15. Cars 2
Just a very tired, uninspired retread (no pun intended) of the original which I wasn't in love with anyway. There's a bit of fun to be had in the pseudo-spy car stuff with Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer's characters but mostly it's quite unmemorable, apart from realising the universal truth that making a funny side character like Mater the star a la Leslie Chow in The Hangover series is a recipe for disaster.
14. Cars
Not a great film either, but it has a few things going for it. It has a fairly interesting concept, some decent voice acting (particularly Paul Newman in his final *sniff* role), it looks good and actually isn't too bad a film overall, despite being decidedly uninspired in its plotting and character tropes.
13. Brave
This is one I need to re-watch as I feel like I may have gone in with unfair expectations that this was going to be like an animated blend of Braveheart and Winter's Bone. Well it's certainly not that, and I ended up thinking it was a well-done enough film about a defiant Scottish princess seeking to revert a spell cast upon her mother, with some lovely visuals and an engaging enough plot. It didn't reach the heights I expected but I enjoyed it well enough, and I feel like watching it again would help bump it up.
12. Monsters University
As far as Pixar sequels (in this case, prequel) go, much, much better than Cars 2. Technically speaking a bit of a strangely conceived film, as surely the way Monsters Inc. played to audience members we would've liked to see the continued transition of Sulley and Mike as characters, as opposed to the scaring shenanigans they got up to before the events of Monsters Inc.? I mean I'm no big fan of prequels in general but this one is cute and funny enough, with some lovable side characters, killer sight jokes, and if the third act does get a bit suddenly schmaltzy it's well done enough in that respect.
11. Ratatouille
A good Pixar film I watched back to back with The Simpsons Movie back in the day, and where my feelings have waned oh so much with regards to the latter, they've only strengthened with the former. First off the way the food is portrayed in the film is sumptuous, each frame is simply très délicieux. It's at its heart a very simple underdog--I mean, underrat--story of Remy the rat making his way in the world of cooking by proxy of a hapless young chef, it's well-made throughout, equal parts funny and moving, and has a great cameo by Peter O'Toole as the Louis Jauvet-lookalike food critic Anton Ego.
10. A Bug's Life
A terrific example of universe building, a bug's world is constructed down to such marvellous detail, I feel like its beauty is the sort of beauty Avatar was aiming for and failed miserably with its scenery. The protagonist Flik might be a bit of a bland slate but every other character is so colourful and endearing, from Kevin Spacey's devious villain Hopper to Joe Ranft's delightful German-accented caterpillar Heimlich. I thoroughly enjoy watching this film and would highly recommend it to anyone for family perusal.
9. Up
The opening few minutes are some of the finest ever in animated film. Past that though it never quite reaches the emotional punch of its opening, it's still a very rousing adventure of a curmudgeon old man who finds life once again in the most lovely of forms, an endearing duo of Scout kid and yapping dog. I need a re-watch for this too.
8. Finding Nemo
Australian seaturtles, Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks and WILLEM DAFOE and GEOFFREY RUSH doing voices, a wonderful under the sea universe that makes up for the atrocities the likes of Shark Tale were trying to commit, and a simple lovely father-son story at its core. What's not to like?
7. Inside Out
Pixar's most recent venture and already one of their best. Bing Bong might be one of my favourite ever Pixar characters ever, and past that it's actually quite hard-hitting a film in certain regards, with themes that can relate to pretty much anyone who's gone through the strains of moving to a new place, school etc. in childhood. It doesn't quite ever reach the heights of the 6 films above it, but that's not to fault it at all as it made a big impact for me in 2015, one of the best years for film ever in my opinion.
6. Toy Story
5. Toy Story 3
4. Toy Story 2
I might as well talk about all these three films together. Basically the trilogy as a whole I think is one of the few examples of its kind, that are essentially perfect together. Not that any of them are perfect films, the first one loses a bit of momentum in the midsection, the second one gets a bit too bogged down with the whole Zurg-Buzz Lightyear Double thing which I like but found a BIT grating after a while (though it does generate some absolutely hilarious moments), and the third might rely on the nostalgic sweet spot a bit too much a la The Force Awakens but I digress, I really have to nitpick to find these flaws, and I love all three films about equally for their excellent voice casting and vocal work, the action setpieces (seriously one of the best car chases ever in the first film) as well as never losing that emotional undercurrent to all the laughs ('When She Loved Me' in Toy Story 2). I will say that my favourite is probably, blasphemy, blasphemy, the third because of how much of an emotional wallop its conclusion packs for me as we see Woody, Buzz on their way. Hopefully they won't make another one because the way this trilogy ended was perfect.
3. Monster's Inc.
Sulley and Mike are probably one of my favourite animated duos of all-time. Just aesthetically, tonally, in terms of their odd-couple dynamic, the big hairy lovable beast and the nasally one-eyed green monster are just the perfect match. Watching them in anything is a joy, even in the sub-standard Monsters University and they make a potentially great film like Monster's Inc. great. Just the whole concept of monsters garnering energy through screams is ingenius, and the film milks it for all the laughs it's worth, and in the character of Boo makes it all very heartfelt to boot.
2. The Incredibles
Just a bloody clever and uproarious film. I love it for a great many reasons, among them being: an incredibly clever deconstruction of the superhero genre, ingenious voice casting (Jason Lee as a villain anyone?), brilliant action setpiece after setpiece all very much deliciously tongue-in-cheek, and one of the best comedy scripts in recent memory. It's an incredibly re-watchable film, probably my favourite superhero film of all-time besides The Dark Knight and the fact they haven't made a sequel yet is probably testament to the fact it won't be able to hold a candle to the brilliant original.
1. WALL - E
Though I love The Incredibles there was never any question of which film would come out on top here. Andrew Stanton's WALL-E is a masterpiece. The first half is the stuff of silent movie magic, Chaplin in animated incarnated form, and the second half is almost as good with its implantation of these very characters in a uniquely quirky sci-fi setting that's remarkably intelligent about it all. Essentially a love story merged with a fish-out-of-water story, it has several great rousing moments which I won't spoil for people who haven't seen it, clever sci-fi references, and big laughs and cute sidecharacters, but the best thing by far about it is the central romance between WALL-E and EVE. Nothing much is said, in fact barely anything is said, but the relationship between the two is so beautifully drawn out and consummated by the film's conclusion, making them one of the greatest onscreen couples of all-time.
No comments:
Post a Comment