Guest Review: Wreck-It Ralph

By Damien.

Should non-gamers see Wreck-It Ralph?

A guest review disguised as an idiotic question.

Wreck-It Ralph is a video game character. Or rather, he's a video game villain. He's the bad guy in an arcade game called Fix-It Felix, Jr. He's the Donkey Kong to Felix's Mario; except, not that lucky, because while the giant ape had that 1981 game named after him, Ralph has virtually nothing.

There's no fun to be found in being tossed over and over in mud, no respect from his co-workers and no medal to show for it all. Ralph is bored, and wishes he could be a hero.

In the months leading up to the release of this film one of the main concerns was: "Are non-gamers gonna get it?"

Now, I'm not a non-gamer, but I can still offer my best guess on the matter. And here it is:

Guest Review: Rise of the Guardians

By Damien.

Who Am I?

A Weird Rise of the Guardians Guest Review.

Maybe I'm a visionary genius. Or maybe I'm the biggest idiot on Earth... Just look at one of my comments on this very blog, talking about Rise of the Guardians a few months ago :

"I'm somewhat excited for this film, but I think it's not gonna be a huge hit internationally, with the differences in popular cultures.

Basically, in France :

- Santa Claus : Okay, "le Père Noël" is pretty much the same thing. Exactly even.

- Easter Bunny : Replaced by Bells. Yes. Bells bring the eggs.

- Tooth Fairy : Replaced by a small mouse : "la petite souris".

- Jack Frost : Who is this ???"

Guest Review: Brave Blu-ray

By Munir Abedrabbo.

The Film:

Brave, the thirteenth feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios arrived with a very high level of anticipation, expectation and controversy. First, it was the first Pixar film to have a female lead character; second, it was the first film based on an original idea after two sequels; and third, it was the film that was meant to be a “return to form” for Pixar, whose previous film Cars 2, released a year ago, received a lot of (somewhat unfair in my opinion) criticism and was labeled as Pixar’s first “bad” film. On the controversy side, Brave underwent some changes, first being called “The Bear and the Bow” and being promoted as the first Pixar film directed by a woman (Brenda Chapman). Chapman was fired in the middle of production and replaced by Mark Andrews (though she retained a director’s credit) resulting in many angry responses from women working in Hollywood and animation. With all this level of anxiety, Brave was poised to be either a great achievement or a great disaster. Which one it was? Keep reading to find out.

Guest Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 [Blu-ray]

By Munir Abedrabbo

Overview

DC Entertainment has found a great niche in the home video market by producing animated films featuring their most famous and beloved characters. While their output has been hit (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Justice League: Doom) and miss (Batman: Year One), there is no denying that even their most uneven productions has something to offer to comic book, animation and film fans. This is a great way to see our favorite superheroes in new adventures or in adaptations of beloved graphic novels.

Guest Review: ParaNorman

The second stop-motion animated film from Laika, ParaNorman, is out now in several territories and is receiving very enthusiastic reviews! One of those territories is France, and friend of the blog and our resident Tintin expert, Damien, shared his review of the film with us. Check it out below!

"Saw it this morning. 

Beautiful film. Beautiful animation. I don't think stop-motion ever looked this good before. Maybe Corpse Bride came the closest, but the way the characters and sets are handled here is incredible (You can see the light through Norman's ears! I don't know how they did that).

The story: much more my cup of tea than Coraline was - I loved Coraline, but it lacked a little in plot for me. It was a wonderful film; it had a very atmospheric, creepy feeling. And an amazing score (ParaNorman doesn't have such a good score). But there was no big surprise in the story.
Here, there are more little twists and turns, and I was delighted by the way the story evolved. They weren't "OH MY GOD WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!" twists, but they gave the film a nice dynamic feeling. 

A few problems I had with ParaNorman: sometimes, the characters repeat themselves. I was saying to myself in my head "Yes, you already said that, we get it!". But it's okay. Also, I'm not saying that ParaNorman is Coraline, but I hope Laika isn't only going to do movies that are so close thematically. They're handled very differently, but you don't have to look too hard to find similarities between the two. Maybe next time, try another genre. 

All in all, ParaNorman is a great and fun movie, with a pretty adult sense of humor; but it can be moving too. Looks like 2012 will be a nice year for stop-motion. The Pirates!, this, and Frankenweenie later this year. I really hope this technique doesn't disappear, as it gives a different feeling than CG or traditional animation. 

It was opening day in France, and we were only 4 in the theater room. Sad to see this kind of thing. Just checked: ParaNorman had only the 4th biggest opening of the day, with The Expendables 2 on the first spot. And two miserables French films at #2 and #3.
This is terrible. I don't get the audience... 

But the good news is - and to end on a happy note - we have a terrific film with ParaNorman!"

Sounds promising! ParaNorman opens here in the UK on 14th September, so I'll have my review up around that time. In the meantime, thanks to Damien for contributing his great review - be sure to follow him on Twitter (@Archibald_H), particularly if you're a Tintin fan - and if you've thoughts either way on ParaNorman, let us know them!