I review the number one film in the world, “Zootopia 2” for CTVNews.ca.
“It makes for a densely packed, candy-coloured confection that lacks the cleverness of the original film, but still delivers a fun, although sometimes repetitive, experience for all ages…” Read the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Zootopia 2,” the decade-in-the-making-sequel to the 2016 Oscar winner, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman voice odd couple, undercover police partners on the most important case of their lives.
CAST: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Shakira, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Patrick Warburton, and Quinta Brunson. Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard.
REVIEW: Picking up immediately after the event of the first film, the 2016 Oscar-winning animated hit “Zootopia,” the action takes place in the titular city, a big bustling metropolis run by the mammal descendants of the city’s founder, Ebeneezer Lynxley.
Fresh off solving a career making conspiracy case, the eager police officer rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and con-artist-turned-cop Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), are stumbling all over themselves to convince Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), their cape buffalo chief of police, that they aren’t one-trick-ponies, or foxes or rabbits.
“Some are questioning whether you should be partners in the first place,” Bogo tells them.
When Judy finds a piece of snakeskin, a rarity in a place where mammals don’t trust reptiles, she’s thinks it’s the first clue in her next big case.
With a reluctant Nick by her side, Judy tries to discover why pit viper Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) is back in town, why there’s no snakes in Zootopia and why everyone wants to get their paws on a mysterious old book that predates the town.
A mishmash of puns, old-school movie references and action delivered at supersonic speed, “Zootopia 2” threatens to careen out of control but strays on track to deliver a family friendly crime caper with plenty of laughs and heart.
Directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard, working from a script by Bush, lay it on thick for all members of the family. It’s probably the first kid’s flick about gentrification, which will likely fly over the heads of the younger set, but the vibrant animation and frenetic action should keep kids entertained while adults will catch the endless puns—Gnu Jersey anyone?—and call backs to “Ratatouille,” “The Godfather,” “Silence of the Lambs” and the original movie among others.
It makes for a densely packed, candy coloured confection that lacks the cleverness of the original film but still delivers a fun, although sometimes repetitive, experience for all ages.
“Inheritance,” a new movie starring Lily Collins and Simon Pegg and now on VOD, is a thriller that treats logic like a Whac-A-Mole game. Every time things almost make sense logic is bashed on the head and quickly disappears back into its hole.
The long strange journey begins when richie rich Archer Monroe (Patrick Warburton) dies of a sudden heart attack. He leaves behind widow Catherine (Connie Nielsen), politician-wannabe son William (Chace Crawford) and lawyer daughter Lauren (Lily Collins). At the reading of the last will and testament Lauren is dealt a bad hand after papa’s money is doled out to her mother, brother and various charities. Lauren is left a small stipend of $1 million and a for-her-eyes-only video directing her to an underground bunker. There she finds, and becomes responsible for, daddy’s dirty little secret.
In the fortified cavern she finds Morgan Warner (Simon Pegg wearing what looks like a “Fraggle Rock” wig), restrained by shackles in a windowless pit where he has rotted away for thirty years after witnessing Monroe commit a serious crime. He tells her he’s been here “longer than you’ve been alive.”
Question is, what does an idealistic prosecutor do when confronted with a terrible situation that could affect everything she and her family have worked for?
The silly plot twists and turns aren’t the only things hard to understand in “Inheritance.” It boggles the mind that this could be billed as a thriller. According to Wikipedia, by definition a thriller can be “characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.” The only mood this leaden story elicited in me was boredom. Early on I was hopeful for a so-bad-it’s-good experience from “Inheritance.” Then the thudding realization hit that I was simply in store for an implausible, missed opportunity of a movie that instead of moving me to the edge of my seat made me want to lean back and take a nap.
Jay Ward Productions gave us some indelible characters. Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle sprung from the inventive mind of the TV producer. Good TV, but generally really bad movies.
Blame Brendan Fraser. Blame ham fisted adaptations that valued slapstick over satire. Blame Rick Moranis for not bothering to learn “world’s greatest no-goodnik.” Boris Badenov’s Pottsylvanian accent.
Whatever.
No matter how you slice it, no good ever came from trying to harness the anarchy of Ward’s storytelling on the big screen.
Until now.
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman” is the first of the Ward adaptations that isn’t afraid to embrace the heady but puerile parody and puns that characterized his most famous work, “Rocky and His Friends.”
Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the world’s smartest being and his son, appeared on that show in the weekly Peabody’s Improbable History segment. Now they’re on the big screen, voiced by “Modern Family’s” Ty Burrell and Max Charles.
It’s the origin story of Mr. Peabody, a beagle in the world of humans—imagine “Family Guy’s” Brian with less attitude but more PhDs. He’s a Harvard grad, a Nobel Prize winner, advisor to heads of state and in his spare time he invented planking and auto tune.
With his adopted son Sherman he’s also a time traveller, taking the WABAC machine—“It’s not WHERE we’re going, but WHEN!”—to various spots in history and it’s Sherman’s firsthand knowledge of George Washington that really kicks off the story.
On his first day in school his version of the George Washington legend annoys classmate Penny (Ariel Winter). After a showdown in the lunchroom, Sherman bites Penny which gets the attention of the school councilor Mrs. Grunion (Allison Janney). She’s disgusted that a dog was allowed to adopt a boy and threatens to take the Sherman away.
Peabody counters with a charm offensive, throwing a dinner party for Penny’s parents (Stephen Colbert and Leslie Mann) and Grunion. His plan is almost derailed when Sherman and Penny hijack the WABAC machine, whirling through space to ancient Egypt, the Trojan War and Leonardo Di Vinci’s studio where they discover the secret of Mona Lisa’s smile.
Can Mr. Peabody rescue them from their time travels before Penny’s parents notice she’s gone and the space-time continuum is irreparably destroyed?
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman” lacks the political bent of the original cartoon, but it is loaded with references from literature, history and popular culture. It’s the only kid’s movie with an Oedipal joke and I can’t imagine a Minion punning, “Marie Antoinette could have kept her head if she had issued an edict to distribute bread to the poor. But you can’t have your cake and edict too.”
It’s stuffed with the spirit of Jay Ward, which is a good thing, even if it does veer off path with a sentimental father and son subplot.
The voice work is fun—there are few animated pleasures greater than hearing Patrick Warburton’s confident dumb guy routine—and the animation is top notch and like the best of Ward’s work, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” realizes that the material has to work on multi levels, the surface and the satirical.
