Ani-MAY-tion: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water (2015)

While the first SpongeBob SquarePants movie was both wonderful and hilarious, it was a pretty straightforward quest narrative. This sequel is also, at the very heart of it, a quest, but it’s a quest that takes some twists and turns, including a magical book that allows characters to literally write their own fate, and a little bit of time-travel. I didn’t expect it to be as good as the first film, which was released just over a decade before this one, but I was hoping to have some more fun.

The whole thing begins with a theft, and it’s a theft committed in live-action form by a pirate (played by Antonio Banderas). We then move to another theft, this time one committed by Plankton, once again aiming to get his hands on the magical Krabby Patty recipe. But things soon get weird, so weird that SpongeBob ends up helping Plankton escape, with the two of them working together to find the lost recipe before Bikini Bottom is irrevocably changed by the loss.

First thing’s first, this isn’t as enjoyable or hilarious as the first movie. That’s not that surprising, I guess, but it still does enough to keep you smiling throughout . Most of the best gags appear in the opening third, but the finale has the additional pleasure of seeing the characters made “real” and interacting with elements of the world around us. I realise that me saying that implies a weak middle act, but that’s not the case. It just isn’t on par with the sections that bookend it.

Everyone is back for the main voice roles. No SpongeBob SquarePants adventure would be the same without hearing from Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, and Mr. Lawrence, as well as the other regulars. They all do the usual great work, and Banderas, as the main newcomer, and main non-animated character, is equally fun as Pirate Burger Beard.

While creator Stephen Hillenburg sits a bit further away from the main duties this time around, I’m sure he was keeping a close eye on everything. He wouldn’t have to worry too much about director Paul Tibbitt (or Mike Mitchell, responsible for the live-action sequences) though, or the lead writers, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. They all know what is needed, and they deliver.

While it’s not quite as good as the first feature film, this does well to avoid already feeling tired and stale. Whenever the gag rate dips slightly, there’s more than enough inventiveness and anarchy to make up for that. I had another very enjoyable visit to Bikini Bottom, and I am already looking forward to heading back there very soon.

8/10

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Trolls (2016)

I think it's always important when discussing a movie aimed at children to remind people of how immature and childish I can be. When people tell you to try remembering how it felt like to be a wide-eyed child . . . I'm already there. I'm not going to compare a children's movie to, say, Casablanca (although some are gold-plated classics in a different way from that Bogart vehicle), but I am still going to expect it to do a certain job.

Trolls is an odd film in almost every sense. First of all, it's based on those little troll dolls that I thought had faded out of our shared consciousness back in the 1990s (the last thing I remember about them was a console game on the Sega Mega-CD, I want to say). Second, it's a film that patches together a number of horrible cover versions of songs, almost as if every main scene was initially planned to be the standard finale/credit sequence we've seen in dozens of other big animated releases. Third, the story is a bit wild, being all about a race of creatures that believe eating the trolls is the secret to happiness.

You find that out at the very start of the movie. The Bergens are about to have their annual feast of trolls, served up by the Chef (Christine Baranski), but they find that the trolls have escaped. Some years pass by, trolls live in a new area, they sing and dance (which is what they do), and have hug time every half an hour. Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is a most vocal fan of all of this stuff. Branch (Justin Timberlake) is not. He's too busy worrying about when the Bergen will find them and whisk them all away to be eaten. And so, when a load of the trolls are found by the Bergen and whisked away to be eaten, Poppy and Branch head off to rescue their troll buddies.

It's bright, it's full of excerpts from popular songs (with the main theme being that they're all upbeat singalong favourites, from what I can recall), and it has enough to keep younger viewers entertained. But that doesn't make it actually any good. It makes it passable, average, it's the bare minimum to be expected from a mainstream animated release from a major studio. Director Mike Mitchell has films on his CV that prove he can do much better than this. Co-director Walt Dohrn, on the other hand, will have to work harder on future projects to make me forget his name is attached to this.

Writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have been involved with some treats (the Kung Fu Panda movies stand out from their filmography). This seems like a thankless task for them. The characters aren't too bad, although often defined by one main trait, but the script is simply required to hop from one peppy song moment to the next.

The voice cast almost make up for the rest of the negatives. Kendrick is always someone I enjoy onscreen, and her personality is perfectly suited to her character here. Timberlake is very good, and Baranski is superb as the mean Chef. Chriostopher Mintz-Plasse is a grumpy young King, Zooey Deschanel is a staff member who is smitten with the King, Russell Brand is a guru type of troll, Kunal Nayyar voices someone very glittery, and there's a turn from James Corden that is small enough to have him be almost tolerable.

Trolls is average, at best. It's easy to see why kids will enjoy it. The tunes, the bright colours, the cute characters. It's also easy to see that it was put together without any of the care or detail that goes into so many other movies looking to capture the attention of the same demographic.

5/10

Here's a shiny set available.
Americans can buy this disc.

Sky High (2005)

I really like Sky High. It's a Disney movie aimed at teens. Part of me suspects that I shouldn't like it as much as I do, but I do. It's fun, it's funny, it has a great cast and it features an eclectic selection of superheroes. What's not to like?

The plot revolves around young Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano). Will is about to start his superhero education at the titular Sky High, but his powers haven't shown themselves yet. That would be bad enough with one superhero for a parent, but Will has two - The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston) AKA Mr. & Mrs. Stronghold. All that pressure doesn't make life any easier for a boy who is expected to do great things. Thankfully, he has some great friends, even if it looks like they may all end up being sidekicks as opposed to actual heroes. The kids may all have different powers and plans to wear some snazzy costumes, but high school is the same mix of cliques, bullies and teenage awkwardness.

Written by Paul Hernandez, Robert Schooley and Mark McCorkle, and directed by Mike Mitchell, Sky High is lively and amusing. Oh, it could certainly be sharper, and there's nothing here too complicated or subtle, but this isn't trying to be The Dark Knight (it was released 3 years beforehand anyway, in the same year as Batman Begins) and that suits me just fine. Not that I dislike The Dark Knight, it's just that not every superhero movie needs to be dark and thought-provoking. Especially superhero movies for the entire family.

The cast is the biggest asset that the movie has, with everyone doing their bit to add to the fun with their performance. Angarano is fine in the main role, Danielle Panabaker is also fine as his close friend who may or may not want something more to develop and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the cute girl at the high school about to complicate the whole situation. Steven Strait scowls and throws fireballs competently, in a role that feels almost like a warm up for his role in The Covenant, while Nicholas Braun, Kelly Vitz, Dee Jay Daniels, Jake Sandvig, Will Harris, Malika and Khadijah all provide decent support as the ragtag group of students training to be heroes or sidekicks. But it's the adult stars who get a lot of the best moments, in my opinion. Russell and Preston are both very good as the parents who are also superheroes, with the former particularly enjoyable every time that he's onscreen as The Commander. Kevin Heffernan is very enjoyable as Ron Wilson, bus driver, and Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald (two former members of The Kids In The Hall) are both very funny in their respective roles. Bruce Campbell is great as a coach who takes no nonsense, Cloris Leachman pops up for one scene as the school nurse and Lynda Carter has an extended cameo as Principal Powers.

Sky High doesn't pretend to be anything other than it is. It's an enjoyable superhero movie that takes the genre trappings and weaves them through a standard Disney high school movie. When the end result is this much fun, I can't say that I mind. No, I don't mind at all.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sky-High-DVD-Kurt-Russell/dp/B000BY99YS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367953641&sr=8-1&keywords=sky+high

Surviving Christmas (2004)

Surviving Christmas is one of those movies that has a lot going against it. It starred someone that people loved to hate (Ben Affleck), it didn't do well when it was finally released (ten months later than originally planned to avoid it clashing with Paycheck, another star vehicle for, yep, Ben Affleck) and it was shot without a completed script. That's why I was surprised that for the first half hour or so the movie was fairly enjoyable. I had a couple of laughs and I liked the premise. Then it started to pile on more "comedy" and more and more and everything began to slide and fall apart like some kind of spaghetti tower under a warm stream of water.

Affleck plays Drew Latham, one of those handsome and happy self-made millionaires that only ever exist in the movies. After a wake-up call from his girlfriend (Jennifer Morrison), he is set to spend another Christmas on his own. Not really happy about that, he instead decides to offer a family a LOT of money if they allow him to spend Christmas with them. They live in the home that he grew up in as a child so it will be a way to relive some happy memories and remember what he once loved about family and loved ones at that special time of year. Inevitably, tempers fray, secrets are revealed and there are some scenes of a farcical nature.

Let me start by praising most of the cast members here because the cast is the best thing about the film. Affleck doesn't do great so those who hate the guy onscreen won't be won over. To be fair, he's stuck in one of those comedies that works under the mistaken impression that the lead character is always funnier if he's louder and more energetic than everyone else. That's not the case. Please stop thinking that it is. The rest of the cast, however, fare a bit better. James Gandolfini, in particular, is great as the grouchy head of the family trying to grit his teeth and think of the money he'll get for enduring this Christmas. Catherine O'Hara isn't too bad either though she's not given much to do with the obvious exception of a hilarious photoshoot that places Udo Kier in the role of quirky photographer. Josh Zuckerman is okay as the morose teenage son, Christina Applegate gets stuck with a lot of the worst moments in the movie due to the fact that she's the daughter and possible . . . . . romantic complication and Jennifer Morrison tries her best to be more than just a plot device.

The story may have originated with Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont but at least two other writers are credited with getting the script finished. That becomes more and more apparent as the movie progresses and then hits viewers over the head with a horribly clumsy and unbelievable third act.

Director Mike Mitchell should also shoulder some of the blame but there are times when he hits the easy notes with precision (the soundtrack, early exchanges between Affleck and Gandolfini and a few other decent moments) so maybe it all boiled down to those script problems. After all, his next movie was the very enjoyable Sky High. Oh, what the hell, in 2011 he gave audiences Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked so, yes, let's just give him as much blame as the writers. He clearly has no moral compass.

Surviving Christmas is not entirely unenjoyable but it certainly tries hard to be. Casual viewers who flick through their TV channels and find that this is playing over Christmas would be well advised to watch it up to the halfway point and then turn it off before the rot sets in.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surviving-Christmas-DVD/dp/B000BNT96C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355437656&sr=8-1