“Wildwood” is in theatres this weekend! “A visually ambitious movie, the stop motion animated Wildwood is a hand-crafted movie of uncommon beauty.” I spoke with Laika stop-motion animation supervisor Brad Schiff and Jacob Tremblay who voices the character Curtis in the film.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the origin story “Clayface,” the stop-motion animated “Wildwood,” the documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” and the adult fairy tale “Wicker.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including the origin story “Clayface,” the stop-motion animated “Wildwood,” the documenary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” and the adult fairy tale “Wicker.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to wind your watch. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the origin story “Clayface,” the stop-motion animated “Wildwood” and the documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Wildwood,” a new animated dark fairy tale now playing in theatres, a sister goes on a dangerous journey through an “impassable forest” to rescue her brother after he is kidnapped by a mysterious woman named Alexandra. “I’m not a hero,” she says, “I’m just a girl who lost her brother to a murder of crows.”
CAST: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Len Cariou, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, Richard E. Grant. Directed by Travis Knight.
REVIEW: A visually ambitious movie, “Wildwood” is an epic fairy tale for adults told on a grand scale.
Set in current day Portland, Oregon the story begins when Prue McKeel’s (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) parents ask her to babysit her little brother Mac. They can do whatever they want, as long as she doesn’t take him out of the house.
Of course she does, and, along with eager-to-please schoolmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), take the infant for an adventure packed, fun day in town. Well, fun until a murder of crows swoops down and carries the infant skyward.
Frantically following the flock, Prue and Curtis end up in the “impassable wilderness,” a magical place on the outskirts of town with a strict no outsiders policy. There they encounter an army of coyotes, talking owls, castles and mystics who talk to trees and a grief-stricken Dowager Governess (Carey Mulligan) still stinging from the loss of her son. “I don’t want any part of your fairytale,” says Prue. ”I just want my brother.”
To rescue young Mac, Prue and Curtis will have to figure out who to trust in a world filled with magic and distractions.
As far as animation studios go LAIKA, the Oregon based creators behind films like “Coraline” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” may not have the same name recognition as Pixar, but their brand equals their better-known counterpart in quality and fearless embrace of challenging and thought-provoking themes.
In “Wildwood,” their first PG-13 film (this may be too intense for the little ones, especially in the final battle scene), LAIKA delivers their most accomplished film to date. With a blend of stop motion animation and digital tools director Travis Knight has created the company’s magnum opus, a hand-crafted movie of uncommon beauty.
Epic in scope but personal in nature, Prue’s search for her brother takes her to a wonderfully realized world.
Ripe with magic and danger in equal measure, it’s a spectacularly rendered realm, filled with an eye-popping sense of scale. From Prue’s ride on the back of a giant eagle—“Scared of flying?” she says as they soar through the air. “I’m not usually on the outside of the plane.”—and the Hitchcockian murder of crows abduction sequence to a twelve-minute climatic battle scene and the living ivy that comes alive near the end, the attention to detail will make your eyeballs dance across the screen.
There is also an unusual degree of performance, with smooth stop motion and nuanced facial expressions courtesy of 140,000 3-D printed replacement faces. The use of digital effects, however, doesn’t overwhelm the stop motion, which still feels soulful and artisanal.
Although “Wildwood’s” story sometimes feels like it has been cobbled together from a variety of other fairy tales but nonetheless sets a high bar for stop motion that will be very difficult to top.
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the live-action “Moana,” the sport comedy “Racewalkers” and the wacky “Wizard of Oz” homage “Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to drink a Mai Tai. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the live-action “Moana,” the sport comedy “Racewalkers” and the wacky “Wizard of Oz” homage “Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Inspired by Polynesian mythology, “Moana,” a new live action adaptation of Disney Animation’s 2016 film of the same name, sees the daughter of a Samoan island chief, along with the boastful, shape-shifting demigod Maui, set off on a voyage across the Pacific to bring prosperity back to her community.
CAST: Catherine Laga’aia, Dwayne Johnson, Beau Flynn, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Directed by Thomas Kail.
REVIEW: “Moana” reverberates with messages of self-discovery and respectful nods to Polynesian and Samoan culture, but echoes of the original animated film overwhelm this banal remake.
Set on the island of Motunui, the story involves Moana (Catherine Laga’aia), the precocious daughter of village chief Tui (John Tui) and his wife Sina (Frankie Adams) and her desire to sail beyond the island’s protective reef. Her father forbids her to set sail, but when the island is threatened by a mysterious blight, the sea calls her name, making it her responsibility to restore balance with the return of the stolen heart of the life-giving goddess Te Fiti. “Moana, the ocean chose you,” says Gramma Tala (Rena Owen). “Find Maui and restore the heart.”
Fans of the original movie will remember Maui (Dwayne Johnson) as the egotistical shapeshifting demigod– “It’s true, I do have beautiful hair,” he says. “What can I say except, ‘You’re welcome!’”—who accompanies Moana on her journey across the Pacific and to becoming a wayfinder and leader. “The ocean chose her for a reason.”
It’s a bit of a misnomer to call the new “Moana” a live action remake of the 2016 animated film. There are live performances, by actual actors, but much of the film remains animated, using computer generated image imagery to create the film’s lush island backgrounds and blustery seas faring scenes.
Add to that Dwayne Johnson as Maui. He’s essentially a cartoon come to life, a bigger than life character whose spirit and physicality feels as though it was lifted from an animator’s imagination.
So, it begs the question, Why tinker with a decade old movie many consider to be a modern Disney classic without freshening up the story? There is a new Lin-Manuel Miranda song called “Along the Way,” but mostly it’s a serviceable rehash with “photo-real” technology that lacks the soul and charm of the original.
SYNOPSIS: In the third installment of the “Avatar” film series, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” ex-Marine Corporal Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi family’s peaceful way of life on their home planet of Pandora is threatened by the violent Ash People and returning baddie Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).
CAST: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo and Duane Evans, Jr. Directed by James Cameron.
REVIEW: “Avatar: Fire and Ash” does what cinema is meant to do; transport the audience to new worlds while reflecting and commenting on the reality of our world. An epic for the eyes, the visualization of Pandora is impressive and immersive, but the a-list visuals are let down by a b-movie story.
First, the look.
Rendered in eye popping 3D, Cameron’s concept for Pandora and her environs is spectacular will have your synapses firing on all cylinders. An ode to French impressionism by way of the sci fi landscapes of Frank Frazetta, whether his camera is gliding through the jungles of Pandora or swimming under the planet’s oceans or traipsing around gritty fire and ash biodomes or soaring though the sky on the back of a winged Great Leonopteryx, Cameron delivers a dopamine hit directly through the eyes.
It’s a whole lotta CGI, which is ironic, given that this is a story about the organic connection between nature and all of God’s creatures in which all the dazzling images were created in the least organic way possible. Still, the pictures, no matter how they were created, do come alive on the screen.
Less exciting is the story.
Cameron has spent the better part of two decades world building, creating the belief systems, language and traditions of the Na’vi people, only to hang them on the most generic of fantasy storytelling. His hot button pet themes of colonization, government overreach, community and environmentalism are very much in place, but the storytelling isn’t as passionate as the visual work.
Essentially picking up a few months after “Avatar: The Way of Water” left off, when “Fire and Ash” begins Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their children Lo’ak, Tuk, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Spider (Jack Champion) are grieving the death of Neteyam, the family’s eldest son.
Their peaceful life amid the reef-dwelling Metkayina clan is disrupted when Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ruthless RDA colonel reborn as a Na’vi recombinant, teams with the aggressive, volcano dwelling Mangkwan, or “Ash People,” lead by the vicious Varang (a compelling Oona Chaplin).
As Jake fights for the survival of his family, the fate of all of Pandora hangs in the balance.
Packed with big action set pieces, smaller, more intimate family moments, and one, “I am Spartacus” scene, “Fire and Ash” has a new, unsettling villain in the form of Varang but otherwise recycles old ideas under a slick CGI veneer.
The mix of A-list tech and B-movie dialogue like Quaritch’s quip, “I guess I don’t die that easy,” feels like watching a Saturday morning serial with boffo, stare-of-the-art visuals that distract from the often-cheesy dialogue.
The familiar story beats and the worn-out dialogue quickly take a backseat to Cameron’s unique vison. He is the star of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Like the other films in the franchise the new one invites the viewer to exit the real world and enter his world of imagination of three hours, and, despite some déjà vu story wise, it’s a trip worth taking.
