How to Train Your Dragon (2010) I Want A Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon (2010) Dreamworks

As soon as this movie became a box office hit, they green-lighted two other sequels practically the same day. I can’t say I blame them because the main character was basically an animal we can all appreciate, a half dog, part cat with the demeanor of a friendly beast for being a dragon. They actually used all sorts of animal noises like elephants, elephant seals, tigers, horses, and domesticated cats to create the sounds Toothless made. The side character was a small kid with the annoying voice of Jay Baruchel who is famous for being a loser in film, but it was fitting nonetheless.

Hiccup was the modern day tale of a kid with daddy issues. He wanted to live up to his father’s expectations and continually fell flat on his face. His dad was relatable because he seems like the everyman who has trouble expressing his feelings to his son. He was a big strong Viking and it was just not in his nature to be emotional or understand the reasoning behind why Hiccup did what he did. He had other stuff to worry about, like feeding the village.

Whenever they talked about Hiccup they told him that he should stop being himself because it wasn’t helping him become a productive member of society. Whenever he was around disaster happened and it was difficult for his father to lead the people with such a misfit son.

When Hiccup meets the dragon, he is put in an interesting conundrum. Slay the dragon and become famous? Or not kill the dragon and eventually find out more about them? If I were Hiccup I probably would’ve killed the dragon and the plot would have ended similarly. Since no one had ever caught a nightfury, it’s safe to assume he would be a big celebrity and that his invention would be used to fend off more dragon attacks. They would eventually force more and more of the dragons away and their village would be safe.

Instead he doesn’t kill the spotted catdog dragon because he sees that it is just another animal and that he was scared of people. Hiccup was being himself and it leads to him finding out all sorts of secrets about dragons. In reality Hiccup just needed to be more of himself and he was going to change everything.

I don’t have a problem with non-conformity to societal and social norms, but I can’t help but feel like Hiccup would’ve had a great run as an inventor. All he really needed was for people to believe in his inventions to prove that they worked and they did work.

The sad part of the movie was the ending when Hiccup loses his left leg, which is a parallel to Toothless losing his left tail fin. It was actually emotional to see Hiccup have to come to grips with losing a limb, which can be a difficult for anyone in the same situation. It was nice to see that Toothless was there to support him the whole time and it reminded me of my awesome dog that would probably do the same. I enjoyed the film and am ready for the other two sequels. A trailer just came out for the second film and it looks good. 

Kung Fu Panda (2008) There Is No Such Thing As An Accident

Kung Fu Panda (2008) Dreamworks 

There is usually a lot to catch up on when reviewing a movie that has now turned into a franchise. Dreamworks can be proud of this film because it is different than its predecessors in that the characters are relatable and not that childish. Usually these movies are a little too kid-friendly in that they lose a majority of their audience because the themes are too boring and the humor is dumb. There are very few cartoons that really are able to relate with a wider audience like Kung Fu Panda does. An example of this would be the Avatar the Last Airbender series.

Po is a relatable character in that he is not well liked and he has problems fitting into an elite crowd. No one is really happy about him becoming the Dragon warrior and the furious 5 are disappointed that the chosen fighter was not one of them. They mask their disappointment in making jokes about how Po is overweight and never going to accomplish anything. As a person it is easy to relate to feeling like Po because many times you feel like others may be saying the same things. Po teaches us the valuable lesson of never giving up and being resolute about trying your best. He was hungry to learn and just plain hungry most of the film. It is inspiring for most of us to see a character like Po especially in a kid’s movie because usually the characters are likable but only due to their ignorance. Most characters spend the entire film realizing who they are while Po is widely aware that he is fat and disliked which drives him to become even better.

What a great message for kids. Even if they don’t fit in, they can be self-aware of themselves to the point that they can overcome their problems or make their problem apart of the solution. Po chooses the latter and finds out that his ‘fatness’ can be used to his advantage and that it is the one thing that combats strength. He has no chi points that can block his nervous system because of the fat he has and it tires his opponents because he can take a lot of hits where most fighters cant.

Kung Fu Panda was a great way to show companies that they can make a solid film that isn’t just for kids. The kids like the movie and can understand much of the story and the adults can actually enjoy the themes of the film. I think it provided a great balance in-between the two and it was a lot of fun to watch. I will most likely watch the second one at some point in the near future too.

Brave (2012) Merida is the Best “Disney” Princess

Brave (2012) Pixar

It’s not often you get to see a real mother daughter relationship on film. In fact, even in television shows the parents resolve most of their issues with their children in less than 22 minutes and always have some special way of connecting with them so that they understand why. Real life is not like that. Most parents fight with their children about the same issues over long periods of time. Both sides hardly ever come to a conclusion without some shouting match or concessions given by both sides.

I felt like Brave was able to display these relationships accurately and asks children a very difficult question for a younger age group. Is what you want for yourself to become someone very different than your mother?

If you have a mother than you know that this is a difficult question to answer. The two of them do not understand the opinions of the other and do not come to an understanding until they are put in a situation where they need to survive. They are both stubborn and if you come from a Scottish family like me than this is no real surprise.

One of my favorite things about Merida is that she is not your typical princess. Not only is she uninterested in a prince to come save her, but it adamantly opposed to the idea of a man she doesn’t love. It’s like a Bollywood film gone Pixar in Scotland.  I don’t mind that she resembles her father both in attitude and looks because I have met a lot of girls that are like their fathers and they are easily relatable. How can you disagree with a girl that wants to change one of her family members? I think we have all wanted to do that on several occasions. My father always tells me that I need to have good relationships with my family because they are the only people in your life that you can’t get rid of haha.

Merida really is the best “Disney” princess. She’s down to earth, free spirited, independent, rebellious, intelligent, soft of heart, and she flaunts no particular features to make women self-conscious about their looks (as animation is so good at doing for both women and men). She is highly gifted for horse riding, sword fighting, and most of all bow shooting. These are important skills to have because there are always dangers in the land and even those who can’t protect themselves can still fall to the sword.

I am excited for the next Brave movie and hope that Pixar eventually explains “The Pixar Theory” which has grown to be an internet phenomenon. Every Pixar film is practically film gold because they are able to adapt stories that resonate with all age groups. They have a lot more to accomplish in the years to come and it’s worth the wait. 

Wreck-It Ralph (2012) How Soon They Forget

Wreck-It Ralph (2012) Disney

Every time I hear about Frozen (2013) being the best movie that Disney’s made since The Lion King (1994), I can’t help but remembering a certain film they made last year. Wreck-It Ralph has been somewhat forgotten. Sure it isn’t the kid’s movies that Disney is famous for, but for the first time in years I have been interested in an animated film that didn’t say Pixar or Madagascar on it. Many of these animated creations can be forgotten (like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) and to be fair most of them fall short of a complete film.

For me it can be very difficult to hear opinions on films I haven’t seen yet because I always feel like they are overhyped. To be honest, I didn’t want to see Wreck-It Ralph in theatres. Everyone told me it was good and I was sure that it wasn’t. I was delightfully surprised to witness such a fun film. Even a year later I still think it’s hilarious. Wreck-It Ralph is the first Disney story I could relate to in years and that is saying something. Many people also forget how often Disney actually makes films. To be precise Disney made 13 movies in 2013 alone and 14 in 2012. It is astonishing how many films one company can make that suck. In recent times they basically average that amount of films and practically the majorities that don’t say Pixar on them are forgettable. In fact, I checked and there are 12 Air Bud movies. Is anyone tired of seeing this dog play sports and flying through space?

After all that ranting I guess I didn’t expect Disney to make a movie for my demographic. This arcade based tribute far outdates the majority of the Disney demographic. I thought it was nice to see Disney do more to include more of its fans from an earlier time.

Wreck-It Ralph was fun to watch a features unique dialogue between the two main characters. The plot of the story resonates with many people there are few that haven’t been underappreciated as a human. Bad guys are usually the ones that get forgotten in video games because they are always impeding you from victory.

The story itself was complete and although much of it was a homage to gamers, it could be understood by all. When I write this I hope to interject the feelings that express a joy to see a hate-able character become liked once again as this age old plot from Disney can be reiterated several times in various scenarios. Although the plot wasn’t anything new it did allow for them to create great characters that are sure to be ruined by less qualified actors and script writers in the sequel.

I don’t want to rush through this review because I did generally like the film and think it’s nice for the big guy to get credit once and a while. 

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) Google vs. The Hippies

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) Sony Pictures Animation

I apologize for not writing this past weekend, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post about this one because of its possible political nature. I decided to not worry about it and post it anyway.

During the course of watching this movie I noticed that the themes of the film had a great deal of social commentary, which is odd for a children’s movie. You can tell that this sequel was even made for a younger audience than its predecessor.

Unlike Pixar movies that usually have great themes this movie really falls short when it comes to the plot line. I know it’s just a kid’s movie, but it asks questions that many adults have not been able to answer for themselves.

Here is the problem:

If you created a machine that made food out of water, wouldn’t you use it to solve the problem of world hunger? Well at the end of the first film they had to destroy the FLDSMDFR machine because it was making sentient food. In this film the machine miraculously stays on and continues its work of creating sentient food with no power source and uses vines for cables.

Later on you find out that there is a company known for its scientific achievements (Google) that comes to the aid of the town. It offers to relocate everyone to San Fran Jose (might as well be google headquarters) in order to clean up the town for free so that people can rebuild their homes (evil right?). They also were able to create a zero emission car that runs on “cute.”

(The reason I call the company Google is because they are based in the same area as google, they have a similar looking facility, they give out free beverages just like google does, and they bring in the best talent all over the world.)

The people willingly leave their home on the island, but the cache is that the leader of the company (looks like Steve Jobs and steals inventions too) just wants to use the machine to make a better food bar product they sale. The food bar contains all the nutrition you would need for one meal and could potentially feed the world if they could bring the cost down. Now that they can make food out of water, that would be a real possibility.

The hippies are the only ones that can see the food as wildlife and is a group made up of a fisherman, police officer, Spanish camera man, meteorologist, chicken salesmen/bully, and a scientist. The main inventor decides to turn off the machine to make sure that it doesn’t create any harmful food that would be dangerous to humans. The meteorologist points out that the machine has created life and that we shouldn’t use its creations as food because they have feelings and conscience. The underlying theme becomes a vegetarian argument for not eating animals even if they are in a farm system.

I don’t mind vegetarians or their arguments about animal cruelty, but I disagree with the notion that animals are more important than people. If it comes down to it I would rather feed people than keep an overpopulated amount of sentient fruit and taco monsters. Just like real wildlife they can be dangerous depending on the situation, but can also be docile as well.

It’s important to note that these creatures can be dangerous for humans and that there is not much known about the creatures. Their ecosystem is not really explained either. Their population also grows at a rate that would render humans extinct if they reached mainland. The hippies want to ignore all the dangers of these unknown species and have no vision to the future about what their existence could mean.  

The evil company wants to use the new food source to feed the world with better tasting food bars that are also more nutritional. I don’t think they should’ve killed the sentient food. I wish they would’ve just reprogrammed the machine to make regular food and keep it more under control. This way they would eventually be able to harness a new food source for the entire planet.

Obviously the point of this film is not about the issues I have mentioned, but it is fun to think about the logistics of this new race of food. 

101 Dalmatians (1961) Still a Great Watch

101 Dalmatians (1961) Disney

Last night I did not have a lot of time and decided to watch something that would allow me save some time. Now I know it may be silly to watch a movie like this when you are a male in your mid-twenties, but I happen to love the old Disney movies I grew up watching. There is something about the older ones that makes them unique. They are from another time and are told as stories of old. They don’t intend to make political references or even social inquiries. They just tell thoughtful stories and demonstrate real feelings. Although I don’t mind the way stories are told today, there is always a feeling of nostalgia for the way stories used to be told.

Robin Hood has been my favorite Disney movies since I was a boy and is probably the best version of the Robin Hood story to date. I didn’t mind the Ridley Scott version, but that is not important.

The 101 Dalmatians story actually happens to be one of the only Disney tales that sticks to the actual story version of the book. It is the tale of Pongo and Perdida and their human pets which are named Roger and Anita. They have puppies which are stolen from them by an evil woman named Cruella de Vil who wants to make fur coats out of them. Pongo and Perdida eventually save their 15 puppies and the other 84 as well. This heartwarming film is fun to watch and won’t waste your time. It is good for viewers of all ages.

(As a side note) Cruella de Vil is supposed to translate to “Cruel Woman Devil” and I say woman devil because the ‘a’ at the end of her name denotes that it is a female in Latin based languages. What’s great about her name is that it was obviously used to be deliberately evil as a joke. The sad part is that many movies of our time fail to name the villains of the stories properly. For instance, in the Star Wars series the names of the villains are supposed to make them inherently evil, but they do not disguise them well and they are not joking. One name I hate from the Star Wars series is General Grievous. It is literally the word used for pain and suffering except they didn’t mask it cleverly. It just comes off as being stupid because there was no thought put into it. The same goes for Darth Sidious. His name is just half of the word insidious which means slow harmful effects which is obviously the basis of the character. Cruella de Vil acutally has a name that makes sense in real life because it could be construed as Cruella De Ville which properly states that her family name comes from “the village” and has actual roots in a Latin base.

Sorry for ranting about that, but someone needed to say it.

There are some differences from the book to the movies that I thought I should note such as:

For one, the name of “Perdida” (which means lost is Spanish) is actually referring to another female Dalmatian in the book who is found abandoned in the snow by Mrs. Dearly (Annita).

Mr. Dearly in the book also happens to be an accountant (not a songwriter like in the movie) and lives off of a lifelong tax exemption from the government because he apparently is one of the greatest financial minds in the whole of England. He later purchases the property of Hell Hall from Cruella de Vil when she sells it after the puppy kidnapping goes south.

The car that Cruella drives actually does not exist at the time, but it is basically the same car developed in the seventies and known as the Panther DeVille. The odd part of the car was that it was made in the seventies, but it was made to look like a car from the twenties or thirties.