BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA

2008, DreamWorks Animation

Live action & CGI

Rating: PG

Approx. 91 mins.

THE STORY:

Chloe (Drew Barrymore) is the spoiled-beyond-belief pet Chihuahua of Vivian (Jamie Lee Curtis), a too-rich-for-her-own-good makeup mogul. When a last minute business trip comes up, Vivian enlists her spoiled slacker niece, Rachel (Piper Perabo), to dog sit for a few days. Rachel has no interest, however, in spending most of her days ushering a dog from salon to couturier to social engagement. Instead she and some friends take off to Mexico for a few days of fun in the sun, with a miffed Chloe in tow.

Predictably, things soon go awry, and Chloe ends up lost, kidnapped and on the run. Rachel tries desperately to find her with the help of Vivian's landscaper, Sam (Manolo Cardona) and his dog, Papi (George Lopez). Meanwhile Chloe finds a guardian angel in Delgado (Andy Garcia), a former police dog with a mysterious past and something to prove.

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• Oh my God. 

VIOLENCE:

•  none

TEACHING POINTS:

•  New experiences can be opportunities for positive change.

THE UPSHOT:

First, two confessions:

1) I'm not a fan of talking animal live action movies, and

2) I'm not a fan of Drew Barrymore's drawl.

So, you can imagine how much I enjoyed approximately 90 minutes of both. 

But it's not just about me. The four year-old in the room thought it was cute and funny. She missed some of the plot twists because it was just such unfamiliar territory-- she has no idea, thankfully, what kidnapping is-- but enjoyed the film as whole, nonetheless.

My own prejudices aside, the movie has its merits. It's a story of survival and redemption, of overcoming one's own limitations to become a better self. What's more, it's about how much self-betterment is linked to our relationships with others. I also liked the fact that it features so many Hispanic actors/ characters, not in purely comic or background roles.

The film touches on some pretty dark themes: dog fighting, kidnapping for ransom, discrimination based on race, class and appearance. This could be a plus for older kids, since it's done pretty subtly. But for younger kids, it might be a bit much. 

Ultimately, when I think of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, 3 words run through my head: Predictable. Very predictable.

2.5/5

ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT

2012, Blue Sky Studios

Animated

Rating: PG

Approx. 88 mins.

THE STORY:

The film begins in a familiar way: environmental change threatens the survival of Manny (Ray Romano) the mammoth and his 'tribe,' and they are on the move to safer ground. Early into their journey, the group is split up by the shifting ground beneath them and the mission becomes to reunite.

As if the natural threat isn't enough, Manny, Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Dennis Leary) are soon beset by a dangerous band of rag-tag pirates led by the blood-thirsty Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage). The Tribe manages to take the pirates' ship and even convert one of his crew, sabre tooth tiger Shira (Jennifer Lopez), to their side. In the end, good triumphs over evil and the Tribe's relationships are only stronger for the challenge.  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• stupid
• a few sound alikes: "holy crab", something that sounds suspiciously like "old b*tch"

VIOLENCE:

• some fighting scenes and talk of impending death, but no blood or death
• a pretty unpleasant description of the gutting process

TEACHING POINTS:

• Choose your friends based on how they treat you, not based on who they are
• Show loyalty and respect to friends and family, and you can expect the same
• We can always make choices about who we want to be   

THE UPSHOT:

This is the 4th movie in the series-- I do wish they numbered the films as it would have helped me see them in order-- and it is still pretty solid. The characters stay true to themselves, and the treatment of the deja vu-inducing themes is new enough that it isn't a pointless rehash. That said, the film is a bit thin on story. 

What allows Continental Drift to succeed is precisely what allowed the previous three to succeed: appealing characters and clever humour that appeals to all age groups. And, as usual, the message about making wise choices in who we befriend and how we treat our friends is valid without being cloying.

It's not the best of the four Ice Age movies, and it's not an instant kids' classic. What it is, is fun to watch. Recommended. 

4/5

LADY and the TRAMP

1955, Walt Disney Pictures

Animated

Rating: G

Approx. 76 mins.

THE STORY:

Lady, the cute Cocker Spaniel puppy, joins the family of a couple and soon her life settles into an idyllic routine. The harmony is threatened, however, with the arrival of a new baby into her home. Her feelings of insecurity in the face of her owners' new responsibility are heightened when she meets the Tramp, a street smart mutt, who paints a picture of the neglect she can expect when the baby becomes the focus of attention.

Tragedy strikes, however, when a dog-hating aunt comes to house- and babysit. She mistakenly believes Lady has bad intentions where the baby is concerned and banishes her from the house. One thing leads to another, and Lady ends up on the city streets trying to evade menacing dogs and the dog catcher. Fortunately, she runs into Tramp again, and he helps her survive the streets. In the end, Lady rejoins her family, and Tramp is welcomed as well after saving the baby from a vicious rat. Soon the family welcomes a litter of little ones.  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• none

VIOLENCE:

• no gore, but 2 very menacing dog fights

TEACHING POINTS:

• don't judge a book by its cover
• Stand by your friends

THE UPSHOT:

It's innocent. No questionable language, no minimally-clothed and impossibly-proportioned females waiting for princes to come and give their lives meaning. Thematically, it's the canine version of The Aristocats, but it is far less dated. Plus, Peggy Lee lends a song, which is never a bad thing. 

The child in the room enjoyed it, but did feel a bit scared during the fight scenes. The Italian in the room loved the banter of the 2 Italian chefs who facilitate the romance. It's worth the 76 minute time investment.

4/5

LITTLE MERMAID

1989, Walt Disney Pictures

Animated

Rating: G

Approx. 83 mins.

THE STORY:

Ariel, daughter of Triton, the king of the sea, is a mermaid with an insatiable curiosity for all things earthly. First, she defies her father by trawling shipwrecks for human artifacts, but soon she venturing to the surface hoping for sightings of humans. On one such excursion she finds Prince Eric who has been shipwrecked in a violent storm. She rescues him from certain death, then disappears back into the ocean leaving him with only the memory of her beautiful song. Despite having exchanged not a single word, the two are smitten.

When Triton learns of his daughter's disobedience and recklessness, he is furious and destroys all of the human relics she has collected. Angry and desperate to find her prince, Ariel visits the Ursula, the sea witch, who gives Ariel legs but at the cost of her voice. She has 3 days to get Eric to give her true love's kiss or her tail will return and she will become Ursula's slave.
Things seem to be progressing, which leads Ursula to jump in to sabotage the budding romance. She takes the guise of Eric's rescuer and puts him under a trance. The two are about to be married when Ariel and her underwater friends step in to stop the proceedings. Order is restored, Ursula is defeated, and Ariel marries her prince.

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• Idiot 
• Tramp

VIOLENCE:

• musical number in which chef delights in gutting/ beheading/ stabbing various seafood victims
• Ursula dies when impaled by a sharp piece of broken wood

TEACHING POINTS:

• It is wrong to hate others just because they are different
• Karma is real

THE UPSHOT:

As it's a pre-2010 Disney movie, the chances of me liking it were slim. And I didn't. 

Ariel is a barely 16 year-old with a waist the same size as her neck who wears nothing but a scallop shell bra. She meets (if you can call it that) a handsome man, and decides to turn her back on her family, her voice (ironic) and her very identity for someone with whom she has never exchanged a single word. In fact, he was pretty much unconscious during their entire first fateful encounter.

The baddies-- Ursula and, to a lesser extent, the chef-- are overweight and old. Ursula is highly sexualised, with great attention being paid to her breasts and behind.

I am aware that Disney is paraphrasing Hans Christian Andersen, but I have issues with their execution. They could easily have made her a consenting adult, tempered the immediacy of her obsession, put her brain more in evidence.

Of course, my 4 year-old, who has already been wooed by the insidious cult of Disney, loved it.  

2/5

MARY POPPINS

1964, Walt Disney Productions

Live action with animation

Rating: G

Approx. 139 mins.

THE STORY:

Based on the classic by P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins tells the story of a magical, multi-talented nanny who comes to the aid of the Banks children. With their mother preoccupied by the struggle for female equality and their father consumed with his bank job, the children want attention and fun. They get both in the form of Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews). She floats into the Banks' lives under umbrella power and proceeds to demonstrate a world of music, magic and marvels to the children. In the short time she spends with them, she makes the mundane and unpleasant fun, and opens up a new world of people and places to the sheltered upper middle-class family.   

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• none

VIOLENCE:

• none

  

TEACHING POINTS:

• A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Really.
• Venture beyond your comfort zone and embrace new experiences. 
• the most overt messaging is for parents: take the time to acknowledge and get to know your kids, leave your work self at work, etc.

THE UPSHOT:

By today's standards, it's a long movie that demands a commitment of time and attention. We watched the 2 hours and 10 minutes over a few days, and it did seem to drag. Especially since there isn't a very strong narrative; it's mostly musical numbers and special effects (impressive for the time and even now) built around a situation and characters.

Watching as an adult, one thing that really struck me was how progressive the movie is in terms of its treatment of social issues. The mother is a suffragette who needs a nanny to watch her kids while she protests in aid of the women's vote. Mary Poppins floats confidently between the classes able to fit in with her upper class employers as well as with working class friends like Bert.

And then there's Dick Van Dyke's accent...ugh.

But the fabulous music and the spectacle stand up. The story is simple and magical. And there is an innocence to Mary Poppins: no one gets hit or called stupid or dressed up in a bikini. It creates a time and place where ordinary kids come in contact with the fantastic and we hear clever, catchy songs about it. 

4/5

TURBO

2013, Dreamworks

Animated

Rating: PG

Approx. 96 mins.

THE STORY:

Theo/ Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) is a snail with big, fast dreams: he wants to be a racer like his hero, Guy Gagne (Bill Hader). Faced with the discouragement of his brother, Chet (Paul Giamatti), and his snail community, and the knowledge of his physical limitations, Turbo is about to give up on his dream. And that's when he becomes infused with nitrous oxide and capable of reaching speeds of close to 200 miles per hour. 

Serendipity brings Turbo together with taco vendor Tito (Michael Pena), who shares Turbo's dream and beats the odds to take the snail to the Indy 500. Turbo qualifies and finds himself racing against his hero. Unfortunately, Guy turns out to be less heroic than Turbo had hoped and becomes the biggest obstacle to Turbo's success. In the end, however, Turbo is a winner on and off the track, as he develops stronger relationships with those around him.

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• Stupid

VIOLENCE:

• nothing notable

TEACHING POINTS:

• There are no small dreams, only small dreamers.
• Perseverance pays off. 

THE UPSHOT
In a word; disappointing. The trailer looked so promising, but the movie itself was thin on story and seemed far too long. I like the premise, but the execution is predictable and overwrought. The voice talent is strong (Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dog, Maya Rudolph; NOT Bill Hader, whose French Canadian accent is a travesty), the music is catchy and the animation is impressive, but other than that... Turbo has not much to say for itself. It's OK, but just OK.

3/5

DESPICABLE ME 2

2013, Universal Pictures

Animated

Rating: PG

Approx. 98 mins.

THE STORY:

Gru, the reformed bad-guy from Despicable Me is back with his three adopted daughters and sharp attitude. He is kidnapped from his life of devoted parenting and jam-producing by Lucy (Kristen Wiig), an agent from the Anti-villain League. The League needs Gru's help to identify the mysterious super-villain responsible for stealing a secret formula which turns the most gentle of creatures into vicious monsters. 

Gru is quick to identify the culprit, but his mission is complicated by the fact that his suspect is supposedly dead. His focus is also compromised by his romantic feelings for Lucy and the protective-father instincts that arise when his suspect's son starts to make moves on Gru's oldest daughter. Ultimately, his intellect and new-found romantic inclinations allow him catch the bad guy and win the girl.  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• Stupid
• Idiot
• Fat

VIOLENCE:

• Some scenes of peril
• Hitting

TEACHING POINTS:

• New feelings can be scary, but can also lead to great happiness.
• You can't get what you want unless you tell people what you want.

THE UPSHOT:

I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. It is as good as, if not better than, the original. It is technically stylish, excellently scripted, generally well-crafted.  I enjoyed this film more than I have enjoyed any film-- adult or children's-- for a while. The story is clever, suspenseful, well-voiced and absolutely hilarious. The adults and the 4 year-old watching laughed from beginning to end.

If I had to find a negative, it would be that I wished Gru's mother had been featured more. I liked the mother-son dynamic from the original Despicable Me, and think there was room for some humorous exchanges related to the developments in Gru's romantic life.   

Also, this is literally the first time I have seen a 3D movie and thought it was worth it. A word to the wise: stay for the ending credits/ minions mini-movie. 

Enjoy.

5/5

JUNGLE BOOK

1967, Walt Disney Productions

Animated

Rating: G

Approx. 78 mins.

THE STORY:

Mogwli is a young Indian orphan raised from baby-hood by wolves. He grows up happily in the jungle alongside his animal friends, until Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger, makes an appearance. The animals realise that with Mowgli among them, both they and he are at risk for attack. They concoct a plan to return Mowgli to the human village under the escort of the black panther Bagheera. 
Along their journey, they encounter Baloo the bear, whose carefree, lackadaisical attitude to life is matched only by Bagheera's seriousness. He and Mowgli form an instant bond, and Baloo promises to raise Mowgli, who has no desire to be returned to the man-village. Bagheera, nonetheless, manages to convince Baloo that the jungle is not safe for Mowgli, and the two continue to lead the boy to the village. Along their journey they run into a variety of animals, friendly and malevolent, before Mowgli rejoins his tribe.   

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• none

VIOLENCE:

• nothing notable

TEACHING POINTS:

• Sometimes we have to give up our own wants for the benefit of others.

THE UPSHOT:

Compared to a lot of other classic Disney films, Jungle Book stands up quite well. The music is catchy and clever, and the story-- thank you, Rudyard Kipling-- is a classic. There are no overtly uncomfortable colonial overtones to the story, and there are no Disney-typical female characters to make me wince. Everyone in the room enjoyed it, and there was even some dancing.

4/5

THE SMURFS 2

2013, Columbia Pictures

Live action with animation

Rating: PG

Approx. 105 mins.

THE STORY:

In his unending quest to capture Smurf essence for his own evil purposes, Gargamel (Hank Azaria), who is now a magician sensation in Europe, creates 2 near-Smurfs called the Naughties. Gargamel charges them with kidnapping and corrupting Smurfette (Katy Perry), one of his earlier creations who has become a full-fledged Smurf. 

Papa Smurf and some of the less ideal Smurfs go back to the human world to rescue Smurfette. They enlist the help of Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays), the humans they met in the first movie, as they travel to Paris to track down Gargamel.

Smurfette is easily won over by Vexy (Christina Ricci) the tricky Naugty and by the feeling of familial belonging she gets from being with her creator/ father and siblings. Ultimately, however, she learns that who you are depends more on who you choose to be than who you are born. 

  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• Stupid
• Toot

VIOLENCE:

• Some slapstick, nothing notable

TEACHING POINTS:

We are who we choose to be.

THE UPSHOT:

Number of times I marvelled at the 3D effects: 0

Number of times I laughed: 0

Number of times I wished I was watching something else: 14

Since I didn't enjoy the first Smurfs movie, I didn't expect to enjoy the second. And I was not disappointed. I found the story predictable and the subtlety sledgehammer-like. The four-year-old in the seat beside me, however, liked it. I didn't hear a single laugh, but there were some smiles at the cat's antics.

1/5