Mini-reviews: Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, Up In the Air

It's Oscar season and there are a ton of great movies out now! I've got a lot to talk about but don't plan on writing too much, so here are some quick thoughts.

*****

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Dir. Wes Anderson (2009)

*****

Fantastic Mr. Fox was a riot. Hardcore fans of Wes Anderson or Roald Dahl may take issue with the movie, as it is not exactly made in the typical Anderson style, nor is it quite true to the original book. Fortunately for me, I am not too much of either. One thing that puzzles me is that Fantastic Mr. Fox for some reason seemed to be marketed as a kids' movie (it is not). But anyway, this is the best movie I've seen so far this year, for many reasons. The simplest is that it is straight out fun. The characters are awesome, and the fact that they are all animals makes it even more amusing. The unique style of humor that Wes Anderson adds to his movies fits this film perfectly. Fantastic Mr. Fox is done with stop-motion animation, but somehow the characters' expressions actually look genuine, which is even more impressive because they are animals! George Clooney delivers his lines as Mr. Fox with the slickness and slyness of a fox, and all of the other animals have their memorable moments - from the depression and jealousy of Mr. Fox's son Ash to the hilarious nervousness of the mole Kylie. This is a movie I can watch over and over and over again.

*****

My Rating: A

*****

The Princess and the Frog

It's a Disney movie (2009)

*****

For those of you who, like I, miss the classic-style 2-D Disney animation, this will be a bit of a treat. I never thought that 3-D animation was inherently any better or worse than the hand-drawn 2-D style, so it made me sad when the entire animation industry basically made only 3-D movies in recent years. Anyway, The Princess and the Frog brings a cute new twist to the well-known story, where instead of making the frog human, the kiss makes the human a frog. The voodoo themes of the cartoon seemed mature and I'm surprised that Disney created this movie in the first place, as I can see kids getting really scared from this stuff. I thought the villains were great - one has voodoo powers that result in some pretty crazy scenes throughout the movie; the other is driven more by greed and revenge than by pure evil, which is just about as human as we can expect from a Disney villain. A particular scene towards the end of the movie is one of the best I've ever seen in a cartoon. Unfortunately, The Princess and the Frog has two major downfalls. The first is a kind of identity crisis, where the movie was kind of in between a kids' movie and a grown-ups' movie. Disney usually does a good job making their movies appropriate for all ages, but in this movie, the scenes kind of alternated between ones for kids' and ones for grown-ups', which was kind of awkward. The other was the lack of any memorable songs whatsoever. The songs were made in a kind of New Orleans jazzy style that seemed appropriate considering the setting of the movie, but was probably ultimately a bad move.

*****

My Rating: B

*****

Up In the Air

Dir. Jason Reitman (2009)

*****

Yes, you have probably heard that this movie is about a guy who fires people for a living and flies a lot. So did I before watching this, but before going to see this, I couldn't imagine what the plot could possibly be like. Well, it turns out that just like in Jason Reitman's previous film Juno, the important thing is not necessarily the plot, but instead the premise of the film and the interactions between the characters. I won't get into too much description, since there's some pretty complex character development going on. Overall though, the movie has a great balance between some really interesting themes involving relationships and charming humor of the same type as in Juno. The director himself puts it perfectly. "In one sense, it’s a movie about a man who fires people for a living. In another sense, it’s a movie about a man who collects air miles excessively. In another sense, it’s about a man who meets a woman who’s so similar to him that even though they both believe in the idea of living solo, they begin to fall in love." In short, Up In the Air is a lot like Juno, but - in my opinion - better. Definitely a front-runner for Best Adapted Screenplay.

*****

My Rating: A-

*****

Movies I still would like to watch: The Hurt Locker, A Serious Man, Precious, An Education, (500) Days of Summer, Ponyo, Moon, Coraline