Disney / Pixar's Brave Review (Major Spoilers)

[matt_zimmer]

Also reviews for the short La Luna and the latest episodes of DC Nation, Futurama, Ultimate Spider-Man, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and TRON: Uprising.





Disney / Pixar's Brave

This was a good movie. It was interesting to me that Pixar decided not to really break any new ground with this story and animation. It was just a really good movie told really well and it was definitely more traditional than Pixar is used to doing. It may SEEM like a new idea that Pixar finally centered a movie around a female character but it doesn't really play out that way.

That said, I really like the movie for what it says about gender roles. As I said, it was not a NEW message but I think considering how docile Disney Princesses usually are it seemed like a necessary one. This movie DOES contain a first however: this is the first Disney Princess movie where the Princess remains single and doesn't choose a suitor at the end. That was kind of neat and the neatest thing about it is that it was in the end not a huge deal. But I think this was a bigger deal for the Disney Princess brand itself than the first African American Princess in The Princess And The Frog turned out to be, just because that movie while certainly creative, didn't really do anything groundbreaking with that idea.

I really love those three little triplet boys / cubs. They pretty much stole the movie.

The climax was definitely not as rousing as some of Pixar's other offerings but frankly, I don't think that every single one of their movies NEEDS a super elaborate climax. That's something moviegoers have recently only demanded for a couple of decades or so and is not completely something movies (even kids ones) need to be dependent on, or at last they didn't in the past. That said, it's definitely an action sequence and even if it's more smaller and personal in scale, it's brutal enough to earn the film it's PG rating (but just barely).

My favorite character was King Fergus. Billy Connolly did a smashing job as him. Connolly has a great voice, doesn't he? He seems to have been getting more and better work lately and he is equally adept at drama as he is at stand-up comedy. For the record, Fergus is DEFINITELY a comic role.

A very successful traditional movie from Pixar that I enjoyed, even if it didn't really do anything huge for me. ****1/2.

La Luna:

This short is most like Partly Cloudy in tone but even MORE cutesy. However cutesy animation has been so successful for so long because it works. It got the reaction it wanted for me: a warm and fuzzy feeling. Don't ask me to explain the logic of the short or what exactly happened during it (I'm still a bit confused by the concept) but I think it did its job and was definitely better than Partly Cloudy even if the story was harder to follow. Adorable. ****.





DC Nation

DC Nation Demonstrations: The Tumbler

Cool car, no way it would work in real life. ***1/2.

Catwoman #1

This was interesting and completely unexpected. Great anime animation. Only problem is I'm not sure the concept will be able to do justice to the fact that it's serialized. For example, Sword of the Atom works as a serial because of the cliffhangers that were part of a story that could have come out of a 40's serial. The new Catwoman anime is totally different. We'll have to see if they will be able to keep up the momentum. But hey, look Bane! ****.

MAD Presents... "Batman Family Fued"

They left out the funniest gag from the original skit. When Steve Harvey asks for something a penguin does Batman immediately says "robs banks" without missing a beat. This is the first MAD cutdown that actually feels like it's missing TOO much material. **1/2.





Futurama "The Butterjunk Effect"

Very funny episode. It felt like something we've seen the show do multiple times before but despite the concept not being fresh the episode was crammed wall to wall with great lines and sight gags. This episode was funnier than it had any right to be due to the lousy premise. This should have been a loser of an episode but it turned out to be a winner. ****.





Marvel Universe

Ultimate Spider-Man "Awesome"

Technically this was a bad episode but it had enough laugh out loud moments for me to recommend it even with my reservations. You can't hate an episode with Awesome Andy and Coulson buh-nekkid. Best part? The Howard the Duck cameo. I can't give any episode with Howard less than three stars. ***.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! "Secret Invasion"

Okay, my biggest question was left unanswered: what happened to the Hulk? He wasn't even mentioned this week and his captivity has been my biggest anxiety about this whole Skrull invasion.

And how did Thor get back to Earth? And where was Black Panther? I thought he rejoined the team.

Loved all of the different Skrull designs including a Spidey and a Wolverine one. Cool stuff.

Loved the episode but I was also frustrated by the end of it. ****.



Iron Man: Armored Adventures "The Makluan Invasion, Part 1: Annihilate!"

Sigh. I had REALLY high hopes for this two parter as it sounded like it was gonna be a slam-bang Avengers team-up but it was really just more Gene/Mandarin nonsense. How many times are Tony and the gang gonna have to team up with him before they are actually allowed to smack him down? Tiring.

Still, part 2 is coming next week and if it IS a good series finale maybe my opinion of this episode will have changed. As of now, it's only so-so. ***.



TRON: Uprising "Price Of Power"

Beck was acting super stupid this episode. Yeah, the weapon infected him but he should have double-checked to make REALLY sure it was destroyed. That is going to bite him later.

The fights were tight this episode. They fully used the half-CGI / half-hand-drawn medium to the fullest.

Interesting episode. ****.

Comments

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

All I know is that from the one post I saw him make in the Cafe is that he thought Bush beat Kerry in one of the debates. Which is the mark of a very stupid person. The thing was the arguments he made about why Bush won were VERY persuasive and almost even convinced me! But then I realized that you could only believe Bush won the debates by talking about helping "small businesses" if you were stupid enough to believe a word he said. Bush was a well-known liar even back then. Matt Wilson was a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like. I am still amused at how long he fell for the joke that the Simpsons movie would be live-action. He refused to do a mea culpa about being had because of his ego and a lot of people (inluding me) made fun of him for that. That was one of the few times he refused to respond to anyone ragging on him.

Off-topic slightly, but do you know the thing I hated most about John Kerry (besides him conceding the election too early?) He made a statement before his debates that Bush was an excellent debater and won every debate he had ever been in. He was trying to downplay expectations and he did so by denying reality. I thought is was a HUGE insult to Ann Richards and Al Gore who creamed that idiot in every debate he was ever in.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

That's a good description of Matt Wilson, a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like. He made some good observations now and then, but that ego of his was just...ugh.

As for Kerry, did he really say that about Bush and his debates? Did he WATCH any of them? There's downplaying expectations, and then there's...that.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I wish I could take credit for that description but someone once said that of Newt Gingrich and I thought it applied.

Yes, Kerry was stupid enough to say that (and more than once). He was a terrrible candidate and I can't believe Dems were foolish enough to nominate him. Romney is ten times worse of a candidate but the difference there is that he was STILL the best the Repubs had (next to Huntsman who was a non-starter due to being sane) so nominating him made sense. But we actually had a few good candidates to choose from. Us letting Kerry be our nominee when Howard Dean and Wesley Clark were just standing RIGHT THERE was absolute foolishness on the Dems' part. Clark especially would have crushed Bush in the general election and would not have allowed himself to be swiftboated.

I LOVE Al Gore but how stupid were we to nominate ANOTHER stiff and boring guy against Bush? He was just as rich as Bush so we couldn't make that an issue. And he voted for the Iraq war so that advantage was dust. And he was even in Skull and Bones in college so we couldn't even get the crazy conspiracy theorists behind us. It was a choice between the rich, well-connected, gaffe machine who supported the war in Iraq... and the OTHER rich, well-connected gaffe machine who supported the war in Iraq.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

I think there's a lot more that goes into nominating a candidate than we see. I don't know how Howard Dean would've gone, honestly, and as for Wesley Clark, you may be right, but there had to be a reason Kerry got the nomination. For Gore, obviously, it was the fact that he served as VP for 8 years. That gives him a lot of credit, despite how he comes across on TV (and weren't you the one who once told me he's actually quite charismatic?). Gore should've beat Bush.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Gore DID beat Bush and he IS charimatic! I'm specifically talking about Kerry. The perception of Gore was that he was a boring stiff guy and even though that wasn't true that was the narrative. So the Dems go ahead and nominate a guy who actually IS boring and stiff. Gore was the right nominee for 2000 but Kerry was completely wrong for 2004. The reason Kerry got the nomination is because the media sabotaged Dean with the "Dean Scream" once he threatened to break up the media conglomorates. Once that happened the Dems should have rallied around Clark. 2000 may not have been as close as 2000 but it was a winnable election had the Dems nominated someone else.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

If Gore beat Bush, why'd we suffer through eight years of Bush? As for Dean, would he have really been a good candidate?

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Cheating in Florida and a partisan Supreme Court. Gore won the popular vote and would have won Florida had the SC not stopped them counting the ballots. Dean would have been a better candidate than Kerry by far and considering that the election was STILL pretty close (people did NOT really like Bush) that may have been enough. Clark would have won the general election in a landslide. No question. I can't believe he didn't get more traction especially since Kerry's biggest "selling point" was "electibility". What a joke.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

I was just trying to back up my point. No matter how messy the 2000 election was, the fact is, Bush became president and Gore didn't.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Definitely. But Gore was the one who actually won the election. :P

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Truly he was too good for this sinful country.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I wanted Gore to run in 2008 with Obama as his running mate (setting him up for 2016). I even had their campaign slogan picked out: Sweet Home AlObama. :D

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

That is HILARIOUS!

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I wish I could take credit for it but it was a meme going around the blogs at the time. The best part of that slogan would have been how much it would p*** off racists. The song "Sweet Home Alabama" is actually a song celebrating racism using not so subtle dogwhistles. So coopting it for a Democratic campaign with a black guy on the ticket would have infuriated rednecks. But hey, if Ronald Reagan can use Springsteen's "Born in the USA" as a campaign theme without permission than simply using a song title soundalike minus the song wouldn't be unprecedented.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Well, at least Ruben Studdard, a black guy, managed to adopt "Sweet Home Alabama" as his theme. I'm sure that pissed off those who liked the racist aspects of the song.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Great point. I don't watch American Idol so I didn't know that.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I watched the earlier seasons until it became...wearying.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I watched one episode and decided it wasn't for me. It was one of those audition episodes and I thought it was SO mean to see all of these kids get humiliated on national TV and have their dreams publicly crushed. As I understand it, that's why Dunkelman left the show after one season.

And is Dunkelman the greatest name ever, or what?

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Saw the first 2 or 3 seasons, lost interest. But yes, I remember Brian Dunkelman saying that. He does have a funny name. In fact, I remember him talking about it and sarcastically said he was going to have his own prank show where he just goes out and kicks people in the nuts on TV. He'd call it "Dunk'd"

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Genius. Pure genius. Tee hee! :D

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was funny, but it's unfortunate he was kind of angry at making the joke because of how mean reality TV can be.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Reality TV sucks. I don't watch ANY of it. The only reality show I ever liked was the very first season of Survivor and that's because it was unprecedented. Now every reality show is exactly the same.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a different world back then. I'll admit to watching the first few seasons of Jersey Shore, but that's because it's fun when you watch it with a crowd (and got a lot less fun when the popularity of those freaks exploded).

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

The only time I've watched Jersey Shore were the clips on Beavis and Butt-Head. By the way, I actually wouldn't recommend getting the new Beavis and Butt-Head on DVD or if you do I wouldn't recommend watching it all at once. The amount of clips of Jersey Shore are almost overwhelming (they are literally in every episode) and it's almost as bad as having to watch the series itself, B&B MS3TKing them non-withstanding.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, doesn't sound like the thing that should be taken in one sitting.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

It really isn't. It made me feel a bit ill after awhile.