Bolt

First Hit: This was an out loud funny film that hit its marks all the way through.

Scary to me when animation films, of which I’ve seen two in two weeks, are consistently and overall better than many of the non-animation dramas I’ve seen.

The story is about a dog which has lived his whole life on a television set and therefore when his human companion, a young girl named Penny, goes home he still exists on the set. On their TV show, called Bolt, he and Penny fight crime and he has superpowers which include a stare that melts steel and a bark that has earthquake type repercussions.

Because of the set up, all he knows is the TV world and therefore he believes that everything which takes place on the set is reality. One day he believes that Penny gets kidnapped and gets out of his closed trailer to go find her. He ends up in the real world and slowly discovers his super powers do not exist.

At first Bolt blames his diminished capacity on Styrofoam packing peanuts which get stuck to his dog fur. He meets up with a cat and a hamster and together they are off to find Penny.

There are many funny bits in the film like when another dog comes up to him and starts to sniff his butt. This has never happened before and Bolt is quite taken aback.

To me the funniest scene is when the cat is sitting in a tree and egging Bolt on to use his super bark to make him come out of the tree.

Disney produced this film and it has the Disney animation quality. Everything flows well. Bolt’s voice is provided ably by John Travolta and Miley Cyrus is the voice of Penny. Their adaptations are excellent and carry the tenor.

Overall: This was a really good film and it was easy to just sit back and relax while it takes you on its journey.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

First Hit: The crisp preciseness and fine tuning of the animation is fabulous and the film held my and a theater full of kids’ interest.

Watching animation today is not like watching animation of the past. Early animation, like the original Popeye, Steamboat Willie, and Mighty Mouse cartoon animation, used thousands and thousands of still pictures moved in rapid fashion to create wonder fluid character movements.

As the 1970s and 1980s rolled in the cost of doing animation like this fell by the wayside and fluid movements by animated characters became a thing of the past. The producers left our minds to fill in the movements for us by reducing the number of still pictures used for movement.

Although, this was cost effective, anyone who really liked animation disliked the loss of beautiful clear movement. So in the 70s – 90s we were generally shown lousy animation except for Disney films which still used the old school process.

Then came the age of computer animation and the pinnacle effort of the animated film “Toy Story” which raised the bar to a level by which other computer animated films are measured. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa continues in this tradition in that the crisp clarity and realism, in an animated way, of the film is wonderful.

Movements of the animals take on both animal like characterizations but also a humanness that engages the audience. Although with this film the story line is rather convoluted, it works and the characters are lively and fun to watch.

The voiceovers by the actors involved are wonderful and border on being too adult at times, but then again it’s been a long time since I’ve been on a playground.

The animation is crisp and precise; just watch the fine hair on the characters and the water effects. I’m not sure why they picked a tough old lady from New York is one of the main antagonists but, in the end, it works.

Overall: The quality of the pictures is stronger than the story line, but in the end it was very satisfying and the kids in the theater loved it.

Choke

First Hit: This is a very uneven film, and didn’t seem to know if it was a comedy or a drama.

One of the impressions this films left me with is: If during an airplane ride I go to the restroom, leave the door unlocked, get naked and sit there, the next person who enters will have sex with me.

Just don’t think this is true. Victor (played by Sam Rockwell) works at a historical theme park and has a sex addiction. He goes to his SA meetings and bangs the woman he is sponsoring during the meeting. His best friend is also a sexual addict but really wants to work the program and eventually succeeds in creating a relationship.

Sam goes to a nursing home to visit his mother Ida (played by Angelica Huston). Ida suffers from dementia and rarely recognizes her son. Victor meets her new doctor Paige (played by Kelly Macdonald) and wants to have sex with her.

However, as he spends time with her he thinks he likes her and when she proposes sex in the nursing home chapel, he can’t perform. Victor pays for the expensive treatment at the nursing home by choking himself in restaurants and finding the right person who will perform the Heimlich maneuver, feel sorry for him, and give him some money.

The director Clark Gregg never clearly decided what kind of film he wanted to make. There were some wonderful touching and insightful spots in this film that were wiped out by too many scenes that were way too long, didn’t add to the story, and were poorly executed. And it just wasn't that funny.

Overall: There was a smattering of a good and quirky film lying inside this story, but overall it played out very poorly.

Wall-e

First Hit: The first part of the film is phenomenal and the last part doesn’t stand up as well.

The earth is without people because we polluted it to a point where we had to leave it. All the people were loaded onto a spaceship and now travel the galaxy doing nothing but eating, watching a video screen and expressing our laziness in obvious and recognizable ways. But I get ahead of myself here.

When we left earth we left behind robots to clean up our mess. Wall-e is the only active robot left on earth along with a cockroach. Wall-e’s job is to compact our waste into little cubes and stack the cubes. He works diligently, but stops every once in a while to select something of interest which he saves in a cooler until he gets back home.

You see his sensibilities when he finds a diamond in a ring box, throws out the diamond, and keeps the box. When he and the cockroach return home each night he stores what he has saved, feeds the cockroach, and watches an old video of “Hello Dolly”. He is fascinated with this video and pines for a like feeling when the stars in the video hold hands.

One day a large ship lands and leaves a high-tech white robot, named Eve, which flutters about and examines objects until it feels threatened, and then it blasts a shot from its wing/arm.

The interplay between Wall-e, an industrial robot, and this high tech beauty is absolutely amazing, deep and fulfilling. And for this first 40 – 50 minutes there are only two words spoken. When Eve is given a plant Wall-e finds in a refrigerator she stores the plant inside her, and shuts down until the explorer ship returns.

This ship picks up Eve and as it starts to leave Wall-e jumps on its back and off they go. The explorer ship heads back to the mother ship where the human race is living and it is at this point film becomes more standard fare and loses some of its magic.

The visuals are outstanding, the characterizations of the robots is amazing (especially in the first section) while the overall storyline is a bit dark because it says we don’t stand a chance at saving our planet as we know it today. In some ways I felt it might be beyond a child’s ability to understand this grown up point of view, but that might be short selling our youngest generation. I hope they get it, we need their help.

Overall: I loved this film and, for me, the first 40 – 50 minutes were the most powerfully expressed pure animation minutes ever produced and my congratulations and kudos to Pixar for making this film work so well.

Beowulf (3D)

First Hit: This is a made for 3D film with some interesting visuals but generally the film seemed long in the tooth.

If you see this film in 3D IMAX you are in for a visual treat.

The film is shot with numerous scenes headed straight for the audience. You will jump and move at some of these effects.

The story, however, is less interesting. I am surprised that Anthony Hopkins and some of the other actors did this film. The story is rather weak but the animation is very well done.

The story is about seduction, vengeance and repeating cycles. Beowulf comes to a kingdom being attacked by the son of a beast.

The son, Grendel, attacks the King’s celebrations. Beowulf, kills the son of the beast. The beast takes vengeance against them all by creating, through seduction, the same cycle over and over again.

Overall: See it for the 3-D effects not for the story and you won’t be disappointed.