Luke's Corner Update - The Corner

Due to unresolved scheduling conflicts, Luke is unable to fully commit to Luke's Corner - many of you will have noticed the erratic posting of reviews - and his responsibilities for the blog will therefore be scaled back. Luke will still be posting reviews, but to a time-frame much more suited to his needs.

But this isn't to say that Luke's Corner will be no more, instead we now have a team of reviewers who will take it in turns to review a much wider variety of animated films - bringing more diversity to the blog. Luke's Corner will now be know as simply The Corner and we are very happy to welcome two new reviewers aboard to contribute their own reviews: Heather Medley and Sean Taylor.

Heather and Sean, who have now joined the team, will, like Luke, write reviews of as many animated films, from as diverse a background, as possible and will bring a much more diverse feel to the blog - in case you occasionally tire of my reviews. Heather and Sean, who are both very competent and diligent will, along with the originator of the corner, Luke, try and bring you a review every week or so.

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Now, Luke asked me to post the below message, to clarify his role on the site:

Hello followers of A113Animation. There is currently some dispute over the corner and from now on I am allowing a few other people to post blogs in it. Unfortunately it will no longer be called Luke's Corner, but I am still here and I'm ready. I hope everyone around the world had a great summer and there will be many more blogs to come, a lot more than I have produced in the past few months.

Thank you for reading this little note.

Luke

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So, keep your eyes out, Luke will bring you a review of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs this weekend, and the next few weekends after that will be reviews from Heather and Sean.

Luke's Corner: Week 4

Hello, sorry for the hiccups due to my prior engagements and scheduling conflicts, but I am back and I promise that my punctuality will improve greatly.

So for Week 4 of Luke's Corner I will be talking about quite an old but a film that nobody could forget about. The one, the only, Finding Nemo!

Finding Nemo is truly inspiring, yet also funny, and a film that will entertain people of all ages for years to come. This film is probably the greatest film  set under the sea (which says a lot, considering that greatness of The Little Mermaid).

Basically the plot is about a clown fish, called Nemo, who, when on a school expedition gets captured by a diver who takes him to a dentist and his fish tank. His father, Marlin, has to go on a grueling search for his lost son and on the way he befriends a not so sharp fish, called Dory, who admits that she has short term memory loss. While on their hunt for his son, they come across a group of sharks who seem to be evil but really, in this case, they're harmless. I won't ruin the whole plot for people who haven't seen it but there is a lot to the film. Pixar are so very special, and they completely shatter any preconceptions people may have about fish and about people coming into this film.

Finding Nemo has some great moments in it that could keep you laughing for hours on end. For example there is a moment where Dory is trying to remember what the address was on the diver's goggles, it provides comic relief, but, more than that, is genuinely funny.

Overall I give it a 9/10 because it is an utterly great movie from Pixar, but there were some moments that dragged along a little bit.

Ups: Funny, Great Storyline, Amazing Animation

Downs: Some moments lasted too long

Hope you enjoyed week 4 of Luke's Corner,
Luke

Luke's Corner: Week 3

Hello and welcome to week 3 of Luke's Corner. I'm sorry about the delay but I have been very busy lately and I apologise for keeping you all waiting, from now on, these reviews are going to come every three weeks, rather than trying (and failing) to do one every week. So, without further ado, today's review is on a movie that has just recently been released in cinemas here in the UK, Kung Fu Panda 2. This is really going to be the most apt second opinion review, coming straight off the heels of William's review of the sequel.

To say this film was great would be a gross understatement, Kung Fu Panda 2 is chocked full of awesomeness that all the family can enjoy. By Batman's cowl, this is a brilliant film. In my opinion, this was much better than the original (which was also great), due to the huge, epic action scenes and battles. These battles really justified the "Kung Fu" in the title.

However, it's more than that, yes, this is an exciting film and it's incredibly fun, but it's brilliantly touching, it's heartwarming and just generally great. If you haven't seen the first film, you'll pick this up quickly, however, I believe this stands brilliantly on its own and heads in a whole new direction.

There's so much that's great about this film, that it seems almost redundant to talk about the animation, but - to put a long story short - it's gorgeous.

For all of these reasons and so much more, I am going to award Kung Fu Panda 2 the very first "Luke's Corner Top Movie Award", an awards that will only be awarded to the very best.

Overall I give it 10/10

Ups: Amazing Animation, Gut-Wrenching Comedy Genius, AWESOME ACTION

Downs: NONE !!!

Luke

Luke's Corner: Week 2

Hello bloggers and internet people, sorry for the delay, but I am now back with week 2 of Luke's Corner (No need for applause).

Today I am writing about the wonders of Toy Story 3.

Oh My God this is an amazing film. Although it came out like a year ago it still leaves me in awe. The presence that this movie brings upon me is extraordinary and it is a sheer testament to the level of work at Pixar that they can keep on going strong in a threequel, where so many have failed ( - cough – Shrek, Spiderman – cough - ).

This film is, simply put, awesome. I generally think there are very little faults to this film. The cast is great; the animation is amazing and it once again features some great voice actors including Tim Allen, Tom Hanks and Joan Cusack.

But what I thought made this film really great was the bad guys.

The villains in Toy Story 3 really made this film Disney in my eyes (in the best sense of the word, the classic eras, not the more modern one), yet Pixar keep everything vintagely Pixar, it has their own original, personal stamp all over it. Lotso has to be the greatest combination of evil and cuddly ever and is really one of the best villains ever (including the great evil present in classic Disney films) I found it inspiring how Pixar managed to make a teddy bear evil. Teddy bears are the cutest things. I just didn’t expect it. Kudos Pixar.

But another villain in this film made it great to sit and watch 5 times. Big baby. By Thor’s hammer this is one fascinating villain. A BABY DOLL!! Big Baby is so wonderfully complex; he’s an enigma of a villain. The producers must have put a lot of thought into making this film amazing. Pixar never ceases to amaze me on every conceivable front.

The only thing that I think kind of disappointed me, and I know that I am in a huge minority here, was the ending. I thought they could have put a little more effort into making all of us Toy Story fans get emotional – although I know that William bawled his eyes out. I didn’t find it very emotional. But the film in general was still amazing; it just felt like it was a tad restrained in its ending.

Overall I give it 9/10

Ups: Lotso, Big Baby, Voice Actors, Set, Animation

Downs: Ending, Lack of the Aliens

Thanks for reading,
Luke

Next week: Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

Luke's Corner: Week 1

Allow me, as Editor-in-Chief of A113Animation, to introduce our newest feature, Luke's Corner, a column to provide another opinion and perspective to the blog. Without further ado, I will now hand you over to Luke:-


Hello and welcome to Week 1 of Luke's Corner; my name is Luke Ross and I am going to be doing this column regularly, generally every Saturday. Like William, I am a huge animation fan and this column is going to give my opinions on some of my favourite (and least favourite) animated films and give a short, quick, second opinion on the films that A113Animation has already reviewed, starting today with Tangled:

Well as a fellow Disney lover I must say that Tangled was one of the best Disney films that I have seen. It had pretty much everything a Disney movie should have in it: comedy, drama, suspense and more. It was just amazing, generally funny and surprisingly heartfelt. I think that the Rivalry between Flynn Ryder and Maximus made the film even more fantastic, there was so much comedy stemming from these situations. Overall, it just all added to one of the best Disney films in the last several years.

Although it wasn't perfect. I feel that some moments in the movie kind of dragged on for too long e.g. the Snuggly Duckling scene, which felt like it went for quite a while. Also, another criticism I have is the villain. In contrast to William, I don't think Mother Gothel was a great villain, she just seemed a bit so-so, furthermore, I think the Stabbington brothers were a bit too stereotypical as villains - just the regular old thugs that they have in A LOT of films. But these aren't that big problems.

Overall I give it an 8/10

Ups: The emotional scene in which Flynn Ryder reveals his real name, music, storyline

Downs: Not much evil portrayed, somwhat laggy scenes

Luke

Next Week: Toy Story 3 Review