Movie Review: Monster's University (2013)

The short film that preceded Monsters University, The Blue Umbrella, is a beautiful work of visual poetry, using music and rhythm to progress the narrative, with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever. It’s a story about – as you may have guessed – a blue umbrella that develops an attraction to a red umbrella, which happens to be the only other color that stands out amongst the sea of traditional black (there’s some symbolism in there somewhere).

When the blue umbrella finds itself blown away during a rain storm, a world of inanimate objects comes alive, working together to save the helpless little guy from all sorts of peril, all to reunite him with his bright red crush. The animation is absolutely fantastic; perfect rain effects and dark lighting dominate the environment, creating detailed shadows and reflections everywhere. Pixar is a studio that once combined incredible technical polish with a unique approach to storytelling. Their true power is shown during this wonderful little short.

Then The Blue Umbrella ended and Monsters University began. From there on out things seemed fairly run-of-the-mill -- a very sad thing to have to say about any Pixar production. After all, this is the studio that gave the world masterpieces like Ratatouille (2007) and Toy Story (1995).

Nintendo Wii Review: Wreck-It Ralph

A word of warning before you play Wreck-It Ralph for the Nintendo Wii: If you haven’t seen the movie yet, stay away from this game, because the film’s ending will be blown for you in the opening segment. However, if you have seen the Disney movie, stay even further away from this videogame version of Wreck-It Ralph, because it’ll taint your pleasant opinion of the characters forever. It’s obvious that this was intended to be little more than a quick cash-in, since the entire game will take you under two hours to finish – and that may be the only good thing about it.

For the most part, Wreck-it Ralph can be defined as a platformer, with a little bit of action mixed in for seemingly no reason. Had we been given a simple clone of some classic game in the genre, that would have been a much better idea. Going in, I expected this to be the Wreck-It Ralph game featured in the movie. Instead what we get to play is strange and lacks any discernible focus whatsoever.

Disney's Lucasfilm Deal May Be Good For Star Wars Fans

When I first heard that the Walt Disney Corporation purchased Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, I was ready to Occupy Disney in protest, and I’m sure there are millions of fans who would have joined me. I was shocked. I sat stunned in my room, cuddling my Wicket doll and wishing it was all just a bad dream.

 

Episode VII? I didn’t want an Episode VII! Hell, I didn’t even want the prequel movies, but I guess George Lucas was going to shove them down my throat no matter what. To be fair, his marketing machine did do a great job of making me believe I only knew part of the story, and he did pocket a ticket purchase from me for all three of those below-average films.

It was then that I had my epiphany: if George Lucas wasn’t in charge of Lucasfilm anymore, then George Lucas couldn’t pollute the original Star Wars trilogy ever again. And that’s a huge plus, one that a Blu-ray collection absent of Star Wars reminds me of each and every day.