Category: Reviews

EVENT REVIEW: The Science of Pixar

written by David Steffen

This summer at the Science Museum of Minnesota, the touring exhibit was The Science Behind Pixar.  There are sections of the exhibit for every stage of the production from concept art, storyboarding, clay modeling, modeling, rigging, motion capture, rendering, and lighting.

If you’ve ever wondered how computer animation in general is done, or Pixar’s consistently excellent movies in particular, this is a great exhibit to visit.

There are some statues of the characters for photo ops, video interviews of most every position in the Pixar pipeline, videos explaining many of the different visual effects, and lots and lots of interactive exhibits.  The interactive exhibits include simulations of lighting controls, stop motion animation station, 3-D modeling, and lots more.

The exhibit is at the Science Museum of Minnesota through Labor Day, so you don’t have much time at this location!  There is a national USA tour as well as an international tour (currently in Edmonton).  If you want to get a sample of the exhibit check out The Science Behind Pixar website where they have some of the videos you can see on the exhibit.

BOOK REVIEW: 1984 by George Orwell

written by David Steffen

1984 is easily the most well-known dystopian novels, and one of the most famous science fiction novels in history (whether or not Orwell would call it science fiction).  The book was written by George Orwell, and published in 1949.  Almost seventy years later, the political ideas in the story are as relevant as ever, and many of the concepts have since entered everyday vernacular even when those speaking are not familiar with the book itself.  .

In the future of the story, there are only three super-nations across the entire globe–Oceania (which contains the former United States and United Kingdom among others), Eurasia, and Eastasia.  The three super-nations are constantly at war with another in ever-shifting alliances.  The super-nations are all authoritarian states, which maintain control by a combination of ever-present surveillance, constant revision of history, and the limitation destruction of language.

The protagonist of the story is Winston Smith, a writer working for the Ministry of Truth in Airstrip One (the modern name of the region that had once been England.  Every day he makes “corrections” to historical records, part of a systematic and ongoing rewriting of history to suit the goals of the Party.  The Party is the political group in power under the leadership of the tyrant Big Brother.  Winston is a member of the Party (though not of the super-elite Inner Party), and in exchange for some small comforts over the lower-class proles he must live with constant surveillance and expectations of his every behavior as they even try to police his very thoughts.  On the surface he is like any other person, seeming to fit in.  But in his heart of hearts he feels a growing rebellion against the oppressive social environment.

As part of his job, Winston is well-versed in Newspeak, the official language of government communications which is phasing into becoming an official language of everyone.  Newspeak is the only language in history whose vocabulary decreases from year to year, an intentional destruction of nuance and opposing viewpoints to stifle criticism and debate of political views–when the transition to newspeak is complete, the language will only be usable to express ideas approved by the Party, anything else will not be able to be expressed in speech and therefore will not even be able to be expressed in thought.  There are rumors of an underground rebellion, but Winston isn’t sure if they are anything but rumors.

1984 is a cautionary tale warning about the ways of power-mongering political groups who exist only to increase their own power and will do so by any means at their disposal.  I had been familiar with the surveillance basis of Oceania, but the detailed discussion of the destruction of language to suit political purposes was chilling and new to me because it felt all too familiar–limited vocabulary, using established terms incorrectly so that no one can be sure what is meant by them, statements in polar opposition to the actions at the same time like a magician distracting you with a wave of their hand.

The book does have a bit of a reputation for being a bit pedantic, and that’s not inaccurate–there are entire chapters in the book which are chapters from a political book within the book explaining the basis of the society.  But, honestly, those chapters were some of the best in the book–a lot of detail laid out quite concisely and I was discovering it as Winston was discovering it so my reaction was his.  You can look at it as just a long political discussion, but I thought Winston was a believable if not entirely likable character.

It is also a romance, at least for part of the book, something I didn’t expect, the element of which is in stark contrast with the constant control of the society of Big Brother.

I wish it felt more fictional.  It is disheartening that after nearly seventy years, we have apparently not learned anything to end up with these leaders over and over again.  Although I guess to look on the optimistic side perhaps we haven’t reached the point of no return that has been reached in 1984 with no apparent way out.  I read the book now because I kept hearing references to it with the current administration, and it is very relevant now (maybe it is always this relevant, but the resemblance seems almost derivative at the moment).

Hugo Review: Graphic Story Finalists

written by David Steffen

The final category I’m reviewing in the Hugo Award review series for this year, this is for the graphic story category.  I like graphic stories, but I tend to not do a very good job keeping up with them, so I use this category as a chance to get a sampling from some popular stories.

Also on the ballot in this category is Paper Girls Volume 1 by Image, which I simply didn’t find the time to read.

1. The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)

The Vision is a synthezoid, a sort of android that is constructed of human flesh and human memories, created by Ultron but ultimately turning on his creator and eventually joining the Avengers team.  He has various powers, including the ability to control his own body density to either phase through objects or become a dense weapon, he also has a laser in his forehead, and the computing capacity of a machine.  Before the start of this comic, in a manner which is never really explained as far as I could tell in this comic, the Vision has died and resurrected, and in the aftermath of trying to work through his own death he has created several offshoots of himself to act as a wife, a son, and a daughter, and the four of them have moved into a house in the suburbs.  Vision is trying to understand what it is to be human by filling the role here, (while simultaneously acting as a member of the Avengers).

I loved this comic, had a lot of the sort of appeal that Spock or Data have in analyzing what makes humans human, but with an extra unpredictable element–Vision’s various selves are not always mentally stable, especially under the stress of trying to fit in to suburban life where they are obviously different.  This comic has a lot of interesting things to say about the human condition, while being both very dark at times and very funny, particularly when the Vision is mansplaining how to be human to Virginia who generally comes across as more human than he is.  I rarely keep up with ongoing comics, but I’d like to keep up with this one.

2. Ms. Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)

Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is struggling to keep up with school, family, and being a member of the Avengers team all simultaneously.  She wants it all, and she’s sure she can manage it somehow.  She is experiencing a rough patch with her best friend and love interest Bruno, who has started dating someone else, and a new real estate developer is moving into Jersey City and is using the Ms. Marvel image without her permission to promote their company.

I still really love this Ms. Marvel comic.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously even while it has major stakes.  Lots of weird, fun action, often caused by her inventor friend Bruno who is often more clever than he knows what to do with.  Lots of fun, and it makes me want to catch up on the backlog of what I missed between Volume 1 and Volume 5.

3. Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)

T’Challa is the king of Wakanda, a super-technologically advanced African nation.  T’Challa is the Black Panther, who dons a panther suit to protect his country.  But unrest is stirring in Wakanda, not everyone feels that T’Challa is doing the best for their people.

I don’t know if this new revamping of Black Panther is typical of the past iterations of the comic, but this felt more like a science fictional political drama rather than a fun actiony romp (not that there’s not action, but it’s more mixed than other comics).  So I had to adjust my expectations as I headed into this one, as well as getting familiar with characters I’d never read before.  Good story, solid political and personal stories in a time of rising civil war.

4. Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)

Continuing the action space opera story of previous sagas:  before this story star-crossed wife and husband Alana and Marko on the run from those who want to kill them, have been separated from their daughter Hazel (if you read previous volumes she started out the series as a baby but she’s early school age now).  Her parents are criminals and Hazel manages to hide her tiny wings that mark her as an outcast, a half-breed that would be shunned by both sides of the war her parents originated from.  Alana and Marko must rescue Hazel.

I think I’ve missed about half of the volumes in the series so far, so that made it hard to keep track of who all the characters are and what their relationships are with each other.  I like the atypical story of parenting a small child in a space opera world, and if nothing else I enjoy the weird design of the creatures that are often mixtures of humanoid and not-humanoid.  Overall I’d say… it’s not the easiest series to skip half the volumes of.  Also, there are unexpected and rather random nudity (including full frontal), so just keep that in mind if you read them on your phone at lunch at work like I do.

5. Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)

The story takes place in a matriarchal continent torn by war between the arcanics (magical creatures that sometimes can pass for human but often have differences like extra limbs or tails or eyes), and the Cumea who butcher the arcanics to fuel their own powers.  Maika Halfwolf is a one-armed arcanic who passes for a human who is a mission of revenge, who has a power dwelling inside her that even she doesn’t understand.

There’s some heavy lifting here to get a grasp of the world, though there are occasional “tutorial” sections that give some more detailed background.  I liked the conflict between Maika and the power inside her that she struggles to control, but some of the broader political stuff I had trouble following at times.  Creepy and horrific imagery at times, and I think it will be a good story, though I seem to be a little slow on picking it up.

 

 

 

 

 

GAME REVIEW: Kill the Plumber

written by David Steffen

plumbertitle
Many gamers (especially those from the age of 30-40) grew up with Super Mario Bros. as their big introduction to games.  The music, the visuals, the enemies, the plot are all engrained deep in your heart with a lot of loving nostalgia.

Kill the Plumber is a 2016 platformer parody of Super Mario Bros. developed by Keybol that turns the tables on the classic original.  A psychotic plumber has invaded your kingdom and he is massacring your citizens to pursue the princess who wants nothing more than to get away from her stalker.  So you mobilize your forces to fight this invader.  The plumber is fast and agile, and sometimes has extra powers like fireballs or invincibility, but you have numbers, and you can try each level as many times as you need to.

Each level is very very short, with the goal of killing the plumber.  The creatures you are control are mostly direct analogs to enemies found in the Super Mario Bros. series of games–creatures like goombas, koopas, thwomps, boos, as well as some boss characters.  The goal in each You get extra stars for completing levels faster, which you can use to unlock bonus levels.

PlumberIt’s fun to get to try out the other side of the gameplay, although it’s certainly not an exact reversal–though the plumber is fast and agile, he’s also very predictable–always reacting to you in exactly the same way, and so the key to most of the levels to figure out that pattern and exploit it–if he automatically jumps over you, then try to place yourself so he will jump off a cliff, and that sort of thing.

Some of the levels are fun–I particularly liked the boss battles, as well as the levels where you are a thwomp (with the enhanced ability to also move right and left).  Many of the other levels are very frustrating, especially when you are a goomba, given the extremely limited abilities, or when you’re a hammer brother (which despite how powerful they are, it’s really annoying to try to hit anything that’s running with those arcing hammers).  But mostly, the game feels like a lot of repetition–once you figure out the tricks, alot of the levels are almost identical to each other, and it started to feel rather tedious–this despite my total gameplay time to get through the whole thing only being about a half hour.  For me, at least, the game didn’t sustain my interest as long as I felt it could have.

Visuals
Simple, but appropriate, given the source material.

Audio
Again, simple but appropriate.

Challenge
There are levels of the game that took me quite a few tries to finish, and a few of the levels were what I would call genuinely challenging, but more often the levels were just based on fiddling with timing to an irritating degree that was neither particularly challenging nor fun.

Story
The story is slight, but amusing, recasting the familiar Super Mario Bros. series standard plot of “plumber going to save the princess from monsters who have kidnapped her” to “monsters defending the princess from the plumber who just won’t leave her alone”.

Session Time
One try at each level usually takes a maximum of, like, a minute.  You can retry any level as many times as you like and move on to the next level.  So it’s easy to just close the window at any time and it will save your progress.  The game shuts down lightning quick and starts up lightning quick, so it’s very easy to just play for a few minutes if that’s all you’ve got.

Playability
There aren’t a lot of controls, depending on the creature you are in control of at the moment.  Sometimes just walking, sometimes also with jumping and attack buttons.  It gets the most tricky when there are multiple creatures onscreen and every button press moves them all, but it’s still simple understand even if somewhat tricky to execute.

Replayability
There is some attempt at replayability built into the game, in terms of getting from 0-3 stars based on the time it takes to complete a level.  If you get more stars you can unlock extra levels as well.

Originality
It’s premise and many of the creatures are based on parodying a well-known game, so in that respect I guess it’s not hugely original, though the reversal of the Mario story I haven’t seen before.

Playtime
With no particular proficiency at the game, I finished the main levels in about 34 minutes.  It honestly seemed like longer because a few of the levels took a ton of tries, but when each try might only take 30 seconds I guess it didn’t build up too much.  If you wanted to get perfect scores on everything, that would certainly take longer–I have no idea how 3 stars would be possible on quite a few of those levels.

Overall
If you’re amused by the idea, you might want to give it a try for the novelty (that’s what I did), but a lot of the level designs are repetitive and some of the levels become tedious in trying to accomplish something with really unfit tools.  Probably not something I’d recommend.

Funny idea that’s a parody of a classic game that most gamers of a certain age will have played, but often becomes tedious and annoying in its challenges.  Might be worthwhile for you if you like the novelty.  $5 on Steam.

 

MOVIE REVIEW: The LEGO Batman Movie

written by David Steffen
The Lego Batman movie is a comedy/action computer animated movie by Warner Bros. Pictures released in February 2017.  It is a followup, if not exactly a sequel, to The Lego Movie (reviewed here).  The connection with The Lego Movie is slight apart from the obvious connection that they’re Lego-based worlds:  Batman (Will Arnett) is a recurring character, and there are references to certain characters being Master Builders who have uncanny Lego-building powers.

The movie starts with a typical scene in Batman’s life: Batman facing off against the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and a horde of his other enemies both well-known and lesser-known, and then retires to his giant mansion empty but for Alfred his butler.  Soon after, when Batman is back to being his alter-ego Bruce Wayne while at a charity event he accidentally adopts  the orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera). Soon Dick finds the Bat Cave and decides to take a costume and bcome Robin to join Batman in his crimefighting adventures whether Batman likes it or not.

Like The Lego Movie, this movie is hilarious.  You don’t have to watch The Lego Movie first, since there is very little connection between the two, but both are very well made comedy movies.  You don’t necessarily have to be familiar with Batman, but a lot of the humor will land better if you have some familiarity with the characters–there are a lot of fun campy jokes poking fun at the old Batman TV series and movies.  But there are plenty of funny parts even if you’re not in on those, and in some of my favorite parts late in the movie took very unexpected turns that were completely unexpected.

At the movie they had a preview for The Lego Ninjago Movie, and I will happily go see it, even though I’m completely unfamiliar with Ninjago.

MOVIE REVIEW: Zoolander 2

written by David Steffen

Zoolander 2 is a comedy action movie released in February 2016 by Paramount Pictures.  It is the sequel to the 2001 film Zoolander.

In the last movie, male supermodels Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and  Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) saved the world from fashion supervillain Mugatu’s (Will Ferrell) nefarious plans, and then founding The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to do Other Stuff Good Too.  Derek also had a beautiful baby boy with his wife Matilda (Christine Taylor), who they named Derek Zoolander Jr.

The unveiling of the center was a tragic disaster, as the cheaply built building collapses, killing Matilda, and leaving Hans with horrible scars that leave him exiled from the modeling community, and Derek leaves the public eye to become a hermit (or a “hermit crab”, as he would say).

In the present day, someone has been murdering beautiful young people, the most recent being Justin Bieber as himself).  Some of these victims have managed to get one last selfie out the world with one of Zoolander’s trademark modeling looks in them.  What do these selfies mean?  Meanwhile, Billy Zane (as himself) arrives at Zoolander’s place of seclusion to draw him back into society to find his son he had left behind all those years ago.  Billy Zane also arrives at Hansel’s place to draw him to the same place.  They meet Valentina Valencia (Penelope Cruz), of INTERPOL fashion police, who has been investigating the celebrity murders.

I hadn’t expected to like the original Zoolander movie when it came out, but it was so silly and weird and unique that I was drawn in despite my expectations, and I would recommend that movie for anyone who is looking for a silly comedy.  This one… unfortunately just felt like a lazy rehash by the creators to cash in on the success of the previous movie.  It lacked the subversion of expectations of the original, rarely doing anything new or interesting with the idea, even though there should be plenty of new things to do, given that it’s sort of a fashion-based spy movie.  Some of the time it just seemed like a frame to hang celebrity cameos on (of which there were many).  I would recommend skipping the movie and find something else to watch.

Hugo Review: Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form Finalists

written by David Steffen

Another category in the Hugo Award review series for this year, this is for the Dramatic Presentation Long Form category which covers dramatic presentations (most often movies, but it could be dramatic stageplays or video games).

Not reviewed here are Deadpool, because it had cycled back out of Redbox by the time I looked for it, and Stranger Things, which I haven’t gotten my hands on either.

1. Hidden Figures, screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, directed by Theodore Melfi (Fox 2000 Pictures/Chernin Entertainment/Levantine Films/TSG Entertainment)

Hidden Figures is a drama based on the true story of three Black women who played pivotal roles in the space race, making John Glenn the first American to orbit the earth in 1962.  All three women worked for NASA in the segregated “colored” group : Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) worked as a computer (“computer” at the time was an occupation of people who did calculations, rather than the modern use of being a machine), Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) as an aspiring engineer, and Dorothy Vaughan as an unofficial supervisor.  After the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, the USA pushes to catch up in the space race and many people at NASA push back against prejudice to give these women the chance they deserve.

This is an incredible movie, with incredible actors, and tells a story of the space race that I had never heard before, with the focus usually on the astronauts on the front lines.  They fought for what they wanted to do, and in a place and society that was always holding them down they fought for their place and they succeeded, playing an integral part in American history (the tragedy being that their role had not reached much of the public awareness until this movie).  This movie does a great job not only portraying the conflict between the US and the USSR at that tense time, but also the race conflict in America in a time when segregation had officially been ended but was still in effect in many regions.  Great film, and I can see why it has been so acclaimed.

2. Arrival, screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve (21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films)

I reviewed this movie here on Diabolical Plots in December, and for the Ray Bradbury Finalists review.

Arrival is a science fiction first contact story starring Amy Adams as Louise Banks, one of the linguists recruited by the US government to learn how to communicate with the aliens dwelling inside one of the twelve giant ships that have suddenly appeared all over the world–this one in Montana.  Why are the aliens here?  What do they want?  The world trembles on the brink of war from the tension of not knowing, and it is up to Louise and her team to find out the truth.

This movie is tense and compelling with compelling characters and cool SFnal ideas based around the classic challenge of first contact.  It is based on a story written by Ted Chiang, one of my favorite short fiction authors, and is well worth seeing.

3. Ghostbusters, screenplay by Katie Dippold & Paul Feig, directed by Paul Feig (Columbia Pictures/LStar Capital/Village Roadshow Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Feigco Entertainment/Ghostcorps/The Montecito Picture Company)

Ghostbusters is a comedy/action reboot of the original Ghostbusters franchise which consisted of films in 1984 and 1989, about a quartet of ghost-hunters who use high-tech gadgets to trap and contain hostile spirits loose in the world.  The film takes place in a world where the original Ghostbusters film never happened,  and the public as a whole is skeptical of the existence of ghosts, but major hauntings have suddenly started happening all over New York and four women come together to investigate and stop this from escalating.  Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristin Wiig) are physicists who wrote a book about paranormal phenomena.  Gilbert has disowned the book in the pursuit of what she views as a more legitimate academic career, but she discovers that Yates has self-published it without her knowledge.  Yates has been working with Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), an eccentric engineer who has been building the equipment for new experiments in the paranormal.  Together they found the Ghostbusters, and soon after they hire Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), a subway worker who knows pretty much everything about New York.

The movie starts fresh, but it doesn’t forget its roots–there are cameos from the original Ghostbusters cast, which is a fun nod to the original.  And as a whole, the feel of the movie fits in nicely with the other two films.  The action has large scale stakes and there is plenty of action, but always with an edge of comedy.  McKinnon was the highlight of the film for me, being the new-movie analog to the Egon character played by Harold Ramis in the original, her look, her attitude, her gadgets, she is a very fun mad scientist character.  McCarthy and Jones are up to their usual form, though I would’ve liked if the movie hadn’t been set up so that the only black Ghostbuster was also the only one without higher education.  Wiig is one of my favorite comedy actors, but I didn’t feel like the film did much with her comedically, for reasons I don’t understand–she has very few funny lines, and as a whole her character felt like she was trying to be in a more straightforward action film while all the the rest were in a comedy.  Perhaps in the tradition of playing the foil against the other oddball characters, but perhaps I’m so used to Wiig playing the oddball characters herself that it just seemed out of place.  I also loved Chris Hemsworth as their doofy secretary.

And… this probably only annoys because I work in self-publishing, I feel like the self-publishing element of the plot was a super weak way for the characters to meet.  If someone you haven’t talked to for years  ruins your chance at tenure by self-publishing the old book you co-wrote without bothering to ask your permission, I wouldn’t respond by seeking them out and talking to them, I’d file a Copyright Takedown Notice with Amazon immediately, and might consider seeing if they want to publish the book without my name AFTER negotiating something in terms of the existing and future royalties.  I would probably not become buddies with my copyright-infringing estranged school buddy.  But… I’m sure most of the moviegoing public doesn’t feel as strongly about that as I do, so…

But as a whole this was a lot of fun, funny and action-packed.  It’s gotten a fair amount of the pushback that you would expect, “it ruined my childhood” sort of nonsense, but I thought it was fun to take a new angle, let new actors take on a familiar franchise.  I look forward to seeing the sequel that I expect will arise from it.

4. Rogue One, screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, directed by Gareth Edwards (Lucasfilm/Allison Shearmur Productions/Black Hangar Studios/Stereo D/Walt Disney Pictures)

I reviewed this movie in the Ray Bradbury Finalists Review in April.

The newest in the Star Wars movies, albeit not one of the main numbered sequence.  This story takes place just before Star Wars: New Hope (the original movie).  Galen Orso (Mads Mikkelsen), former scientists for the Galactic Empire, has been living in seclusion for some time, but he is abducted and brought back to work on his grandest project yet–the weapon that will come to be known as the Death Star.  When he is taken, his young daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones) escapes and is taken in by extremist rebel Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker).  Fifteen years later, the Death Star is nearly complete and Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) has defected from the Empire with plans for the weapons to give to the rebels, but the pilot falls into the hands of Gerrera, who is just as violent against other rebels as against the Empire.  Jyn is captured and recruited to communicate with Gerrera to try to recover the plans.

It was exciting and fun to get to see this important piece of Star Wars lore that we only heard about the results of in passing.  The main complaint I heard about the movie before it came out was that the cast was so large that you never really got to know anyone, and I think there’s some truth to that, although I did have a great deal of affection for the protagonist Jyn, and also for spiritual warrior Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and the mercenary Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) who were weird and quirky.  Unfortunately because of the nature of the movie, and the fact that none of these characters were in the original trilogy, you can probably guess how they end up, and you also know that they succeeded since that’s what made the ending of A New Hope possible.  But it’s still a fun movie worth watching, even if the characters aren’t as well developed and the ending is already known.

MOVIE REVIEW: Trolls

written by David Steffen

Trolls is a 2016 DreamWorks animated romantic comedy adventure film for kids, based on the lucky troll dolls that were popular in the 80s (you know, the little naked dolls with the giant flourescent hair?).

Trolls are tiny creatures of nearly endless happiness, spending all of their time singing, dancing, and hugging.  They also have fast-growing prehensile camoflauging hair which was admittedly pretty neat.  Twenty years ago, all of the known trolls were held in captivity by a race of much larger creatures called Bergens, who live in nearly unending unhappiness but who discovered that they can be happy for a short time if they eat a troll.  So the Bergens rounded up all the trolls and kept them captive in the center of their town, and once a year on the Trollstice holiday, the Bergens have a feast of trolls and as a result have a day of happiness.

But on that fateful Trollstice twenty years ago King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor) led the trolls on their escape, burrowing out of their enclosure and out of the Bergen city before they could be eaten.  The Bergen chef who was in charge of preparing the Trollstice feast was exiled into the wilderness.  Twenty years have passed and the trolls still live free in the woods, unharrassed by their former tormentors.

On this momentous anniversary, the trolls are having a bigger celebration than ever to celebrate.  Only one troll is opposed to the festivities–Branch (Justin Timberlake), a strangely uncolorful, unjoyous troll who refuses to sing or to dance and who has a reputation of being a paranoid crackpot because he is constantly raving about the dangers of being discovered by the Bergens.  Branch’s worst fears come true as the exiled chef from all those years ago sees the fireworks of the troll celebration, and captures a pouchful of trolls to win her way back into the good graces of the Bergens.  Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick), daughter of King Peppy who had led the trolls to escape all those years ago, ropes Branch into helping her rescue her friends.

I got the impression that the audience of the movie is supposed to find the carefree joyous attitude of most of the trolls endearing, but I found it anything but.  It can be a wonderful trait to find happiness wherever you go, but I found it very hard to have a great deal of sympathy for the trolls’ plight in this movie which was brought on by ignoring Branch’s solid advice and insisting on partying in the loudest possible fashion despite their deadly enemies being less than a day’s walk away.  It’s one thing to celebrate, and another thing to do so in a fashion that seals your own doom as you avoid thinking critically about anything.  Branch’s paranoia and grumpiness was portrayed as though it were a character flaw, but if anyone had listened to him, no one would have been in danger, and even without that I wouldn’t say it’s a character flaw to not want to participate in what appears to be the PG version of a giant drunken frat party.  Besides Branch, I did have some sympathy for Poppy, since she was the only troll inclined to actually take some initiative and try to make things better.

I did feel sorry for the Bergens, and wondered what it is that made them so unhappy.  Maybe a dietary deficiency that messes with their brain chemistry, and the only readily available dietary remedy is troll-flesh?  I… generally had a lot more sympathy for them, as horrible as they were supposed to be.  And, again, the movie completely lost me with the implication that the Bergens really just need to loosen up, because apparently dancing solves depression?

I’m sure a lot of kids will love this movie, and probably some adults.  But, I guess I’m more of a Branch-at-the-beginning-of-the-movie sort of guy.  I was a little surprised they went with this moral for a kid’s movie–usually morals for kids movies are pretty unobjectionable (if not remarkable) but this one felt way off the mark.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sing

written by David Steffen

Sing is a 2016 Illumination Entertainment animated musical comedy about an animal singing competition.  Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), owner of the Moon theater, is on the verge of bankruptcy, but makes one last try at success to save his lifelong dream of running a successful theater:  a singing competition with a prize of $1000, which is slightly more cash than he actually has in hand.  Except, due to a clerical error by his assistant, the posters for the competition indicate that the cash prize is actually $100,000, so the contest draws a lot more notice than he expected.

Among others it draws the attention of devoted mother and pig Rosita (Reese Witherspoon) who has always dreamed of a singing career but who has been busy raising her 25 children, jazz busking mouse Mike (Seth McFarlane), punk rock porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson), British gang gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton), expansive German dancing pig Gunther (Nick Kroll), and stage fright-crippled elephant Meena (Tori Kelly).  Buster doesn’t discover the clerical error in the posters until after the first round of auditions are over, but he decides to stick with the competition, despite having no plan to pay anyone.

The song list for the movie is very long, between full length songs and one-line clips from the first round of auditions (from characters who don’t make it through), lots of catchy stuff to tap your foot along to.  There are several really good character storylines from these singing dreamers who want to get the big break that will change their lives forever–I particularly liked Johnny, and also Ash, as far as the singers themselves go.  Johnny’s final song in particular I found really moving.

My favorite character wasn’t even a singer.  I quite liked the character of Ms. Crawly, the elderly iguana who is working as Buster’s assistant (the one who made the clerical error that started it all).  I feel like the movie treats her as comic relief, using her glass eye, slow gait, and other infirmities as a focus of comedy (I wanted to slap the scriptwriter whenever her eye randomly popped out and started causing trouble) but I found her a relatable character.  Throughout the movie she works hard to do her job, despite the obvious physical problems, she never complains and never gives up, one of those women who quietly labors behind the scenes to make a place of business work smoothly as possible with little attention from her employers.

My only real complaint (apart from the overplayed use of Ms. Crawly’s infirmities as comic relief) was that it was one of those movies where almost all of the best comedy material was in the preview.  If you saw the preview, thought it was hilarious, and want to see more, just keep in mind you’ve probably already seen the best stuff.  The rest of the movie is good, but not good on a level as the material in the preview.  If you didn’t think the preview was hilarious, then this movie’s probably not for you, at least in terms of comedy.  I really wish movies wouldn’t do that, that they would make an effort to make the preview representative rather than to use up all the good stuff in the preview, but I guess that’s the nature of Hollywood marketing.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Secret Life of Pets

written by David Steffen

The Secret Life of Pets is an Illumination Entertainment animated adventure film about dogs and cats and other pets getting into adventures in New York City.  What do your pets do when you’re away at work every day?  What you probably didn’t say is that all the pets in your apartment building sneak out of their apartments and meet up with the other pets in the building to hang out.  But, apparently that’s what they do.

Max, a Jack Russell terrier voiced by Louis CK, is used to it being just him and his owner Katie at night.  And during the day, he just wants to wait loyally for her, despite his Pomeranian friend Gidget (voiced by Jenny Slate) and other pets in the building getting together. One day Katie brings home a big mutt named Duke (voiced by Eric Stonestreet) and they become unwilling roommates, leaving Max jealous because his time with Katie now has to be shared.  He tries to abandon Duke in an alley, but a gang of alley cats steal their collars and leave them for Animal Control.  Gidget, realizing her friend is missing, gets the pets of the building together to find Max.

The high point of the movie is that there are some particularly good comedy lines, that feel almost like they were prepared for stand-up comedy–makes me wonder if the comedian voice actors wrote some of the lines themselves.

My favorite character in the movie is Snowball, an adorable and fluffy and psychotic white bunny rabbit that leads a violent resistance of abandoned pets that lives in the sewers.

If you’re big on plots, this movie is very light on that aspect.  It is not so much a plot as a random series of events that coincidentally leads to a conclusion by always conveniently putting the solution to a problem in the same place as the problem.

This is a fun movie with good funny writing and lots of great voice talent.  Fun for adults and kids alike.  There are some laugh out loud moments and really good comedy lines in there, delivered well.  It’s not what you’d call a deep movie, it’s nothing that will change your life forever, but it’s fun and there is plenty of spectacle to keep you busy.  My kid loves it so I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, and it’s not the worst movie to see a bunch of times (though I’d rather watch Zootopia, for instance).