An animated success
Movies seen spring 2009.
Originally written: October 2009
Up
Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog
I misspoke myself lastish when I said that The Family Guy was the first animation to be nominated for a best comedy Emmy. In fact The Flintstones was nominated for best series in 1961. I was right to say that no animated film has been nominated for best production at the Oscars.
Doogie Howser did a good job hosting the Emmys, judging by the heavily edited highlight package we saw on local free-to-air. After a similar gig with the Tonys, he may now be picked to host the Oscars. But, leaving him aside, the show itself was pretty dire, largely because there was a certain predictability to the winners and because the division of the show into comedy, reality, miniseries and drama segments put all the boring bits together in the middle of the show. 30 Rock continues to win awards, even though the superior Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip got cancelled. The Amazing Race again won. But against what?
There were a few interesting moments: when our Toni won Best Actress for United States of Tara and Kristin Chenoweth used her win for Pushing Daisies to beg for work: "I'm unemployed now, I'd like to be on Mad Men". Otherwise it was a mixture of ho and hum.
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In movie news The Dark Knight has just clicked over $1 billion in worldwide box office, the fourth movie to do so. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has so far earned over $923 million, placing it third amongst the Potters, behind the Philosopher's Stone and, barely now, The Order of the Phoenix. It will probably end up at No. 2 and shows that the series continues to get bums on seats. Up, which was never going to sell, because it was about an old man and a kid, has passed $500 million and will soon overtake Wall*E as the third largest grosser from the Pixar studio. Star Trek is now close to $400 million in gross. So business continues to be good for good film-makers.
Pixar are modern magicians, using computer-generated animation to amuse and amaze. Many of their productions have involved anthropomorphism - bugs, toys, fish, monsters and cars brought to life and voiced. They have rarely moved into the human domain - The Incredibles, with its cast of superheroes, and Ratatouille, with its mixture of chefs and talking rats, being the exceptions. So their venture into a quasi-realistic fantasy like Up was always going to be a challenge. So much so that most of the businesses, fast-food and toy companies in particular, that have previously signed on as promoters of the movies by sales of tie-in products, avoided association with the new film, fearing it would not find an audience. This has proved to be a completely wrong choice on their part as Up is the best film Pixar have produced. We saw it in 3D at the local cineplex and, unlike earlier attempts at the 3D process, this one works consistently - they have nailed the technology. I will have to see the movie again just to check that the process did not result in any washing out of the bright color palette used by Pixar, but there seems to be no such trouble here. The film works on every level. As a narrative it is about the aftermath of a great love story. Carl and Ellie as two young proto-explorers fascinated by Charles Muntz and the lost South American world he has discovered. Their plans to visit the area never quite jell and it is only after her death, and with the threat of eviction from their home, that a now aged Carl (looking like Hal Holbrook but voiced by Lou Grant) hatches a plan to fulfil their dream. By the time he realises that young Wilderness Explorer Russell is along for then ride, events conspire to ensure that it is too late to turn back. Naturally they end up at the very Falls Carl and Ellie wanted to visit and meet a now very old and embittered Muntz (looking like Kirk Douglas but voiced by Captain von Trapp) and his pack of dogs (who are among the best things in the show, with their collars that enable them to articulate their thoughts, their hierarchical command structure, and their typically canine short attention span ("Squirrel!"), all providing a wellspring of humor within the more serious thematic elements). Muntz has been searching for the mysterious bird that will prove the explorer right and the scientists wrong. Aided by Dug, one of the dogs, who attaches himself to their party ("I love you. Squirrel!"), and by the bird, Carl and Russell must battle and thwart Muntz. As you might imagine the movie gives incredible scope for the blend of humor aimed at the young and thematic sophistication (as well as cultural references and sophisticated humor) aimed at the older audience members for which Pixar is noted. The voices ring true (once again using many of the animators for the subsidiary voices and having the presence of Cliff Clavin, the only voice that has been present in all their productions) and the characters become ones about whom we care. You soon forget that this is an animated film: Carl, Russell and Dug the Dog are worth it. The backgrounds are equally well put together and the music works. So does the humor, which is interspersed well within the action parameters of the film. With the proviso that I will need to see it again, in 2D to judge some aspects of it, I can thoroughly recommend Up. It's our best cinema experience of the year so far.
Horrible brings the Hammer
Those people who are ropeable about SF award voters who give best fanzine gongs to online publications are probably appalled that the Hugo voters, like the Ditmar voters, are unable to exclude that Internet thingie from their thinking. They gave the Best Short-form Drama gong to Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, a production that was originally broadcast in three parts over the intertubes. The mini-musical tells its superhero story from the villain's viewpoint as Dr Horrible tries to qualify for the Evil League of Evil by completing an assassination, with his nemesis, Captain Hammer, as his target. That they are fighting over the same girl, Penny, and that Captain Hammer is an arrogant snot are added bonuses. So is the performance of Neil Patrick Harris in the title role. His narration - the affectation is that he is broadcasting a blog - and his singing carry the show, which is a fun romp, fully deserving of its awards from SF fans and the TV Academy. A product of the writers' strike, when they couldn't write money-earning material, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is another triumph for Whedon and a demonstration that creativity is possible on the Internet - in making fiction, or publishing fanzines.
[Note: Information about the movies mentioned, including cast and crew lists and all sorts of trivia, is available at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).]