Dreamworks #22: Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2 - 9.5/10

Just a couple of write-ups ago, I mentioned that How to Train Your Dragon was “one of” my favorite animated movies ever. You’re about to see why I made that very specific distinction.

When I was younger, I was a big fan of the X-Men cartoon, and there was a quote in one episode that has stuck with me ever since. An anti-mutant bigot accused Apocalypse of being a mutant, and in all his magnificence, Apocalypse haughtily declared, “I am as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you.” This quote is what comes to mind when I try to describe how good this movie was. The first Kung Fu Panda was a clever, funny, entertaining animated action/drama/comedy with a good soundtrack, solid performances and a tight, well-written script. A good movie by any standard, as I have already related not too long ago, and without question a cut above the standard fare offered by any of the myriad animation studios churning out CGI movies these days. Kung Fu Panda 2 is as far beyond its predecessor as that film is beyond everything else. It is nothing short of a modern cinematic masterpiece that can and should be enjoyed by people of all ages and from all walks of life. 

It’s hard to pin down in words just why I love this movie so much. Literally everything positive I said about the first one holds true, only to an even greater degree. Jack Black completely inhabits the role of Po, to the point where all I’m hearing is the character and it could be anyone voicing him – much like Jay Baruchel’s Hiccup. The rest of the cast is once again great as well, and this time they all actually get stuff to do and say. Huzzah! There are a few new additions to the cast as well, but far and away the shining star was Gary Oldman as Lord Shen, the villain. This was the perfect type of villain for this type of movie; he was threatening, intelligent, had a great design, a good backstory, and was just the right amount of ham. And Oldman is one of the greatest actors alive today; I’m convinced he could play a five year old girl so convincingly you wouldn’t know it was him. Live action.

All the colors and scenery I gushed about before are back and more impressive than the first time; it’s like the art department was deliberately trying to one-up themselves. And the music – holy shit, is it awesome. It’s a perfect blend of classical Chinese and modern orchestral scoring that fits the tone of this movie like a glove. Like Powell’s score in How to Train Your Dragon, the music emphases all the right emotions at all the right times, and knows when to be fast paced and intense, and when to slow down and tug at the heartstings.

The comedy is also top notch. Despite not being the focus, I think it’s the best Dreamworks has ever done, including Shrek 2. Most of it is of the incidental variety, where no one is doing anything deliberately funny; the characters are completely serious the whole time and this is a major source of humor. The filmmakers utilize anticlimaxes a lot, which suits that type of humor very well.

The philosophy is also stepped up from the first film. A lot of focus is put on the question of destiny and choice – similar to Megamind, actually – but through the lens of traditional martial arts values and ethics. The theme of conquering oneself before one’s enemies also plays into this, and it’s a lesson the villain ultimately fails to learn where Po succeeds.

Again like How to Train Your Dragon, there is an extended climax that doesn’t really let up for the entire sequence (about 8 minutes), accompanied by a magnificent, heart-pounding score that amplifies both the intensity and the excitement wonderfully. Unlike Dragon’s climax, which sort of plateaus, this one builds to a towering crescendo that doesn’t finally hit until the last possible second. The denouement is wonderful and heartwarming as well, and ties together all the morals and themes in a way (and with such beautiful music) that has never failed to elicit many tears. By that point, depending on how sappy I’m feeling that day, that can be tear-up number two or three.

I’ve compared this to How to Train Your Dragon a few times, and that’s because I think those two are easily the best Dreamworks has yet produced, and they share a lot of the same strengths: strong themes, sympathetic, well-written characters, a powerful climax, stunning visuals and absolutely amazing music. I’m always bouncing back and forth on which one is my favorite, and I usually land on whichever one I happened to view most recently. If I’m completely honest with myself though, I’d probably have to choose this one. No other movie that has brought me to tears has ever made me laugh so hard, and no other movie that’s made me laugh even half so hard has ever brought me to tears. It’s just about as close to perfect as an animated movie can hope to get, if I do say so myself. 

Skadoosh.

Dreamworks #21: Megamind

Megamind - 8.5/10

 

This was the movie that put Dreamworks on the map for me. I know that sounds odd considering what I’ve had to say about the many of the films leading up to this, but I hadn’t yet stopped to consider where these movies were coming from. There was a lot of award buzz going around that year though, and of course this one and How to Train Your Dragon were both in there. There was talk about how Kung Fu Panda had been up for several the year before, and it was at that moment I actually stopped to realize, “Holy crap! These movies are all being made by the same people!” And Monsters vs. Aliens was pretty good too.

I was a bit turned off of Disney at the time due to their string of perceived sell-outs (I had yet to actually watch any of them), and it was with the release of Megamind that I began to realize that just about everything Dreamworks touched was gold. That has held true for the most part to the present day, though I haven’t had a chance to see their latest offerings yet.

This movie is basically Shrek for comic books. That is to say, it plays with superhero comic conventions in much the same way Shrek played with fairy tale conventions: affectionate parody, lampshading of overused plot devices, and in the end turning most of the established conventions on their heads. It really would be fairer to compare this film to Shrek 2, since like that film the writing was really tight and the characters very well-defined and engaging. 

Will Farrell gives a surprisingly good performance as Megamind. I suppose it’s not too surprising, as he tends to be at his best when not playing Will Farrell (that is, being an arrogant dumbass or screaming at his mom for meatloaf). The story of Megamind and his rival Metro Man is an obvious parody of the Superman origin, but the filmmakers decided to take what could have just been a throwaway joke and actually go a little deeper with it. A major theme of the movie is how much of your life is forced on you by circumstances beyond your control, and how much of it you choose for yourself.

Megamind is a supervillain, but not because he’s inherently evil. He becomes a villain because he feels that is the role that society has selected for him, and so he just rolls with it. If he can’t be accepted for anything else he wants, he may as well want the one thing he’s “accepted” for. It’s only much later that we find Metro Man became a hero for much the same reason, and their constant battles between good and evil were mostly a show for everyone but themselves.  

Again, I really like this because it was first presented as a joke – quite skillfully, I might add. The opening sequence in which heroine Roxanne Ritchie is kidnapped and threatened to lure out Metro Man is very funny, due mainly to the implications from all three of them that this is sort of a regular thing that they do. Stuffed right in with the good vs. evil banter are lines such as “Can someone stamp my frequent kidnapping card?” and “Same time next Thursday?”. 

The bulk of the story is centered around the answer to the question, “What would happen if the bad guy won?” As it turns out, not much. We learn that Megamind never really expected to win and so never planned that far. This again leads to some very funny moments. And while he does enjoy his victory for a short time, he eventually grows bored and has something of an existential crisis. After all, he was never really in it for the evil, but rather for something to do that would validate his existence.

He creates a new hero to fight him – a plan that goes predictably wrong. The man he chooses is not exactly hero material. Again, something that was played for laughs early on comes back with a much more serious twist later on. Hal, or “Titan”, is a bona fide sociopath (a very realistic portrayal of one, I must say), but before he was given power he wasn’t really anything more than an awkward, kind of creepy guy. He seemed like a joke character so having him come back to play a legitimately dangerous villain was something of a surprise, and a welcome one. I love surprises that make sense. 

The climax is quite uplifting, since even when he came to save the city Megamind was so ingrained in the mindset that he was supposed to be the bad guy, he didn’t feel like he deserved the credit for doing it. In a move reminiscent of Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, it is Roxanne who convinces him he’s worth more than he thinks he is. 

There’s a really great soundtrack in this as well. Megamind is a big classic rock fan, so we get a lot of AC/DC and Guns n Roses and stuff. I approve. The true strength of this movie though is, like I said, their ability to make fun of so many comic book conventions so effectively and yet still manage to make a movie that’s more than just a big joke. Another win for SKG.

Dreamworks #20: Shrek Forever After

Shrek Forever After - 7.6/10

 

This works for me. I can watch this and have a satisfying conclusion to the Shrek franchise, and just pretend the third movie never happened. By the looks of things, the filmmakers had the same idea; one could go right from Shrek 2 to into this movie without missing a beat. In fact, a certain major character who was unique to the third film is conspicuous only by his absence from this one. Sadly this means we are bereft of Eric Idle’s Mr. Merlin as well, but you know what? It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

They did take a much heavier tone with this one, and a lot of the comedy was really dialed down. Strangely; it worked. This is the kind of movie they could only make with a world and characters that are already well established. If we weren’t already familiar with these characters and their histories and relationships, then this story wouldn’t make any sense, and we wouldn’t care much about what was going on. 

What story is that? Well, it’s pretty much It’s a Wonderful Life in the Shrek-verse. This is a story that’s been parodied and retold so many times it’s almost a requirement if your franchise lasts long enough. It also means we have to know the world and the characters well enough to realize what’s different about them when the central character’s influence is taken away. That is definitely something the Shrek franchise has going for it; these characters are nothing if not memorable, and the writers took every opportunity to show us just how different their lives would be without Shrek, but at the same time how they would still be fundamentally the same people underneath.

That’s what I like best about this, I think. Shrek is under a lot of stress and then has a really bad day, and when it all becomes too much he wishes things could go back to how they used to be. That did sort of bother me a little, if I’m being honest. I mean, didn’t he already wish that and learn his lesson in the earlier films? More than once? Okay, we’re pretending Shrek the Third didn’t happen, but I’m still pretty sure this was a theme in the second one too. And what’s with this yearning to be feared and reviled again? I get how he doesn’t like all the attention he gets now, but isn’t being hated and judged by his appearance what he was complaining about in the first movie? I don’t get it.

Okay, I realize I led that paragraph with “this is what I like best”, and then just complained for the rest of it. I’ll get to the point eventually, I swear. Anyway, Shrek makes an ill-advised deal that – long story short – puts him in a world where he never existed and Rumplestiltskin rules his in-laws’ kingdom. What’s worse, because the deal was to experience a day as an ogre the way he used to, he only has 24 hours to live in this new world before he fades completely. Here’s my favorite part: instead of focusing on how different the world is without Shrek in it (thought that is certainly touched upon), it instead focuses on the differences in the people he loves. They are, as I said, fundamentally the same people, but their lives are so different without him. 

They do, as usual, play with the fairy tale tropes. True love’s kiss can reverse everything, but when Shrek tracks down this world’s version of Fiona, she has no idea who he is and doesn’t love him, so it doesn’t work. By the end of the movie, Shrek learns what love really means, and to appreciate what he has (again, things I thought we’d already covered in the second movie), and we do get a nice ending. Not just to this movie, but to the series as a whole. I hope. Seriously. Dreamworks, please do not make any more Shrek movies. The horse is dead, I tell you.

Dreamworks #19: How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon - 9.4/10

Okay, full disclosure: this is one of my favorite animated films ever, so strap yourselves in; if you thought I gushed about Kung Fu Panda, you have seen nothing. This also means I have quite a bit to say about it, so I hope you brought a snack.

This was the last movie I saw in theaters before I left to go teach overseas. I distinctly remember being blown away by how amazing an experience it was. The use of 3D – particularly for the flight scenes – was exhilarating and this remains the only film I’ve seen (with the possible exception of Avatar) where I felt the extra three bucks was absolutely worth it. However, I want to make this absolutely clear: the 3D, while incredible, was not what made this movie great. Think of it this way: if you rode around on a giant, flying dinosaur that could breathe fire and shoot lasers out of its eyes, that’s freaking awesome. But even if it couldn’t shoot lasers out of its eyes, it’s still freaking awesome. The 3D is merely another layer of icing on the proverbial cake, as it were. A flying, fire-breathing, dinosaur-shaped cake.

I’ve rewatched this movie numerous times, and I just can’t seem to get tired of it. It differs from Dreamworks’s two other best works in one key area: where Shrek 2 was a great comedy with some serious moments, and Kung Fu Panda was a serious movie with great comedy, How to Train Your Dragon takes itself completely seriously. It is not a comedy, it doesn’t try or pretend to be a comedy, there is no pretense whatsoever that audiences need to be pandered to or fed jokes in order to be entertained. Outside of Pixar, that’s a rare thing in a Western animated film these days.

The main character, Hiccup, is incredibly likable. In a world of brawny Vikings, he is the scrawny, brainy screw-up. He has a very dry sense of humor, and is charmingly self-deprecating about not just himself, but his entire culture as he narrates both the opening and the ending of the film for us. Jay Baruchel’s higher pitched nasal voice fits the character very well, and his inflections really help to convey the character’s inner wit as well as his insecurities. I cannot imagine a better casting choice.

With Hiccup at its center, the film is built around three basic relationships, each with its own theme. They are, in descending order of importance: a boy and his dragon, a boy and his father, a boy and a girl. The last one, while it maintains some romantic undertones, once again does not focus on the romance, which is a strong move in terms of writing, in my opinion. 

The main relationship of the film, between Hiccup and his dragon Toothless, has the theme of mutual trust. The filmmakers absolutely did not rush in allowing this trust to build, and took their time showing us step-by-step how two creatures who at one time were mortal enemies grew to be not only best friends, but to rely on each other. The scene where Toothless first lets Hiccup lay a hand on him is particularly touching, and accompanied by some great music. In the beginning, the trust was simply that each one would not kill the other, but eventually they come to depend on one another. Toothless cannot fly without Hiccup, and for the boy himself, Toothless lends him the strength and freedom that he was always lacking on his own. If there were no other characters in the movie, just these two alone would be enough to carry it.

The second relationship is between Hiccup and his father Stoick the Vast, the village chief. The theme here is mutual respect, which at the beginning is mostly lacking. Hiccup’s respect for his father is limited to the respect due a father and chief, and Stoick doesn’t respect Hiccup at all. He loves him, in the awkward way that a single (Viking) father does, but does not accept Hiccup for who he is. Hiccup bemoans this several times, and even tries to go against his nature in attempts to earn his father’s respect. When he initially succeeds (Stoick thinks he has become a gifted dragon fighter), he feels empty because it’s not based on truth. When he finally asserts his true self he is disowned, but he comes back to save the day anyway, finally showing his father the value of a different way of thinking. His father is proud of the son he has, rather than the son he wanted.

The third relationship is with Astrid, another village teenager and the best fighter of her generation. Their theme is one of mutual admiration. Hiccup, for his part, cannot help but admire Astrid. More than just having a crush on her, she is everything he aspires to be: strong, brave, talented, and pretty much an all-around badass. For Astrid’s part, she dismisses Hiccup like most everyone else, and actually grows to dislike him when it appears he is just fooling around in dragon training, which is something she takes very seriously. When she learns about Toothless and is abducted before she can run and tell everyone, she learns not only what Hiccup now knows – that dragons are nothing like what everyone thinks – but also that Hiccup is nothing like what everyone thinks either. For someone whose entire worldview is flipped on its head in the span of an afternoon, she takes it very well, immediately agreeing help keep Toothless a secret at Hiccup’s request, even if it means keeping bigger secrets as well.

The thing I like best about Astrid though is that she is the first person – including the boy himself – to see Hiccup for who he truly is. She instantly realizes the courage and compassion it would require to befriend Toothless as he has, and when his father disowns him and he regrets all his choices, it is Astrid who shows him the strength even he seemed unaware of. She wants him to see himself as she does, and for everyone else to as well. In the end she admires Hiccup for all the same reasons he admired her, even when no one else does. 

Visually, the movie is very appealing. Not quite on the level of Kung Fu Panda, but where that film showed us the glorious colors and ordered ornamentation of a lush Chinese valley, this one possesses a more rustic kind of natural beauty, coupled with the quaint charm of a medieval Viking village. Chill pine forests, misty cliffs by the sea, sunsets and aurora borealis, all this is a treat for the eyes. And the flying scenes – even without 3D, they are just so wide open and free. Studio Ghibli couldn’t do it better.

The voice cast is surprising. Of course they were all celebrities, because it’s Dreamworks and that’s what they do, but rather than going out and snagging as many A-listers at they could as per the norm, they obviously took great care in matching each character to an actor that would suit them. I’ve already mentioned how much I liked Jay Baruchel’s Hiccup, and America Ferrara made a great Astrid as well. While people familiar with their respective bodies of work might recognize those names, they are certainly not in the same league as say, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, etc.. The benefit is that instead of celebrity voices, we get character voices. I don’t hear Jay Baruchel, even though it’s very clearly his voice; I hear Hiccup. The only thing I thought was weird was that all the adults had Scottish accents while the teenagers all sounded American. What the phở? Such a minor thing though; I really don’t worry about it too much. To be honest, I’m so used to it that it would probably seem weird not to have it that way now.

My absolute favorite part of this entire thing (yes, we haven’t even gotten to that yet) is the music. John Powell has created a full orchestral score (complete with warpipes!) that hits every scene and every emotion exactly right. It’s light and whimsical when it needs to be, powerful and emotional when it needs to be, fast and exciting when it needs to be, and destined to be as memorable and iconic as the scores of Harry Potter, Star Wars, or anything else John Williams has ever done. It is instantly recognizable as the music of How to Train Your Dragon, and frankly I was offended he was not given the Oscar for it.

So that’s it. This is the longest write-up I’ve ever done, and honestly I could probably go on for a couple more pages. If you enjoy animated films at all, then you are seriously missing out if you haven’t seen this one. Check it out.

Dreamworks #18: Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters vs. Aliens - 8.0/10

Much like Snakes on a Plane and The Expendables (both of which I enjoyed, by the way), I knew pretty much what to expect from this movie when I bought my ticket. However unlike those two, this movie did not just meet my expectations, but exceeded them in ways I would have never considered. This is my first time watching it since then, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

This movie makes clear what it’s going for before it even begins. As a send-up of the old style B-grade science fiction movies of the fifties and sixties, the Dreamworks logo is presented to us in shaky black and white as a UFO suspended on a visible wire wobbles by. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie, and I’m already totally on board.

The premise is simple and explained for you in the title: aliens are invading, and our only hope is to use monsters to fight them. There’s so much you can do with that, and they absolutely did. The various monster designs were clever while at the same time paying homage to the classics. And of course the protagonist, Susan, becomes the obligatory 50 foot woman. She is such an excellent character and I love what they did with her. She is as ordinary as a person can be until this crazy thing happens to her and she finds herself locked in a secret facility full of freaks of nature who act like she’s one of them. Her reaction is about what you’d expect: she freaks out, cries, and wants to go home. 

In a short time (a month or so, if I recall correctly), we see that she has adapted to her captivity (though she hasn’t given up on the dream of returning to normal), and has even made friends with her companions. This hints at a greater strength that is revealed later on, but let me focus on those other monsters for a moment. Their designs are funny, as far as that goes, but they’re just filling out roles: the tough guy, the smart guy, the big guy and the dumb but lovable guy. While all of them are likable enough, only the last (a blue gelatinous blob voiced by Seth Rogen) is particularly memorable. His quirk is that he literally has no brain (“Turns out, you don’t need one!”), and this is a constant source of actually pretty clever humor along the lines of what Pixar did with Dory in Finding Nemo. Rogen’s voice and particular style of delivery (not to mention his trademark laugh) fit the character very well, too boot.

The villain is amusing, but more in the sense that he does funny things than that the character himself is actually funny. It works well enough. And finally, the end of the opening credits was just as telling as the title: “and Stephen Colbert as The President”. That’s exactly what it sounds like, and it works brilliantly. Because they don’t really mean the actor Stephen Colbert is voicing the character of the president (though technically that is the case), they mean Stephen Colbert is playing The President. It’s awesome. 

There’s no romantic subplot, which I found refreshing since just about everything has one of those. The closest we come is Susan realizing her fiancé is a dick and that she’s happier as a monster. By the end of the film she proudly embraces who she has become (even the name she was given: “Ginormica”). For good reason, too. While at first she panicked and tried to run away, she was eventually forced into a situation where she had to fight a giant alien robot, and she realizes just how strong she is. And I don’t mean just because she’s huge; I mean because she’s totally badass. The high points of the filmall revolve around Susan shrugging off that ordinary, rather passive person she once was and kicking all sorts of alien ass. Unflinchingly. And not always giant and invincible while doing it.

Finally, as I mentioned before, this is a very affection parody of a very specific genre, and it’s done very well. In addition to all the obvious jokes, there are innumerable references to just about every science fiction film made in the last fifty or sixty years, from The Day the Earth Stood Still to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and from E.T. to The Matrix. When the staff at a SETI-like institute calls headquarters near the beginning of the film to report a real object, their call sign is “Red Dwarf” and the message is “We have a code Nimoy!” Love it.