The Simpsons Movie (2007) - Charm and Wit with an Edge

The Simpsons Movie: This is a Film for Fans. You Have Been Warned.

"The Simpsons Movie" (2007), directed by David Silverman for Twentieth Century Fox, is a feature-film version of the popular animated television series. The regular television cast appears, along with Albert Brooks and cameos by Tom Hanks and Green Day. The film is full of cultural allusions and references that make it almost a parody of modern culture. The film's main targets, though, are religion and environmentalism, which gives the film a sharp edge.

Blu-ray cover

Pollution in Lake Springfield kills the rock band Green Day, which is performing there, after their barge sinks due to toxic waste. Grampa Simpson says this is a sign that the town is doomed, but only Marge takes him seriously. Lisa and her boyfriend Colin pressure the town to clean up the lake.

Green Day, before the barge sinks

Homer rescues a pig, "Spider Pig," from Krusty Burger. Bart feels neglected and starts hanging out with Flanders. Homer collects an entire silo full of pig waste and takes the silo to the town dump. It takes too long for him to dispose of it, though, so he just throws it in the lake, polluting it some more.

Homer and his pig

The EPA finds a chipmunk that mutated because of the lake's pollution, and its chief Russ Cargill goes to President Arnold Schwarzenegger for guidance. The President orders that a dome be constructed over the town to contain the pollution. When people in town find out that Homer dumped his silo in the lake, causing the dome to be put up, they come looking for him. The Simpsons manage to escape through a sinkhole that provides a tunnel under the dome. Homer suggests that they go to Alaska.

Tom Hanks makes an appearance

The residents of Springfield want to get rid of the dome, but Cargill doesn't want anyone to find out about the dome, so he plots to destroy the entire town. Tom Hanks appears in a television advertisement to create a new Grand Canyon where Springfield is located. Marge and the kids go back to Springfield to see what they can do to help the townspeople, and the EPA captures them and puts them back in the dome.

"I choose option 3"

Homer is saved from a polar bear by an Inuit shaman, and comes to believe that he can save the town. Homer gets back just in time to intercept a bomb being dropped into the dome by the EPA. It falls into the dome, and Homer finds it and throws it out through a hole, destroying the dome. Cargill tries to shoot Homer for foiling his scheme, but Marge knocks him unconscious, and the town starts getting back to normal.

Mush!

Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, and Hank Azaria provide most of the voices, as usual. Albert Brooks, who has appeared in the show before, voices Russ Cargill, while Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day says a few lines at the beginning.

An angry mob, Simpsons style

The film did well at the box office, and in fact currently sits as the 23rd highest grossing animation film worldwide in history. Although the film tackles serious themes, there is a lot of humor of the slapstick variety. However, it is very plot-driven, and long-time fans may miss the deeper humor the show usually provides. Some of the usual supporting characters hardly appear at all, giving the film a very different tone than the more relaxed episodes. On the positive side, the show always has been at its best when it shows the Simpson family as a family, and it does that very well in the film.

Oh, boy, here we go!

There is nothing subtle in Matt Groening's script about blowing up the city and turning it into the Grand Canyon, and the television show usually does stick to subtle humor. The film is much more over-the-top, funny but in a different way. Even the music by Hans Zimmer, a real heavyweight in the industry, is different. He takes the usual theme and departs from it with a grand orchestral interpretation. It is not bad, just a different take on Danny Elfman's original theme. Many long-time fans of the show may not like such changes, but they are about the best you could hope for after a show has been on the air for so long and everything about it is carved in stone. The real treat for fans of the show simply lies in seeing Springfield on the big screen at all.

Easy rider

There are a lot of gags in the film, so at one point or another you are bound to find something funny. Because of the radically different tone of the film, though, it really isn't for fans who take the show seriously as social commentary. The problem with the film creatively isn't so much that it is a bad film as it is it simply isn't any kind of creative breakthrough. Good Simpsons humor revolves around taking real events, or things that could be real, and exaggerating them to make a point. There is nothing realistic about anything that goes on in this film, so the film is looking for a completely different audience than it caters to on a weekly basis.

Homer and pig running for his life

With all the time and effort put into making a feature film, expectations were high. The film plays like an extended episode without the wit and charm fans have come to expect. It seems as if the creators were going for a big message about the environment, but it falls flat. To top it all off, the film uses computer generated imagery instead of sticking with hand-drawn animation, which also is a departure from the weekly series. While the film apparently was shooting for a different audience than the weekly series, and apparently found it, upsetting the people that support the show week in and week out just to cater to a new potential audience seems unwise.

World Premiere was in Springfield, Vermont

If you are a fan, you undoubtedly have seen it. If you haven't seen the film, just bear in mind that it does not represent the comic heights reached by the show in the past.

Below is the trailer:

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The Polar Express (2004) - Tom Hanks Takes Us to Santa

The Polar Express: If Everyone Didn't Look So Creepy, This Would Have Been A Major Hit

"The Polar Express" (2004), directed by Robert Zemeckis based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg, is one of the most controversial holiday films ever made. Usually you don't think of holiday productions as controversial, but this one managed it because of the type of animation used. As the first feature to use live action capture animation techniques, it enchanted some viewers and creeped out others. Always, though, you have the reassuring presence of Tom Hanks to keep things from getting out of hand, and over time, many have come to accept and even enjoy the somewhat awkward movement of the characters.

A smile of satisfaction

It is the 1950s in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A little boy wants to believe in Santa, but he can't find any proof in books or magazines. As the night draws on, though, he goes outside and finds a mysterious train. The conductor says it is the "Polar Express" headed to the North Pole to visit Santa. He boards the train, and it heads through various environments, some quite hostile.

A happy little girl with her ticket

There are other children on the train, including Billy, who is from the same hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The conductor comes through and punches the children's tickets that appear in their pockets. A girl's ticket, though, gets lost, and the conductor takes her on the roof of the train. Finding the ticket, the boy takes it up to the roof to give to the conductor, but runs into a hobo who claims he owns the train. The hobo helps him complete his mission just before the train enters a low tunnel that would have knocked him off the roof.

All aboard!

Winding up in the train's engine, the boy finds the girl driving it. The engineer and fireman, she explains, are fixing a light. The boy gives the girl her ticket.

Beautiful railroad cars

When they arrive at the North Pole, Billy is alone in the observation car because he does not want to meet Santa due to his background of bad Christmases. The car gets unhooked, and the car drifts to industrial areas of Santa's workshop, visiting various parts of Santa's operation such as the Wrapping Hall and a warehouse. Ultimately, they all get back to where they are supposed to be via airship.

Wolves await in the forest

Santa gives the boy his choice of presents as "The First Gift of Christmas," and he chooses a silver bell that he saw fall off of Santa's sleigh, which he puts in his pocket. After Santa leaves on his journey, though, he loses the bell. They then return home.

The locomotive

The next morning, his sister Sarah finds a present for him hidden behind the tree. It turns out to be the bell. Both he and his sister hear it ring, but their parents do not, because they no longer believe in Santa.

The sound of Christmas

Tom Hanks voices the Conductor, Santa, the Hobo, the Narrator and other characters, while Peter Scolari, Hanks' old pal from "Bosom Buddies," voices Billy, and Josh Hutcherson is the boy. Eddie Deezen, Nona Gaye, Tinashe and Meagan Moore all provide vocal support for the other characters.

Santa's Sleigh!

There isn't much of a plot, but, then, the source book was only a 32-page picture book, so making an entire feature out of it at all was a bit of a stretch. Basically, the boy boards a train that goes where it is supposed to go, and then returns him home. If you watch this for the story line you are bound to be disappointed. You have to be open to the occasional thrills and chills associated with the ride, the sheer oddness of the entire experience, the beautiful winter scenery which is sure to put you in the holiday spirit even if you view it in July, and the feeling the film gives you about the holiday season. It is a very traditional story, and the high point is the extravagant nature of Santa's abode. The magnificence of it is rooted in the realization of childhood memories and the wish that reality would conform to our own hopes and desires. That the real world might bend to our needs, even just for that one special day, is what gives "The Polar Express" is this film's sole reason for being.

Tom Hanks helped create all three of these characters!

The animation used by Castle Rock is so life-like in some ways that you will be confounded at whether it is real or not. However, while it is good at capturing larger movements, tiny facial expressions are beyond it. The characters wind up looking stiff and unhuman. Once you accept that, though, you can sit back and enjoy the technical wizardry that makes the characters real, but not real. It portrays almost a twilight zone of existence, between the living and the dead, which works with the story as being somewhere between dreams and reality. You are meant to feel disoriented and on a different plane of thought and emotion, and to a large degree the awkward animation works quite well. The old Rankin/Bass specials worked because they explicitly were not real and thus just a warm-hearted story, while this type of animation confuses the issue, creating a sense of imbalance and unease which works on the trip north.

The train approaches its destination

A 3D format was introduced for this film, and the IMAX 3-D version plays annually at IMAX theaters even though the film has been released on 2-D and 3-D Blu-ray and regular DVD discs. The transfer to video was gorgeous, this film looks spectactular on a good home theater set-up. There is a Polar Express ride at SeaWorld Orlando during the holiday season each year as well as various other theme parks. A lot of detail went into the train itself, which is closely modeled after a train in Michigan.

Now that's a tree!

Looked at solely as a piece of animation, the film is not very impressive except on a purely technical level, where it was cutting edge at the time but since has been surpassed. The results of the motion capture process used are too close to reality in some ways, and too far away in others. The problem with this is that most people don't go to a feel-good holiday movie to be made uncomfortable. However, solely in the context of this film, interpreting the entire Polar Express ride as a kind of dream, the animation works quite well, even spectacularly. Many people are willing to go with it, and because of that the film has become a continuing cult hit.

Thank you, Santa

You might want to watch the trailer (copy below) and see how you feel about the animation. If it doesn't phase you, and you want a heart-warming holiday experience, 'The Polar Express" will give you a lot of happy memories.

Below is the trailer:





2012

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Toy Story (1995) - The Creation of Andy's Room

Toy Story: An Epic Experience in Animation History

In the Universe, there was the Big Bang. In the field of exploration, there was Christopher Columbus stumbling upon an entire continent that had somehow gone un-noticed by the Europeans. In film history, there also are pivotal moments: the introduction of the Hays Code in 1934; the advent of talkies in 1928; technicolor in the 1930s; 3D in the 1950s; the "Disney Renaissance" of the 1990s; and "Toy Story."

Buzz Lightyear and the aliens in the claw game

Well, "Toy Story" (1995) by itself perhaps doesn't quite reach those kinds of levels, but it comes darn close. "Toy Story" put Pixar on the map and began the pre-eminent animation franchise of all time. "Shrek" may have pumped out more films in its decade-long run, "The Land Before Time" might have generated, what, a dozen sequels, but nothing touches the grandeur of the "Toy Story" franchise and its bedroom full of wacky characters.

Woody greets Buzz

Tom Hanks, at that time just off his Oscar run in "Forest Gump" and "Philadelphia," stars as Woody, a pull-string cowboy toy owned by young Andy (John Morris). He is Andy's favorite toy, but his more important role is as the leader of all of Andy's toys. While acting lifeless with people around, the toys all come to life when left alone. One day, Woody leads an away team to find out what Andy is getting for his upcoming birthday. They find that one of those presents is a brand new space ranger toy, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). Woody feels threatened and resentful that anyone should think that he alone is not enough for Andy. The other toys also worry him because they give Buzz a lot of attention. "Toy Story" chronicles Woody's jealousy and the beginning of his amiable rivalry with Buzz.

Woody and Buzz

Andy is going with his family to Pizza Planet, which has a science fiction theme, and he is going to take Buzz. Woody, though, is jealous and hides Buzz so that Andy can't find him and will have to take Woody instead. Instead of hiding Buzz behind the desk, though, Woody somehow drops Buzz out the window. The other toys are suspicious, thinking that Woody intentionally murdered Buzz. The plan works, though, as Andy winds up taking Woody to Pizza Planet anyway. On the way, though, Buzz gets in the car when they stop for gas and confronts Woody. Both toys wind up on the pavement, and Andy drives off without them.

Woody in the hands of his new owner Sid

Woody spots a truck going to Pizza Planet, so the two toys jump on it and ride there. Once at the restaurant, Buzz wanders off to an arcade game, thinking it is a ship that will take him back to his home world. Inside are aliens who have their own culture, honoring the mighty claw arm as their god. Woody comes to rescue Buzz from the machine, but Andy's neighbor Sid Phillips (Erick von Detten), who has a terrible reputation among the toys, captures both of them with the claw arm.

Buzz about to take Woody for a ride

Sid takes them home, and Buzz and Lightyear are frantic to escape quickly because Andy is moving to another home soon. Buzz tests whether he is, in fact, a toy and tries to fly, falling and losing his arm. Woody uses the arm to wave to his comrades in Andy's house and get help, but they assume he murdered Buzz. Sid's toys, who are all nice but mangled due to Sid's experiments with them, help out by reconnecting Buzz's arm, but Sid decides to have some fun and straps Buzz to a rocket to destroy him completely. Woody and Sid's toys rescue Buzz, and Woody scares Sid off by coming to life and telling him off for hurting defenseless toys. Woody and Buzz leave through a hole in the fence, but find that Andy and his family are gone to their new home.

Wood enjoying himself while flying

Buzz and Woody manage to get to the truck taking Andy's toys to the new home, but Sid's dog Scud chases them and almost gets Woody until Buzz intervenes. Buzz is now in peril, but Woody's attempt to save him using a remote-controlled vehicle fails when the other toys become suspicious of his motives and toss Woody off the truck into the street. The other toys realize their error, though, and come to help out. The remote-controlled car's batteries die, so Woody improvises and uses the rocket on Buzz's back to propel them all back into the truck. And comes by and is happy to rediscover the toys he thought were missing. They all get to the new house, and find out that Andy's Christmas gift is their worst nightmare, a new puppy.

The Toy Story cast

"Toy Story" is beloved by all, and is one of the best-reviewed films ever, and not just animation films. It was a breakthrough, because, while Disney had been dabbling with computer generated imagery (CGI) for decade, since "The Black Cauldron," it hadn't felt the need to create an entire film using CGI as Pixar did with "Toy Story." For Pixar, a nerdy little computer graphics company that did contract work for Disney, "Toy Story" was a bet-the-company gamble, and it worked. That Pixar, with no experience putting together feature-length animated films, was able to get all the minute details of such a production - casting, dialogue, plot, imagery, continuity, music ("You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman is a classic), on and on - done to perfection was a staggering accomplishment. Pixar's expertise is especially evident in the expressiveness they give to the toys' faces, particularly Woody's. This is what draws the viewer in and makes the toys friends and not just objects that can talk. Wisely, Pixar hired some of the most engaging actors in the industry, including Allen, Hanks, Wallace Shawn (Rex), Annie Potts (Bo Peep), Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, John Ratazenberger as piggy bank Hamm, and the like to reinforce the human-ness of the toys. All this combined gives the ingredients for a smash hit. Which, of course, "Toy Story" was.

Bo Peep turns traitor: "Buzz has more gadgets on him than a Swiss Army knife.”

At heart, the key to the success of "Toy Story" and its sequels is that, in the tradition of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and too many cop films to count, it is a buddy film. Woody and Buzz form a terrific "Odd Couple," with Woody going through a very understandable sequence of emotions when his domain is threatened by the newcomer Buzz, but then backing off and not only accepting Buzz, but embracing his presence. Seeing the two work out their differences so that together they can accomplish more than either one of them alone in the final third of "Toy Story" is extremely satisfying. Allen has perhaps the best lines as the cocky Buzz, but Hanks always will be the sentimental favorite in any showdown between them because of his inherent likability. Hanks also gets some terrific "diva" moments, such as when he rants to Buzz about the true nature of their existence, a truly classic line of dialogue that is so good because it is so ridiculously appropriate and undercuts the sense of disbelief that may exist in the viewer's mind and lets him/her know that Pixar is in on the joke all the way:

“You are a toy! You aren’t the real Buzz Lightyear! You’re an action figure. You are a child’s plaything!”

While Mr. Potato Head is a fan favorite, Rex the cowardly dinosaur also provides lots of laughs

Buzz, of course, also has a great set-up to his character. For the entire first half of this Pixar film, he is convinced that he is on a failed space mission and has to repair his ship or find some other way back to his home world. Tim Allen is perfect as the deluded astronaut who keeps finding just enough positive reinforcement for his wrong-headed belief to maintain it in the face of stark reality. When he finally does face reality, his reaction is quite touching, and you will feel bad for this toy that he in fact is not out exploring the galaxy, but is forever entombed in Andy's bedroom. Tim Allen has just the right "everyman" attitude that is as convincing and winning as Hanks' amiability and soft-heartedness for Woody.

Sid just delights in mangling and torturing his toys

The most amazing thing about this franchise, though, is that "Toy Story" itself was just the humble beginnings. It may have grossed over $300 million, but that was a mere "bag of shells," as Ralph Kramden would say, in comparison to what was to come. "Toy Story 3," which came out in 2010 with Randy Newman's best work of all, nearly tripled this film's gross. What that says is that the franchise built up an awful lot of good will with this introduction to some of the most loveable animated characters ever created and attracted more viewers based on that reputation. It used to be thought that sequels could never do better than original films at the box office, but "Toy Story" showed that opening the door with a surprise-hit animated film was enough to generate billions later if the quality was good enough.

Woody feeling a bit left out

You can nit-pick all you want - boys usually stick with GI Joe dolls, and there isn't a single one in sight, the Hell of Sid's toys is not really explored sufficiently to give them life - but that gets you nowhere. "Toy Story" is a great animated film. If you have never seen "Toy Story," you might as well go out of your way to do so, because odds are terrific that, sooner or later, a friend will drag you to a sequel or will have one playing while you are visiting and you will enjoy it tremendously, but not as much as if you saw the original and the establishment of all the toys' relationships. It will just make the entire experience more enjoyable. Consider it fun homework.

Andy and his two recovered toys

Below is the original trailer for "Toy Story," and below that the Randy Newman theme song, "You've Got a Friend in Me":

2012

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Toy Story 3 (2010) - Our Old Friends Return

Toy Story 3: The Toys Think They May Be Given Away

Animated films exist on their own continent, perhaps even in their own dimension. Stars you haven't seen in a live-action major Hollywood film in decades, or whose last television series got cancelled in the '70s, find eternal youth voicing characters drawn by others. It has to be the easiest gig in acting, perhaps in any type of employment. Come in, read for a few days, get called back in a year or three later to do a few more lines, and that's it. Nice work if you can get it.

Toy owner Andy, who once again makes only the briefest of appearances.

The beauty of the entire process is that the sequels are almost automatic. Unless an animated film really dies at the box office or has some kind of Mysterious Problem at actually putting together a quick sequel (cough cough "Finding Nemo" cough cough), the studios can spit these out whenever they want. The character become our friends, helped by long-ago associations made when the voice actors were still major players in other productions. Controversial or edgy actors tend not to last long in animated films, it is the laid-back, feel-good types that prosper.

It's a wild and crazy group

"Toy Story 3" (2010) has one of the best such voice casts in the business. Mr. Nice Guy himself, Tom Hanks, reprises his role as Woody, while Tim Allen once again is Buzz Lightyear. These guys may not be quite the fire-eaters they were fifteen years ago, but they are amiable and fit the friend-mold perfectly. Comfortable Don Rickles, who was entertaining all of our parents when they were young, is Mr. Potato Head, and "Mr. Cheers" himself, John Ratzenberger, is along with a lot of his trademark seen-it-all quips as well.

The toys with Andy

In this one, the toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center. They think they have been abandoned by Andy (their owner) and his family, but Woody knows that Andy (John Morris) is a nice boy and wouldn't do anything like that. Does it all work out well in the end? With all these friends around, what do you think?

We come in peace

In my opinion, the plot doesn't really matter anyway. We get to spend some time with our old friends, who once again are facing a common problem as a group which they must overcome, and that is enough right there. It's the simplest, sweetest theme in show biz, and it works like a charm every time it is used, whether it be in Rickles' own "Kelly's Heroes" or "Lost" or the entire "" franchise.

Woody looks happy with this sequel

These sequels do not exist in a vacuum. While you don't need to have seen "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" in order to understand this film, it sure helps. Besides, you miss out on all the camaraderie if you don't watch the previous instalments. It is fine being friends for one film, but don't you want to get the full experience? Who wants to be the late transfer into high school, with everyone else already friends and in their well-established cliques? Better to join the ride at the beginning, not half-way through.

The toys love their home

As usual, in a trend that began long ago but matured only with Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," which begat the hit Broadway show of the same name and many other spin-offs, "Toy Story 3" was nurtured into a cottage industry. Aside from the obvious toy sales it drives, "Toy Story 3 On Ice" toured the country. Mel Brooks must have had a lot of fun thinking about that! Just amazing how these guys respect the power of synergy.

Yes, it's Toy Story 3 On Ice!!!!!!!!

Watch the first two chapters before you try this one, and you'll have a lot more fun. Oh, it was the top-grossing film of 2010 for a reason, and currently the second-highest of all time among animated films. It's a great film, probably the best in the entire "Toy Story" series and the entire Pixar library, and well worth your time.

2012

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Toy Story 2 (1999) - The Toys Enlarge Their Horizons

Toy Story 2: Yard Sale Day Means Terror for Woody and Buzz!

"Toy Story 2" (1999) is a terrific sequel to the original animated 1995 "Toy Story." As of this writing, it is the tenth-highest grossing animated film of all time. Fast-paced and entertaining, "Toy Story 2" is well worth your or your child's time. The "Toy Story" series is the cream of the crop of animation, blazing the trail that many others have followed, and it is led by the engaging duo of Tim Allen and Tom Hanks.

Unlike the first "Toy Story," which was confined to little Andy's room and the dreaded neighbor's house, this film expands its horizons.  At the beginning of the film, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) battles the evil Emperor Zurg (Andrew Stanton) for dominion.  Everything seems to have changed in the "Toy Story" world, but appearances are deceiving. It all turns out to be just a video game, so everything is back to normal.

It turns out that it is yard sale day, and the toys are worried that they will wind up being sold.  Woody (Tom Hanks) in particular is worried because his arm was torn by Andy's dog, and he worries that Andy now may be willing to get rid of him for a newer toy.

The rest of the film, directed by John Lasseter, Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich, involves who gets sold at the sale, and how they are saved.  A greedy collector, Al McWiggin (Wayne Knight, perhaps better known to some as Newman from "Seinfeld"), is attempting to make a deal with a Japanese museum which would break up the gang forever!  It is a fun romp, and we get to learn a great deal more about Buzz and Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles).

Pixar, of course, always does a great job with the animation. Some great new characters (such as Wheezy, voiced by Robert Goulet) are introduced. There are a few scenes that might disturb younger viewers, such as a nightmare sequence involving Woody, but nothing too extreme. The film has undeniably sad moments - growing up takes on a whole new meaning when seen through the eyes of a suddenly outgrown toy.

The supporting roles (Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog (voiced by Jim Varney) have much larger roles this time, so if you are fans of theirs, this is a must-see film.

Well worth your time, this has a top-notch voice cast and is a quality production. Watch the trailer below to get a feel for this entertaining experience.

2012

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