Tag: Animation

Planes review

Director:
Klay Hall
Cast:
Dane Cook
Stacy Keach
John Cleese
Carlos Alazarqui
Roger Craig Smith
Rated: PG

You can probably tell the quality of “Planes” when you see that Sinbad is in the cast.

“Planes” follows the story of Dusty Crophopper (Cook), a crop-duster from a rural area who is tired of living the every day life of working on the farm fields. The movie is set in the world of “Cars” so every being in the film is a machine. Crophopper’s number one goal is to race in a giant world grand prix for planes.

He eventually gets his chance after going through a trial run qualifier. From there he enters the worldwide race after being trained by an old war plane named Skipper (Keach). During the race he ends up meeting a group of different characters from all over the planet.

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Turbo review

Director:
David Soren
Cast:
Ryan Reynolds
Paul Giamatti
Michael Pena
Samuel Jackson
Ken Jeong
Michelle Rodriguez
Maya Rudolph
Rated: PG

What a random concept to base a film around.

“Turbo” follows the title character played by Ryan Reynolds. Turbo is a garden snail living an uneventful life with his brother, Chet (Giamatti) near a number of tomato plants. Turbo has dreams of being fast and racing in the Indy 500, however, obviously, he has little chance to do so. That is until an accident that has Turbo falling into a car engine and getting blasted with the NOS that is seen in “Fast and Furious” franchise movies.

After this happens, Turbo inherits super speed that leaves a trail of blue light behind him. Through a series of events, Turbo and Chet come into contact with a group of other snails led by Whiplash (Jackson) as well as a taco vendor named Tito (Pena) who wants to race the super snail in the actual Indy 500.

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Despicable Me 2 review

Director:
Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud
Cast:
Steve Carell
Kristen Wiig
Benjamin Bratt
Russell Brand
Rated: PG

The two “Despicable Me” movies are similar, except that the sequel doesn’t have as much NBC product placement as the first did.

“Despicable Me 2” picks up not long after the end of the first film. The former super villain, Gru (Carell), is now trying to go into more legitimate business, mostly because of his adopted daughters, Margo, Agnes and Edith.

Gru is taken back into the world of villainy though by a secret agency that stands against evil doers. The Anti-Villain League recruits Gru to go undercover and take down a new dangerous threat. Gru eventually agrees and teams up with one of the league’s agents named Lucy (Wiig).

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Monsters University review

Director:
Don Scanlon
Cast:
Billyn Crystal
John Goodman
Steve Buscemi
Helen Mirren
Rated: G

Welcome back Pixar.

“Monsters University” serves as a prequel to the 2001 movie “Monsers, Inc.” The film introduces us to the duo of Mike Wazowski (Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (Goodman) when they first meet as they begin their college careers at Monsters University. Unlike the first film though, where the two are best of friends, in this film they start out as rivals.

Mike wants to be a scarer just like Sullivan does, and the two go about it different ways. Mike studies everything there is about scaring through books while Sullivan just tries to ride on his natural abilities.

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Epic review

Director:
Chris Wedge
Cast:
Colin Farrell
Josh Hutcherson
Amanda Seyfried
Beyonce Knowles
Rated: PG

“Epic” is another animated film from the studios that have brought you the “Ice Age” sequels and “Rio,” and like those movies, this one is stunningly mediocre.

The film follows a teenage girl named M.K. (Seyfried), who is planning to live with her father played by Jason Sudeikis. The only problem is that her father is an obsessed scientist who believes that there is a race of tiny people who live in the forest.

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Rise of the Guardians review

Director:
Peter Ramsey
Cast:
Chris Pine
Alec Baldwin
Jude Law
Isla Fisher
Hugh Jackman
Rated: PG

I wonder what group of characters they’ll team up next.

“Rise of the Guardians” mainly follows the story of Jack Frost (Pine), who 300 years ago was chosen by the Man in the Moon to be the one who brings cold, ice and everything in between to the world. Fast forwarding to the present, Frost has no memory of his life before becoming a force of nature and feels like he is largely ignored by most of the world. This causes him to not exactly be much of a team player.

Frost is forced to work with others though when he is called upon to be a member of “the Guardians,” a crew consisting of the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. The group is brought together because the Boogeyman, named Pitch Black (Law), is threatening them and the children of the world. Because of this, the five have to go after Pitch, however Frost still feels a bit out of place which causes some mishaps.

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Wreck-It Ralph review

Director:
Rich Moore
Cast:
John C. Reilly
Sarah Silverman
Jack McBrayer
Jane Lynch
Rated: PG

This movie is worth getting some quarters together for.

“Wreck-It Ralph” follows the story of the title character (Reilly), a video game villain in an arcade game where his job is to destroy a tall building and it is up to the game’s hero, Fix it Felix (McBrayer) to repair the building and knock Ralph off the top of the building. The game, and all the inhabitants in it are now 30-years-old and Ralph is fed up with the life of the villain. Because of this, he decides to leave his game and go to another one, Hero’s Duty to get a medal which will change his life and make him a hero.

The plan goes badly in Hero’s Duty though and Ralph ends up in the racing game Sugar Rush. There he meets Vanellope (Silverman), who, after a rough first meeting, the two end up working together to achieve their goals of being better recognized by other characters in their respective games. Meanwhile though, Ralph made a huge mistake in Hero’s Duty and the main character of that game Sergeant Calhoun (Lynch) has to work with Fix it Felix to get Ralph back to his game as well as stop a threat to the whole video game world.

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Hotel Transylvania review

Director:
Genndy Tartakovsky
Cast:
Adam Sandler
Andy Samberg
Selena Gomez
Kevin James
Steve Buscemi
CeeLo Green
Rated: PG

Adam Sandler and his entourage are invading animation now.

“Hotel Transylvani”a is the new film from director Genndy Tartakovsky, who was the director of the cartoon show “Dexter’s Lab.” The film is basically a play on the Universal Monsters from the 40s, with Dracula (Sandler) running a hotel for monsters. Frequent guests are Frankenstein (James) and the wolfman, in this movie named Wayne (Buscemi).

For the most part life is pretty normal for the monsters except that Dracula has a teenage daughter named Mavis (Gomez) who wants to explore the outside world; however Dracula feels it’s important to keep his daughter safe so Mavis is not allowed to leave the castle.

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Brave review

Director:
Mark Andrews
Cast:
Kelly Macdonald
Billy Connolly
Emma Thompson
Julie Walters
Rated: PG

Okay cool Pixar, now can we please get an “Incredibles 2?”

“Brave” is the latest film from the studio that has brought animated classics year after year. Their latest film follows the character Merida (Macdonald), a young princess living in a kingdom in Scotland. Merida is a free spirit and mainly enjoys practicing her archery skills in the vast outdoors surrounding the castle where she lives. Her mother Elinor (Thompson) however wants Merida to be more proper and formal, much to her dismay.

To make matters worse for Merida, she soon learns that she is going to have to marry a suitor to keep peace between the different kingdoms. This becomes the last straw for Merida as she becomes completely fed up with the direction her life is going and decides to try and find a way to change her fate.

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Madagascar: Europe’s Most Wanted review

Director:
Eric Darnell
Cast:
Ben Stiller
Chris Rock
David Schwimmer
Jada Pinkett Smith
Sacha Baron Cohen
Frances McDormand
Rated: PG

The epic conclusion to the Madagascar saga!

“Madagascar 3” follows our main characters from the past two movies, four New York Zoo animals who have by this film explored a lot of the world. In this film we find our characters in Europe preparing to return to New York City along with the genius penguins. However, they are spotted and an animal catcher named Captain Chantel DuBois (McDormand) goes after them stopping at nothing to find them.

Because of this, the animals have to go on the run and join a circus. The plan is to stay with the circus to get back to the United States yet as time goes on they become more involved with the other circus animals and have to decide whether to stay with it and help it out or not.

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