LOL, that was funny, I felt like an idiot when I finally got the glasses back on, only to find the scene finished!ejwrank wrote:I liked the film. I thought it looked good, enjoyed the music and found the film amusing and enjoyable. Lots of FMUKers trekked over to Whiteley's -- lovely to see funthing29, MrG, valda and celini and to meet tsoiboy at the end. We all stayed for the little bit extra at the end and then missed it trying to get our 3D glasses back on.
Nice to see all of you fmukers too, its been a long while since I seen some of you.
I had lowered my expectations for this film mainly because I wasnt too impressed with the trailers but in a nutshell, this is a sweet and enjoyable Pixar feature but lacks the emotional punch of their greater output such as Toy Story, Up, Finding Nemo etc. The film feels moulded in a modern Disney frame of values and moral teachings with the inclusion of plenty of Disney style sidekick slapstick humour.
The story treads a standard fare character journey of self discovery and responsibility, laced with your typical Disney moral messages. I commend the film for being something different to what the trailers led us to believe but having said that, this is not a film marked with Pixar's usual...ahem...Brave ventures in originality. There is an unexpected turn of direction midway through but it is an amalgamation of elements from several past Disney films. What gives this the Pixar signature is the unconventional way those elements are arranged. Also, another Pixar signature included are the songs playing to a montage of sequences. I liked the songs, they are sweet, if unmemorable folksy Scottish jingles. Patrick Doyle gets a turn this time to compose the score for a Pixar film and is pleasant enough but nothing outstanding as recent regular, Michael Giacchinno.
Its got plenty of heart, splendid voice overs (Colony predictably stood out), fun characters, engaging story and lots of laughs (both adult and juvenile) but perhaps ultimately not a film that would come to the tip of my tongue in future if I am trying list the best half of Pixar's films.
The 3D as usual for animated fare, is effective. However, this is not the most vibrant of films, certainly not as colourful as say, Toy Story or Monsters Inc, so the colours look dark and very washed out when donning the 3D glasses...I might go see this again in 2D, otherwise I'll borrow it on Blu Ray.
7.5/10
Also, a word about the traditional Pixar short that presided the main feature. "La Luna" was a whimsical, surreal and amusing story of a boy taken on a fishing trip for the first time with his pa and Grandpa but turns out its not quite fishing...Its a fine addition to their collection of shorts since the 80s. Its not their best. In fact their recent shorts never really captures the charm, soulfulness and jaw dropping innovation of their 80s work which I had been a fan of since those days before they made Toy Story. But its a sweet short and I would look forward to watching it again on the blu ray release.
