The Muppets

With the help of three fans, The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.

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If you told me two years ago that both Winnie the Pooh and The Muppets would be resurrected in feature length films in the same year, I would have thought you were as slow as Pooh Bear. But as it turns out, you’d be right. Two childhood classics both brought back to the big screen, and both critically successful. I’m glad to see such films come out that I know I will enjoy and get a little blast from the past.

Co-writer Jason Segal stars as Gary. Gary has a brother named Walter, who is himself a muppet, but he doesn’t quite know it yet. Walter is also the biggest fan of The Muppets in the world. Gary and his girlfriend of now 10 years, Mary, played by Amy Adams, are going to hollywood for their 10th anniversary, and he invites Walter so they can all visit the Muppets Studio. When they arrive, they find out that an evil oil tycoon, Tex Richman, played by Chris Cooper, is planning to buy the studio for the oil that lies underneath it. Walter and company manage to find Kermit to tell him the distressing news, and the gang uses a well-placed montage to recruit all the old Muppets to join to cause to fight back. By a stroke of luck, a television executive gives them a 120 minute slot in two days to use to try and raise enough money to save the theater.

The Secret World of Arrietty

The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family’s residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their daughter, Arrietty, is discovered.

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Most everyone knows the general story of Mary Norton‘s ‘The Borrowers’. A family of really small people, in this case four inches, lives in the confines of a nomral families home, making a living off of borrowing their things. It was made into a movie here in the U.S. in 1997 with John Goodman and Jim Broadbent. Well in 2010, Studio Ghibli decided to give this story a go. In 2011, a UK dubbed version was released, and that is the version that I will be talking about, but it also came out with American actors voicing it this past weekend on February 17th.

Hugo

Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.

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What do you think of when you hear the name Martin Scorsese? Dark, dramatic, violent, crime movies. Those are his bread and butter genres, what he’s made his living out of, and it’s been a very good life for him so far. With 5 nominations and 1 win for Best Achievement in Directing from the Academy Awards, Scorsese has been one of the most decorated and successful directors of all time. So it came as a shock to me and most of the rest of the world when we found out that his next film would be a family adventure film made in 3D. I can’t lie, it sounded a bit strange and off-putting. But despite my less than positive assumptions, the reviews for this movie put it as one of Scorsese’s best films yet.

‘Guilty Pleasures’ Addition: Speed Racer

[ 38% |  31%]

A young driver, Speed Racer, aspires to be champion of the racing world with the help of his family and his high-tech Mach 5 automobile.

This movie was trashed by the box offices, critics, and most of my friends. But I stand firm in my belief that this is on of the better movies of the past few years. Although the story is pretty shallow, it is fun and has a lot of spirit in it, which goes well with the absolutely beautiful ‘cotton candy’ visuals of the film. Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox, and Roger Allam are all perfect for their roles, and I just think this is one hell of an entertaining movie.

Winnie the Pooh

During an ordinary day in Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh sets out to find some honey. Misinterpreting a note from Christopher Robin, Pooh convinces Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore that their young friend has been captured by a creature named “Backson” and they set out to save him.

In a film world that is technologically advancing at the speed of light, with 3D effects being cast upon every movie, and new innovations making things look more explosive than ever, the makers of film seem to spend all of their time on the visuals and sounds of a movie, and we are left wanting more in our stories and our characters. This movie gives us the exact opposite of most everything we’ve seen in this post-Avatar state of movies.

In this trip to the Hundred Acre Woods, we are treated to the same of silly bear that we as children learned to love. Voiced by the legendary Jim Cummings, and narrated by the equally legendary John Cleese, Pooh takes us on a delightful adventure, although it is in the exact same fashion that we have seen from most every other Pooh movie, but that is alright with me. I was not looking for some new and innovative take on this childhood fiction story that I know so well. It’s being true to the days of old are exactly what I loved so much in this movie.

The feel of this movie was delightful, with its nearly never-now-seen hand drawn animation, it just feels genuine and rich. There are original songs in the same simple-yet-fun fashion, and the whimsical vocal style of Zooey Deschanel was a cherry on top of the very well done musical presentation. The story was nothing new, but in did incorporate elements of other Pooh stories, which I thought was great, and it was entertaining on a level that people of all ages can understand.

My Rating:

 – 3.5/4.0 In this post-Avatar world, it’s truly refreshing to be given a classic work of fiction that is true to the story and features lovely hand drawn animation. With a funny, warm story, Winnie the Pooh is a movie that your entire family will enjoy, and with its 69 minute run-time, you won’t need to dedicate a lot of time or effort to truly be entertained.

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