Just a brief post today because I'm a little busy with these college assignments that are slowly making me lose the will to live. Anyone today's post is for anyone who likes a good old movie fan theory because the guy who produced the Pixar single universe theory has come up with another corker!
The sheer amount of effort and calculation to come up with such a theory is quite inspiring, and it's not hard to see why this internet phenomenon has even won awards over recent years. But author Jon Negroni wasn't done yet, oh no! Yes, he's come up with another belter, this time focussed solely on the Toy Story universe. He takes a character who we barely even see in the movie trilogy, Andy's mom, and transforms her into an integral piece of the story's puzzle. The idea that he comes up with his nothing short of mind-blowing, and may even cause you to shed a little tear or two!
Anyway to read Jon's theory please click here
I'm sure you'll agree it's quite amazing how he came up with it, picking up on tiny insignificant details first time around. Is it true who knows, but it's certainly a little food for though and seems a bit too coincidental for my liking! Personally I can't wait to see what Jon comes up with next.
Anyway, that's all from me today, hopefully I'll have time for a post later in the week!
Oh, by the way Dreamworks are apparently planning ANOTHER 'Shrek' movie. But if you're like me I lost all faith in the big green goofball after 'Shrek The Third', which was a disappointment in my book. I haven't even seen 'Shrek Forever After' but judging by word of mouth and a series low box-office gross of $239m, I don't get the sense I'm missing out on much.
The original was fantastic, a new post-modern humourous take on the fairy-tale genre that had both adults and children laughing in the aisles. It also had a stellar cast with Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy taking the movie to unparalleled heights, and proving to Pixar that there was new kid on the animation block and that it now had to glance over its shoulder at the competition. 'Shrek 2' was also brilliant moving the story's location, bringing in new characters, and doing the unthinkable by making Shrek human. It could have failed but as a sequel showed that the ogre was a force to be reckoned with on the big screen. Theme park rides, Christmas specials, a 'Puss in Boots' spin-off movie, and a musical quickly followed which were all welcomed with open arms.
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| 'Shrek' - The Musical |
So, maybe its just me but now I think the franchise has run its course. How Dreamworks intend on squeezing out a fifth movie I can't fathom. Dreamworks CEO of Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg has stated 'I think you can be confident that we'll have another chapter in the Shrek series. We're not finished, and more importantly, neither is he.' Perhaps I'm being cynical but I think it's just being viewed as another money-grabbing opportunity for the studio, given that the franchise's current haul is $2.9bn, that will probably only damage the still proud legacy of the first two movies.
Disagree with me, think there's plenty of fight left in the big ol' ogre? Please comment below, I'd love to hear what you think.
Today I got around to watching 'WALL-E', having missed all the box office and Oscar success the first time around in 2008. Although, perhaps controversially, I feel that the movie is slightly sub-par in terms of Pixar's incredibly high standards, despite being offered an incredible 8.5 rating on IMDb ('Toy Story' only has 8.3!). But, reviewing is not my main agenda for blogging today. So I'll wrap it up nice and neatly:
Verdict = 67%
Obviously Pixar are yet to make a bad movie, and that pattern shows no signs of changing here, but in terms of the Pixar canon ('Toy Story', 'Monsters Inc.', 'Finding Nemo') I felt the little robot with the big googly eyes wasn't quite up to standard. Yes I knew what I was letting myself in for, a robot left to clean up the planet whilst Earth's ancestors wallow away lazily in a space-station until the job's done, but I felt this story might have operated better as a Pixar short.
I've just read on IMDb that the first robot dialogue occurs on the 22 minute mark, with human dialogue not introduced until 39 minutes. The movie establishes itself, and does a decent job, as a visual comedy from the outset with our lovable hero putting bras on his head and playing with paddle toys. I read that director Andrew Stanton actually watched films of silent stars Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton every lunch time for a year and a half just getting ideas for direction. And yes the characters can be empathised with, despite their relative muteness; however I don't feel this is enough to carry the movie alone. After about the 45 minute mark as opposed to giggling I found myself being irritated by the persistent cries of "WALL-E" and "EVE" along with a gazillion other robot sounds.
Anyway that's about as neatly as I can put it: not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it has some good twists too, but for Pixar I feel their form has dropped just a little bit.
Now that's done I can get back to the main issue, and why this movie has made me that extra little bit petty. My frustration peaked when Jeff Garlin's animated 'Captain' appeared on the screen. Now I've nothing against Jeff Garlin (huge fan of 'Daddy Day Care'!), or space-station captains for that matter but this was after we had already seen Fred Willard's CEO 'Shelby Forthright' as a live-action character. I know the movie is set 700 years in the future and the story explains that humans have evolved and lost bone mass; however I found it too ridiculous to believe that ordinary humans could gradually change into gelatinous CGI blobs. Why was Fred Willard's character made an actual human? Why didn't Andrew Stanton just decide to animate a more traditional looking human? I know I sound petty but I found the whole thing a little distracting and couldn't get my head around why Pixar who are always so right on the money considered it a good idea. I hope they think twice in the future and don't insert footage from 'Jurassic Park' in their upcoming movie 'The Good Dinosaur'.
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| Why? Why? Why?! |
