AS A DUTY to my readers I felt it was incumbent upon me to
try and catch not only the nominated live action movies and performances, but
some of the other categories as well. I’ve managed to view three of the five
nominated cartoon – er, animated – feature films of 2012. The other two are Wreck-it
Ralph, which I’ve heard is very entertaining, but was unwilling to shell
out movie theater prices for; and The Pirates! Band of Misfits, produced
by Aardvark (the folks responsible for Wallace and Gromit), which was released
last Spring without a splash or even a
ripple (I'll bet you never heard of it ), and presumably was added to the Oscar roster
because they wanted a total of five rather than four nominees.
Of the three I did see, Frankenweenie, despite its
title, is easily the best. In fact, if you love, or even kind of like, other
Tim Burton flicks, or if you have a
fondness for the old 1930’s “horror” classics, or if you just appreciate a good animated flick,
you really have to see this one. Burton, of course, is the highly imaginative
director and producer of offbeat movies such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward
Scissorhands (1990), Nightmare Before Christmas (Producer – 1993)
and Corpse Bride (2005) as well as more “mainstream” but no less
creative pictures such as Batman (1989) and Batman Returns
(1992), and Alice In Wonderland (2010). All of his works are visually
arresting, although some work better than others.
Frankenweenie ranks, I think, among the best of Burton’s
more recent movies. It’s an homage to James Whale’s classic Frankenstein
(1931) (with Boris Karloff) and other Universal Studios horror classics of that
era. Drawn in a rich and atmospheric black and white, with cinematography
by Peter Sorg, who worked with Burton on
Corpse Bride - whose look this somewhat resembles, Frankenweenie
is a joy to watch, with evocative and
funny characters and a lovely story – about a brilliant but (of course) geeky kid named Victor from a family named
Frankenstein, who gets the idea to reanimate his beloved, tragically deceased
dog (aptly named “Sparky”) with a supercharge of electricity.
There are some terrific characters, especially a creepy, hunchbacked
school friend named E. Gore, some stunningly cool visuals, especially a
hilariously creepy pet cemetery and the re-animation scene, featuring a Rube
Goldberg attic laboratory just like the one in the original Frankenstein movie,
but put together with a toaster and other stuff from around the house. Good
sight gags and a witty cohesive script produce smiles and laughs. Most
importantly, when it’s over you’ll feel that your 87 minutes were well spent.
Frankenweenie got its start, by the way, as a 28 minute
short, live action film that Burton made as a 25-year-old Disney animator back
in 1984. It’s still available if you’re interested, but the new feature length
version is far superior.
Brave is a product of Pixar animation studios (Toy Story,
Up, Ratatouille, etc.) and although it is not up there with this
studio’s best efforts., it’s not bad and definitely has it’s moments. Pixar,
owned and distributed by Disney, wanted to break its pattern of focusing pretty
exclusively on male protagonists, and so developed this coming of age story. It
is about a girl, Merida, in tribal Scotland long, long ago in roughly Arthurian
times. Merida has absolutely amazing hair, bright red, long, tangled and
unruly. It seems silly to say this but
it’s true: the rendering of Merida’s hair is one of the primary virtues of this
movie. 
Her personality is as unruly as her hair, by the standards
of the day: a tomboy, she is more interested in riding her steed through the
forest and shooting her arrows than in the more traditional pursuits of romance
and matrimony. – a trait that causes her mother, Elinor (voice of Emma
Thompson), considerable consternation. Did I mention Merida is a princess?
Well, she’s the daughter of Fergus (Billy Connolly), one of four fabled tribal chiefs of the Highlands, and her
defiance of protocol sets off the dramatic/comedic plot, eventually involving a
witch, magic spells and curses, a monster, et al.
Merida’s voice is the other major reason to see Brave. She
is played by the estimable Kelly MacDonald (Trainspotting, Gosford
Park, No Country For Old Men, Boardwalk Empire), and her
Scottish Burr dialect is, to my ears, so endearing I could listen to her all
day. You may not feel this so much, but to each his own.
After Merida, the rest of the movie is okay, but not
extraordinary. There are funny, slapstick bits, mostly involving the boorish,
half-savage antics of Fergus and his cronies, and of Merida’s triplet younger
brothers. There’s a bit of adventure, but not particularly interesting and
certainly not unexpected or novel, and there’s some heartwarming Disney-toned lessons
learned and family reconciled. The production values are pretty high, but the
screenplay is not up to Pixar’s usual high standards. I should mention that Brave
won a Golden Globe award for best animated film – so some folks seem to
disagree with me.
Brave would be a nice choice to watch for a 10 -15
year old girl (or boy) and enjoyable enough for the parents, too. Fans of
animation generally might like it, if your expectations are not set too high.
For Kelly MacDonald aficionados, it’s a must-see.
ParaNorman, like Frankenweenie, has an outcast
kid as its protagonist and deals with reanimated creatures – in this case,
human creatures somewhere between ghosts and zombies. ParaNorman is from the
producers of Coraline (2009), a very, very good animated feature. Chris Butler,
the writer and co-director of this one, was the storyboard supervisor of
Coraline. I think he might have moved up the creative ladder a little too
quickly, because ParaNorman is pretty mediocre.
The story is about Norman, a middle school kid gifted or
perhaps plagued with the ability to see the ghosts of dead folk (and the
spirits of other dead critters too, sometimes).
He talks to them, and they talk to him. This habit has earned him a
reputation among his peers, and his family, as a very weird boy, which of
course he is. He does not enjoy this kind of attention, but it’s been his whole
life. The only other person Norman knows who is similarly gifted is his weird,
pariah uncle, Mr. Penderghast. The uncle eventually gets Norman involved in
solving the curse of a Salem-era girl that was burned as a witch centuries ago.
Along the way we get a bunch of repetitious special effects, an unraveling
mystery, and some funny character sketches.
The funniest characters are the aforementioned Penderghast
(John Goodman), a hunky airhead high school jock named Mitch (Casy Affleck) and
Norman’s deceased Grandma (Elaine Stritch). The artwork is decent but
unexciting, the humor is sparse, and the moralizing tale undergirding the film
is saccharine.
ParaNorman would probably be fun for kids in the 10
to 14 age range, and tolerable for the parents.
Brave, Frankenweenie and ParaNorman all are available on
DVD/BlueRay from NetFlix . All are also available streaming from Vudo, Amazon
Instant Video, or Xfinity OnDemand
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