Pixar-athon #2: A Bug's Life

Hello, Spongey here.

Welcome back to Pixar-athon!

Do you have you one movie, that you like the first time, but soon, you grow to really love it?

No? Well I do.

This, is A Bugs Life

First, the premise.

The movie begins in a peaceful ant colony, which yearly is terrorized by a biker gang-esque group of grasshoppers and the ants are forced to give them an offering of food. One year, an ant named Flik (Dave Foley) accidentally knocks the offering into the nearby creek. Hopper (Kevin Spacy) forces the ants to re-gather double the usual amount of food, giving them until the end of autumn. The ants are worried, particularly because they won't have enough food for themselves over the winter if they gather enough for the grasshoppers, so Flik volunteers to redeem himself by recruiting "tough bugs" to fight Hopper and his gang. Flik travels to "the city" where he meets a bunch of recently-fired circus bugs. After seeing them perform one of their acts, Flik mistakes them for warriors, and takes them back to the colony. The circus bugs are initially shocked when they find out why they're there, but eventually begin to love living in the colony, and agree to help Flik come up with a plan to defeat the grasshoppers.

Unlike most pixar films, I haven’t seen this that many times. I’ve seen it by itself a total of 3 times. Two of which were in 2011. Yeah, it took me awhile to get to this one. I just forgot about it until ABC Family reminded me, and then I saw it on youtube. Then I got the DVD for this review.

When I first saw it , I liked it, but at the time I let the fact that the use the whole “lier reveled” cliché bring me down. Then I watched again and really loved it for what it was. The cliché was used because it was good for the story they were doing, not because they were lazy.

It seems that this movie is one of pixars’ more underrated works. (It was the most underrated until You know what…). Even pixar isn’t too fond of this film. They admitted that they made the mistake of trying to make it better than Toy Story instead of trying to make a good movie on it’s own.

I think this movie does need more attention, because of several things, which I will get to later.

First, we have the characters. Flick at first seems like he’s the cliché “guy who fucks up a lot but has a heart of gold”. And maybe he is, but he’s just so damn likable! That is partly due to his voice actor Dave Foley (I know him now as Chris from Dan Vs…). He’s really funny and makes flick really interesting. Flick’s facial expressions could make several 4chan boards happy.

The other side characters that are not villains or circus bugs are cool. Don’t have much to say about them. Only that Dot is blueish in the movie but on the DVD cover she’s pink. ERROR

The circus bugs are awesome . There’s tuck and roll (who speak…foreign-ese), the skinny Slim (David Hyde Pierce), Hemlich (pixar regular Joe Ranft) who is so german it hurts, and there’s others but my fave is Francis (Dennis Leary) who is ladybuyg…that is a man. He’s like the squidward of ladybugs. He’s just really funny.

The leader of the bugs is PT Flea, who is John Ratzenburger’s character. John has cited PT as his fave. I can see why. He’s really funny, and he reminds of mr krabs if he ran a circus…and was a flea…voiced by john ratzenburger.

That’s all for the main characters I can actually say something about …oh yea there’s princess atta, pixar’s first princess (2^nd will be later this year…_). I liked her romance with flick, as it was subtle and it helped move the story further.

The main thing that I like about the movie is how epic it is. The film is often called an epic of miniature proportions, and I can see why. It’s about the ants, but the story is really interesting, and the stakes are high. You really feel for the characters and want them to stop the grasshoppers.

But you know what best part of the entire film is?

THE VILLAIN!

Seriously, hopper is awesome! This is all due to Kevin spacey. If you need a crazy ass villain, you call kevin spacey, man. He really brings hopper to life. Hopper is so insane, and really scary. You really feel his power, and his voice really shows. You can see why these ants fear so much.

Hopper is just plain awesome.

I can’t stress enough how epic this film is., The best part is the entire 2^nd half. The climax is simply amazing. Flick stands up to hopper, and there’s a really cool fight scene. Mere words can’t describe it. You simply must watch it for yourself.

Also, the animation is very nice to look at. The character animation is quite detailed, and when there’s a close up of something it looks quite real. It adds to the movie a lot

Now, I do think this is the pixar film I love the least amount. As good as it is, it’s not quite as amazing as some their other productions. But I do prefer it over the other pixar film people overlook…but that’s for later..

Oh, and easter eggs? A113 is on a box when flick enters the city. And right before that the pizza planet truck is right next to a trailer.

So uh…what else is there to talk about?

Oh, about the voice actors….i heard a rumor one of the bug scouts was one the very early roles of…Ashley Tisdale.

I have no idea how true that is. But if it is, this movie is now 20 percent cooler.

So yeah, that’s actually all I can say about this movie.

A Bugs Life may be a slightly weaker pixar entry, but it’s still fun epic, and awesome.

I give it an A-

This is spongy saying, pixarathon shall continue!

Pixar-athon #1: Toy Story

Hello, Spongey here.

So yea…..do I even NEED to introduce pixar?!

Since…forever, pixar has made great shorts, and films. Filled with good animation, characters, and story. Everyone has seen their films and loves them.

So I shall be looking at all of them. Keep in mind, this is all what I feel so, there.

I won’t go into behind the scenes detail that much. That’s what DVD’s are for...besides watching movies. I may mention some if it’s cool enough.

So, let’s begin with the film that started it all!

This, is Toy Story.

This is one those movies I’ve seen dozens of times. I don’t know when I first saw it. But I did get it on VHS and would watch it all the freaking time. I also watch it whenever it’s on TV. I did not see it when it got re-released in 3D however. I recently bought it on DVD and watched the commentary, which is really cool.

So why does the film have such good re-watch value? Let’s take a look…

Toy Story introduces us to the toys belonging to a boy named Andy. Their unofficial leader is Andy's favorite toy, Woody (Tom Hanks), an old cowboy doll with a string. Woody gets some competition when Andy gets a new toy for his birthday, Buzz lightyear (Tim Allen). Buzz is new, cool, and just as dynamic a personality as Woody, though he thinks he's really a soldier of Star Command rather than a toy. His undoubted leadership qualities (and up-to-date modernity) arouse jealousy in Woody; when Buzz is accidentally lost, the other toys think Woody masterminded the disappearance. Hijinks ensue, and Woody and Buzz have a final confrontation that forces both of them to join forces to keep the toy "family" together...

Right off the bat the film is a lot of fun. The various kinds of toys lead to many possibilities. We have Mr Potato head, who’s kind of an ass, Rex the dinosaur, who’s a wimp, and bo peep, woody’s love interesting. *Insert woody has a woody joke here*.

All these characters are really funny, and are tons of fun. And that’s not even touching on the really minor ones, like the army guys, who are also awesome. (And voice by R.Lee Ernie to boot…camp! Bad joke, sorry)

My favorite one Is Mr Potato head. (I totally have one of those btw) . he’s just a funny asshole kind of guy.

Now let’s talk about some individual bits of the film.

Funny thing about the animation: I used to think it was good, but a little outdated by pixar’s new standards. But then I saw it on DVD recently and man, it still looks great. It’s not the best, but it’s still some really good animation. The humans look iffy, but much better than in that Tin Toy short. Seriously, the baby In that thing is ugly.

Now for the villain. There’s two people who could possibly be the villain. First is Sid, the neighbor kid who tortures kids. He’s a lot fun, and he is a sick bastard. People have said that perhaps sid isn’t so evil. Everyone has done something like that to their toys before. However, Sid is freaking evil and takes pride in doing this,. I see this is a flanderization of those kind of people.

But…I think the real villain is Mr Potato head. Thinking about it: He’s an ass to woody, he makes woody feel bad by talking about how awesome buzz is, and he makes the toys go against him. Of course he learns his lesson and all that good stuff. Oh, and he gets a Mrs. Potato head..

And now for the most important part: John Ratzenburger’s role. He’s in every pixar film, and we’ll talk his role in each film. In this one, he’s Hamm the piggy bank. He’s very funny, and one of the best deadpan snarkers this side of…insert good snarker here. I like him a lot.

My favorite scene is all your favorite scenes. The gas station, the claw game, and falling with style. However, the scene I love that most people overlook comes near the end. Woody teams up with sid’s toys to scare sid once and for all so they can escape. So, they all come alive in a horror movie-like fashion, while woody uses his voice box to scare sid a bit.

Woody’s head then turns all the way around and then…

Woody:(through speaker)We toys see everything. (actually speaking) So play nice.

That scared the shit out of my as a kid. And it still scares the crap out of me….BUT IT’S SO FREAKING AWESOME! It’s extremely well animated, and it’s perfect. The animation, the voice acting, and the music are all great in this scene.

Of course I love this exchange

Buzz: And you, my friend, are responsible for delaying my rendezvous with Star Command!
(beat)
Woody: You! Are! A! TOOOOOOOY! You're not the real Buzz Lightyear, you... you're an action figure! You are a child's plaything!
(beat)
Buzz: You are a sad, strange little man. And you have my pity. Farewell.
Woody: Yeah? Well, good riddance, ya looney!

The real strength of the film is the voice acting. The acting is really good. You never get the sense this is coming from a script. Hanks and allen do fantastic jobs. Mainly tom hanks, who really brings woody to life.

Because there’s no easter eggs, (Besides A113 on andy’s car, and the debut of the pizza planet truck) imam wrap this one up.

Toy Story is still a fantastic, and funny film that hasn’t aged a bit. The first time was the charm.

Oh, and today is John Lasseter’s birthday! What an amazing coincidence…no really, I was working on this when I found this out. Freaky, huh?

So yeah, Toy story is awesome, but pixar kept on making amazing movies. I won’t grade these since they’re all A+…except for two but I’ll get to those when I do.

I’m spongey, and pixar-athon shall continue!

…I really need a catchphrase.

Movie Review: Rugrats in Paris

Hello, spongey here.

Last time, I looked at the rugrats movie. I still stand by what I said, which is that it’s really good. It had good animation, catchy (if weird) songs, and a very strong story

‘the movie made tons of money at the box office, and when that happens, they make a sequel!

Sequels are hit or miss. Some are great and are even better than the original (The Dark Knight)

Some are…Never-ending story 3.

But sequels mostly are just…okay to me. They aren’t awful enough for me to hate them, or good enough for me to love them.

So is the sequel to the rugrats movie any good? Let’s find out.

This, is Rugrats in Paris.

NOT SO BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY:

I won’t go into nearly as much detail as for the first film. Infact, I won’t say too much. But I will say quite a bit..

The film opens and ends with a spoof of…the godfather. Surprisingly, it works. Also it’s funny as hell. It’s implied angleica actually saw the godfather, and her parents debate if they should of let her or not.

Best parents ever.

So anyway…

Chuckie and his dad have been living happily in the series, but I’ve always wondered…where’s his mom? Seriously, did she die? Did chaz get divorced? WHAT?!

Well this movie tells us. You see, mom…died. And they talk about her watching chuckie in heaven.

Yikes.

Yes, the scene where chuckie And chaz talk about this is depressing.

Yep, this is a Rugrats movie all right.

Anyway, meanwhile in paris, stu’s …giant repatar robot he made for a amusement park owner lady named coco le bouche, has broken down because…it’s made by stu. I bet if he made a spoon it would blow up somehow.

Coco wants Stu to come over and fix it, so she has her assistant call Stu. Stu is kinda…sleeping so he doesn’t get the message at first. It’s pretty funny.

So Stu and the family are off to pars. Realistically, only stu could go on such short notice, but if I can believe talking babies, I can get with this.

So later, we find out that coco wants to be president of a company, and as it turns the current pres is stepping down./

Oh, and he’s voiced by mako.

Yes, iroh from avatar.

Aku from Samurai jack

]THAT mako.

So anyway, he tells coco to be the president, you need heart, and need to know about kids. Angelica is in the room, hiding from coco as she eats some of her chocolate (stu was there to discuss the repatar robot) and overheard all this.

Coco finds her and angelica tells coco about chaz, who is very desperate for a wife. So Coco decides to try to hook up with chaz to get in with the president.

Oh, and on the plane chuckie starts feeling sad that he has no mommy.

Then we get the song “I want a mom that will last forever”

It’s a major tear jerker, on par with the first movie!

So chuckie soon gets obsessed with chaz and coco, being excited that he will get a mommy. He sees a princess in a parade and soon knows he wants a princess mommy.

And I don’t want to spoil too much of the character development,. I will spoil three cool things

1, there’s another big lipped alligator moment with singing sumo wrestlers...one of which is tim curry

Cuz if you have tim curry, he must sing.

2. there’s a dream scene with a song called Chuckie chan, which is the best thing ever put on film

3. Stu’s new robot is a giant Godzilla sized robot which you control with these helmet/glove things. Later, the babies learn coco is evil, and she leaves them with her assistant while she goes off and gets married. The babies want to get to the church so chuckie can own up and take her down.

What do they do?

Take the robot and go into the city.

Let me say that again.

BABIES TAKE A ROBOT INTO PARIS.

Then the assistant takes another robot and goes after them.

Babies have a giant robot fight in the middle of paris.

BEST. MOVIE. EVER

Oh, and there’s tons of character stuff and chuckie comes full circle, and chaz marries this chick who was coco’s other helper. Watch the movie and it all makes sense.

Oh, and she has a daughter named kimi. In this movie she’s okay.

That’s all,.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This is one of the few sequels…that is much better then orginal.

It’s just a really good movie.

The character development is stronger with this one. Chuckie is really exporled in this one. His need for a mommy, and why he wants one so bad is really looked at.

Even angelica gets devolvement, after she realizes how evil she can be.

The story is very well done, the jokes are funny, and it’s just a ton of fun to watch.

The main reason this is better than the first one?

Well I said the first one did a big damn movie adventure, but put in on a small, good scale. However, it wasn’t in the bright cheer Rugrats movie. It was still a good movie, and a decent Rugrats film.

However, Rugrats in paris, is a big damn movie, on a huge epic scale. But…it’s in the Rugrats mood. It feels like Rugrats, despite how epic it was. The first one didn’t have that.

To sum it up, Rugrats in paris is a fun sequel that really outshines the original.

GRADE: A

And no, I will not review Rugrats go wild. I think it is a fun film that Is quite decent. But I can’t say too much about it.

Well I can this,

THEY CUT OUT A SONG BY TIM CURRY WHAT THE-

…sorry.

So what do I do next?

I mean , I’ve talked about many films on here, by many companys.

There has to be one company whose films really get me talking. Films I love. Films I can talk tons about . Films I can really go into.

But what company has this?

…I know what I’m gonna do next!

NEXT: PIXAR-ATHON!

Movie Review: The Rugrats movie

Hello, spongey here.

Remember the rugrats?

Rugrats was, in my opinion, one of the best Nicktoons of all times. It showed a interesting and funny POV of babies. The characters were interesting, the stories were fun, and it was very funny,

So nick saw that they had a big hit on their hands. So they did what nick likes to do with their shows…. Besides cancel it I mean  They made a movie!

This, is The Rugrats Movie.

When this movie came out, it was a huge hit. It was the highest grossing non Disney animated film at the time (until the green ogre came along in 2001). And fans consider it a nostalgic classic.

But…is it any good? Let’s see.

I won’t do the nostalgia critic thing and go play by play. But I will go through the movie and talk about the best/most important moments.

The film opens and closes with a spoof of Indiana jones. This is close to the show, with its imagination scenes. This introduces us to the characters, and lets us know this will be more of an adventure than usual.

So, we later learn that didi is getting ready to have a baby. The other babys are excited about the idea of having a new member of their little group.

Angelica, the bitch she is, tells the babies that once dill is born, the parents will forget about tommy, and she tells a bullshit story about Spike once being a human who got neglected when tommy was born.

Then the babies are taken to the hospital to see tommy’s new sibling be born. They are left in a play pen while didi gets things sorted.

Like in the show, they leave the pen, to find something. In this case, their sibling. Then….something happens.

They find themselves in the newborn infantry room….when the babies in there….start to….SING.

Yes, sing. They sing a song called “This world is something new to me” which involves caricrtures of celebrities and of course, dick jokes. It ends with the babies pissing into the air.

It’s weird, makes no sense…and it’s never mentioned again./

..

BIG LIPPED ALI-seriously what the hell was that?

So…yea. Tommy’s brother is born, and he is named dill. Dill ends up annoying the fuck out  of tommy, his friends, and his parents as well.

Then late at night, something happens. Didi and stu try to calm dill down by singing him a lullaby. Tommy however, wants them to tell him a bedtime story. He tries to get their attention, but dill’s lullaby seems to have caught it instead.

After dill is asleep, tommy gets rather depressed and…starts singing a lullaby to himself. Well…that’s…kinda depressing. Then…spike starts howling in the rain.

…I did not expect that.

Anyway, the next day, after a fight with dill, stu reminds dill that he should be responsible and gives him a pocket watch. Thankfully, stu did not hide it in his ass for 7 years. This scene is rather touching, and it becomes important later on, you’ll see.

Oh, and stu made this reptar wagon thing for his toy company. The babies are messing around with this when tommy shows up and sees they are planning to take dill back to the hospital, since as babies, they don’t get birth.

Angelica shows up and sees all the babies In the wagon, and kicks it so the wagon rolls away from the house (the door is open because these parents suck) and into the city. Angelica realizes her Cynthia doll was in the wagon, so she goes all Sherlock and runs after them.

To make a long story short, the babies get lost  in the nearby Forrest  and the parents finally realize they suck at parenting and call a search for the babies.

Oh, and there’s an asshole news reported named rex pester…voiced by Tim Curry. Yea, he’s pretty funny…though I’ll admit his character is kind of pointless.

Oh, the owners of a circus angelica wanted to go to, end up having their monkeys steal their train and get lost in the Forrest. When this scene first happens it’s really odd….but then it becomes important.

After tons of stuff happens with the babies, they come across the train were the monkeys pop up and we get …the song Witch doctor, only about monkeys.

Okay…

They have fun with the monkeys, but tommy has to feed dill, much to his dismay. What is he feeding him? 

Bananas.

This goes as well as you expect.

The moneys steal this baby bag thing, and tommy goes to get it. While he’s gone, the monkeys steal dill. When tommy comes and finds this out, the other babies tell tommy that they hate dill, and that tommy is neglecting his friends for him. Tommy looks to chuckie for help and…chuckie agrees with them.

Before you comment on that, I must talk about the next scene..

Tommy finds dill and drags him into a hiding spot from the rain. He tries to share his bottle, and blanket with dill, but dill takes all of both. This becomes the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Tommy takes dill outside, throws away his responsibility watch, and almost pours banana baby food on Dil, which would attract a group of vicious monkeys to harm him. (This parallels the Sacrifice of Isaac.)

Tommy sees dills face, and drags him back in, and they share the blanket, after tommy sings a lullaby.

…okay, this is officially the most depressing movie ever.

Going into this movie, I expected a fun adventure. I got one…along with really tear jerking scenes! Seriously, this movie actually made me shed a tear once.

It did this on the 1^st time. Toy story 3 did not.

Oh yeah ,I went there!

This is one hell of a depressing film.

Oh, and the babies are trying to find the “lizard” (I find it funny when they say words wrong) to grant them a wish, so they can go home.

Long story short, they end up on a bridge with a wolf, who was seen stalking them through the entire film. Spike shows up and tries to fight the wolf….but they both go under, leading to another really sad scene.

Then Stu shows up on his flying machine dragon thing he made (It makes sense in context) and crashes nearby. The babies think stu is the “lizard” and ask tommy to make his wish.

Earlier in the film, Tommy was debating if he should wish dill back (this was after the monkeys took him) or wish them all home.  And now tommy wishes…that spike was back.

I’m not crying, I’m just sweating through my eyes.

So stu crashes through the bridge, showing that spike (and the wolf) landed safely. Well that was anti-climactic.

So the adults show up, the babies are saved, the circus guys get the monkeys, tim curry is mauled by monkeys, Anglicia gets her doll, and tommy learns responsibly. the film ends on another Indiana jones spoof, this time with dlll helping them out.

That’s the movie in a nutshell.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As far movies based on cartoons go, this is one of the best. While it does have Big Damn movie all over it, it’s still really good. The show’s characters become fully fleshed out in here, especially tommy, who really shines in this.

I

t takes what makes the show good, and adds to it. It’s a big adventure, but it’s not like they are finding the holy grail or anything. The opening is there to tell you that this won’t be a huge epic adventure, but a small scale one.

It stills feel like the show, since getting lost in the forest isn’t quite farfetched.

Oh, and I love how it tugs at your heart strings and makes you feel for these characters. This movie made me cry more than half the babies in this!

In fact, that should be on the back of the blu ray once it comes out,  WHICH I SHOULD, NICK.

“It’ll make you cry like a baby!”-Some loser online

GRADE: A