Disney

Planes: Fire & Rescue

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Planes: Fire & Rescue
  • IMDB: link

Planes: Fire & RescueLast year’s Cars spin-off starring Dane Cook as a cropduster with dreams of becoming a world-class racer came and went without much fanfare. Made by Disney rather than Pixar, Planes certainly had the feel of far too many of Disney’s straight-to-video sequels (despite the movie actually getting a theatrical release). I found the first film to be more than a little clunky, and certainly the weakest of any of the movies set in the Cars universe, but it still had enough charm and beautiful animation to keep my interest. Planes‘ sequel feels much the same with some uneven writing and cheap fart jokes. However, along with its impressive look, the sequel does celebrate the service of firefighters and offer a nice lesson for its target audience.

Planes: Fire & Rescue returns Cook as cropduster turned world-famous racer Dusty Crophopper whose career is put in jeopardy thanks to nonrepairable damage to the plane’s gearbox. In an attempt to help out an old friend, and keep the local airstrip open, Dusty signs up to train as with a fire and rescue team hoping to become certified as a firefighter.

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First Look – Big Hero 6

/ / Film News & Trailers
  • Title: Big Hero 6
  • IMDB: link

Based on the comic of the same name, Disney’s first animated Marvel movie centers around a group of six superheroes are recruited by the Japanese government to protect the nation. Set in the fictional city of San Fransokyo this initial teaser gives us a look at young prodigy Hiro Hamada and his robot Baymax who hope to join the fledgling team. The voice cast includes Josh Hutcherson, Freddie Highmore, Jamie Chung, T.J. Miller, Samuel L. Jackson, and Maya Rudolph. The film opens in theaters on November 7th.

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Frozen

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Frozen
  • IMDB: link

FrozenDisney’s latest animated feature Frozen is an odd mix of old school Disney style and modern sensibilities that works better than expected. Loosely adapted from Hans Christian Andersen‘s tale of The Snow Queen, the script by Jennifer Lee certainly fits in the pantheon of Disney Princess fairy tale films but with one major difference in terms of story that it apart from movies like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and others. Although it has romantic subplots, the main love story in the film isn’t romantic love but sororal love.

Set in a port kingdom near the icy fjords of Norway, we first meet young Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) as children playing in their father’s castle. Elsa has been gifted with the power to create and control snow and ice which she uses to please her sister’s love of snow. However, a tragic accident causes Elsa to hide her powers from everyone and seclude herself from even her sister’s affections.

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Monsters University

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Monsters University
  • IMDB: link

Monsters UniversityHow much do you love Animal House? I ask because the team behind Monsters University obviously holds it high regard. Over the years everything from Sydney White to Futurama has aped the story of rival fraternities battling it out on a college campus. Now it’s Pixar’s turn.

Set as a prequel to 2001’s Monsters, Inc. the story follows mismatched pair Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) as freshman students at the prestigious Monsters University. Most of the film’s first-half deals with the rivalry between the pair trying to show each other up as the school’s next big Scarer. Mike has the brains, but not the looks, and Sully’s lack of discipline undercuts his natural ability.

When the Mike and Sulley get on the bad side of Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren) and face expulsion, they have no choice but to join the university’s least popular fraternity and work together with its other members (Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day) to win a scare competition and remain in school.

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Wreck-It Ralph

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Wreck-It Ralph
  • IMDB: link

wreck-it-ralph-posterPixar’s growing influence on Disney, particularly that of head of Walt Disney Animation Studios John Lasseter, is certainly evident in Wreck-It Ralph. The latest Disney animated feature from longtime Futurama director Rich Moore bucks the trend of most animated kids’ fare in that it’s a love story to classic video games (which skewers older) and is centered around the unlikeliest of heroes — a villain. It also doesn’t take place in our reality. Instead it’s set in a world where arcade games and their myriad characters roam about, but are connected to each other by a Grand Central-like power strip allowing them to come and go as they please.

Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) has spent every day of the last 30 years doing exactly the same thing. When the arcade opens and the first customer puts a quarter in the video game (as if a quarter would buy you a game anywhere today), Ralph sets to wrecking the digital landscape of Fix-It Felix, Jr. This, of course, allows the game’s hero (Jack McBrayer) to fix the villain’s destruction, vanquish his foe, and earn his medal.

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