Movie Review: Cars 3

Movie Review: Cars 3                                                                                                               6-18-17

 

In the third installment of the Cars franchise, Lightning McQueen faces competition with a newer high-tech race car named Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), who puts McQueen's title as champ in jeopardy. Now McQueen has to be trained by a new character named Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) so he can be trained to beat Jackson Storm.

Congratulations, Pixar. You have officially redeemed the Cars franchise. Along with gorgeous animation, Cars 3 has kept the original characters in tact with a compelling story, as well as an interesting new character named Cruz Ramirez. She may not be much, but Cruz ranks among Merida from Brave and Joy from Inside Out as one of the best female leads in a recent Pixar film.

Another thing to appreciate about Cars 3 is that Mater isn't in the movie that much as opposed to previous films. However, when he is in the film, Mater provides some good jokes.

There are also scenes that poke fun at Cars merchandise, as Cars merchandise makes tons of money in real life.

The McQueen merchandise is in the background.

In conclusion, Cars 3 is a movie fans of the Cars franchise can enjoy with their parents from beginning to end.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5

In unrelated news, I have another project in the works! Starting August 9th, for the next several weeks, I will list where each Pokemon would live if they existed in our world. I loosely based it off of Pokemon In Our Biomes on Tumblr.

http://mewistheancestor.tumblr.com/post/113851261886/all-pok%C3%A9mon-in-our-biomes-posts

This project will be split into these eleven sections. 

North American Pokemon

South American Pokemon

African Pokemon

European Pokemon

Asian Pokemon

Australian Pokemon

Antarctic Pokemon

Worldwide Pokemon

Domestic Pokemon

Extinct Pokemon

Banned Pokemon

Because there are so many different species of Pokemon, I split Worldwide, Domestic, Extinct, and Banned Pokemon all into two parts. That makes a grand total of 15 Pokemon lists.

I'll start off with the most difficult that I had to write, Banned Pokémon, on August 9th.

Movie Review: Field of Dreams

Movie Review: Field of Dreams                                                                                              6-17-17

 

Fields of Dreams is about a middle-aged Iowa-based father named Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner). Every evening in his family's corn field, he keeps hearing a voice that says "If you build it, he will come". Ray, who had a passion for baseball growing up, discovers that he must build a baseball field to reunite with his deceased father. However, that means he has to destroy his corn field, which is how his family makes money. Ray's wife Annie (Amy Madigon) thinks he's cracked, but one night, a stranger in a baseball uniform comes over, and he happens to be famous baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson. Soon, more baseball players from the past pop up. However, there's a catch: Only Ray, Annie, and their daughter Karen can see them, but others cannot. Facing financial troubles, Ray has to seek a retired book author to help keep his home.

No what do I think of this movie? Well, the cinematography is decent, the sets feel life-like and American, the story stays true to the book it's based on, 'Shoeless Joe', James Horner's score is emotional and engaging, and the characters are all likable and unique. Karen (played by Gaby Hoffman), Ray's daughter in the film, is adorable, and James Earl Jones's character is hilarious as Terrence Mann, a retired radical author.

With all this said, Field of Dreams is a perfect movie to watch on Father's Day.

Rating: The perfect rating of 5 stars

PLUS 5 baseballs ️️️️️

Oscarless Animated Films Part 10

Oscarless Animated Films Part 10: Arthur Christmas (2011)

Aardman's first movie since Flushed Away, and their second CGI movie after Flushed Away, tells the story of Santa's youngest son, Arthur, who noticed that Santa forgot to deliver one present: a bicycle for a young girl in England! Now it's up to Arthur, Grandsanta, and a stowaway elf, to deliver the present to her by Christmas morning.

After disbanding from DreamWorks in 2007, Aardman hired Sarah Smith, who worked on the TV series I Am Not An Animal, to help reinvent what Aardman already knew. Her goal was to help make a film that would keep up with the times.

The idea for the film came from Smith's friend Peter Baynham. He asked himself 'How exactly does Santa pull off the delivery of nearly 2 billion presents around the world in just twelve hours?' That's where the inspiration for the film's story came from.

During production of Arthur Christmas, Sarah Smith was pregnant with her first daughter. This caused Smith to be bedridden for two months, but that didn't slow down production. The Aardman crew brought Sarah Smith in on an Ikea bed into the editing room where Smith would point to storyboards and continue directing.

When Smith gave birth, a healthy baby girl was born; Her name was Grace, and she was two when Arthur Christmas premiered. Grace's first word was affectionately 'Arthur'.

While Arthur Christmas may not look like an Aardman film, it still has the heart, wit, humor, and storytelling we have been grown attached to from the studio that gave us Chicken Run.

Also like previous Aardman films, there's a slew of likable characters. My favorite is Grandsanta because both of us (me and Grandsanta) prefer old-school techniques over modern technology.

That's Grandsanta on the left.

Also, like previous Aardman films, Arthur Christmas has quite a few good jokes. My personal favorite is this scene.

I honestly think it's unfair that Arthur Christmas got snubbed for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. I would choose this movie over the rather sub-par and confusing Rango. Instead, Arthur Christmas won the Annie Award for Best Voice Acting, the Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film, and the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film.
Well, I guess that covers Oscarless Animated Features. However, I'm not done yet! On July 7th, I will start a new series talking about ten animated short films that did not get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Subject! Instead of being in random order, however, these cartoons will be talked about in chronological order.

Oscarless Animated Films Part 9

Oscarless Animated Films Part 9: Ponyo (2008)

Loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, Ponyo tells the story of a young goldfish and her quest to become a human. The fish is rescued from a glass jar by a boy named Sosuke. Sosuke and the fish, who he names Ponyo, fall in love. Ponyo's father is a wizard and, against his orders, Ponyo uses her father's magic to become human. This disrupts the natural harmony of the world, and to restore order, Sosuke must pass a test to prove his love for Ponyo.

Although this movie is aimed at younger children, there is plenty for older viewers to appreciate, such as beautiful 2D sequences of the magical undersea world. It almost looks like what would happen if My Neighbor Totoro and Finding Nemo had a baby!

There are also lots of aquatic creatures that will amuse ichthyologists, including moon jellies, an octopus, a spider crab, and even some extinct fish!

There's also a sense of pollution awareness that kids will understand, much like other Ghibli films.

That's Ponyo's father, Fujimoto, on the bottom.

It should also be noted that this movie used over 170,000 drawings!

It's also been reported that director Hayao Miyazaki wanted to make a Ponyo 2, but producer Toshio Suzuki convinced him to do The Wind Rises instead. Little did they know that it would be the final film Miyazaki would direct.

As much as I respect The Secret of Kells, I honestly liked Ponyo a little better because I felt 'Kells' wasn't too family friendly. I also think Ponyo should've been nominated instead of 'Kells'. But now that makes me wonder: If The Secret of Kells would not get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, would Song of the Sea be snubbed, too?
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Feature. Tune in next week when we celebrate Christmas a bit early with Aardman's greatly underrated Arthur Christmas!