really should be there all the time or not, otherwise it's cheating. 

briefly...
The definitive Batman? Very likely, but then Tim Burton's and Christopher Nolan's Dark Knights are also excellent, just different. This Batman certainly stands proud alongside Christian Bale, Michael Keaton and (of course) Adam West, Kevin Conroy is ace. 

Arrietty (2010)

basics...
It's a year since I saw the delightfully cute Ponyo at the cinema, and last week I saw Studio Ghibli's latest 2-D animated movie, Arrietty. Characters and aspects of the plot are taken from Mary Norton's The Borrowers: Arrietty (Saorise Ronan) and her parents Pod (Mark Strong) and Homily (Olivia Colman) are tiny people who live under the floorboards, and their very existence is threatened when sick Sho (Tom Holland) comes to stay with his aunt Haru (Geraldine McEwan) and spots Arrietty.

brilliant...
I've only seen a handful of Ghibli movies and of these Arrietty is easily the most straight forward, with an almost simplistic plot. To my mind this is a positive development as I find Japanese animation can be a little too obscure or left field on occasion, leaving me scratching my head over plot points. With Arrietty I could just sit back and marvel at the utterly beautiful traditionally animated scenes, which were at their best when depicting the veritable forest that is the garden surrounding the house inhabited by the Borrowers. These scenes could easily be freeze-framed and hung on the wall, so lush with detail and warmth were they. The sound design too was amazing - not something you can say about many films - with effective echoing and manipulated sounds to really make you get a Borrower's sense of life only a few inches tall. The voice cast were marvellous - particularly the incomparable Olivia Colman as nervous Homily.

but...
My only concern is that the film simply was not long enough, I wanted to spend more time with Arrietty, Sho and everyone else, to be enveloped in their world. Ghibli doesn't do sequels, but if they did, the further adventures of the Borrowers would be a fertile source of stories and wonderment.

briefly...
Utterly charming, a feast for the eyes and ears. This is a worthy reminder that 2-D, traditional animation is not a dead art. 

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Though sadly no longer subtitled The Kaboom of Doom, Kung Fu Panda 2 can sit happily alongside also poorly monikered sequel Toy Story 2 as being that rare beast, an animated movie (heck any movie!) that manages to be even better than the brilliant first instalment. This film was all kinds of awesome, it had me laughing out loud, catching my breath at the imaginative action sequences, and marvelling at the beautifully animated Chinese city and rural landscapes. 

The gang's all back from the previous film, headed up by the charming and fluffy Po, voiced by Jack Black, just one of a cast of stellar actors including Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Victor Garber, Jackie Chan, and um Jean-Claude Van Damme who give life to an array of peacocks, geese, pandas, tigers, storks and rhinos. A brilliantly colourful mix of animal characters and stunning background work make Kung Fu Panda 2 one of the most visually arresting movies of recent memory, and they are well complemented by an unexpectedly emotional plot and sophisticated character work. Even the end credits looked great, eschewing the usual scrolling text on black background for beautiful images that look like production paintings. 

The CGI animation looks amazing, and the 3D was good although I continue my argument that 3D doesn't add anything to an already awesome movie. What surprised me were the segments of 2D traditionally animated flashbacks that looked just as good as the CGI stuff. Proof positive that there is still room for traditional animation in a world of ever-increasing numbers of CGI flicks. Kung Fu Panda 2 was a triumph from beginning to end, and I hope the inevitable threequel (is that a word?) can pull off a Toy Story 3 and be as good as if not better than the first sequel.

Bob's Burgers: Season 1 (2011)

Tucked quietly away in the E4 schedule either before or after The Cleveland Show, the first series of Bob's Burgers proved to be every bit as chucklesome as it's neighbour, perhaps even more so. It's another 'American couple and their 3 kids' animated comedy (see The Simpsons, Family Guy, Cleveland Show, etc.), although here the look of the show is more 'realistic', a bit more in King of the Hill territory, but the characters are as mad as a box of frogs. 

Bob himself owns the eponymous burger joint, and he's more than a little obsessed with the place, and with his rivalry with Jimmy Pesto, owner of the Italian restaurant across the street. Wife Linda (who like eldest daughter Tina is voiced by a man) is an oddity, prone to shouting 'awright' at inappropriate moments and being a little creepy at times. It's hard to put in words the effect she has. The kids are a real weird bunch, with my favourite, Tina, who's desire to be kissed and her pecurliarly vocal mannerisms have me in stitches. Son Gene was clearly dropped on his head at birth and finds enjoyment in weird places, while co-conspirator Louise, always wearing pink bunny ears for no explained reason, is a little like Family Guy's Stewie in her deviousness, but she's more endearing with it. 

The plots range from the mundane to the ridiculous, including Bob getting stuck between the walls of his house or being threatened with closure by the health inspector, to the Belchers putting on live dinner theatre or turning their apartment into a bed and breakfast with bizarre guests. Where Family Guy and The Simpsons revel in pop culture references and one liners, Bob's Burgers relies more on grounded stories, with the humour coming from the odd quirks of the main characters and their nutty neighbours. I know the show's been renewed for another season, so I hope it has an audience to let it grow. 

The Cleveland Show: Season 2 (2010-11)

I found the second season of The Cleveland Show to be funnier and more enjoyable that the first, mostly I think because there was a lack of scatological humour and many more injokes and generally oddness. It's the sort of series you watch and laugh all the way through and then forget what it was about a short while later (maybe that's just me). 

This season's most memorable bit that had me laughing and singing it for days later was Cleveland's belligerent father singing 'Your face looks like a butt-crack' to his son, to the tune of We Like To Party. It's not big, it's not clever, but it sure as hell tickled me. So funny was it that rather than talk more about the series, I'll just post this video:

Mary and Max (2009)

Australian stop-motion animation Mary and Max is a real gem of a movie, it's one of those that you feel secretly pleased that not many people have seen it, but then bad because it's the sort of experience you would want everyone to have. It's based on the true story of young Mary in Australia, who writes at random to a man named Max in New York and the friendship that builds from their correspondence over the years. 

Max has asperger's syndrome and has some quite bizarre yet endearing habits, while Mary is picked on at school and misunderstood by her parents. Both are rather tragic figures, but writer-director Adam Elliot never makes you feel pity for either of them, rather through a frequently hilariously offbeat narration from Barry Humphries (and great voice work by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana and Bethany Whitmore) and an almost grotesque style of animation, real emotion and life is breathed into the characters. You feel their pain when a loved one dies, or when Mary or Max fails to connect with the people around them. 

Mary and Max is at times laugh out loud funny, at other points it encourages a lump in the throat, yet I ultimately took great encouragement and optimism away from the sad-yet-uplifting final scene. Yet again, animation proves to be a medium every bit as capable as being moving and heartfelt as any live action movie. 

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Not being a fan of the Shrek franchise, I generally approach Dreamworks animations with some caution, although with Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens showing marked improvement in the studio's output (they'll never be Pixar) I was optimistic about How to Train Your Dragon - especially as the directors were also responsible for the wonderful Lilo & Stitch. I managed to receive two copies of the blu-ray for Christmas, after Andrew told both my mum and his that I wanted it - I managed to find a buyer for the extra copy. 

The film turned out to be highly enjoyable - it looked gorgeous, particularly during the action scenes and in the dragons themselves, of which there were many different, imaginative varieties. Set on an island where the adult Vikings are Scottish (!) and the young are American (!), the film sees the ancient Danes (!) terrorised by a plethora of dragons. Of course our hero, Hiccup, doesn't want to kill dragons, he's the town joke, and of course he befriends a lame dragon, teaches everyone they're not killing Vikings for their own ends, and it all ends happily after a big fight scene. The plot writes itself, there are few surprises here. What raises the film above the glut of sub-standard CGI movies littering the multiplexes are the lack of instantly dated pop culture references and a concentration on characters with genuine humour and warmth.
 
Hiccup is a likable hero who I wanted to see succeed, and his dragon friend Toothless, a non-speaking, non-cute and cuddly sidekick part, is more developed and endearing than Shrek's annoying Donkey pal for example. I found the relationship between Hiccup and his mighty father funny and tender and utterly believable in the way they interacted nervously, as each doesn't really know the other. While I don't think the movie is unique or funny enough to be in my top ten favourite animations, it's a solidly entertaining, well crafted slice of movie-making.

Panda! Go, Panda! (1972-73)

Last night we watched a DVD that I had bought as a gift for Andrew due to his interest in Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli movies. Panda! Go, Panda! is made up of two shorts of about 30 mins each stuck together, using the same characters and setting. It plays like two episodes of a TV show, although they are not stitched into one movie, rather when The End shows for Panda! Go, Panda! the next short, Rainy-Day Circus begins.

I was shocked to find the shorts were made in the early seventies as the animation and the whole feel seemed more modern, although I guess there is a timelessness to the whole. An incredibly cute but not too kiddified production, Panda sees young Mimiko abandoned by her elderly grandmother, off to Nagaski, and left to her own devices. Mimiko is looking forward to meeting burglars, and tells all of the townspeople she’ll be alone – a very unwise move I thought, particularly with the red-faced shop owner looking a bit too excited about this. Anyway, this isn’t a cautionary tale about leaving young children alone.

The movie is about pandas, an incredibly cute young one named Panny and a massive one with a strangely Caribbean accent named Papa, who Mimiko asks to be her father, if she can be Panny’s mother. I know, the girl’s clearly got some screwed up views on what family is, but hey, I’m not going to judge. There’s a cute adventure where the girl and her new panda family get up to some hijinks, and then in Rainy-Day Circus a baby tiger is added to the mix, who has escaped from a travelling circus (the clue’s in the title).

It’s all fun and cute, especially the rendering of Panny and Papa, and isn’t taxing on the brain. Involving to a degree, and never boring, Panda! Go, Panda! gives Ponyo a run for it’s money in the cutest anime stakes. 

Tangled 3D (2010)

The 50^th Walt Disney Animated feature since Snow White started it all in 1937, Tangled is a simply wonderful addition to the canon. It looks exquisite – the CGI animation is faultless, and the 3D breathtaking in some scenes. Rapunzel’s hair is so detailed, and the human characters more expressive than any other I’ve seen, including in motion-capture movies like Beowulf.

A princess tale that is also a buddy story between Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, it pleases on all fronts – memorable songs, hilarious sidekick characters (Maximus, the horse who moves like a dog, and Pascal, Rapunzel’s pet chameleon, of all things) who steal every scene, a genuinely heartfelt romance, snappy dialogue and a truly sinister villain.

I couldn’t pick a fault with the whole production, it was just superb. I hope that the next 50 are this good. And I don’t hold much truck with Disney apparently announcing there will be no more princess-centred movies, just because The Princess and the Frog didn’t do so well – they also said that Home on the Range would be the final 2D animation and look how that panned out. Tangled proves that there is life in the Disney princess yet!

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009)

Andrew's a big fan of the Professor Layton puzzle games for the DS, so he was delighted to receive the movie on Blu Ray & DVD for Christmas, and we popped it in the machine, after much nagging, last week. I think it's fair to say that he enjoyed it more than I did. 

A Japanese animation that follows the look of the game completely, the movie is a curiously uninvolving mystery, with an odd supernatural element, and only about 6 puzzles bunched up in the middle. There are some funny characters and the occasional humorous line, but there's far to much expositional gobbledygook and a lack of pace to the movie as a whole. 

The animation is good solid 2D with some pretty looking 3D CGI graphics thrown in, particularly in the impressive crown-shaped opera house/ship that Layton and his young assistant Luke find themselves trapped on. I was hoping the movie would be more like the old Where's Wally TV show that stopped every so often to let you look for Wally, but with puzzles. Apparently there will  be more movies, so I can still hope for this format to be taken on board.

Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

Not to blow my own trumpet, but I love how I can enjoy an awarding, historical biography one moment and then watch an animated movie adapted from a Dr Seuss book that features an elephant looking after a world that exists on a speck of dust and love it just as much! Every computer animated movie nowadays inevitably gets compared with Pixar's peerless output, but I've seen films that rival them for humour, originality and beauty, including Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs Aliens, and now Horton Hears a Who!, from Blue Sky Studios, the people behind Ice Age. 

I had no idea what to expect from Horton and watching the credits my heart sunk a little to read Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen were providing voices, as they can be very hit and miss. I needn't have worried though, for they were mostly unrecognisable and the voice cast was mostly irrelevant next to the stunning visuals and hilarious story in which they co-existed. In a really bizarre concept for a movie (not an original concept I know, the book came way before), Horton, an elephant, is minding his own business when he hears a noise coming from a speck. It turns out a world of Whos live on the speck, which Horton captures on the top of clover and clasps in his trunk. 

Mayor of Whoville, Ned, is able to hear Horton and encourages him to take the speck/his world to a safe place in order to prevent disaster befalling Whoville. The whole concept of a world existing on a speck of dust is quite philosophical, especially for something masquerading as a kid's movie. The two worlds of Whoville and the Jungle of Nool never interact, except through Horton talking through a drainpipe to Ned, and Horton's sanity is challenged by Kangaroo who doesn't believe anything she can't see with her own eyes. I suppose it's a comment on religion and belief, another odd choice for such a movie, but in many ways this is an animation to be enjoyed by adults as well as kids, in the best Pixar style. 

The humour is physical, wordy, visual, and steers away from pop culture references that so date the Shrek movies, although there is a superb pastiche of Japanese Pokemon-type cartoons, done in a 2D style and completely bizarre and hilarious, in keeping with the rest of the film. It's hard to describe all of the elements that go into making this elephant and his world so damn funny, it's a film that has to be seen to be believed. And it has the beautiful Jesse McCartney in a voice-cameo at the end. What more could one want in a movie?

Persepolis (2007)

A French animation about the Iranian revolution, Persepolis is based on a graphic novel, an autobiographical account of Majane Satrapi's child hood during the 1970's and 80's. It's a surprisingly funny and engaging movie, given the subject matter, and rooting the tale in Satrapi's daily life makes the plot accessible and brings a needed human element. Nearly everything reported in the news nowadays about Iran is negative, so it's good to see some positivity amongst the otherwise life-changing events that surrounded the Iranian revolution and the war with Iraq. 

I know embarrassing little about the country, then and now, so it was fascinating to see from a first person perspective (kinda) what life was like. The animation doesn't create a barrier to the story, it helps tell events with a great sweep, in a way that would cost far too much for a non-Hollywood live action movie. It also doesn't shy away from depicting the hardships, sexuality and bad language that Majane experiences as she moves from childhood to teenage years through to adulthood, all the while seeing how political events impact upon her life. It's not just a political movie though, as Majane's loves and family are also included, particularly her strong grandmother, voiced by Catherine Deneuve.

Persepolis is the latest in a line of 'different' animated movies I've seen, that don't conform to Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks rules. As much as I like those big studios, it's good to see animation taken in a different direction, be it artistic or political or anything else. Persepolis might not have been as beautiful to look at as The Secret of Kells, but the black and white animation (colour for present day) really worked in the film's favour. It also strangely reinforced that events that occurred did not just exist in black and white. 

The Secret of Kells (2009)

The second animated movie co-produced in Belgium I've seen in the past few weeks, The Secret of Kells couldn't be less like A Town Called Panic. The latter was a madcap, stop-motion animated laugh-fest, whereas Kells features gorgeous 2D animation, only a few laughs, and a story about a load of monks and a book. Where the two movies compare is in how original and enjoyable they both are.

Kells looked amazing on Blu-ray, and the animation is reminiscent of book illustrations and paintings from bygone ages. I had heard of the Book of Kells, but I didn't really know what it was, and the movie doesn't do much to enlighten you, for this is a tale of the book's creation as seen through the eyes of young Brendan. According to Wikipedia, the Book is 'an illuminated manuscript and known today as one of Ireland's greatest national treasures', so there you go.

The movie opens with Brendan and an assortment of monks of different shapes, sizes and colours giving chase to a goose in order to pluck feathers for use as quill pens. So far so Disney, it particularly put me in mind of Mulan for some reason, and then Brendan later gets a feline sidekick (non-speaking though) who tags along on his adventures. Here's where the Disney comparisons end, although you could say the animation is similar to the stylised work in the opening credits of classics such as Sleeping Beauty. Kells' plot about Brendan, trapped in the Abbey of Kells by his uncle Abbot Cellach who is building high walls all around to protect the abbey from marauding Vikings (rendered as demonic, square-bodied demons, and really quite scary), and Brendan's relationship with master book artist Aidan of Iona is not exactly what dreams are made of.

Brendan does escape the walls into the forest where he meets a sprite named Aisling, who helps him to find berries to make a particular ink for the Book of Kells. Further into the movie, Brendan must find a special crystal and enters an angular world where a snake begins eating itself... It's very strange. Then the Vikings attack, killing many, and despite shooting an arrow into him and slicing him through with a sword, Abbot Cellach lives to see another day while Brendan and Aidan escape. Thinking back, there's actually not a lot of plot, and what there is centres around drawing illustrations in a book of gospel. Now, if Pixar had told the same tale in the same style, I'm sure it would have drawn crowds in millions, for Up had an unconventional old man and child pairing, with a grown up storyline, but sadly The Secret of Kells didn't have the same studios behind it.

I'm glad that I found the movie (in the pages of Empire, where I also read about Panic), as it's a beautiful piece of work. The animation is the best part of the movie, it is the artwork that grips you and pulls you into the story, and it is the stylistic appeal that would make me watch the movie again. That's not to say the story and characters have nothing to recommend them, they're all well and good, it makes sense that a movie that is all about the beautifully rendered pages of the Book of Kells should look so pretty itself.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

1937 Theatrical Release

Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White needs little introduction. As we watched this on Blu-Ray recently I was amazed by how much of the movie - songs, names, the look, whole scenes - has become part of popular culture, and indeed cliché in Disney or fairytale imaginings. I was also quite shocked by how much this movie stands up to anything that has been produced in the 73 years since it was first released. It's still funny, moving, sad, exciting and beautiful, and in Blu-Ray it looks exquisite. 

One particularly good trick on this and a couple of other Disney Blu-Rays is the use of something called 'DisneyView' which fills in the black strips on either side of the movie (for the early movies were not created in widescreen) with new art in keeping with the style of the film, which changes from scene to scene. It could be potentially distracting, but it fills a widescreen and complements the movie.

I intend to view all of Disney's Classics on DVD and Blu-Ray over the coming weeks and months, in order, and along with the often copious special features. Snow White's recent Blu-Ray is packed with featurettes and

2001 Collector's Edition DVD

galleries detailing not only the fascinating production of the film, but also revealing the history of Disney's Hyperion Studios, where the feature was made, along with Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse shorts. At the moment I'm reading an enthralling Walt Disney biography by Neal Gabler, and reading about the immense amount of work that Disney and his hundreds of employees put into Snow White complemented by the hours of informative talking heads and archive footage on the Blu-Ray combines to provide a first rate account that could hardly be bettered.

As well as the Blu-Ray features, we also watched those features from the original DVD release a decade or so ago (I think it was one of the first Disney releases of an old classic) that did not appear on the new release. It's a shame that not all features can make it to the new editions, and it means I have to keep the old

2009 Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD

copies hanging around, so I now have two copies of Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio... but it's worth it to see the additional Disneyland extracts, other deleted scenes and galleries of publicity. The Blu-Ray has an updated version of the DVD's Disney Through the Decades documentary, a 40 minute overview of Disney from the Alice cartoons to their acquisition of Pixar told by the likes of Angela Lansbury and Robby Benson, and split up by trailers of each re-release of Snow White. It's a fascinating look at how the Disney name and brand has grown and now reaches books, theatre, sports, TV, theme parks, and a few movies too.

I can't wait to view more Disney Classics, some of which I haven't revisited since I was a child, and a handful I've never even seen, and if all of the extra features are as good as they are for Snow White, it's going to be a fascinating experience.

A Town Called Panic (2009)

One of the weirdest, funniest animations I've seen all year, A Town Called Panic is a bizarre stop-motion movie co-produced by Belgium, France and Luxembourg. It sees the characters Cowboy and Indian accidentally ordering millions of bricks over the internet for their friend Horse's birthday present, undersea creatures stealing their walls, Horse having romantic feelings for music teacher Madame Longray (also a horse)... and a heck of a lot of other weirdness inbetween.

From the beginning I was laughing out loud at the quirky, jerky movements and the low-tech stop-motion. The movie's setting and population look like what a child's playtime may look like, a mish-mash of different creatures, a bit like Toy Story in that respect, but as the Empire quote on the DVD cover says 'like Toy Story on absinthe'. The film isn't just a load of craziness, there's a plot or two, including the aformentioned equine romance. Although the characters have hilarious French voices (it's a subtitled animation, not a dubbed one), farmer Stephen's being my favourite, they also have personalities and although they have no facial expressions, you can tell what the characters are feeling - mostly panic! Especially for Cowboy, the more antsy one. Cowboy and Indian share a room and are a very dim pair, like children, and Horse is in a paternal role.

A Town Called Panic is simply hilarious and an utter joy. Even the trailer, one of only a couple of DVD extras, is absolutle gold, with captions comparing the movie to other live-action classics. I hope that the pair of directors who made this go on to do more of this refreshingly original work (not just the Cravendale adverts), and that it gets released over here!

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

We caught a bit of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on TV a couple of weeks ago, so what better reason for revisiting it on DVD this weekend? I’ve also not seen it since it came out in the cinema, and back then I was a little under whelmed by it, so it needed revisiting (I seem to be doing that a bit lately, what with seeing Avenue Q again and re-reading The Eyre Affair).

I have to say that as much as I love Wallace & Gromit, and as technically perfect and astounding as the animation and direction in Were-Rabbit is, I still find the story and the humour a little lacking. Maybe the humour just works better in a half hour chunk, but that’s a dubious claim when Flushed Away turned out to be hilarious. There just aren’t as many laughs per minute as Wrong Trousers or A Close Shave. The story is good, but the bad dog character is too reminiscent of Preston in Shave, and the cute Hutch character (the rabbit who turns into Wallace) is underused and not as memorable as Shawn or Feathers McGraw. Despite good voice-work from Helena Bonham-Carter, Lady Tottington is not as endearing as Wendolene (voiced by Anne Reid).

After these grumbles you’d think I didn’t enjoy the film! I did though, it’s still miles better than a lot of animated movies, with genuine laugh out loud comedy (I particularly liked PC Mac – great name – and his Peter Kay voiced line about ‘arson, people arsin’ about’) and, as I’ve said once and worth repeating, the animation is flawless. And there’s nothing wrong with the plot, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great spotting the riffs on films like American Werewolf in London, and all the little in-jokes on the signage around the much-expanded set. The end felt a bit like the movie Van Helsing, as Wallace was absent, replaced by his giant Were-Rabbit persona, as in the former movie Hugh Jackman is replaced by a speechless CGI monster. Always an odd move to cut down your lead character/actor’s screen time.

So, aside from the less-than-memorable characters, the low joke-rate and the missing Wallace… I really liked Curse of the Were-Rabbit! There’s so much to marvel at, and Gromit is a wonderful character, there’s so much charm and humour in his mute visage. Last Christmas’ A Matter of Loaf & Death brought the traditional half hour format back successfully, although The Wrong Trousers has yet to be bettered, as close as A Close Shave gets.