The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, Will Poulter, Ben Barnes
Directed by Michael Apted
Rating: B

Lucy (Henley) and Edmund (Keynes) are back for another adventure in Narnia, except this time their annoying younger cousin Eustace (Poulter) accidentally joins them. They find themselves aboard the ship The Dawn Treader captained by an old friend, Prince Caspian (Barnes).

Caspian is on a mission to find seven lords that left for the Lone islands. They were exiled by his uncle who took over the throne. When Caspian, Lucy, and Edmund dock on a slave island along the way, a mysterious green mist rises from the sea. It takes prisoner any slaves that were sent out in the water. Together they discover they must find the seven swords the lords had brought with them on their journey. These swords will let them defeat the evil at sea and Narnia can once again remain in peace.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader brings the Narnia adventures back for a third time. Still entertaining and daring, Narnia continues the story of Lucy and Edmund Pevensie. While the two are obviously growing up, their cousin joins them and it is hinted that maybe the story may go on with him. Voyage of the Dawn Treader keeps viewers entertained with some new content. We get to see a different Narnia, this time at sea. The crew faces some stormy weather and an island full of dangerous people. Another island contained treasure while another held invisible monsters. The Dawn Treader voyages to various islands as Caspian tracks down where the lords may have gone.

It was a well-made movie with talking rats and lions that made viewers feel sympathetic for them. The cast did a believable job and Will Poulter who portrayed the cousin Eustace did an excellent job playing an annoying and frustrating boy who got in the way. His character matures throughout the movie and by the end he’s not that little annoying boy anymore. Each character grows a lot in this movie. The main theme seemed to be about accepting yourself for who you are and your differences. Lucy suffers from envy for her older sister’s beauty, while Edmund wishes everyone looked up to him like his accomplished older brother.

The Chronicles of Narnia usually have a hopeful message like the pure of heart conquering the wicked. Aslan, the lion, delivers these messages and upon meeting the children at the conclusion of the film tells them he will always be with them in their own world, but as someone else (hinting it to mean God). The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was entertaining enough for a wide audience that does justice to bringing the story to life.

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes
Directed by Mark Burton, Richard Starzak
Rating: A

The farm life becomes all work and no play for Shaun the sheep. One uneventful day inspires Shaun to plan a day of fun after putting his farmer to sleep. Unfortunately for Shaun and the rest of the farm animals, the farmer finds himself alone in a big city after the caravan he’s been sleeping in rolls away. It’s up to the animals to find and bring him home to restore order to the farm.

Shaun the Sheep was a great family-friendly movie. For a movie without any real talking in it, I laughed and laughed throughout the whole thing. It was entertaining from start to finish and it’s length was short enough to keep kids watching. The storyline was thought-out and something for adults to enjoy.

This would be a great watch for anyone of any language. Since there was no recognizable speech (it’s all gibberish), it’s a movie you can watch with friends or family who don’t speak English. I have a lot of family who speak French and this would be a fun movie to watch because they could follow along with me.

What I really enjoyed about Shaun the Sheep was the emotions it invoked in me while watching it. I laughed, I almost teared up, and I left feeling like it was money well spent going to the movies. The sheep were cute and it was a creative way of making an animated movie. It’s all in claymation which is unique since a majority of animated films are made on the computer.

The lack of talking didn’t bother me either. There were three songs that played in the movie but between the characters, it was all in gibberish. During these moments I did feel as if some English would be nice but it wouldn’t have fit the movie. There were so many moments I found myself chuckling or straight-out laughing that it didn’t matter that no one said anything in English.

There are some moments that adults would get but children wouldn’t which make it funnier. Overall, I definitely recommend this to anyone who can sit through an animated kids movie.

 

Picture credit: http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/review/a626731/shaun-the-sheep-the-movie-review-home-is-where-the-heart-is-for-aardman.html#~pkwqxiIZmiOlMm

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith
Directed by Chris Columbus
Rating: A+

This sequel to the magical Harry Potter series is a close favorite of mine. Between the mystery surrounding a Chamber of Secrets and the new, but terribly full-of-himself Professor of the Dark Arts, the second Harry Potter movie is as fun as the first.

Despite a meddling house-elf that tries to stop Harry from going back to Hogwarts for his second year, Harry flies a car to school instead of taking the normal mode of transportation: the train. His school year doesn’t get any easier after almost being expelled. Students are being petrified left and right, and Harry always seems to be at the scene of the crime at the wrong time. Add that he reveals his gift for speaking parseltongue (Snake speech) to the whole school at a bad moment and now he has become a social outcast. Everyone is freaking out about the Chamber of Secrets being opened and talk of the school being shut down really puts a damper on Harry’s second year.

Nothing tests true friendship like going through hardships. Ron and Hermione believe Harry can’t be the one petrifying students, even if they think his talking to snakes is scary. They break rules while trying to figure out who opened the Chamber of Secrets and what is attacking their fellow students.

Hermione, who has been an established stickler for rules, thinks of a way to go undercover to question Malfoy, someone who always has it out for Harry at school. She makes a Polyjuice potion which will allow the trio to transform into Slytherins and get into their common room to ask Malfoy if he opened the chamber. The potion is difficult to make and is an illegal substance because of how it can go wrong in many ways (like accidentally turning yourself into a cat instead of another human being).

Ron faces his fear of spiders with Harry as they delve into the deep parts of the Forbidden Forest to talk to a giant spider. This spider, Aragog, may hold the key to revealing what the monster of the Chamber really is and prove Hagrid’s innocence in it all.

Then there’s Lockhart, the newest professor at Hogwarts who claims he is the best wizard of all for his adventures. He has written numerous books which he makes his students buy for his class, like “Gadding with Ghouls”, “Holidays with Hags” and “Wanderings with Werewolves”. His popularity comes down to his good looks because only the girls have really fallen for him. Hermione, who usually keeps a cool head, gets weak-in-the-knees when she has him for class. Kenneth Branagh does a great job playing this empty-headed egomaniac. Hugh Grant was originally cast to play this professor but due to scheduling conflicts, had to turn the role down. I think Grant would have been perfect but Branagh’s Lockhart is pretty amusing to watch.

Even though Chamber of Secrets is a long film (it’s run-time is 2 hours, 40 min), it stays remarkably true to the books. Yes, it’s disappointing that not everything from the book was included but if it was any shorter, important scenes would have been cut out. I would have liked to see Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party and more of Borgin and Burke’s dark arts shop, but that’s what the deleted scenes are for. Compared to the future movies, however, Chamber of Secrets is still a good one to watch if you’re looking for accuracy and mystery.

Picture credits:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3332343552/tt0295297
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/rupert-grint/images/17220324/title/harry-potter-chamber-secrets-screencap

Penguins of Madagascar

Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon
Directed by Eric Darnell, Simon J. Smith
Rating: B

These devious penguins who are always trying to fly away from Madagascar get their own movie!

Penguins of Madagascar follows in the same vein of the Toy Story movies but switch the toys for animals. In Penguins, everyone loves these little creatures and crowd around to watch the penguin show, ignoring the once entertaining octopus. Jealous and bitter after being moved around from zoo to zoo because his popularity had died down due to a new penguin exhibit, Dr. Octavius Brine takes his revenge out on penguins world-wide.

For spin-off movies, Penguins turned out to be a fun, family movie. It begins telling the story of the four penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private, and how they ended up in Madagascar. These clever penguins outwit Dr. Brine by learning along the way not to underestimate each other. Private is the newbie to the group and most often unappreciated for his ideas, but when the other penguins are in danger, he is the one to lead the way to safety.

At the heart of it, Penguins of Madagascar is about appreciating friendships. Dr. Octavius Brine might have gotten away with his evil plan if it wasn’t for one penguin and his moment of glory. There’s not many slow parts which makes Penguins a fun movie to watch and little things that make adults chuckle alongside kids.

Inside Out

Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, Kaitlyn Dias
Directed by Pete Docter
Rating: B+

In an all new and original Disney/Pixar creation, Inside Out is a nostalgic film that reaches a deep level of emotions.

There are five basic feelings: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger in 11-year-old, Riley. Her life is uncomplicated and happy until she moves away to San Francisco where there is broccoli on pizza and she has none of her belongings. She must learn what it’s like to rebuild a home and friendships in a new city. When her first day moved in proves a challenge for Joy to keep her happy the other emotions go crazy. Sadness is overwhelmed and can’t help tarnishing happy memories when she touches them. Joy’s stress leads to a tug-of-war with Sadness and they lose Riley’s core memories; a day with her best friend, learning how to play hockey, and goofing off with her father. While Joy and Sadness leave the “headquarters” where emotions take control of Riley, Fear, Disgust, and Anger try to keep her sane without much success.

One of Pixar’s strengths when creating a movie is keeping the audience in mind. Most of their movies are about growing up, which adults can relate to, and it’s through a young character which children enjoy watching. Inside Out uses five emotions to tell a story of childhood and how it gets complicated when they can blend together. Sadness feels useless but it’s through Riley’s new experience of moving that makes her role stand out. Joy strives to keep upbeat throughout the search back to headquarters, but has to lean on Sadness at times. The adults in the audience might be able to understand how sadness can be a necessary part of life when too much joy can be overwhelming.

The cast fit their roles perfectly. Amy Poehler’s perky Joy can bring a smile to anyone’s face. As Joy, she can lift the audience up when the storyline moves in a downcast direction. As the other lead, Phyllis Smith uses her soft, gloomy voice to take the tone down a notch. Her character is sympathetic as she can’t help but be immune to Joy’s nature. Then there’s Bill Hader as Fear, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, and Lewis Black as Anger who are all not positive emotions but with the balance of Joy keep Riley in check.

While these are all of Riley’s emotions being played out on screen, her emotions teach a lesson of support. Family has always been an important aspect of Riley’s life and when she loses control of her emotions, she hurts them through her words and actions. Adults might remember the difficult years of puberty on the brink of appearing and they just can’t control how to feel. It’s a warning to the young ones in the audience that a challenging time is approaching but hopefully they can lean on family and friends to get through it.

Inside Out takes the audience on a roller coaster of emotions. The audience is guaranteed to feel happy, sadness, and anxiety through the mediums of humor and stressful situations. Like Pixar’s previous works on growing up (i.e. Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.) this movie is another great example that the future might be all right.

Big Hero 6

Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit
Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams
Rating: B

One of the movies out lately that I’d recommend watching is Big Hero 6. At first I was a little weary about seeing a kid movie but by the end I was glad to have spent the $9 theaters near me are charging. Disney knows how to do a movie right, and with Big Hero 6 you’re not just being entertained with explosions, humor, and justice, you’re also getting emotionally attached for the 1hr 45min of the movie.

Hiro is an intelligent thirteen-year-old orphan, living with his older brother and aunt in San Fransokyo. He’s already graduated high school and spends his time building robots to participate in the illegal robot fights throughout the city. Tadashi, his older brother, sees the great potential in his younger sibling and with a little encouragement, persuades him to apply to his university. To be accepted, Hiro must compete in a competition and outshine older students for the spot.

…Then an accident happens, leaving Hiro in the care of Baymax, a robotic caregiver. Baymax’s sole purpose is to aid an injured person until they are satisfied with their care. With the help of his friends and Baymax, Hiro sets out to seek justice for the “accident”.

We’re set to immediately like Hiro. He’s the underdog. He’s just becoming a teenager, he’s very bright for his age, and he’s an orphan who has almost lost everything. We follow Hiro’s movements throughout the movie hoping for this kid to feel better and he has to go on a journey to get there. Baymax, his robotic companion, is easily likeable. As a robot he is programmed to be a caregiver and Hiro teaches him how to be “cool”.

While watching the movie, Big Hero 6 felt similar to watching The Incredibles. Both movies deal with people using extraordinary powers and they take on a villain of equal skill. They both revolve around the “family” theme whereas the Incredibles family lean on each other, and Hiro depends on Baymax while seeking justice.

Lastly, another reason to see Big Hero 6? The animated short “Feast” is adorable and adds more bang to your buck. There’s a puppy involved and during the whole short you can’t help but “awwww” following this lovable dog around.

Picture source:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/09/03/big-hero-6-discovery-clip