Oscars 2012: Best Animated Feature

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. CHICO & RITA

2. PUSS IN BOOTS

3. RANGO

4. KUNG FU PANDA 2

A CAT IN PARIS

Missing: The Adventures of Tintin

Rango‘s computer animation is the most stunning of the lot, but based on watchability, only one film was more painful than Gore Verbinski’s rambling, tongue-in-cheek chameleon western penned by in-demand screenwriter-playwright John Logan. Boasting some of the most beautifully-crafted ugliest creatures on god’s green earth, it’s also a snooze-fest despite its oddball mentality as perfectly embodied by Johnny Depp’s misfit lizard, Lars. But it’s beloved by critics and audiences alike (?), so this whacky feature is taking home the gold.

The animation is polished and fight scenes are zippy-fun — or at least, that’s what everyone else is saying. I wouldn’t know — or rather, I do know, but was not duly impressed — because I turned Kung Fu Panda 2 off after about 20 minutes. The story is so trivial and mindless with the predictable “lesson” tagged on at the end for good measure that it exemplifies exactly what is wrong with a category that has only been around since 2001: it favors box office smashes that are geared towards kids. Sure, Pixar usually shows up to legitimize its existence, but when even that powerhouse churns out a profit-pandering sequel (that would be the rightly-dissed Cars 2), you know it’s going to be a rough year.

To be fair, Puss in Boots is the same type of ‘toon-fare as Kung Fu Panda 2, but it’s much more enjoyable with a slightly-more sophisticated story (and I do mean slightly). This is your typical Dreamworks computer-animated flick, no better or worse than the rest of the Shrek movies, and it offers a completely dedicated Antonio Bandares at full-funny tilt as the badass swashbucklin’ Puss with a Spanish accent and fondness for the lady-kitties. Mindless, yes, but I had a good time watching this one.

The final two films are the two foreign, hand-drawn nominees (and a hand-drawn pic hasn’t won since 2002′s Spirited Away). A Cat in Paris is by all accounts a slight tale of a girl and her kitty, who lives a double-life as a burglar-gangster at night (I wasn’t able to see it). Chico & Rita, by far my favorite, is a romantic drama that just happens to be animated. This is the only nominee geared towards adults — yep, that’s an animated nipple you’re seeing — and while the sepia-palette is a bit dull and the old-fashioned animation lacks sharp definition, it’s an aurally vibrant love-letter to jazz. The romantic entanglements of a Cuban jazz musician and singer are set to a few old-school tunes with new ones by Bebo Valdés, a Cuban-born pianist and composer, who also happens to be the inspiration for character of Chico. It’s a romanticized portrait of Cuba, to be sure, but it’s a dazzling homage to the jazz form and the people who made it spectacular (Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Chano Pozo). See it for the love story, remember it for the gorgeous, invigorating music.

As much as I loved Chico & Rita, the actual Best Animated Feature this year was not even nominated. I don’t know why the Academy is so adverse to motion-capture, but the fact that it super-snubbed Spielberg’s terrifically sparky and brilliantly directed (just look at that breathless, super-kinetic chase scene mid-film!) The Adventures of Tintin is absolutely ridiculous — as is their undeserving recognition of his lazier work on War Horse. Epic fail, Academy. Epic. Fail.

Oscars 2012: Best Animated Short Film

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

1. THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE

2. A MORNING STROLL

3. LA LUNA

4. WILD LIFE

5. DIMANCHE (SUNDAY)

Sorry to my friends in the Great White North, but two Canadian shorts bottom out my list. Marcy Page and Bonnie Thompson’s starkly minimalistic-looking Wild Life is a Western of sorts, telling the rather dry story of a proud Englishman attempting to make a life for himself on the Canadian frontier at the turn of the 20th century. This dull — in color and in plot — short is only for the most hipstery of aficionados. Patrick Doyon’s Dimanche boasts an even duller palette of greys and blacks, and simpler animation of circles and sharp lines in its nearly narrative-free telling of one boy’s uneventful Sunday.

Thankfully, there’s A Morning Stroll, which begins with Dimanche‘s color(less) scheme but quickly transforms with energetic neon bursts of color. Based on a “true” story — this is great — in which a chicken is observed nonchalantly strolling down a sidewalk towards its residence, where it pecks on the door and is let inside. Grant Orchard’s 7-minute ‘toon depicts the chicken in the silent, black and white sketch-style of the 1950s, in the technology-obsessed-ADD present day and in a post-apocalyptic zombie-crazed world. It’s the flashiest, funniest and most vibrant of the bunch, and has no real chance of winning. But oh, what fun it is.

The Best Animated Feature nominees prove that having “Pixar” splashed across a tiny ‘toon doesn’t guarantee an Oscar nod. But here we have the frequent Mouse House-collaborator representing with the doe-eyed sentimentality that’s been missing from Walt’s World for quite some time. In Enrico Casarosa’s La Luna, a grandpa and dad instruct a young boy how to clean the moon of its stars. The boy has Precious Moments eyes and a darling sense of humor, the CG stars sparkle and shine and you generally feel warm and fuzzy whilst watching this dedicated trio lovingly perform its daily task. While nominated frequently here, Pixar hasn’t won the shorts category since 2001, so you could say it’s time.

Or you could say that Pixar’s talent has graduated to something better. William Joyce, who was the concept and art designer for Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, has written and directed the most fantastical, if nonsensical, short of the bunch (which you can watch en total here). In the The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, a Buster Keaton lookalike is swept away by a Katrina-esque storm to a magical land where piano-playing books have feet and wings and where the world rediscovers the healing joys of the written word. A shaky narrative to be sure, but the combination of 2D and computer animation is stunning and the whimsy of it all is utterly captivating.

Oscars 2012: Best Original Song

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1. “REAL IN RIO” (RIO)

2. “MAN OR MUPPET” (THE MUPPETS)

Missing: every decent song played during the credits

In 2009, the Academy lost its collective mind a little bit. First, it instituted that ridiculous concept of ten Best Picture nominees (they couldn’t even scrap together a full ten this year… who thought that was a good idea again?). But what many don’t realize is that that same year the Academy also altered the rules for Best Original song nominees. It’s a mind-boggling method in which voting members of the music branch watch sections of films where songs are played and nothing else. This basically discourages nominations of any song you may half-hear as you’re shuffling your way toward the exit — i.e. the best songs written this year that aren’t in musicals.

Then, of course, there’s the convoluted system of ‘scoring’ potential nominees (which I don’t have the patience to explain, but you can read about it here), which actually allows for the possibility of zero nominees. And if only one song scores high enough, the next highest scored song gets an (undeserved) nom as well. Considering our two nominees above, that’s probably what happened this year.

After the Academy slashed away every worthy song, we’re left with the existential question, am I a “Man or Muppet” from the billionth Muppets movie and the tropical diddy, “Real in Rio” from Rio, an animated feature about a nerd bird voiced by Jesse Eisenberg. While most voters probably haven’t a clue about about Muppet music maestro Bret McKenzie, who is one-half of folk rock-comedy duo in The Flight of the Conchords, they’ll most likely favor his manly muppet piano ballad over Sergio Mendes’s lighter, vibrant ode to Rio.

Oscars 2011: Best Animated Feature

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Toy Story 3

2. The Illusionist

3. How to Train Your Dragon

This may be the easiest category of the evening. There is no way in hell anything but the critically acclaimed smash hit of the summer, Toy Story 3, is going to win. How to Train Your Dragon has many endearing moments, most of which involve the feline-like dragon, aka Toothless, learning to trust and love his mini-viking protector, Hiccup. Dreamkworks’s animation of the human characters is actually superior to Pixar’s (to my inexpert eyes), but unfortunately while the film is cute, it’s not superlative in any way (whether in story, score, or general artistry/technique). Thankfully instead of the lackluster Tangled, or the not-nearly-as-funny-as-everyone-says Despicable Me, our third nominee is the art film disguised as an animated feature, The Illusionist. Ceaselessly charming and sans dialogue, our title character is an older, out-of-work magician who travels to Scotland where he meets a young woman who changes his life, and he, hers forever. Hand-drawn with colored pencils, the film is overflowing with beautifully landscaped pictures reminiscent of early Disney animated features (think of 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone), but it is decidedly too low-key and sophisticated to triumph at the end of the night.

To win, you need to be buoyant and heartbreaking and full of humor and fast-paced fun, not to mention expertly-crafted by the world’s top animators. And so it would seem Toy Story 3 fits the winning bill. And while the animation is still shimmering and superlative and startling in its superiority to all other animated films, the third installment of the beloved series sadly disappointed me. I was one of the few adults not shedding tears in the theater, nor was I laughing nearly as much as I did in the previous two films. Yes, it’s full of warmth and character and good, sentimental intentions, and so yes, it will win. But it’s not nearly as emotionally  startling as the first 10 minutes of Up, nor is it as heartbreaking as the “She Loved Me” sequence in Toy Story 2. Buzz and Woody’s denouement simply fizzled out for me. (Un)fortunately, Pixar’s previous brilliance had taught me to raise my expectations to impossible levels, and I simply wanted something more for my favorite toys.

Post-Oscar Wrap-up: 2010

With only a few minor surprises last night — Precious‘s winning Best Adapted Screenplay (excuse me?) and The Hurt Locker sweeping those sound awards (Sorry, Avatar!) – everything else went off according to plan. Hooray for Hollywood! Let’s break down the evening’s festivities, shall we?

THE TALLY

Which films earned the most — and the least — little gold men.

6
THE HURT LOCKER

3
AVATAR

2
PRECIOUS , CRAZY HEART, UP

1
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE BLIND SIDE, THE YOUNG VICTORIA, STAR TREK

0
UP IN THE AIR, A SERIOUS MAN, AN EDUCATION, THE LAST STATION, INVICTUS, A SINGLE MAN, THE MESSENGER, JULIE & JULIA,  THE LOVELY BONES, NINE, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, DISTRICT 9, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, CORALINE, THE SECRET OF KELLS, THE PRINCESS & THE FROG

Since the awards failed to excite, let’s check out what did manage to thrill / appall us. And by ‘us’ I mean me.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Sandy‘s speech (adorable). And that dress (gorgeous Marchesa).
Also: turning to hug Meryl, apparently changes her mind and does a 180, leaving The Streep with empty, outstretched arms (priceless).

2. Ben Stiller, dressed as an Avatar despite the fact that Avatar was not nominated for Best Makeup (genius). Also brilliant: when plaintively states, “I want to plug in my tail.”

3. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin’s paranormal activity. Totes brills, and the only amusing moment the uber-awkward hosting duo offers all night.

4. The lovely John Hughes tribute:

When you grow up, your heart dies.
So, who cares?
I care.

5. The mysteriously included horror film tribute. Not sure why it was there, but sure glad it was.
Jaws! The Exorcist! Nightmare on Elm Street! Psycho! Nosferatu! Twilight! – wait, what?

5. Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win Best Director. Too bad cameras fail to catch ex James “I’m king of the world!” Cameron’s glower as she accepts her golden guy.

6. Fantastically inspired, the League of Extraordinary Dancers interprets each of the nominated scores. It felt like the Tony Awards. But in the best possible way.

Skip the dreadful Zimmer score and go straight to the delightful Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up sequences.

LOWLIGHTS (slash highlights):

1.Neil Patrick Harris’ opening song and dance was totally awkward and unfunny. We love you NPH, but no. Just no.

2. Charlize Theron’s cinnabons.

2. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin “banter” as the most painfully torpid and unfunny co-hosts ever by simply insulting everyone in the room. It was like that year Chris Rock hosted. Except not funny.

3. George Clooney’s sourpuss mug throughout the entire ceremony. Why so angry, George? Was it part of the dreadfully unamusing act? Or did you finally realize that Up in the Air just isn’t very good?

4. Christopher Plummer, who appeared in three of this year’s nominated films, still has no Oscar to call his own (no other actor this year appeared in more than one nominated film). Shame on you, Academy. Shame. On. You.

5. Miley Cyrus’s posture. We realize your boobs will pop out of that golden gown if you stand up straight, but perhaps you’re not a size 0 after all. Just sayin’.

6. James Cameron’s sloppy look: in Joan Rivers’s immortal words, “He looks like a lesbian.”
There’s no better words to end the night with. Thanks, Joanie.

I had a blast seeing all the nominees this year — 43 features and 15 shorts in all. Thanks for reading. Until next year!

Next Up: The Tony Awards

Oscars 2010: Foreign Language, Animated, + Documentary Films

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to least accomplished, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners appear in orange.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

1. A Prophet (France)

3. Ajami (Israel)

4. El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)

5. The White Ribbon (Germany)

I honestly have no idea what will win this category. If you believe “serious” critical sources like the New York Times or Roger Ebert, the big prize will go to that severe (and severely painful) commentary on fascism, The White Ribbon (I’ve already said once why it shouldn’t win). If you have more faith in your Average Blogger or popular ‘zine (Entertainment Weekly, perhaps?), the decades-spanning crime drama El Secreto de Sus Ojos may very well be the evening’s big spoiler. I’m putting my money on the latter; with its universal themes of love and retribution, it’s as decent a prediction as any despite its penchant for overly-romanticized cinematography and cheesetastic lines like the following: “A guy can change anything: his face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion,his God. But there’s one thing he can’t change. He can’t change his passion.” However, it does pack one solid gut-punch of an ending.

But don’t entirely discount A Prophet. Another crime drama, but this one is more The Godfather than The Fugitive with its graphic violence and mafia obsessions. A young Arab (the stunning Tahar Rahim) serves a six-year sentence for a petty crime, and  finds himself ensnared in a dangerous world of warring criminal factions. A gritty and entirely gripping prison drama, this fantastic French film offers some solid competition to the pretentious (The White Ribbon) and the popular (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) choices. And while the ambitious and beautifully acted Ajami convincingly depicts the volatile relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel across multiple story lines which are expertly woven together (its structure is reminiscent of Slumdog Millionare), the film is over-long and stumbles into some clichés.

The one nominee that’s sure to be overlooked, however, is arguably the year’s most fascinating film – foreign or otherwise. The Milk of Sorrow is beautifully shot: single pearls drop with acute promise into a bowl, daunting dessert staircases spiral upward endlessly, and an old woman in intimate close-up sings emotionlessly about brutalities we’d dare not imagine. Along with these stunning images comes a fierce allegory of Peru’s sexually violent and political history: a timid young woman suffers from “the milk of sorrow,” a psychologically damaging disease causing her to take drastic measures to maintain her personal and emotional safety. Harrowing and gorgeously compelling, The Milk of Sorrow is the year’s finest film that Academy voters never saw.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Up

2. Fantastic Mr. Fox

3. The Princess and the Frog

4. Coraline

5. The Secret of Kells

There’s always this moment: when something – a film, a band, a novel – earns raves, the hype consequently builds, and it becomes so extraordinarily popular and beloved by both critics and audiences alike that the backlash is inevitable. All of a sudden something that was so fantastic isn’t nearly so fantastic anymore simply because everyone loves it. Somehow it loses its appeal. Somehow, suddenly, the popular thing is to not like it, and to throw support to the “underdog.”

It’s not very cool to love Up anymore. The trendy thing is to dig the argyle-lovin’ Fantastic Mr. Fox with its hipster soundtrack and clever dialogue (and oh, how I do totally dig it).

Wait, that’s so five minutes ago.

Now it’s really all about the flat, abstract illustration of a young Irish chap as he rebels against his monk-father and befriends a wolf-fairy-girl in – a rather dry – pursuit of the legendary book in The Secret of Kells. And while practically everyone suffers from mommy/daddy issues that will always keep us in deep sympathy with the pale goth-girl Coraline as she battles her creepy button-eyed Other-Mother, Tim Burton dark ‘toon has the added misfortune of arriving on the scene before that CGIed tale of the soaring senior, which immediately took all the wind for its own balloon-sails. And the erratically charming The Princess and the Frog arrived terribly late to the game with its outrageously belated first African American princess, tired Randy Newman ‘tunes, and lazy hand-drawn animation. Clearly Disney didn’t want to steal any of its own thunder.

Despite all the backlash, no one can argue that Up (read my full review here) is a sure bet on Oscar night. All you need to do is rewatch that brilliantly calibrated opening montage of love and loss and you’ll laugh, weep, and then laugh and weep again – all within ten wordless minutes sensitively underscored by Giacchino.  How quickly you’ll forget all about those foxes and frogs, and long to take the journey Up all over again.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. The Cove

2. Food, Inc.

3. Which Way Home

4. The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

5. Burma VJ

Note: This is a quick update to my list, as I just watched Which Way Home this afternoon (3/7/10).

It’s been a year of seemingly endless affliction (as these nominees and others would lead you to believe). The freshly filmed and nicely polished-looking Food, Inc., for example, offers us the comforting knowledge – rather redundantly if you’ve read the novel or seen the cinematic adaptation of Fast Food Nation, that this doc is based on – that everything we eat is terrible for us; and it all goes back, way back, to the inhumane treatment of farm animals and the horrible working conditions within our factories. New information? Not exactly. Perfect blend of the personal, the facts, and smooth filmmaking? Definitely.

The other three docs aren’t nearly as refined as Food, Inc. but The Most Dangerous Man in America is definitely more interesting – at least if you’re anything like me and are solely lacking in the knowledge of this highly historical moment. A well-told story of the one super-smart Everyman who smuggled thousands of Pentagon documents and leaked them to the press, uncovering top-secret governmental policies regarding Vietnam, this documentary simultaneously personalizes and historicizes the essential, vital argument for free press and freedom of speech.

The simple act of filming Burma VJ is an incredible and harrowing achievement. Governed by a repressive military regime, the people of Burma are forbidden to film or photograph anything, and the filmmakers literally risked life and limb to smuggle this film to outside sources. After the initial shock wears off of the uber-necessary stealthy filming techniques and the typical daily treatment of citizens (not to mention the jailing of monks), the doc loses power and yet trucks right along, capturing footage after footage of much the same.

Which Way Home is an interesting doc, but one that seems to sympathize with its subjects more than question them. About children migrating illegally over the Mexican-US border, the kids’ courage and ambitions to better their families lives by finding the “American Dream” is both endearing and frustrating, and their parents’ knowledge of the extreme dangers that they are facing in crossing the border  (and allowing them to take the risk anyway) is infuriating.

It’s strange how a film that is so flawed (and for which I had strong remarks for in my full review) ended up topping my list.  The Cove’s largely personal, highly emotional – and to mention thrilling – mission to uncover the needless and horrifically violent yearly dolphin slaughterings in a cove off of Japan, is by far the most mesmerizing and the most effectual. Sure, the facts are skewed for emotional effect, and the film’s main human subject, a Flipper-trainer-turned-activist, is obviously on a mission of self-redemption, but this personal journey actually ups the stakes – for both the subjects and for us. Revealing passion – even passion that is at times misguided – doesn’t discredit the film, but actually heightens its effect: as enraged as I was at some of the factual shortcomings, I was even more so at the acts of violence being perpetuated. If filmmaking inspires movement and change from its audience, then perhaps the other nominees should take a passionate cue from The Cove.

Next up: Best Actor + Actress

Oscars 2010: The Shorts

Let’s begin with the shorts, shall we? (Not that you saw any of them)

[Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners will be in orange.]

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

1.    The Lady and the Reaper (la Dama y la Muerte)

2. A Matter of Loaf and Death

3.    Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty

4.    Logorama

5.    French Roast

Are you wondering where Pixar’s adorable and utterly charming
Partly Cloudy is?
Me too.

Disregarding that huge oversight by the Academy, this alternately whimsical, clever, and politically overt crop o ‘toons is entirely worthy (for trailers for all nominated animated and live-action shorts, go here). My vote goes to the funny and crisply animated The Lady and the Reaper in which an elderly woman desperately pining for her beloved recently deceased husband tries valiantly (and hilariously) to meet the Reaper despite the cocksure and hysterical efforts of a handsomely chiseled doctor (Bonus: Antonio Banderas produces!). But the Academy rarely fails to reward that loveable claymation duo, Wallace and Gromit, and their yeasty adventures in A Matter of Loaf and Death offer that characteristically British-bent humor that has garnered three previous Oscars for creator Nick Park.

Possible spoiler: the profane and ultra-violent Logorama (at times) cleverly and colorfully sends up dozens upon dozens of universally recognizable brands as it simultaneously ticks off action cliché after action cliché (Car chases! SWAT teams! Earthquakes! Hostages!). While not offering much depth beyond the initial visual lampooning of corporations, voters may celebrate the film’s overtly adult content as a breath of fresh air in a category teeming with quirky, cutely-drawn characters and sentimental themes.  For my money, though, its in-your-face-anti-corporate politics are lazier than the animation is vibrant and inventive.

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

1. The New Tenants

2. Kavi

3. Instead of Abracadabra

4. The Door

5. Miracle Fish

In this year’s wildly various category, Kavi is the sentimental favorite, as it follows the heartbreaking defiance of a brightly optimistic Indian boy as he dreams of playing cricket and freedom from his indentured servitude. But both the Academy and myself maintain a history of favoring clever and unpredictable violence, and Joachim Back and Patrik Eklund are the Tarantinos of short live-action with their self-conscious philosophizing film, The New Tenants. A couple preposterously encounters its vicious new neighbors over and over again while attempting to reconnect emotionally with each other in this brutally absurd short.

Meanwhile, Instead of Abracadbra captures the eccentric humor of a Swedish Napoleon Dynamite (“Chimay!”), the Irish-made, Russian-language The Door relays the muted despair of a family following Chernobyl, and the least accomplished Miracle Fish (Australia) begins cutely with a cherubic boy subjected to constant bullying and slowly builds to an emotionally manipulative moment of predictable – yet still shocking – horror.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

1.    Rabbit à la Berlin
During the decades before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an enormous colony of wild rabbits took up residence in its shadow.

2.   The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
As the GM factory in Moraine, Ohio, prepares to close its doors, its employees face the prospect of joblessness in a difficult economic climate.

3.    Music by Prudence
In the face of incredible odds, disabled Zimbabwean singer/songwriter Prudence Mabhena offers a message of hope through her music.

4.  The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
While dealing with the devastating effects of Parkinson’s disease, Washington’s former governor Booth Gardner leads a campaign to legalize assisted suicide in the state.

5. China’s Unnatural Disaster:
The Tears of Seichuan Province
The terrible earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province in 2008 resulted in the deaths of many children, often due to the collapse of their shoddily constructed schools.

QUICK UPDATE! Saw the short docs this afternoon (3/7/10) and the Rabbits were super-clever and a wonderfully told story through a unique perspective, The Last Truck is easily the most moving (at least for a girl from Detroit), and China’s Unnatural Disaster is incredibly shrill and unbalanced (I felt for the parents of children killed in the earthquake, but the filmmakers really needed to go deeper). This is my ranking, but we’ll see what happens!

Pixar soars once again, lifting audiences UP

Something has been a bit off with Pixar. Though enjoyable, I never quite understood the excitement over The Incredibles.  Cars was utterly boring. Ratatouille was cute, but lacked a vitality of inspiration.  And WALL•E, which began with such invigorating promise, abruptly devolved into cute-robot-saves-the-day dreck. Pixar, the company I had built such high hopes for based on the visual delights and depths of emotion presented in the Toy Storys and Finding Nemo, was dropping the ball. 

And then I saw Up.  

Everything I had been missing about Pixar was there: complex human emotion presented through beautifully simple storytelling, clever dialogue and honest humor, and breathtaking, fantastical feats of visual imagineering.  Within the first ten minutes of the film, I had laughed loudly and openly, abruptly and quietly wept, and then laughed again before I had a chance to wipe away the tears.

The story is simple:  we watch as the withdrawn Carl (the wonderful, curmudgeonly Ed Asner) meets his childhood sweetheart and fellow adventurer, the charmingly boisterous Ellie. Through a brilliantly calibrated and underscored sequence sans dialogue, we witness them fall in love and marry; we weep with Ellie upon the devastating realization that she cannot have the children they so longed for, and we  whole-heartedly root for them as they save and plan for the South American adventure they had always dreamt of experiencing together. When life gets in the way and their grand plan falls to the wayside, that’s exactly when the adventure begins: Carl attaches a rainbow of balloons to their lifelong home, and in a loving tribute to his beloved Ellie, steers the makeshift contraption to Paradise Falls, along the way, learning the life lessons of how to let go and open himself to new experiences and new loves. Of course, Carl does this all with the help of a quirky and endlessly amusing supporting cast of characters including the youngand adorably earnest boyscout-stowaway, Russell, the loyal and lovable canine, Doug, and the maniacal foil and one-time idolized explorer, Charles Muntz (the always wonderful, and in this case, delightfully despicable, Christopher Plummer).

While the story is predictably conventional, there’s a reason Carl’s tale of loss and rediscovery is one of the oldest narratives in existence: it is universally true, resonating with all audiences, everywhere. Carl’s tale is heartbreaking and heartwarming, and Pixar tells it so thoroughly and subtly, and with such elegance and understanding of the human experience, that instead of overpowering the beautiful simplicity of the story, the awe-inspiring animation elevates and enhances its inherent narrative delights through lush coloring, vibrant characterizations, and heartrending sequences. The title is more than fitting: as Carl and his house of balloons alternately ascends and falls, paralleling his life journey, we know that no matter how weighed down or disheartening life becomes, there’s nowhere to go but Up.  And that genuine and open optimism creates the best kind of (Pixar) adventure.

Pixar Gets Political

Not since Short Circuit have we encountered such an adorably harmless robot.  Wall•E is a simple ‘bot who putters out his days humming Hello, Dolly! tunes and discovering treasure in others’ trash (dinglehopper, anyone?).  It isn’t until a fem ‘bot lands on the devastated Earth that we realize our hero’s true plight:  the little guy just wants some love.  And, of course, to save Earth along the way — or does he really want that after all?

If the basic plot of finding love and/or a sense of belonging seems all too familiar to us (everything from The Little Mermaid to E.T. to Lilo and Stitch come to mind), what does seem  different is the overt politics that spring up mid-’toon that are only resolved when the love quandary of our faithful ‘bot is happily settled.  Pixar isn’t dealing with complex emotions and character relationships as it has in the past; in Wall•E, writer and director Andrew Stanton has discarded those notable trademarks for a strangely simplistic statement concerning the environment and how our ignorance and laziness will most assuredly lead to the absolute destruction of the planet.  That is, of course, until we remember that what the world needs now, is love, sweet love, and then we realize that all will be righted soon enough.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on what many would defend as just a “kids movie,” and what others would call an amazing technological feat (as always, the details are delightful and the artistry in animation stunning).  The problem with that argument is that Pixar’s films are always awe-inspiring to look at, and the company doesn’t create just “kids movies,” it never has.  Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles all subtly produce rich characters and situations and the emotions always run high and deep in those films.  Wall•E never reaches those heights because no matter how many times our protagonist (and he is A-dorable)  induces “awwws” from me and the rest of the audience, he never accomplishes anything more.  The adorable android dutifully collects garbage, carefully crunching the junk into easily disposable cubes, but he doesn’t do it because he cares about having a clean Earth.  Just like the blobby humans the film depicts as unthinkingly wittling away their days as a planet goes to ruin, Wall•E simply zooms along, carelessly cleaning out of routine — until a girl comes around, and then he finally cares about saving the Earth, but only because she does, and only because she has been given the “directive” to.  

Where Wall•E fails in creating complex characters and subtle plot, however, it makes up for in clever sequences involving the ‘bot’s daily musings (a favorite:  his grudgingly awakening and, groggy, unable to put on his “shoes”) and his dedicated fawning over the laser-happy female ‘bot, Eva. The flick also boasts a typically hilarious Pixar short involving a short-tempered magician and his hungry and rather industrious rabbit.  In the end, I was glad to have met Wall•E; I only wish I had gotten to know him better.