Although this is a pretty obvious short on the evils of religion, the animation here is breathtaking, the visuals frightening, and the script, for the most part, is pretty damn good too.
The angel of death, 'the undertaker,' is picking off the frightened residents of a small town, while the town's evil priest leads them on a witch hunt, leading to one man- the faithless, guitar-plucking hobo, who refuses to comply with the priest's reign of terror.
The corpse-like characters are truly grotesque and frightening, scarier than anything Burton could come up with. The bloody conclusion isn't stylized or humorous either- it's unflinching brutality is unnerving. There's also some pitch-black humor concerning religious hypocrisy, but it does little to relieve the unrelenting tone.
Made in an era of animation before cartoons were watered down and robbed of their joy, emotion, and scariness (not including Pixar- we love you,) "The Fox and the Hound" is a great pick for the whole family. Set in a seemingly idyllic, 20th Century woodland environment, it chronicles, with love, tears, and laughter, the friendship between an orphaned fox and a adorable hound dog.
This forest home is not so idyllic if you're a fox like Tod (voiced by Kieth Coogan as a youngster and Mickey Rooney as a grown-up), who loses his mother to fanatical game hunter Amos Slade (voiced by Jack Albertson) and is adopted by the big-hearted Widow Tweed (Jeanette Nolan), who turns him into a docile house pet.
Ralph Bakshi's innovative post-apocalyptic vision of ruin and technological warfare is not for the kiddies, despite the PG rating. Instead, it offers creative hand drawn animation and food for thought for adults and teenagers who might find it's content a springboard for discussion.
Thousands of years after nuclear war, most of mankind has transformed into disgusting dribbling mutants. Meanwhile, the ancestors of the earth have come to stay- fairies, dwarves, elves, and the like. One night, a fairy woman gives birth to twins; one, Avatar standing for all that is gentle and good, the other, Blackwolf, representing evil and corruption.
After growing up and defeating Blackwolf (voiced by Steve Gravers) once in battle, Avatar (voiced by Bob Holt) retreats to live a life of access with his female companion Elinore (voiced by Jesse Welles.) Meanwhile, the evil Blackwolf lingers underground and plans his revenge, using Nazi Germany and Hitler as his inspiration for a reign of terror.
Up, which sports one of the simplest and uninformative titles, may well be the best movie of the year. It is cringeworthy to hear it unfairly dismissed as a "kids'" matinee. If you are twenty-five, childless, and planning to rent the latest emo-flavored slasher flick, please, do not deny yourself this film. The people who you sit with are likely to be too involved to judge you anyway. This transcends the family genre, period.
Many children's movies, even ludicrous ones, toy with relevant emotion, but none since Up have used it so beautifully. This is a film with talking dogs and giant rainbow birds, where the laws of gravity do not apply, and not a minute of it seems artificial. And it's funny, Abundant in visual humor (Kevin the bird's mannerisms are enough to inspire chuckles), it rises far beyond average "funny" films that spend one hour thirty minutes trying to find the right note.
Carl, one of Up's leads, isn't one of the typical animation characters. He is old, for one thing, albeit with a sequence as a younger person. He's cranky and not a fan of children. His dialogue contains little sarcasm, and he is behind the times -- sounds of computer ads on his television seem oddly out of sync with the quiet conventionality of his home.
Carl's life long love interest follows the Disney rule, where the spunky female friend becomes a romantic figure later in life. This is Ellie, who shares an interest in Charles Muntz, the explorer they follow at the theater. Carl and Ellie fancy themselves future explorers but are now stuck in the typical rounds of childhood, the only adventure coming from imaginary play.
Carl is silent, which suits Ellie fine, as it gives her the time to talk enough for the both of them. Charles Muntz, it seems, has been discredited for a bird skeleton he collected on an island. Denounced as a fake, he promises to bring the bird back. Ellie and Carl swear to go to Paradise Falls, where Muntz resides. They keep their dream, but after marriage, life gets in the way.
Ten minutes take the couple from early childhood to elderly life, where they live a pleasant but unremarkable existence. Though neither regrets their marriage, their dreams go away and neither feels completely fulfilled. When Ellie dies, in a quiet scene, which is sad but sparing, Carl seems about done with his life.
When he injures a overeager construction worker, he is forced into retirement. This is when the title comes into play. Being a former balloon salesman, he attaches hundreds of balloons to his and Ellie's house and sets out for nowhere in particular (hopefully Paradise Falls). Good movie luck sends him in the right direction, aided by an appliance he uses to steer. Bad movie luck brings Russell, a talkative boy scout who gets stuck on the porch.
The rest of the film take place almost entirely at Paradise Falls, a brightly colored, exotic island. There they meet Kevin, a gigantic bird who likes chocolate, and Dug, a dim-witted retriever who, despite a voice collar Charles Muntz has installed which gives him the voice of Bob Peterson, never loses his doggishness. Finally they meet Charles Muntz, who has not become nice in his old age, and hasn't taken his years-old rejection gladly.
In more than five instances of seeing this film, I never once sighed at the messages - objects do not replace people and friendship is meaningful. It didn't seem *Disney*. It seemed real. This is boosted by likable voice performances, especially especially Bob Peterson, who plays the dog, and Jordan Nagai, as Russell, who is an unknown young actor but still very good.
Some of Up's thematic material may be too much for sensitive children. However, I don't consider it to nearly qualify as a "dark" or "depressing" film. Though it has its moments, most of which will affect parents more than kids, it has been a long time since I saw a happy ending that felt so earned (Rated PG.)
Mary & Max, which, as you might have guessed from the trailer, is not for kids, is a grim, bleakly animated affair, and is allowed by the director the smallest rays of sunshine. It is the story of 352-pound Jewish New Yorker Max Jerry Horowitz and a lonely eight-year-old named Mary Daisy Dinkle, who lives with her alcoholic shoplifting mother and taxidermist father (whose middle name, "Norman," and hobby of stuffing birds may be an oblique reference to Psycho) in 1976 Australia.
A male chicken named Ethel is young Mary's only friend, while Max lives with his pets, including an ever-dying line of fish, in a cheap apartment. Max doesn't know it, but he has Asperger's, a neurological, autism-like condition which impairs social interaction. It is quite a coincidence that Max and Mary meet.
She picks his name from a phone book and decides to ask him where babies come from in America. She has been informed by her deceased granddad that Australians find them in beer glasses. Another name, and she could have picked a pedophile, who would have been very glad to hear from her, but for different reasons. (No, this is not a story about pedophilia.)
Max answers, in his own eccentric and slightly unrealistic way, and an unusual friendship begins, despite interference from Mary's mother, who, frankly, has a reasonable motive to be suspicious of her child's strange new pen pal. This all leads to a conclusion that made me shed a tear for the first time in an animated movie since some of Pixar's new releases.
Mary & Max's world is populated by strange claymation characters -- a Greek stutterer, an agoraphobic amputee, and a blind widow -- who are even stranger than they sound. The animation is detailed, gratuitously weird, and frankly, a little hard to take, but the story makes up for it.
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The bitter-sweetness of the film makes it hard not to cry a little, think a little, and lament for the loneliness that hounds some people throughout their lives. Philip Seymour Hoffman does not sound like Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max and Toni Collette is good as the adult Mary. Mary & Max is not without humor and definitely worth a watch.
