by Logan Butts | Jun 20, 2013 | Opinion
Hello, readers! Welcome back to another week of Logan’s Home Video Update! This week’s edition will be featuring animated movies. Two of the films have new installments this summer, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to review them. The other was my favorite animated film from last year. Despicable Me (PG, 95 minutes- starring the voice of Steve Carell) A surprisingly huge box office and critical success in the summer of 2010, Despicable Me surprised everyone with its charm and wit. What a few detractors called Pixar-lite, I called a heart-warming film with an awesome soundtrack and some memorable characters (mainly Agnes and the Minions). I will use a slightly paraphrased version of Agnes’ now famous quote to sum up the movie. “It’s so good, I’m gonna die!” Monsters, Inc. (G, 92 minutes- starring the voices of John Goodman and Billy Crystal) Speaking of Pixar, Monsters Inc. was another overwhelming success from the Pixar assembly line. It was the first original Pixar movie to come out in three years after the underrated A Bug’s Life, and it was definitely worth the wait. It has become beloved enough over the years to garner a prequel 12 years later. Wreck-It Ralph (PG, 101 minutes- starring the voice of John C. Reilly) In my opinion, this was the best animated film of last year and one of the best non-Pixar animated films in a long time. The universe in the film was filled to the brim with eye-popping visuals and familiar characters from both past and present video games. The movie brings out all sorts of emotions in the...
by Cory Woodroof | Nov 11, 2012 | Opinion
Hats off, Disney, hats off. The mouse house can’t call 2012 an off year simply because of their job in producing this summer’s mega-hit The Avengers. One of their two animation companies, perennial powerhouse Pixar, also scored big with Brave, even though the Scottish fairy tale can’t necessarily be called an instant classic. Even though two of the studio’s less audience-friendly offerings, March’s John Carter and last month’s Frankenweenie, failed to ignite the box office, the craft and imagination put into both well made up for poor returns (in the creative sense). Those two films showed Disney taking risks. The studio has always been able to get by with Pirates and talking cars, but films like John Carter and Frankenweenie show a side of Disney that is still willing to occasionally surprise. The praise for Carter‘s pulp and Frankenweenie‘s charm might not leave the circle of critics, but it shows the studio still has a few surprises up its sleeve. For years now, Walt Disney Animation Studios has served as Buena Vista’s animation B-team. Much like a decent-enough backup quarterback, the former pioneer of animated films has been relegated to bench-warming for the superstar studio Pixar. Disney’s in-house animation department hasn’t exactly been putting out garbage (recent efforts Bolt, The Princess and The Frog and Tangled are strong cases for the studio’s growth, with the animation division now being stewarded by Pixar vet John Lasseter), but in comparison to the folks at Pixar, their films lack the heft and public recognition (and Oscars). In 2011, Pixar finally produced a goose egg with the disappointing Cars 2. A month later, Disney Animation released the pleasant-enough Winnie the Pooh...
by Cory Woodroof | Jun 22, 2012 | Uncategorized
After Cars 2, I began to wonder if Pixar’s magic was on a brief hiatus. Sure, Cars 2 isn’t a horrible film. It has some decent qualities, but the entire film just lacks the usual Pixar flair. As a frequent movie-goer, I have to admit that missing that yearly feeling of Pixar awe and wonder really left a hole in my cinematic heart. There’s just something about Pixar films that give viewers a special feeling. Thinking back on Ratatouille, I remember the flashback sequence to food critic Anton Ego’s childhood – that moment of serene bliss when old Ego remembers the feeling of a home-cooked meal. It’s one of my favorite moments in any movie ever. It’s what I feel when I watch movies that I love – many of them opening with the Pixar logo. So after Cars 2 disappointed, I began to wonder if that feeling would ever come back. Brave, the 13th Pixar film, brought back a few shreds of Pixar’s warmth, but not the entire feeling. The original fairy tale helped me remember some of the magic from Pixar’s past, but at the end, I just didn’t get full closure. Brave is a very well done Disney movie, but is it a great Pixar movie? That’s the question at hand. Brave is both an experiment and a dance in the comfort zone for Pixar. While this is the studio’s first fairy tale, Brave features so many staple features of the studio’s lineage of hits that it almost feels as if Pixar is treading light water. While Brave could have used the fierce stamp of originality...
by Cory Woodroof | Oct 7, 2011 | News Slider, Opinion
If you’ve ever met me, you are likely to pick up within the first fifteen minutes that I kind of like movies. Movies have been an integral part of my life ever since my childhood. I distinctly remember my first movie experience- seeing The Lion King during its initial release in the summer 1994. I would have been around 2 years old. Over the past nineteen plus years of my life, I have seen countless films, written countless reviews, and have spent countless hours increasing my knowledge on the subject I love. Everyone has to have a point where they form their passion- a sort of love at first sight. I remember when I first truly fell in love with film. I was 3, the time was around Thanksgiving 1995, and Toy Story had just been released. I remember seeing Toy Story. It was the first time I really loved a film. For about a year or so, I was obsessed with everything Toy Story. I had a cowboy poster print around my walls. I had Toy Story bed sheets (with matching comforter and pillow covers), countless Toy Story toys and memorabilia (including the lunch box with thermos included), a Woody outfit for Halloween the following yea, and my own Woody doll with my name written on the bottom of Woody’s boot. After seeing Toy Story, I decided that movies were really my “thing.” I started to see everything I could under the sun. That personality trait has helped develop me as a writer and as a person. I always look back to Toy Story as the match that...
