Netflix And Chill: Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle (2018)

Oh dear. The fact that this is the second in a trilogy that has already gone from bad to worse does not bode well, but I'll inevitably be scheduling the third instalment to be watched next week. The completist in me wouldn't have things any other way, but my expectations are now about as low as it's possible for them to be.

It's all of the same people behind the scenes (co-directors Hiroyuki Seshita and Kôbun Shizuno, and writers Gen Urobuchi, Sadayuki Murai, and Tetsuya Yamada) for this continuation of the story that began in Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters. A battered and bruised Haruo (Mamoru Miyano) still wants to take down the mighty Godzilla, although that might be more difficult now that the real size and power of the legendary kaiju is now known, and he has some more people alongside him to apparently help him in that endeavour. One or two may have strange ideas about precisely how to do that though, especially when they discover a location full of nanometal that was clearly the birthplace of Mechagodzilla, and is therefore named Mechagodzilla City.

Although it looks nice enough throughout, that's all that Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle has going for it. The plotting feels weak, especially with the relatively small amount of screentime given to Big G, there's nothing/nobody to invest in (considering what happened to so many characters in the last movie, and considering how individuals are simply defined by their need to fight Godzilla), and there's something particularly depressing about the middle feature of a trilogy that doesn't seem interested in actually progressing things further.

I want to be kind to Miyano, as well as Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Jun'ichi Suwabe, Reina Ueda, and Ari Ozawa, to namecheck a number of the key players, but there's nothing that feels exceptionally praiseworthy. They're all perfectly fine, considering what they have to work with, but nobody stands out, not even the apparent hero of the whole thing. This is all down to the writing, and the fact that the concept of this animated trilogy mishandles Godzilla, but the cast members subsequently suffer because of the decisions made elsewhere.

I am sure I remember some people enjoying this trilogy when it was first release. I definitely recall people mentioning that things improved after the first instalment. Now I have seen numerous people advising me against wasting my time with this (it's too late now!), but there are still some who claim that it's a treat for Godzilla fans. I assume that those people were maybe desperate for anything that reassured them that their favourite kaiju wouldn't be trapped in the bombastic and wildly-varying American projects built around it. We now know that different Godzilla projects can be delivered concurrently, and I would say that the past few years have handed us quite the full platter to pick and choose from. So there's no need to remember that this exists.

Once I have watched the next, and final, instalment, I'll be doing my best to wipe them completely from my memory. Unless that somehow does enough to make the whole trilogy feel worthwhile.

3/10

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Shudder Saturday: Nightwatch (1994)

I remember Nightwatch being quite highly praised when it was released. A Danish thriller from writer-director Ole Bornedal, it was a film that I soon felt I had to see. So I did. I saw it many years ago, and I saw the 1997 remake (also directed by Bornedal, but with Ewan McGregor in the lead role). I remember quite enjoying both versions of the tale, but nothing remained in my memory decades later. Rewatching this film now, it's understandable.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays a law student named Martin. Martin gets a job as a night watchman as the Forensic Medical Institute, where one of his main duties is checking on the morgue. That morgue is about to gain a number of new residents as a serial killer stalks the streets of Copenhagen, but that doesn't really bother Martin, who is often busy distracting himself with an escalating game of dares that he and his friend, Jens (Kim Bodnia), are engaged in. It does start to bother him, however, when strange things start happening in the morgue, and when the victims of the killer start to show evidence that could incriminate Martin.

Although it's a decent enough little thriller, arguably a little more macabre than most, it's hard to watch Nightwatch nowadays and figure out how it gained such a solid reputation when it was first released. No one element disappoints, and the casting is a big plus, but it feels as if it's a slim, and surprisingly dull, plot padded around a couple of decent set-pieces. The grand finale is decent, and finally adds some genuine tension, but it also seems a bit ridiculous (even in relation to other slick thrillers in this vein).

Coster-Waldau makes for an appealing lead, and Bodnia is a lot of fun as the friend who keeps getting him in trouble with escalating dares and pranks, but I wish the likes of Sofie Gråbøl, Lotte Anderson, and Ulf Pilgaard had been given better material to work with, especially when two of those people are much more heavily involved in the third act. Rikke Louise Andersson is a highlight, in the role of Joyce, but her involvement with the two leading men feels like it could have been spun off into a very different, and potentially more interesting, movie.

Don't get me wrong though, I certainly didn't hate this. It's a decent and dark thriller. It's just a film that always seems to pick the least interesting direction when so many scenes provide a crossroads for the narrative. Maybe I had my viewing experience this time around impacted by that first viewing many years ago, but I wasn't ever fully invested in the characters, I didn't sense any ambiguity when it came to the potential killer, and it really dropped the ball when it came to delivering on the potential of the central premise.

Good, but not great, and I'm surprised to find that it has maintained enough of a legacy that we now, three decades later, have a sequel, also written and directed by Bornedal. I guess you already know what I will be watching at this time next week though.

6/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Kill It And Leave This Town (2020)

This is why I go out of my way to devote almost an entire month to animated movies sometimes. They are not all cute Disney flicks of gorgeous Studio Ghibli presentations. Sometimes you see something, and this was one I hadn’t heard of before someone recommended it to me, that makes use of the medium in a way that feels off-kilter, yet also makes complete sense.

Kill It And Leave This Town is a film about memories. It is also about dealing with loss, and how those memories can help in that regard, even when remembering events that at the time seemed far removed from anything you might view with fondness. I am also going to say that it seems to have more layered throughout it that could be examined and dissected for many hours, so please forgive me for what is ultimately a slightly superficial review after a first viewing of this.

Directed by Mariusz Wilczyński, who developed the material into a feature with the help of Agnieszka Ścibior, this is the story of Janek (voiced by Maja Ostaszewska) and the various worries and views of his parents (voiced by Krystyna Janda and Andrzej Chyra). Their views are shaped by their experiences, and by the world around them, and we see how Janek is moved and shaped by them in a variety of ways.

With an animation style that often leans toward the abstract and the ugly, watching Kill It And Leave This Town is akin to reconnecting with a beloved family member who has been through the worst of times in their recent past. It is jagged and unnerving, but you soon start to recognize the heart of the person standing in front of you, and you can see the truth of their character just visible in the smallest cracks in their carefully-constructed defenses. This is a difficult watch at times, especially when things move in between memories that are swirling and melting together, but it is definitely worth your time and patience.

Thought-provoking, challenging, and surprisingly moving and sweet when you start to understand the experiences that have motivated the main characters, this is a film that makes great use of form to match the emotional core of the whole thing. You may find yourself kept at a distance by the style and structure, initially, but you’ll soon find yourself getting much closer, and eventually being immersed in the unfolding events onscreen.

If you want a better critique of this movie then I encourage you to check out others who will have undoubtedly been more insightful and intelligent than myself. All I can keep saying is that I really liked this. I am glad it was recommended to me, I am glad that I had patience with it, and I am glad that therapeutic (because, well, it IS) art like this has a place alongside the more easygoing features we can also enjoy.

8/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Cars 3 (2017)

Here I am at last, at the end of my journey through the cinematic world of Cars. I now have to decide whether or not I want to check out both Planes movies, which are also set in this world, as far as I am aware. We all know I will check them out, it’s just a matter of exactly when I will get to them.

Considering how disappointed I was by the second movie, I am happy to say that Cars 3 was a film that I really enjoyed. Yes, it returned to the more formulaic plotting of the first film, but it felt like a natural and worthwhile story that returned the focus back to the main character of Lightning McQueen. 

Having maintained his successful career for many years, McQueen (once again voiced by Owen Wilson) finds himself on a bit of a losing streak. He cannot figure out how to beat the fast and cocky Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), who has both superior technology and youth on his side. McQueen believes that he can still learn a trick or two to avoid ending his career on a low, but he needs to be willing to see and hear the lessons from his newly-assigned trainer, Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo). He also misses being able to learn from Doc, but the one way to re-establish that connection is perhaps to find the car that trained his late friend and mentor. That would be Smokey (Chris Cooper). 

Brian Fee takes over the directorial duties here, also helping to brainstorm the story idea that would be shaped into a screenplay by Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson, and Mike Rich. It’s a simple premise - the sports star struggling to accept his inability to stop the advancing years from taking their toll - and it’s handled well, with a consistent message about friendship and hard work being more valuable than fancy technology and large amounts of cash. Falling out of love with something, whether it is a sport, a hobby, or yourself, can lead to a better appreciation when you manage to remember what you loved about it.

While the voice cast all do a great job, and Nathan Fillion is a fun addition (playing a character who only really considers the potential earnings ahead of the real thrill of the racing life), the star here is the animation. That is to be expected, considering the team involved in making this, but I didn’t expect this to be as good as it is. Not only is it colourful and gorgeous throughout, the sense of proper speed is very impressive, and every main racing sequence, of which there are a few, is a real visual treat.

The more I think about this film while writing this review, the more I realise it is my favourite of the three. Easily. The main characters are more appealing, the pacing and plotting is better, and it works as both an entertaining standalone tale and a fitting conclusion to a wildly uneven trilogy. I can see myself rewatching this already, which isn’t a thought I had about the previous movies.

8/10

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Prime Time: Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)

With a lot of the key figures returning, and many of the voice actors reprising their roles (I cannot think of anyone I really missed from this adventure, which may say as much about them as it does about me), Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is clearly aiming to deliver more of the same fun for those who have enjoyed any of the previous three films in the series. And it succeeds.

Dracula (voiced by Brian Hull this time around) is getting on in years, which means he will soon be handing over his beloved hotel to his daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), but that means it also ends up being in the hands of her human partner, Jonathan (Andy Samberg). Knowing that his non-monster identity is a big problem for his father-in-law, Jonathan ends up volunteering for a process that will, to use the technical term, monsterfy him. That works, but it also turns a number of main monsters into normal humans, creating confusion and worry while everyone tries to rectify the situation.

The first full feature directed by either Derek Drymon or Jennifer Kluska, both having a wealth of experience in other main roles, this seems like a great way to ease into that role, considering the fun nature of the brand and the many cast members all having fun with their roles. There are three credited writers (Genndy Tartakovsky, returning from the third film, but making this one the first that he didn’t direct, Amos Vernon, and Nunzio Randazzo), and they have a great framework to work with, considering the canny casting of the main characters.

Alongside Hull, who sounds so much like Adam Sandler in the role that I didn’t realise the change until checking the credits, Samberg, and Gomez (and the focus is often on the first two as they work through the issues putting a strain on their relationship), you get fun turns from Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brad Abrell, Kathryn Hahn, and Fran Drescher. It’s also worth mentioning Jim Gaffigan, playing an enjoyably unhinged Van Helsing. Whether they have been in all of the preceding movies or they have stepped in to take over the voice of a character, everyone does great work.

The animation style is in line with everything we’ve seen before, and there are plenty of wonderful visual gags complementing the dialogue, which makes it hard to imagine fans of this series being disappointed with this instalment. None of the sequels were particularly necessary, and I don’t think they were animated classics, but each one was enjoyably silly and entertaining. And each one presented some enjoyable horror archetypes in a kid-friendly form, while also maintaining focus on some valuable life lesson at the heart of the comedy.

A slight step up from the last film, which was the weakest (but still amusing enough), I recommend this to those who have enjoyed any of the previous animated adventures of Drac and co.

7/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run (2020)

The third SpongeBob SquarePants feature film, and the first released since the death of SpongeBob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, I am still trying to decide why I didn’t enjoy this as much as the two previous movies. Did I watch all three too close together, or is it a marked drop in quality when it comes to the silliness and the gags. I am leaning towards the latter, but people should know that the former may be a contributing factor.

Everything is going along as usual in Bikini Bottom, which means that Plankton is still scheming to steal a coveted recipe and cause trouble. He thinks that he is constantly being thwarted by the owner of the Krusty Krab, but he is shown the error of his ways soon enough. The person who most often thwarts Plankton is, you may have already guessed, SpongeBob. To get him out of the picture, Plankton comes up with a plan involving SpongeBob’s pet snail, Gary. This leads to a dangerous road trip to Atlantic City for SpongeBob and Patrick, where they hope to retrieve Gary. Unfortunately, Gary has already been claimed by King Poseidon.

Written and directed by Tim Hill, a pleasingly constant key figure throughout the SpongeBob show and movies, there’s still some fun to be had with this underwater adventure. Hill heads up a group of creative people who have strived to craft a new tale that was worthy of the feature runtime, but they haven’t managed to avoid a certain feeling of diminishing returns. Seeing our characters head along to Atlantic City just doesn’t feel interesting enough, and the animation makeover (which may have started on the show, I am still only a movie SpongeBobber at the moment) gives the whole thing a sheen that works against it. I cannot be the only one who appreciated the paradoxically beautiful ugliness of the classic SpongeBob look, surely.

Thankfully, the voice performers remain as good as ever. Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, and Mr. Lawrence are all a lot of fun, Carolyn Lawrence gets to enjoy a bit more screentime for her character, Sandy, and newcomers Matt Berry (well, newcomer to his role of King Poseidon) and Keanu Reeves, onscreen in a live-action role that allows him to deliver sage advice and a full Keanu experience, are fantastic additions to the cast, as is Tiffany Haddish in the role of Tiffany Haddock.

I enjoyed this. There were times when I chuckled, and a gag-filled montage at the very end ensures that I was smiling as the end credits rolled. I just didn’t love it. Something is missing, a spark of anarchic lunacy that made the previous two movies so much fun, and I was ultimately disappointed. I wouldn’t rule out revisiting this one though, and a repeat viewing might well lead to me rating it slightly higher. It’s never going to rival the first two movies though.

6/10

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Mubi Monday: Long Way North (2015)

I once again found myself watching a dubbed version of an animated feature, and I once again wasn’t too bothered by it. In my defence, the dubbed version was the only version available to me, and I only found out about any other version when trying to match up the performers to their roles. Anyway, as I have said many times before, animated movies can, in my view, be equally enjoyable in dubbed or subtitles versions, but please know that I would always go for the original language version if I was given a choice. This review will be naming the cast members I heard delivering the dialogue in English.

Sasha (Chloé Dunn) is a young woman who has retained faith in her explorer grandfather, despite his disappearance on a journey to the North Pole. It is the 19th century, and such a trip is even more perilous and uncharted than it is today. A reward is put out on the lost ship, with everyone assuming that the mission was a failure. Sasha thinks they are all wrong though, and she runs away to buy passage on a ship that will take her to the frozen region where she believes her grandfather ended his journey. 

Written by Fabrice de Costil, Claire Paoletti, and Patricia Valeix, this animated tale foregoes easy jokes and spectacle in favour of an exploration of self-belief and courage. It illustrates what it takes to be an explorer in a way that avoids the more easygoing, and childish, view of that lifestyle, yet does so while remaining firmly attached to a young lead character who has the benefit of youthful enthusiasm and optimism on their side.

Director Rémi Chayé has been involved with one or two other celebrated animated films, and he seems happy to deliver something that appears to have been made with a lot of care and love, despite making stylistic and tonal choices that stop it from being an easy option when you’re after some family viewing. Very much like a beautiful picture book throughout, this unfolds at a relatively languid pace, compared to many other films aimed at younger audiences, and the adventuring side of things is depicted with a healthy lack of sensationalism.

Dunn is good in the lead role, and she heads up a cast that includes Antony Hickling, Tom Perkins, Peter Hudson, and Martin Vaughan Lewis. While I am unfamiliar with these performers in other roles, they all do well here, and there’s no distraction that can come from trying to put a face to a celebrity voice.

I enjoyed this, but most of the time I was admiring it more as an interesting piece of art than an entirely satisfying movie. It is definitely worth your time, especially to anyone who has seen this style, or something close to it, in other features, but I probably won’t go out of my way to recommend or revisit it.

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters (2017)

It is the future. A rampaging Godzilla has pretty much destroyed Earth, making the planet so hostile and uninhabitable that the only hope for humanity is to find another planet to colonize. Captain Haruo Sakaki (voiced by Mamoru Miyano) doesn't think that will happen though, and he's unhappy with the plan to send the elderly ahead as scouts on the planet that has been picked as their potential new home. Convincing people that Godzilla does actually have weak points, a plan to return home and kill the beast is hatched. If it is still alive by the time that they return. Godzilla IS still alive, as are many other creatures that now thrive in the radically altered ecosystem of Earth.

Co-directed by Hiroyuki Seshita and Kôbun Shizuno, and written by Gen Urobuchi, this is a strange feature for many Godzilla fans. On the one hand, it's always good to see the big monster used in ways that keep it in the public consciousness. On the other hand, it's a bit odd to suddenly be served up some animated Godzilla that isn't a return to the late '70s cartoon that had such a great theme tune, and the cuteness of Godzooky. Setting up an animated trilogy, and I'll be getting to those next two instalments in due course, Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters feels like something that should have been a short prequel to the main adventure. Unfortunately, it has been stretched out to 88 minutes.

The voice cast are all perfectly fine, but they're portraying characters who aren't all that interesting. Nobody stands out here, aside from Sakaki, which makes the work feel much harder to appreciate. Still, it's worth mentioning Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Tomokazu Sugita, and Yûki Kaji, alongside Miyano. Of course, many (most? all?) Godzilla films take more care with the monsters than with the human characters, so having a cast of people we don't ever really care about isn't exactly a reinvention of the formula. It's just a shame that the rest of the film doesn't deliver enough spectacle to make up for the weak characters.

It's all just a bit lacking in actual kaiju action, and the plotting doesn't let the one or two main points make the impact that they should. The animation is mostly nice and smooth though, and the third act is more enjoyable when we finally see some proper action. I am hoping the next instalment is better though. This sits quite near the bottom of the rankings when compared to all other Godzilla movies, but I might feel a bit different about it if everything has been put in place for an epic story that needs three features to do it justice.

4/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Spine Of Night (2021)

I tried to watch The Spine Of Night before, but things conspired against me. I ended up busier than expected, had to stop the film, and then just never got back to it. I always thought I was missing out, and I figured that the film might be something I would love. A year or so later, I discover that I was completely wrong. The Spine Of Night is a boring waste of a great cast.

Described on IMDb as an "ultra-violent, epic fantasy set in a land of magic" that "follows heroes from different eras and cultures battling against a malevolent force", this is all about a powerful woman (Tzod, voiced by Lucy Lawless) who battles to retain possession of a mystical flower known as the Bloom. It, or something akin to it, has been guarded by others over many years (with one of those guardians voiced by Richard E. Grant), but it has fallen into the hands of a major baddie named Ghal-Sur (Jordan Douglas Smith).

Co-written and co-directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, this rotoscoped dark fantasy has a number of obvious influences feeding into it, and anyone who enjoys those influences should find something to like here, but they will struggle to maintain that enjoyment as the film makes one mis-step after another. Although the runtime is only 93 minutes, the pacing makes it feel much longer, and makes it feel like quite a slog at times. The characters are hard to care about, the environments shown onscreen feel like disconnected backgrounds, as opposed to a real world, and the central quest never becomes as interesting or involving as it should be.

The animation style also works against it slightly. I appreciate some good rotoscoping, but it works best when it feels like a vital component. This is a choice, and an ill-advised one. There's nothing here that couldn't have been improved by either a different style of animation or, perhaps, a live-action presentation of the unfolding events.

As for the cast, both Lawless and Grant are great picks for their roles, Smith does well as the villain, and there are roles for Patton Oswalt, Joe Manganiello, and Larry Fessenden, as well as quite a few others, but nobody is given good enough material to work with. I don't mind something that mixes in plenty of familiar elements, there's a comfort and fun in enjoying ingredients mixed into a new recipe, but this feels, perhaps as intended, like a tale that was written back in the 1970s and dusted off for modern audiences without any extra re-writing or polishing of the material.

I could recommend you plenty of animated movies to watch ahead of this, from the fantasy, sci-fi, and horror genres, and some of those show a much better way to make use of rotoscoping. I'm sure The Spine Of Night has some fans, but I'm never going to want to revisit it, and I'll probably forget it exists at all within the next few months.

3/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Cars 2 (2011)

While I was pleasantly surprised by my recent, long overdue, viewing of Cars, I knew that I shouldn’t get my expectations too high for either of the sequels. Although I have forgotten the full conversation, I remember hearing that one was dire and one was a pleasant surprise. I hope the third Cars movie is a pleasant surprise, because this one wasn’t very good.

When Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) rises to the challenge of racing Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro) he ends up unwittingly amidst a scheme that could lead to the death of many cars. It’s all to do with selling fuel, but a couple of secret agents (voiced by Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer) are on the case. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding leads to them thinking that Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) is working alongside them. There are chases, there are death traps, and there are many moments that have Mater defying the odds to make progress in his “mission”.

While I understand the need to avoid a complete replay of the first movie, Cars feels like a movie series with a limited number of plot options. And, let’s face it, many successful franchises have managed to repeat a formula over and over again, with minor tweaks, including a certain other huge Pixar title. Kids are especially pleased by repetition, which makes the road taken here (no pun intended) all the more bizarre.

Writer Ben Queen does what he can with the premise, presenting a kid-friendly James Bond adventure with Mater being the accidental hero of the piece, but he ends up delivering something incredibly weak. The main lesson feels overwhelmed by the secret agent shenanigans, and the secret agent shenanigans pale in comparison to almost any other film in this vein that you can think of. It doesn’t help that co-directors John Lasseter and Bradford Lewis don’t seem to have any interest in elevating the material, relying on the voice cast to make up for the many weaker elements.

That would be okay if the voice cast was better, but it’s not great. Caine and Mortimer ARE great, but they are absolute highlights here. Wilson is fine, but sidelined in favour of everything else going on, Turturro is equally undone by his relatively limited dialogue (he is fun when he gets time to chatter away), and the likes of Eddie Izzard, Joe Mantegna and others are wasted in supporting roles that don’t give them enough to do. The person who gets to do plenty is Larry The Cable Guy, who is enjoyable enough as Mater, but also quite an acquired taste (although there’s a chance that younger viewers will just lap up everything he says and does).

I didn’t absolutely hate this, mainly thanks to the slick visuals and a couple of small gags that made me chuckle, but it was very disappointing. Am I wrong for wanting another plot that saw Lightning McQueen having to learn some new tactics for a different kind of racing? Probably. Could that have been better than this bit of silliness though? Probably. It gets bonus points for the casting of Caine though, who is the best thing about it.

4/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Robot Dreams (2023)

It’s pretty hard to think of much to say about Robot Dreams, but I am going to try anyway. Sometimes I get going and it all becomes easier as I write. Sometimes I struggle and struggle, staring at the screen for the better part of an hour as I limp from one word to the next. I hope that’s not the case here, especially when the film itself brought me so much joy.

The plot is very simple. Dog is lonely. He buys himself a robot friend, which he then takes out and about. The two of them have a wonderful time, and it feels like the good times may go on forever. Unfortunately, a day at the beach leads to Robot becoming rusted and stuck. When Dog goes to find a solution, he returns to find the beach closed. The two are separated, but is it just for a season or two, or will it be a permanent split?

I had heard a lot of praise for Robot Dreams over the past year, and one or two people encouraged me to schedule it for this month of animated movie viewings, but I really didn’t know what to expect from something that seemed to have such a slight premise, but also still had a full feature runtime of just over 100 minutes. 

Writer-director Pablo Berger adapts a graphic novel by Sara Varon, and all I can tell you is that I am keen to see a lot more from either of those two individuals. I don’t think I have encountered their work, in any form, before this, which is particularly frustrating when I realized that Berger also helmed Blancanieves (a film I have owned for about a decade now, but never got around to watching).

With animation that is clean and beautifully detailed, and with a few central characters who are well-realized and easy to empathize with (despite being anthropomorphic robots and animals, with no main humans to be seen), Robot Dreams is a real treat for the eyes. Despite very little (if any) spoken dialogue, it’s also pleasing to the ears, with the full soundscape of the world being played out around the characters, punctuated occasionally by a brilliantly uplifting disco song.

Last, but certainly not least, Robot Dreams is a genuine treat for the heart. It looks at how people deal with loneliness, what is gained from true friendship, and how to process pain and loss. Both Dog and Robot change one another, and those changes will be part of the rest of their lives forever, whether they manage to reunite or not. 

Genuinely tense at times, because most viewers will be willing Dog on as events seem to conspire to thwart him getting back to his friend, genuinely heartwarming and smile-inducing, and genuinely beautiful and wonderful, Robot Dreams is odd, cute, and sweet, without being overly sugary. It is, in fact, a genuine modern classic.

10/10

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Prime Time: Animal Farm (1954)

When I saw that the animated version of Animal Farm was available online I figured that it wouldn’t really be worth my time. I last saw this film when I was at school, I believe it was one of the choices shown to us one day when the TV/VCR combo was wheeled into class, and I remember it being a fairly basic adaptation of the classic George Orwell tale. But then I started to think about it more, to think of the lessons in the story, and I decided that it might be time for a revisit.

The plot summary is quite simple. A number of farm animals plot to overthrow their human “leader”, aiming to improve their lot in life with some valuable rules, a system that aims to make everything more fair for the hard workers, and full democracy. Of course, as many of you will already be aware, things don’t go according to plan. Rules change, some workers end up doing far more than others, and a leader starts enjoying the many perks of leadership.

Keeping everything quite simple, with narration by Gordon Heath and animals voiced by Maurice Denham, this is an impressively harsh work. Despite the form, it isn’t specifically aimed at younger viewers, although anything too graphic is kept offscreen. This is a message movie, and the message was so valuable that digging around for production information quickly reveals that it was funded, at least in part, by the CIA, who also worked out a new ending to more effectively condemn the ideology at the heart of the tale. Considering how relatively quaint the whole thing is, that piece of information left me reeling. I never knew that I had once been in a classroom where I had witnessed some CIA-endorsed “propaganda”, and it makes the end result, which makes a good fist of carefully adapting the source material, and getting the tone just right, all the more impressive.

Joy Batchelor and John Halas are the directors, another also working with a few other writers in getting the story from page to screen, and they do a very good job. Animal Farm doesn’t really start in a place of sunshine and roses, and it just gets darker and darker on the way to an inevitably bleak conclusion (Orwell gave us some classics, but they’re not cheery tales). The fact that this blends the animation with a growing sense of oppression (both tonally and literally), yet keeps the character interactions and plotting paced perfectly to keep viewers intrigued, is an impressive feat, and Batchelor and Halas should be applauded for such a balancing act.

If you haven’t reminded yourself of the tale in some time, or you haven’t ever given it your time, then now is as good a time as any to rectify that. Much like his other prescient masterpiece, Animal Farm feels like an important lesson being shouted at people who are deliberately plugging up their ears with cotton wool. It’s a scenario playing out all around us nowadays, and one that has been ongoing throughout much of our history. I am not sure if there is any way to break the cycle, but it’s always worth at least reminding ourselves of why we spend so much time feeling frustrated and angry at those who never make the most of any opportunities for real change. Even if that kind of thinning wouldn’t necessarily be approved by the CIA.

8/10

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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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Mubi Monday: Phantom Boy (2015)

On the surface, Phantom Boy is a very familiar tale, and maybe the kind of tale that people suffering from superhero-fatigue might choose to avoid at the moment. There's a young boy who finds that he has a special power, allowing him to move quickly, and unseen, around a city that is being threatened by a wannabe-supervillain named The Face. There's more to it than that though, and I would recommend this to people who don't mind trying something a bit different, even if it mixes in many familiar elements.

Leo (Gaspard Gagnol) is the lead character, the titular "phantom boy". Leo has to go into hospital to be treated for cancer, with the one silver lining to that cloud being a new-found ability to astrally project himself around the city. He cannot stay away from his physical body for too long though, otherwise his spirit will begin to disappear. When he ends up sharing some space with a wounded police officer, Alex (Edouard Baer), Leo explains his new super-power, and gives an effective demonstration. This leads to him helping Alex, who is in turn helping an investigative journalist named Mary (Audrey Tautou), who is trying to expose The Face (Jean-Pierre Marielle).

The big attraction here is the lovely animation style. It's clean and detailed, and has a great retro feel, a modern-day adventure with the vibe of something from the 1940s or '50s. From the opening credit sequence to the old-fashioned methodology of the criminal gang, this keeps finding effective ways to round off the corners of what could otherwise have been a more difficult film to enjoy (considering the one-two punch of cancer and child endangerment at the heart of it).

Co-directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, working from a script written by Gagnol, this is a film that manages to feel both refreshing and comfortingly familiar. Take away the fantastical element and you could easily imagine this being a Tintin adventure. The fantastical elements adds so much though, and it's more than whatever is overtly depicted onscreen. Leo has the constant worry revolving around being able to return to his physical body, and he there is an upside and downside to being able to view others who are unaware of his presence (not unlike those who are ill in a hospital bed, but able to hear the concerned conversations of the loved ones sitting around them). The stakes feel high when it comes to the lives of others being affected, but it's certainly not world-ending stuff, and the desperate need for Leo to help out seems to show his need to stay distracted, and to engage in a battle with an enemy that he can see in front of him.

The voice cast all do very well, a great fit for their roles (n.b. I did watch the original version of this, a dubbed version is also available . . . and Vincent D'Onofrio in the role of The Face seems like an excellent choice there), and the script does enough to make their interactions and character development believable, despite the main premise.

I haven't seen the previous feature from Felicioli and Gagnol, the celebrated A Cat In Paris, but I can assure you that it's been bumped up my list of "ones to watch" after finding so much to appreciate in this. Sweet, tense, and constructed with real care and tenderness, this is highly recommended, especially to those who may have dismissed it based purely on the title.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: Arrietty (2010)

An animated take on The Borrowes from Studio Ghibli, Arrietty (also known as The Secret World Of Arrietty) is, as you might have guessed already, yet ANOTHER film I had meant to see quite a few years ago. Why wouldn't I be interested in it? I love both The Borrowers and Studio Ghibli, so it seemed like a wonderful marriage.

Arrietty is the youngest member of the Clock family, tiny people living in the home of normal-sized humans. They survive by going on occasional quests to "borrow" what they need from the house before returning to their own living space, tucked away under the floorboards. Borrowers shouldn't be seen by humans, that's a pretty good rule to live by, but Arrietty ends up contemplating the idea of a friendship with Shô, a teenage boy who has arrived at the house to rest up before he is due to undergo heart surgery. Things soon become dangerous for Arrietty and her family, and it's harder for them to continue living their lives in secret, which means that it soon becomes time to see whether Shô will end up helping or hindering them.

The first film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who followed this up with the wonderful When Marnie Was There, this is the kind of thing that Studio Ghibli does so well. It takes some fantastical elements, grounds everything in a world that throws some very real problems at the main characters, and allows the animation team to impress everyone with visuals that are as beautiful and delicate as any other work of fine art you might choose to enjoy. Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa are responsible for the screenplay, adapting the Mary Norton novel (and, sadly, I cannot say how close to, or far from, the source material it is), and they know exactly what they're doing when it comes to balancing out the magical realism and the tension, with Miyazaki already having plenty of experience on many of his own directorial outings.

Although I am very often firmly against such choices, Arrietty, like many Studio Ghibli movies, is available in multiple versions. I still prefer to go for the Japanese audio, to hear the original cast members in their roles, but those opting for the dubbed version could, depending on their choice/territory, hear the likes of Bridgit Mendler, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, and Carol Burnett, or Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Olivia Colman, and Mark Strong, among others. I enjoyed the work of Mirai Shida (in the main role), Ryûnosuke Kamiki (as Shô), Tomokazu Miura and Shinobu Ôtake (as the parents of our lead), as well as Keiko Takeshita and Kirin Kiki. I'm not going to pretend that I keep these names filed in my brain when viewing various Japanese movies, but they may well be people I have ecnountered before, considering the lengths of their respective filmographies, and it's the least I can do to namecheck them here for their valuable contribution to the film.

There's no denying that Studio Ghibli movies are all about the artistry though, and this aims for the high standard that they are known for. It may not be quite as inventive or stunning as a number of more magical titles I could mention, but it's a treat for the eyes, and as well-realised and fluidly animated as the best of them. I loved it, and it even made me nostalgic for the other feature film version of this material that I have vague memories of. I hope that most people will agree with me, but especially those seeking out a suitable family viewing choice. In fact, you need to be putting all of the Studio Ghibli movies in steady rotation if you have any younger film viewers in your household.

9/10

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Shudder Saturday: Infested AKA Vermines (2023)

I am majorly arachnophobic. I know it makes little sense, especially living in the UK (where we tend not to have many deadly spiders), but my brain is just wired that way, and it seems to have got worse and worse over the years, as spiders that wander into my eyeline seem to have grown in size. Admittedly, that might be my imagination. I'm not sure of any scientific data backing me up on that. 

I also like to face my fears occasionally though, especially via the medium of movies, which is why I watch so many shark movies. Is a fear of sharks some kind of phobia, or just a very understandable longing to keep all of your limbs attached to your body? When I saw the trailer for Infested, and also started to hear the good word about it, I knew I'd end up watching it. I also knew there would be moments to make me very itchy and nervous. I steeled myself, did a quick peripheral check for any creepy-crawlies that might try to surprise me during my viewing experience, and then pressed play.

Set in a run-down apartment building in France, Infested introduces us to Kaleb (Théo Christine), a young man who has a whole room full of exotic animals. That seems to be his main interest, when he's not trying to make extra money from selling designer sneakers to customers in his local community. Kaleb buys a poisonous spider from someone, takes it back home, and ends up endangering everyone in the building before you can say "incy wincy". The spider quickly starts reproducing, and all of the offspring are big, vicious, and deadly.

The feature debut from director Sébastien Vanicek, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Florent Bernard, there's a lot to appreciate here, especially in the first half of the film. Vanicek knows how to make the most of the premise as he builds up to the expected third act madness, and the pacing is great as viewers are introduced to various characters while we see their situation start to turn from good to bad, and then from bad to worse. He has a couple of scenes that really ratchet up the tension as people are unwittingly approached by a cluster of the deadly spiders. Unfortunately, a lot of that good work is undone by the second half of the film, where tension starts to dissipate as the spiders become bigger and greater in number, and the final scenes are really hard to care about, even downright laughable when it should be most intense.

The cast all do well, and well done to them all for the scenes that have them involved with real spiders amidst the many CG creations, but they're left floundering once the group dynamic has been established. Christine is a decent lead, and both Sofia Lesaffre and Lisa Nyarko do well alongside him (the latter playing his exasperated sister), but I can't say that I was all that invested in any other member of the core group. Jérôme Niel, Finnegan Oldfield, Abdella Moundy, Mahamadou Sangaré, Marie-Philomène Nga, and Xing Xing Cheng play a variety of supporting characters (some being part of the main group, some appearing long enough to add to the bodycount). They do a decent job, but it's only Cheng who manages to overcome the weak character development with her fun performance.

A lot of other people loved this, and it’s certainly hard to argue against how effective it is when that first half exploits a common fear in a way that is both nerve-wracking and playful (a scene showing spiders getting unto a bathroom is the absolute highlight of the film), but I think it’s a film of two halves. The first half is about as good as you could hope for. The second half goes downhill fast, and ultimately self-destructs in a finale that feels very hard to care about. Whether you view it as a standard arachno-horror or a metaphor for the discrimination people experience in France (and elsewhere around the world), Infested disappoints. The whole thing is still worth a watch, but be prepared to start losing interest once you get beyond the halfway mark.

6/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)

I cannot say that I am overly familiar with SpongeBob SquarePants, but I know enough about him to enjoy this movie. He lives in Bikini Bottom. He works at an underwater diner named the Krusty Krab. And he has a loyal friend named Patrick. I have somehow absorbed all of this information without ever having watched a full episode of the TV show, as far as I am aware. I have watched this movie before though, but I remembered nothing about it.

There are a number of enjoyable diversions here, but the core of the plot concerns SpongeBob and Patrick embarking on a long and dangerous journey to reclaim and return Neptune’s crown. Succeeding in this quest will save the life of their boss, Eugene Krabs, and foil the scheme of the nefarious Plankton, who also gets busy turning the residents of Bikini Bottom into mindless zombies (not the full-on horror type, just devoid of their own willpower and easily controlled by Plankton).

Bookended by scenes that show a rowdy gang of pirates hoping to enjoy the animated feature, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie is just about as much fun as you could expect it to be. It seems to keep the essence of the show and characters, increases the scale just enough to make it feel worth adapting into a movie, and delivers plenty of surreal hilarity in both rhe visuals and the dialogue.

Directed and co-written by SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg, with many others helping to knock the script into shape (and Mark Osborne credited for the live-action sequences), this feels like the kind of brilliant anarchy that you only get from someone who has negotiated their way to a place where they get to protect their vision with a final say on anything that will be delivered to the viewing public. Maybe that is exactly what happened, or maybe it is just a coincidence that Hillenburg had turned down numerous requests to turn his show into a movie before finally helming something that moved from the small screen to the big screen with such apparent ease.

The cast are mainly familiar to those who enjoy the show. Tom Kenny is SpongeBob, Bill Faggerbakke is Patrick, Rodger Bumpass is Squidward, Clancy Brown is Mr. Krab, and Mr. Lawrence is Plankton. All of them are superb, and they are joined by Jeffrey Tambor and Scarlett Johansson (playing Neptune and his daughter, respectively), Carolyn Lawrence and Jill Talley (both also reprising characters from the show), Alec Baldwin, and even the world’s most famous TV lifeguard, who pops up for a hilarious cameo that allows him to steal a couple of scenes.

I cannot think of anything here I would fault. While it may not make me rush off to watch every episode of the show, that is only because of me having only so many hours in each day. I will certainly be aiming to watch the other movies, at the very least, and I hope they come close to being as much fun as this one, which had me laughing pretty heartily from start to finish. I know that the silliness here isn’t for everyone, but I am certainly happy to be a goofy goober.

9/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Cars (2006)

I heard about Cars being made. I wasn’t interested. I saw the trailer for Cars. I wasn’t interested. Cars came and went at the cinema. I wasn’t interested. So why do I own all three Cars movies? Well, I decided I would get them for free when Disney still offered a decent reward scheme on their website. I used points on them, but still couldn’t work up any enthusiasm to actually watch any of them. That changes now. I am determined to watch all three this month, for better or worse. Considering how much I enjoyed this, it may be for the better.

Owen Wilson voices a car named Lightning McQueen, a cocky young racer who is frustrated when his latest race ends in a 3-way tie. The winner will be decided in another race in California, which means a long journey across the country. There’s an unplanned diversion though, and McQueen ends up stuck in the small town of Radiator Springs, where the pace of life is quite a bit slower. Taking things a bit slower can give you plenty of time to learn more and plan ahead better, but that isn’t how McQueen views the situation, despite the patience and determination of the locals.

Directed by John Lasseter and Joe Ranft, who also co-wrote the screenplay with a handful of other writers, Cars isn’t the sharpest Pixar movie, nor is it the wittiest. That’s a high bar though, and I will usually find plenty to enjoy in every one of their animated treats. The main pleasure here comes from the different characters surrounding our misguided lead, voiced by the likes of Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry The Cable Guy, and Tony Shalhoub. There’s also a gorgeous visual style throughout, as you would expect, with the characters and environment in perfect simpatico, presenting a world that is so well-realised that viewers can easily accept everything onscreen without any questions, at least until after the end credits have rolled.

Wilson is a good choice for the lead role, his particular vocal style softening the edges of a character that could have been much more annoying throughout the first half of the film. Newman is used well as the elder who offers some sage advice to someone who needs to start listening to others. Both Bonnie Hunt and Larry The Cable Guy are great in main supporting roles, the former being very sweet while the latter delivers plenty of laughs, and Shalhoub gets to steal one or two scenes as Luigi, a huge fan of Ferraris. There are also delightful performances from Paul Dooley, Michael Keaton, George Carlin, Edie McClurg, Richard Kind, and John Ratzenberger (in what I would say is his biggest Pixar role, and allows him to deliver a superb set of meta gags over the end credits).

The pacing is slightly off, just slightly, and there’s an uninspired soundtrack, as well as a clumsy attempt to shoehorn in an extra narrative strand about the small towns that have suffered when new road developments were planned to bypass them, but the sweetness and humour always work well enough to keep you smiling as you wait for the predictable, and rewarding, finale. AND you get a number of cameos that should please motor-racing fans.

It may all be downhill from here, I have heard bad things about at least one of the sequels, but I am now temporarily optimistic about finally making time for this trilogy. I recommend this one to Pixar fans, but (as ever) . . . mileage may vary.

7/10

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Prime Time: Postman Pat: The Movie (2014)

I don’t know why I decided to watch Postman Pat: The Movie this week, but watch it I did. Maybe it was my brain being more alert than ever to Royal Mail, considering how much time and space it has taken up on the news and TV lately (and this movie could have been very different if it reflected any real-life events), or maybe I decided to revisit a character I hadn’t spent any time with for about four decades. It was probably just my usual roll of the dice, consider my willingness to give anything a chance, but I wasn’t exactly over the moon as I pressed play.

The plot is enjoyably simple. Postman Pat (voiced by Stephen Mangan) is disappointed to hear that he won’t be receiving a pay bonus that he was looking forward to, which means no holiday to Italy for the family. He doesn’t want to let them down though, considering how keen they are, so he ends up entering a talent contest that could keep everyone happy . . . if he wins. His main competitor is a young man named Josh (Rupert Grint), managed by someone (Wilf, voiced by David Tennant) who isn’t above using some dirty tricks to ensure that his star client wins. Meanwhile, Edwin Carbunkle (Peter Woodward) has a plan to make the mail delivery system more efficient and profitable, all thanks to robot versions of Pat and his cat, Jess.

Being unfamiliar with director Mike Disa and writer Nicole Dubuc, Postman Pat: The Movie was a film I thought I might end up enduring, as opposed to enjoying. The characters and antics would obviously be aimed at a MUCH younger demographic (I know I can be accused of immaturity, but I am not actually as childish as I sometimes seem) and I figured that the animation would lack the polish and detail of the movie output seen from more renowned studios.

Fortunately, I ended up finding a lot to enjoy here. Yes, it is very definitely made for younger viewers (although none of them will laugh at how inappropriate it is to see Pat reading “The Postman Always Rings Twice” to his young child), but the enjoyably simple plot allows for a great mix of small and big gags in every main sequence. The animation may not be the very best, but it feels like a nicely updated version of the character and the world that he inhabits. Maybe this is just ported over from later TV episodes, or maybe it isn’t (I wouldn’t know as I haven’t watched it since the early 1980s), but it’s a good mix of the old and the new.

It’s also helped enormously by a voice cast all feeling perfect in their roles. Mangan is great as Pat, trying to stay upbeat even in the face of overwhelming odds, Grint is enthusiastic and pleasant as Joshua, and Tennant seems to relish arching his eyebrows and rubbing his hands together as he acts like the panto villain of the piece. As for Woodward, playing the more harmful villain, he delivers his dialogue with a cool hint of menace underlining almost everything he says. Susan Duerden and Sandra Teles play Pat’s wife and son, respectively, and both feel just right in their roles, and you get to hear Jim Broadbent, Ronan Keating (providing the singing voice for Pat), and a hugely entertaining Robin Atkin Downes, playing the talent show judge, Simon Cowbell.

I doubt I will ever watch this again, unless I am babysitting younger children in my home, but I enjoyed it while it was on. It provides a fun adventure for a beloved character without having to change or mutate the essence of the show, the whole community becomes involved in the unfolding drama, and there are good lessons learned before the end credits roll. I genuinely enjoyed it . . . although maybe that just shows that I AM as childish as I sometimes seem.

7/10

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