pardogato

Emotional blackmail to make you feel bad if you happen to say you didn’t liked it. Seen in Korean Soap Operas and in Bollywood classics, now Pixar relies on this “ye olde” formula to explicitly state a positive feel-good “message” to guard itself from its cinematic faults.

Unfortunately, the overly predictable story and the CGI misuse made me feel this film more like if Christopher Robin was suffering some schizophrenic collapse (and I worked at a psychiatric hospital, I know what I’m talking about). Trying hardly to be some kind of metaphor of the transitioning to adulthood though rereading our childhood memories, it fails completely.

The most incredible aspect of this film is the praise it received from critics, incredibly biased towards the nostalgia effect more than the merits a film should have to stand by itself. In essence, Incredibles 2 is an enjoyable Disney Channel Movie, with a premise not worth the length of a feature big screen film. The story is clearly a 90 minutes original stretched in production as far as possible to place all kind of viable items-to-become-toys surplus to the story. Disney is becoming too cynical about their interest on making money over all possible instances (ahem, Finding Dory?) instead of being respectful with the public. It is not a bad film, but a dishonest product just like those x-ray glasses sold in old Marvel Comics: bad for you if you expected the real thing, we got your money anyway.

The Red Turtle is a refreshing rereading of your usual castaway story with an unexpected jump into a second half where the viewer can’t decide if everything is a dream, an afterlife metaphor or an actual miracle of life. With a superb traditional animation enhanced with subtle digital filters, this unpretentious tale dives deep into a generation that can identify with the feeling on being alone in the middle of nowhere, an suddenly only carrying for someone else matters.

Be respectful with your kids and pass this one. They will be thankful now and the years to come.

The appeal of this movie is 50% Emma Watson's charm and 50% nostalgia, which sums a total of 0% value attributable to the film itself. Will be forgotten in the shelf of Meh in less than a year.

Even if we wipe out the original version from our minds, and review the film from its very own, it never feels like a film and more like an extended SNL sketch with paranormal themes. The meta-references within the film and the cameos of the original cast give the sensation that the director is parodying its own intent of making this film.

A nice intent of emulating the 1800’s narrative in today cinematic forms, but stays as a try. Never completes the circle to take us back to the past even it excels the trills and risks of the nineteenth century navigation beyond the clichéd pirate themes. Quite enjoyable only for those who love already the sea adventure genre or Moby ****.

Very few actors can succeed on carrying a whole move over their shoulders for almost two hours. Robert Redford not only delivers a superb character performance, but also involves us in the whole premise of the movie: the indifference nature has towards human life; and how it takes only one man to make us aware of what really makes our life worth about.

An unfinished mashup of Cinema Paradiso with the (already overseen) formula of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Sing feels uncomplete as a musical fable, to become just a showcase of music samples and good jokes. On the bright side, the music is enjoyable and the film does not even try to address social or political themes, which is absolutely not necessary.

Rogue One is what you get when you get a good script for one 5-minutes special DVD additional backstory special, and producers stretch it just enough to fit a full length film. The fact that the whole plot can be described (with details!) in a single sentence is enough proof of its lack of substance. Fans will not care and cinemas will love it.

Despite its strange homage to Mad Max Fury Road placed to set up clearly the role and band of the co-protagonist, Moana is a surprisingly sound tale build from fragments of several tales common to the Pacific cultures. A strong similarity with the Deer God duality from Miyazaki's Mononoke Hime at the end of the film is unsurprising because of the shared folk tales used as source. With two skippable musical scenes, this is the very best animated film from Disney since Up.

There is this poem from León Felipe (circa 1930) that says: “Take out the rhyme and take out the verse. Forget the sentence and erase the sign. But what is left, that, it’s the poem itself." (My translation, sorry) If for this Jungle Book version we do the same, and forget the nostalgic effect and the CGI awe effect, what is left?, nothing, indeed. Sorry, but this film is nothing without those two elements. Child bait material for nostalgic parents.

The only merit this film has is not being either a reboot or a sequel. Besides it, it relies so heavily on secondary characters that it becomes a collection of isolated jokes in a sequence where the main plot dilutes as the film advances, making the whole story pointless.

Zootopia is the Seinfield of Pixair, a "Film about nothing" and despite it, loved by everyone just because makes reference to everyday lives of the viewers. Filled with eye-candy for the children, this film is symptomatic, more than an actual cinematographic piece that will surely be forgotten as the references it relies, gel blurred through generations.

The greatest achievement of this film is its honest premise in favor of tolerance, which unsurprisingly includes an openly gay supporting character. Fun when should be fun, scary whet it want to scare and deep and reflexive without treating the audience as a fifth-grader.

Not a straight rip-off of "Herman's Head", a 90's Fox sitcom, but with a “Fear” character disturbingly similar to said TV show, it make us wonder if Inside Out isn’t just an indulgent fantasy of our love to simplify reality into stereotypes. Funny? Yes! Charming, oh yes! Too long? Indeed! Despite mixing an outdated psychology of emotions with contemporary concepts of mind, the biggest fault of Inside Out is overestimating its story as worth a full-length feature film. Half of the film is a round-around journey of the two main characters trying to return (without success) to their headquarters. After the fourth attempt, my daughter was like, “will the rest of the movie be like this?” When the plot solves, you feel relief it just ended, but don’t care anymore.