Category Archives: Family/Childrens’ Movies
New Trailer for Madagascar 3!
I’m so excited for this movie – it looks as good as ever, don’t you think?
xx
Za
New Clips from The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Some great new clips have been released for the new Tintin movie! I thought I share two of my favourites:
This first one has one of my favourite scenes from the book, in which some men kidnap young journalist Tintin and Snowy, Tintin’s dog, rushes after them to save him! I remember the scene in the book vividly and they’ve done a great job with it.
The second one is a favourite of mine because it has the voice talents of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who I clearly love (Hot Fuzz is quite possibly the best movie ever), as the charmingly frazzled Thomson and Thompson.
I can’t wait to see this movie, can you?
xx
Za.
Puss In Boots 3D Competition!
ONLY AT THE MOVIES DECEMBER 8th
COMPETITION NOW CLOSED
Hi guys!
We’re really excited for the release of DreamWorks’ Puss In Boots 3D, starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris. It’s coming out really soon (December 8th), and it looks fantastic. To celebrate we’re offering you the chance to win one of 25 boot stockings (below) for the holiday season!
Puss In Boots – our suave and furry feline hero goes on a swashbuckling ride, as he teams up with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty to steal the famed Goose that lays Golden Eggs.
To enter the competition, all you have to do is answer this question in the comment section below: if you had a Goose that laid Golden Eggs, what would you do with it? The best 25 answers win!
www.PUSSINBOOTSTHEMOVIE.com.au
#PussInBoots
facebook.com/PussInBootsAU
Puss In Boots © 2011 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.
Johnny English Reborn
A lot of people hated the first Johnny English movie, but I’ve always been a fan of stupid-Englishman humour (and who better to pull it off than Rowan Atkinson – Mr Bean, anybody?), so I loved it and was eagerly awaiting the sequel, Johnny English Reborn. I had heard some not-good things about it before I went, so I was a little nervous, and this British comedy isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But I liked it.
The film tells the story of Johnny English, a highly incapable MI7 spy who lost his badge after he failed an important mission in Mozambique. There’s some sort of vague plot line that there’s a secret organisation aiming to kill the Chinese premier, but it’s really just a weak excuse to get English doing all sorts of stupid things. Which is fine, I think. This doesn’t appear to take itself too seriously, and I think everybody’s well aware that the plot is not there as the main feature, but merely facilitates the jokes – and when the jokes are funny, who really cares about anything else?
What I like about the Johnny English franchise is that they manage to keep the humour PG, but still funny. More and more often American comedies are veering towards swearing and vulgarity as humour, and it’s losing its appeal a bit. Humour doesn’t have to be disgusting and adult, and Johnny English Reborn has really thought about this and masters it. When I went to see it there were people of all ages in the audience – down from 5-year-olds all the way up to their doddery grandmas, and everybody was laughing very hard at most of the jokes. I say MOST because there are a few that are a smidgen off. They can be a little hit-and-miss. It’s not very intellectual humour, so don’t expect to love it if you’re a high-and-mighty smart-face hipster, but it should be great for just about everybody else.
I think Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man, and a fantastic character actor, and he pulls off Johnny incredibly well, but I think Johnny in this sequel was far more competent than he was in the first, which is just unacceptable. Johnny should be so daft he can barely walk out the door without falling down the stairs. I did like that the Big Guy in MI7 was a woman (feminism FTW!). The one thing I really missed from this, though, was the character of Bough, played by Ben Miller. Bough was a great sidekick in the first movie, and the sidekick in this one (Hunter? Who knows.) was just inexcusably young and wafty. He was less capable than Johnny, which was a bad move on the writer’s part.
My favourite thing though? The Englishness. In this Americanised, Hollywood-ised world of family comedies there is nothing quite like a bit of good old-fashioned British buffoon laughter. Johnny English Reborn is a joy to laugh at and pretty much everything you expect it to be. If you’re expecting to love it, you’ll have a ball. If not, you’ll want to hang yourself slowly. It’s a bit half-and-half. But I liked it, and that’s all that really matters, right?
And quite honestly, you know that the audience loves a film when the theatre gives a round of applause at the credits. I loved it, my brothers loved it, the weird people behind me who took off their shoes and put their warty feet on my armrest loved it… everybody loved it.
Final verdict? 3.5/5 stars. Overall, it was as hilarious and ill-formed as I had hoped it would be, and it’s a great laugh for the family – but maybe not all you snobby, critical, know-all 20-somethings out there. I know how you can be. Don’t take it personally. I love you. Sort of. I’m kidding. Or am I.
xx
Za.
P.S. This is one of those movies where you stay until after the credits. STAY! Good dog.
Ponyo
I watched my first proper anime movie last night.
D’aawwwww, cute.
So. It’s about a cute little fishie called Ponyo who wants to see the world out of the water. She goes to the surface on a jellyfish, and meets a little boy called Sosuke. She sees that he has a cut finger, and licks it to make it better. He puts her in a bucket and takes her to school and shows the old ladies at the nursing home where his mother Lisa works. Then Ponyo tells him she loves him, nawwwww, and lots of stuff happens, and Ponyo ends up as a human. I don’t want to be too spoilerish.
All in all, i loved this movie, it was heartwarming, it made me cry, and I loved it. An unequivocal 5/5.
~H
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
From discussing it with my friends, who as 14 year old girls are pretty much exactly the target audience, I can tell you that at least in my little world the reception of the publicity for Glee: The 3D Concert Movie has been a little disappointing. My friends were not convinced by the ads and I’ve heard from a few people who have seen it that they were the only people in the cinema, and I was when I saw it too. It hasn’t been very popular yet at all.
But as die-hard Glee fans, my family and I hauled ourselves off to see it last Monday, and it was great.
This really is just a movie about Glee Live (the cast performing songs from the show live to a huge audience) and is mostly made up of performances, split up by interviews with “outcast” fans and the cast themselves. Its aim isn’t so much to be a documentary as it is to be a representation of what it’s actually like being at Glee Live. The point, I think, is entirely to make the audience feel as if they were there themselves. As much as I really liked the interviews with the fans and the cast it felt to me like they were thrown in to make the movie more credible as a documentary and that seemed a little awkward. From what I’ve heard from other people it seems like only Glee fans are going to see this movie, and I think any fan could have happily sat through an hour and a half of just the music without the interviews in between.
But still, I did think the interviews were very cute. The ones with the cast seemed very natural and some parts of the ones with the fans seemed very staged, but they were light-hearted and sweet both ways. I guess what I’m saying is I didn’t particularly like the use of the interviews but I did like the interviews themselves.
Apart from those interviews I think it did do a really good job of putting the audience in the moment. I must have cried five separate times. The noise of the crowd and the energy of the performers and the addictiveness of the music ripped my emotions to shreds just like it would at a real concert. There’s something about being around hundreds of people who are all passionate about the same thing that makes you feel so much that all you can do is lose it, and the sheer noise of the movie set the stage and simply created a perfect concert atmosphere. My mum and I sang and danced along to every song and I would have loved it to go on for another half hour.
There’s something about that concert atmosphere that would pull anybody in, and I think it’s a great shame that only Glee fans seem to be going to see it. This movie has reignited my love for the show and anybody who doesn’t know the show well would surely be moved to check it out, because when push comes to shove this is a really great concert movie, and a really good movie.
It’s entertaining, fun, emotionally draining, and overall just a gorgeous, glorious piece of film. It made me smile from ear to ear and is one of those things that just lights up the sky and can restore your faith in the love of humanity. I don’t think you can ask for more than that it a movie.
What an excellent family night out. Easily recommendable to all. 4/5 stars from me.
xx
Za.
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
OK. So I’m not exactly a fan of Justin Bieber. No, actually, I’m really not a fan of Justin Bieber. Nevertheless there must be something that draws all teenage girls to him, no matter what they think, because when I went overseas recently I watched the whole of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never on the plane. Yes, the whole thing, from start to finish. I’m also ashamed to say that I… kind… of… liked it. Kind of. I said KIND OF.
Justin Bieber
Let’s all agree here and now that however you feel about this kid, he is a phenomenon, and nobody could deny that. He started out on YouTube as a nobody and now he is one of the biggest stars in the entire world, and he’s still only 17. What he has achieved is pretty impressive, regardless of how much musical talent you may or may not think he has.
And essentially Never Say Never is not about Bieber’s talent but his fame. He is successful beyond comprehension, and for the most part the movie does show you that. It follows his life from his childhood leading up to his first performance at Madison Square Garden – which completely sold out very, very quickly.
I liked that the movie started with short little interviews with his female fans, and I liked that they kept those going throughout the whole thing, mostly. It was really interesting to see how over-excited and CRAZY some of Bieber’s fans are. They are weirdly obsessed. They had clips of girls bawling and crying out “MARRY ME JUSTIN” and bawling some more. I don’t even know why Justin Bieber holds so much sway over teenage girls – I admit he’s a good singer and he’s very baby-faced, but I don’t think his music is particularly great and his baby face doesn’t make him attractive. In fact, he looks like a little boy to me. Not very hot at all. I just don’t get it. So I liked that I got to see the side of the fans, because I’m much more interested in why they idolise him that I am in the person himself.
I also enjoyed seeing the more erroneous side of his fame – the girls attacking him on the street, the relentless paparazzi, not being able to go to school with his friends, the endless, endless, endless touring – we like to see that stuff. It’s good to remind us mere mortals that sometimes fame is not all it’s cracked up to be.
The plot of the documentary is a little lame, though. Justin gets a sore throat a few days before his big gig, which means he might not be able to perform, and everybody freaks out. In the end, of course, he’s fine and he can go on, but really I don’t think a lot of the audience is interested in how and why he has an infection.
And I know that it is a movie aimed at JB’s fans, teenage girls, but when push comes to shove Never Say Never is a documentary, and I found bits of it quite patronising. Just because girls blub over this boy doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Oh wait…
I’m kidding, of course. JUSTIN BIEBER FANS, YOU ARE SMART. DON’T HURT ME. THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE.
In summarisation, I did like Never Say Never. It was a great no-substance movie to watch on a long flight. It was informative to an extent and presented in good humour. But it’s not the most life-changing thing you will ever see and Non-Beliebers will probably hate it, so I don’t think it’s really recommendable to the majority of people. 3/5 stars from me.
xx
Za.
Wild Child
I remember really wanting to see Wild Child when it came out in 2008. As an 11-year-old tween it was incredibly appealing. And let’s face it, it is a movie for pre-teen girls. And teenage girls too. So obviously I enjoyed it when I saw it for the first time last week, to a certain extent.
I started off a little unsure. I don’t like Emma Roberts. She seems sweet enough, but I don’t think she’s a great actress. There’s something about her American rich-girl attitude that doesn’t sit right with me. But then, that made her perfect for the role of Poppy, a stuck-up Malibu princess who is shipped off to boarding school in England for misbehaving. Let me tell you, I am so glad the plot moved to England. English humour and English accents and English countrysides are far more appealing to me than a Californian approach to movie-making. Not sure why.
I hated Poppy at the beginning and I felt no sympathy for her, but I really, really liked her dorm mates. They were incredibly adorable and totally funny. Why isn’t Juno Temple (Drippy) in everything? She’s so cute!
Juno Temple as Drippy... adorable!
As the movie goes on Poppy redeems herself and of course you end up caring about her. She’s really a sweet girl at heart and her totally adorable friends make her see that. She changes her hair and reinvents herself (because we all know that dying your hair changes the very basis of your personality).
The plot line is appealing and the jokes are funny. The soundtrack is young and pretty good. The girls are active and good role models. The love interest it hot. It’s a perfect sleepover movie.
I think if you’re not a teenage girl you will probably not get this movie. Which is a serious let-down. I have to give it 3.5/5 though, because I did enjoy it.
xx
Za.
Sorry for the short review! Bit busy getting ready for my trip to the UK. Because of this I won’t be posting regularly for about the next 4 weeks. I will try to post about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, because the premiere of that will be SO EXCITING! Are you excited? I am. See you in a few weeks!
The Little Mermaid
You all know I’ve been sadly lacking in the Disney Princess department in my past – I only watched The Little Mermaid for the first time this weekend. Some people don’t see it as a REAL Disney classic like Beauty and the Beast, but certainly in the circle that I’ve been brought up in, Ariel is one of the most important of the princesses. Everybody’s seen The Little Mermaid and everybody loves it. Well, everybody except me, it seems.
Ariel is a mermaid princess, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the great sea-king Triton. Her main problem is that she loves humans and would like to explore the surface world, but her father won’t let her. She then falls in love with a human prince and a whole bunch of problems arise from this (involving the signing of her soul over to an evil witch). Eventually the evil witch is killed, the prince falls in love with Ariel, and she chooses to give up her family, world, and tail for a pair of legs and a happy marriage to her true love.
My main problem with this movie is the moral message. Let’s take a look at it – she is a weak little girl who is totally reliant on her looks and her voice, and she chooses to change the very thing that defines the basis of her character – her mermaid-ity. She does this all for her happy ending, her so-called “true love” who she has spent barely 3 days with. What is this telling our children? That it’s OK to change yourself for a relationship? That happy endings are a must? That all the relationships we have have to end happily? What message is this sending children? I have a real problem with this.
I also have a big problem with the fact that she does get married at age 16. It’s so taboo and unacceptable in today’s society for a regular girl to do that, but for a princess it seems to be OK. It also seems to be OK for her to marry her first love (probably not even true love, she’s only sixteen, for God’s sake), and after she’s only known him for three days.
Ariel also has a cruel father who crushes her dreams, but in the end it seems that all has been forgiven and forgotten bewteen the two. Just like that. The character relationships are so under-developed. I don’t know, Ariel seems so naive. It’s ridiculous. She’s also headstrong crossing King Triton without a second thought, and she’s seriously annoying. She’s flitty and silly and weak and URGH. I can’t stand Ariel. She’s everything I hate about teenage girls. Disney does get some princesses right, like Jasmine in Aladdin, who sticks up for herself and recognises that she doesn’t need a man, but Ariel is like every typical princess – manipulatable by everybody around her.
It has to be said that there are good points to The Little Mermaid - it’s full of fun and whimsy. Like most Disney classics it’s charming and colourful. The soundtrack is also wonderful, with catchy, easily recognisable songs. Ursula, the evil sea-witch, is incredibly cool too. She’s rocking. I love her. Baddie-licous.
But that’s about it.
I don’t know if I’m in a particularly ranty mood tonight or what, but I did not enjoy The Little Mermaid very much. At all. Poor. It did not suck me in.
Sorry Disney, but you’re falling very short on just 2.5/stars. Just 50%. I do better than that in Maths tests, which is saying something.
Not really recommendable.
xx
Za.
Rio. And an FYI.
First, Rio.
I loved it. It was brilliant.
Rio is the story of a blue macau called Blu (what a surprise) who was rescued from smugglers when he was just a little teeny weeny blue speck by a girl named Linda. Then we fastforward 20 years or so. Blu is a big birdy and Linda runs a bookshop in… um… Montauk. I think. =/
Anyways. One day a really weird guy comes to the bookshop and says something along the lines of
“We’ve discovered another blue macaw! Your Blu has to go to Rio di Janeiro to meet her!”
There’s some unimportant blether, and then we get to Jewel the macaw’s enclosure. Then you get to the bit in the clip. Disco ball, yada, yada yada yada.
So they escape. There are kidnappers. It’s one of those ‘DESPERATE RACE AGAINST TIME’ things. Linda and weird guy get involved and it all ends well. At the end, Blu and Jewel are released into the wild, where you see them with their bunch of cute tiny blue birdies.
4.5/5.
Now the FYI. I have a blog of my own!
hamblebamble.wordpress.com
Have fun!!
~H
