Matt Zimmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
matt_zimmer) wrote2012-11-23 07:25 am
matt_zimmer) wrote2012-11-23 07:25 am
Entry tags:
The Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2 Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest episode of American Horror Story: Asylum.
Upcoming reviews on this journal include Brave (Blu-Ray), Transformers Prime: Season 2, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1 - Volume 2, Power Rangers Super Samurai: The Complete Season, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation: Volume 2, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 2: The War Years, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 3: The Years Of Change, and Heathcliff: Season 1 - Volume 1.
American Horror Story: Asylum "The Origins Of Monstrosity"
Zachary Quinto suckling Sarah Paulson's bare breast is the most disturbing thing I have seen on television in years. It's very strange especially because both actors are gay.
Arden is even sicker than Thredson if that's possible. Lana was right in the flashback: even Bloodyface has the need for a mommy. Arden seems like he simply escaped from the gates of Hell.
I have gotten the sneaking suspicion that the writers are going to turn Sister Jude into a White Hat. When the season started off she was one of the most detestable and evil-seeming characters on the show but that fact that all of the forces aligned against her are so evil, means that she is going to have to make a stand and that stand will most likely come from a righteous place. At least that's what I'm hoping will happen.
Loved Kit's phone call to Thredson. I can't understand WHY Thredson was so surprised that Kit would berate him like that especially since everything Kit said was completely true. Maybe that's why it bothered him.
Dylan McDermott as the modern Bloodyface? I can get behind that.
Sister Mary encouraging young Jenny's sociopathy was great fun because it was darkly humorous. But I wonder who is putting on who when the Devil claims there is no God.
Scary episode. ****.
The Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2
This is the second collection of Pixar Short Films (third if you count the Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales DVD).
Some of my favorite Pixar shorts were made during this era. Pixar seemed to be more interested in this point in telling interesting stories with fantastic concepts than pushing the boundaries of computer animation which most of the films on the first set did. Mostly successful but the shorts that relied a bit TOO much on new animation techniques (I'm thinking of Partly Cloudy) aren't as good as those that didn't.
My favorite shorts are the Ratatouille follow-up (Your Friend The Rat), the hilarious magic show one (Presto), the Wall-E spin-off (Burn-E), the explanation of how Dug met Carl (Dug's Special Mission), and the two Toy Story Toons (Hawaiian Vacation / Small Fry). Set Overall: ****1/2.
1. Your Friend The Rat
This short from the Ratatouille DVD was so much fun because it was educational. I learned a lot of things about rats I didn't know before. Much of the animation is 2-D here. Loved it. ****1/2.
2. Presto
Pixar shorts are usually expiremental so it was a delight just watching a short that was pure comedy with no higher aspirations. Think Knick Knick with jaw-dropping animation. I especially liked the super-happy ending the short went for and the reconciliation between the rabbit and the magician when they both realize they had unintentially delivered their greatest show ever. The "magic logic" was also great and I loved that the short went all out in showing the impossible physical implications of a two-way teleporting hat. Very well done. The commentary was interesting too. As the director noted, Presto himself is kind of a fraud and a cad, and has a serious lack of imagination. He has perhaps the most powerful device in the world (the teleportation hats) and uses it for cheap magic tricks. ****1/2.
3. Burn-E
Wonderful short that focuses on a bit player in WALL-E and was both very cute and funny. BURN-E is a great put-upon character who I can't help wondering what happens to after he finally fixes the ship. Something tells me he gets a happy ending too. It was great seeing WALL-E and EVE again from a different perspective too. Continuity alert: this establishes the film takes place in the year 2805 A.D. *****.
4. Partly Cloudy
Here was a Pixar short that made me gasp at the beautiful special effects. Because that's all it really had going for it. It was cute, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the shorts on the disc were better than this. ***.
5. Dug's Special Mission
This is Dug meeting Carl and Russell from Dug's point of view. I like shorts like this. It reminds me a bit of Jack-Jack Attack and Burn-E, i.e. shorts that take place DURING the movie instead of just after it.. ****1/2.
6. George & A.J
This Up spin-off short is a major disappointment. The story is great, but the cheap storyboard-style animation, as well as the fact that Carl and Russell's voices were recast (and in Russell's case by an adult male) make this either a near-miss or if you prefer a near-hit. I would have LOVED to have seen this fully animated in CGI and given the treatment Dug's Special Mission was. As I said, the story was excellent. This tells us what happened to Carl's hometown in his absense. Apparently a bunch of like-minded elderly people pulled copycat stunts to escape from their nursing homes. This also tells us what happened right when Carl, Russell, and Dug landed the blimp. I also really like the CNN-type news-crawl during the news report which reported only things that had to do with the movie. I would have LOVED to have seen this story with higher production values. As it stands, it's merely so-so. ***.
7. Day & Night
This short featuring 2-D cartoony characters surrounding a CGI environment, was fun to watch. It looks unlike any other Pixar short. ****.
8. Hawaiian Vacation
This short was SO funny. It was great to hear Micheal Keaton as Ken again (he stole the third Toy Story movie) and especially great because he wasn't a villain here. I loved all of the toys dressing up Bonnie's room to look like Hawaii to give Barbie and Ken the perfect romantic getaway to share their first kiss (Aaaawww!). This short was a scream. *****.
9. Air Mater
This was sort of a set-up for the movie Planes and I believe it used a couple of characters from that upcoming film. That was pretty cool. ****.
10. Small Fry
This new Toy Story short worked because it took a new toy angle (here discarded fast food toys) and found a good source of new material from it. I've seen variations of every single toy in this short in Happy Meals at some point so the writers and animators did their homework. If there was something I didn't like, it was the ease in which the toys went from house to the fast food joint. In all three movies it was a big and scary moment whenever the Toys ventured out of the playroom on their own and this should have been a bigger deal. I still really like this short though. ****1/2.
11. Time Travel Mater
Hate to say it, but the story for the deleted "Time Travel Mater" short on the Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales DVD was better. They should have just animated that one. This was all right but a giant step down from the mind-blowingness of that deleted scene. **1/2.
12. 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. ****.
George & A.J. Commentary With Director Josh Cooley: It's funny, but this scripted commentary, between Cooley and a lying narrator is funnier and more original than the short itself. ****1/2.
Student Shorts:
These are short student films by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter. The best one is the first by Lasseter (Nitemare) which would have been a classic had the animation been "finished". I didn't like Lasster's "Lady and the Lamp" or Stanton's "A Story". Overall: ***.
Nitemare: I LOVE "There's A Nightmare In My Closet"! This short captured the spirit of that book very well. Beyond adorable. *****.
Lady and the Lamp: Didn't much care for this. The ending was too abrupt. **.
Somewhere in the Arctic: Funny. ***.
A Story: Really cynical and mean-spirited so I didn't much enjoy it. There are some things to note: Ted is the same size and has the same colors as Sulley from Monsters Inc. Those clowns are dead-ringers for the clowns in Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures' "It's Scrappy's Birthday". Did Bakshi hire Stanton on the basis of this short? Also, this is the first Disney DVD I've owned where the words "p*ssed off" are uttered during a cartoon. *1/2.
Winter: Cute. ***1/2.
Palm Springs: The dinosaur was appealing but not much else was. **1/2.
Next Door: Kind of bizarre. ***.
Nitemare Introduction by John Lasseter: Lasseter describes how the film was done all in pencils. ***1/2.
Lady and the Lamp Introduction by John Lasseter: Lasseter notes that the film is the percursor to Luxo Jr. ***1/2.
Somewhere in the Arctic Introduction by Andrew Stanton: This film was made in 1986, the year before Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures premiered. Bakshi snagged Stanton right out of College. ****.
A Story Introduction by Andrew Stanton: It's hard to believe someone who hates the words imagination and magic so much would wind up working at Disney, but there you are. ***1/2.
Winter Introduction by Pete Docter: It's hard to believe that this G-rated affair played at a Spike and Mike film festival. ****1/2.
Palm Springs Introduction by Pete Docter: Docter notes the purple dinosaur came BEFORE Barney. ****.
Next Door Introduction by Pete Docter: This was more in the mold of a weird Spike and Mike film although it too was G rated. ****.
Trailers:
Sofia The First: This actually looks pretty good. ****1/2.
Pinnochio Anti-Smoking PSA: Funny. ***1/2.
Blu-Ray / DVD Menu: Gorgeous animation set to the soundtrack from Your Friend The Rat. *****.
Upcoming reviews on this journal include Brave (Blu-Ray), Transformers Prime: Season 2, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1 - Volume 2, Power Rangers Super Samurai: The Complete Season, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation: Volume 2, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 2: The War Years, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 3: The Years Of Change, and Heathcliff: Season 1 - Volume 1.
American Horror Story: Asylum "The Origins Of Monstrosity"
Zachary Quinto suckling Sarah Paulson's bare breast is the most disturbing thing I have seen on television in years. It's very strange especially because both actors are gay.
Arden is even sicker than Thredson if that's possible. Lana was right in the flashback: even Bloodyface has the need for a mommy. Arden seems like he simply escaped from the gates of Hell.
I have gotten the sneaking suspicion that the writers are going to turn Sister Jude into a White Hat. When the season started off she was one of the most detestable and evil-seeming characters on the show but that fact that all of the forces aligned against her are so evil, means that she is going to have to make a stand and that stand will most likely come from a righteous place. At least that's what I'm hoping will happen.
Loved Kit's phone call to Thredson. I can't understand WHY Thredson was so surprised that Kit would berate him like that especially since everything Kit said was completely true. Maybe that's why it bothered him.
Dylan McDermott as the modern Bloodyface? I can get behind that.
Sister Mary encouraging young Jenny's sociopathy was great fun because it was darkly humorous. But I wonder who is putting on who when the Devil claims there is no God.
Scary episode. ****.
The Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2
This is the second collection of Pixar Short Films (third if you count the Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales DVD).
Some of my favorite Pixar shorts were made during this era. Pixar seemed to be more interested in this point in telling interesting stories with fantastic concepts than pushing the boundaries of computer animation which most of the films on the first set did. Mostly successful but the shorts that relied a bit TOO much on new animation techniques (I'm thinking of Partly Cloudy) aren't as good as those that didn't.
My favorite shorts are the Ratatouille follow-up (Your Friend The Rat), the hilarious magic show one (Presto), the Wall-E spin-off (Burn-E), the explanation of how Dug met Carl (Dug's Special Mission), and the two Toy Story Toons (Hawaiian Vacation / Small Fry). Set Overall: ****1/2.
1. Your Friend The Rat
This short from the Ratatouille DVD was so much fun because it was educational. I learned a lot of things about rats I didn't know before. Much of the animation is 2-D here. Loved it. ****1/2.
2. Presto
Pixar shorts are usually expiremental so it was a delight just watching a short that was pure comedy with no higher aspirations. Think Knick Knick with jaw-dropping animation. I especially liked the super-happy ending the short went for and the reconciliation between the rabbit and the magician when they both realize they had unintentially delivered their greatest show ever. The "magic logic" was also great and I loved that the short went all out in showing the impossible physical implications of a two-way teleporting hat. Very well done. The commentary was interesting too. As the director noted, Presto himself is kind of a fraud and a cad, and has a serious lack of imagination. He has perhaps the most powerful device in the world (the teleportation hats) and uses it for cheap magic tricks. ****1/2.
3. Burn-E
Wonderful short that focuses on a bit player in WALL-E and was both very cute and funny. BURN-E is a great put-upon character who I can't help wondering what happens to after he finally fixes the ship. Something tells me he gets a happy ending too. It was great seeing WALL-E and EVE again from a different perspective too. Continuity alert: this establishes the film takes place in the year 2805 A.D. *****.
4. Partly Cloudy
Here was a Pixar short that made me gasp at the beautiful special effects. Because that's all it really had going for it. It was cute, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the shorts on the disc were better than this. ***.
5. Dug's Special Mission
This is Dug meeting Carl and Russell from Dug's point of view. I like shorts like this. It reminds me a bit of Jack-Jack Attack and Burn-E, i.e. shorts that take place DURING the movie instead of just after it.. ****1/2.
6. George & A.J
This Up spin-off short is a major disappointment. The story is great, but the cheap storyboard-style animation, as well as the fact that Carl and Russell's voices were recast (and in Russell's case by an adult male) make this either a near-miss or if you prefer a near-hit. I would have LOVED to have seen this fully animated in CGI and given the treatment Dug's Special Mission was. As I said, the story was excellent. This tells us what happened to Carl's hometown in his absense. Apparently a bunch of like-minded elderly people pulled copycat stunts to escape from their nursing homes. This also tells us what happened right when Carl, Russell, and Dug landed the blimp. I also really like the CNN-type news-crawl during the news report which reported only things that had to do with the movie. I would have LOVED to have seen this story with higher production values. As it stands, it's merely so-so. ***.
7. Day & Night
This short featuring 2-D cartoony characters surrounding a CGI environment, was fun to watch. It looks unlike any other Pixar short. ****.
8. Hawaiian Vacation
This short was SO funny. It was great to hear Micheal Keaton as Ken again (he stole the third Toy Story movie) and especially great because he wasn't a villain here. I loved all of the toys dressing up Bonnie's room to look like Hawaii to give Barbie and Ken the perfect romantic getaway to share their first kiss (Aaaawww!). This short was a scream. *****.
9. Air Mater
This was sort of a set-up for the movie Planes and I believe it used a couple of characters from that upcoming film. That was pretty cool. ****.
10. Small Fry
This new Toy Story short worked because it took a new toy angle (here discarded fast food toys) and found a good source of new material from it. I've seen variations of every single toy in this short in Happy Meals at some point so the writers and animators did their homework. If there was something I didn't like, it was the ease in which the toys went from house to the fast food joint. In all three movies it was a big and scary moment whenever the Toys ventured out of the playroom on their own and this should have been a bigger deal. I still really like this short though. ****1/2.
11. Time Travel Mater
Hate to say it, but the story for the deleted "Time Travel Mater" short on the Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales DVD was better. They should have just animated that one. This was all right but a giant step down from the mind-blowingness of that deleted scene. **1/2.
12. 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. ****.
George & A.J. Commentary With Director Josh Cooley: It's funny, but this scripted commentary, between Cooley and a lying narrator is funnier and more original than the short itself. ****1/2.
Student Shorts:
These are short student films by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter. The best one is the first by Lasseter (Nitemare) which would have been a classic had the animation been "finished". I didn't like Lasster's "Lady and the Lamp" or Stanton's "A Story". Overall: ***.
Nitemare: I LOVE "There's A Nightmare In My Closet"! This short captured the spirit of that book very well. Beyond adorable. *****.
Lady and the Lamp: Didn't much care for this. The ending was too abrupt. **.
Somewhere in the Arctic: Funny. ***.
A Story: Really cynical and mean-spirited so I didn't much enjoy it. There are some things to note: Ted is the same size and has the same colors as Sulley from Monsters Inc. Those clowns are dead-ringers for the clowns in Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures' "It's Scrappy's Birthday". Did Bakshi hire Stanton on the basis of this short? Also, this is the first Disney DVD I've owned where the words "p*ssed off" are uttered during a cartoon. *1/2.
Winter: Cute. ***1/2.
Palm Springs: The dinosaur was appealing but not much else was. **1/2.
Next Door: Kind of bizarre. ***.
Nitemare Introduction by John Lasseter: Lasseter describes how the film was done all in pencils. ***1/2.
Lady and the Lamp Introduction by John Lasseter: Lasseter notes that the film is the percursor to Luxo Jr. ***1/2.
Somewhere in the Arctic Introduction by Andrew Stanton: This film was made in 1986, the year before Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures premiered. Bakshi snagged Stanton right out of College. ****.
A Story Introduction by Andrew Stanton: It's hard to believe someone who hates the words imagination and magic so much would wind up working at Disney, but there you are. ***1/2.
Winter Introduction by Pete Docter: It's hard to believe that this G-rated affair played at a Spike and Mike film festival. ****1/2.
Palm Springs Introduction by Pete Docter: Docter notes the purple dinosaur came BEFORE Barney. ****.
Next Door Introduction by Pete Docter: This was more in the mold of a weird Spike and Mike film although it too was G rated. ****.
Trailers:
Sofia The First: This actually looks pretty good. ****1/2.
Pinnochio Anti-Smoking PSA: Funny. ***1/2.
Blu-Ray / DVD Menu: Gorgeous animation set to the soundtrack from Your Friend The Rat. *****.
no subject
The rabbit from Presto is my favorite character of all the shorts.
no subject