Dreamworks #3: The Road to El Dorado

The Road to El Dorado - 7.8/10

I’d never seen this before, and I wasn’t expecting much. Wouldn’t you know it, I was pleasantly surprised. That’s sort of becoming a thing.

There’s nothing for me to get all deep over this time. There isn’t any underlying theme regarding political and sociological ideology, nor is it adapted from an ancient story upon which the faith of billions is founded…it’s just goofy fun. And you know, I welcome the change. 

This movie was really funny. They didn’t really tell any jokes; the dialogue was very witty and energetic and there were a number of visual and physical gags. I had a good time watching it. The two leads were very likable; they were quick and clever and their banter was always good for a laugh. For once I had no problem at all with the stunt casting; Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh were remarkable.

On the technical side of things, the animation was a little lower on the scale than The Prince of Egypt, but still good. The songs were decent for the most part but nothing special, with one exception. “It’s Tough To Be A God” was freaking great. I’m going to be singing it for weeks.

They surprised me a bit with the plot as well (and this paragraph will contain some spoilers if you’re worried about that sort of thing). Despite the name of the film, the majority of it takes place in El Dorado itself once they’ve arrived. Also, in the beginning it looked like they were setting up Cortes to be a villain, and then he barely appears or does anything at all. A bit of a curveball there, but I can’t say I mind. It would have been too formulaic and predictable and I prefer the way it turned out much more.

If there’s one complaint I had – and it’s a relatively big one – it’s the language thing again. At first it looked like they were going to do the unintelligible thing and I was really impressed for a fleeting moment…and then the natives started talking to them like it was no big deal. There wasn’t even an attempt to explain it; we’re just supposed to assume that everyone in the world speaks the same language and that’s the end of it. It really bugged me, but even that I was able to forget after a while because everything else was so much fun. And later on I realized - it took me a while, I admit - that this was in homage to the old Bing Crosby, Bob Hope "Road to..." movies. Once I figured that out, it bothered me a lot less.

So yeah, a good time was had by all, and by “all” I mean me, and from the sounds of it every actor who had a role in this movie. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s easily worth an hour and a half of your time.

Dreamworks #2: The Prince of Egypt

The Prince of Egypt - 8.3/10

Talk about ambitious. For your second project, you’re going to tackle a story that probably 98% of everyone in the Western world is at least nominally familiar with, and to a good number of them it’s more than just a story. Imagine the nerd rage whenever a comic book or fantasy adaptation film gets even the slightest thing wrong. Now crank that up to eleven and multiply the nerds by a couple million or so. This movie could have gone horribly wrong.

On the plus side, if you do a good job, just like those comic book and fantasy adaptations, you’ve got a pre-existing fanbase. And on the whole I’d have to say they did a pretty good job.

This was a big one for the Dreamworks team. They had a good start with Antz, but this is where they needed to prove they weren’t a one-hit-wonder. You could tell they were putting a lot of effort in for that as much as to do justice to such an iconic story. And as an outsider – that is, someone for whom the story has no special meaning beyond simply being a good story – it was fun for me too, so they managed to avoid the pitfall of being too preachy. An impressive feat.

They really went with the human angle on this one. A must, really, unless you’re making a film for Sunday School. We got a good look at who Moses was, what kind of person he was and his relationship with his family. In this too I was pleased that the royal family of Egypt were not portrayed simply as heartless villains, but as real people in their own right who simply let their privilege blind them to the needs of others.

Moses’s transformation to a better man was well played, and even though it was mostly via montage, they managed to portray his developing relationship with his wife with a degree of tenderness that kind of makes you wish the whole movie was about them. The plagues were impressive, but I wish more time had been spent on them. They kind of happened all at once in another montage, when I think delving into them one at a time would have been more powerful. Then again, it could have made things drag on too long, so I’m not sure what the happy medium would be.

The final plague was of course played out in full, and throughout the whole ordeal Pharaoh was given very realistic reasons for refusing Moses repeatedly. The seeds of this were planted early on, when we see the two princes interacting with their father. Pharaoh was a complex character who was as much concerned about his legacy and that of his kingdom as much as he was the here and now. 

The visuals were spectacular as well, even down to just the scenery of the Nile River and the kingdom that thrives upon its banks. There were some great songs too, but I will say this: I think there was too much singing. A couple of them I really liked, as I said, but you couldn’t go five minutes without some character bursting into song about something or other. It had me rolling my eyes after a while. I kind of wonder if some Dreamworks producer was looking at the successful Disney films of the day and thinking, “They’ve got songs. We’ll have songs too! All the songs anyone could ever want!” And then there’s some maniacal laughter or something, I don’t know.

Once again they had some celebrity stunt casting, but it wasn’t so much distracting this time as it was not all the actors fit the characters they portrayed. In particular I really wasn’t feeling Steve Martin and Martin Short as the high priests, but for the most part everyone performed their roles at least adequately. Makes me wonder what could have been if they’d gone for real voice actors, though.

All told, a solid second outing. Enjoyable, impressive to look at, and does justice to an ancient story. Well done, Dreamworks. You’re playing with the big boys now.

 

Dreamworks #1: Antz

Here we go with Round 2. These are going to be a little different from the write-ups of the Disney films, owing chiefly to the fact that Dreamworks is not Disney and (with a few exceptions) doesn't try to be. The films themselves are different and the write-ups will reflect that accordingly. The other major difference is that the vast majority of these films I have seen either recently, multiple times, or both. It's kind of different that reviewing a bunch of films I mostly saw for the first time as a child.

With all that being said, let's get this self-aggrandizing pomp underway with...

Antz - 8.1/10

It’s a Woody Allen movie. With bugs. 

I could stop there and you’d pretty much know everything you needed to know about this movie. There is, however, a whole other layer underneath that’s truly fascinating, and it explores concepts like collectivism, individualism and dogmatic adherence to authority in a way that a movie about human characters just couldn’t pull off.

I think what I like best about this movie’s approach is that it’s just that: an exploration. Collectivism vs. Individualism is the major theme, it’s true, but the movie does not declare which is superior, or even if there is a better option between the two. Personally, I interpreted it as saying that a balance between the two is most ideal, though that’s likely just me projecting as that’s my own philosophy already anyway. 

The strengths and pitfalls of a collectivist society are both laid out pretty straightforwardly. Likewise, the benefits and dangers of a self-oriented mindset are clearly shown as well. The two leads, Z and Bala, are both incredibly selfish people when we meet them, though in different ways and for different reasons. And of course they live in a society that is by definition a collective. Their escape from and eventual return to this society and the way they change both it and themselves is the central pillar the movie is based upon.

And the society itself grows as well. The corrupted version of collectivism we see at the beginning – really just a totalitarian state with a rigid class structure – is reformed during the climax of the film when all parties involved finally realize that though the collective as a whole is the priority, every individual within that collective has value. Ironically, the villain made this point best when giving a speech to rally people behind him (and of course it was all BS as far as he was concerned). I could go on about this crap for ten more pages, but as I'm not trying to impress any professors, let's move on.

Toning down the pretentious ramblings a bit, there was some good humor in here as well. A lot of the jokes were actually pretty passive, and took their humor from the vastly different view of the world insects have. A mound of garbage is the most beautiful place they’ve ever seen, magnifying glasses and sneakers with gum on them are cosmic horrors, and crap is delicious. There’s also a hippie commune at the garbage heap, which is funny and ties into the central theme. And they had some good jokes with the collective concept as well, such as everyone at a bar dancing in unison at a pre-specified time.

The stunt casting of various celebrity voices was a little distracting – most notably Jennifer Lopez and Sylvester Stallone, but others like Gene Hackman (and of course Allen) fit their characters perfectly. And I loved the music. When I first saw it as a kid and still today, the main theme for this movie is one of the catchiest I’ve ever heard.

If you like Woody Allen, you’ll probably enjoy this at least a little. If you don’t, it’s likely going to be hit or miss. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that because it’s animated it’s for kids. I mean, I saw it when I was a kid, but the dialogue and various other aspects are only partially toned down from Allen’s live action films. I for one welcome that. It signaled a change in the role of animated films – that they could be anything we wanted them to be and didn’t have to choose between weird cult hit or kiddie movie. The fact that it came out at the same time as the not-nearly-as-interesting A Bug’s Life only served to drive home just what a different turn they were taking.