The One Where Jon Negroni Chimes In
It is that time of year when Pixar brings us an original animated movie and as expected, we all went un poco loco for Coco. Joined by our ‘general manager’ or better known as that Pixar Theory Guy, Jon Negroni, we discuss the film’s design, music and characters. We start off the episode with a quick game of Lightning Round where we ask the question: What is your favorite Pixar character?
Go on…Part-Time Characters: Un Poco Loco for Pixar’s Coco
Both Disney films have been nominated for Best Animated Feature in the upcoming Oscars, but which one will and win? And probably more importantly, which should win?
Kayla Savage and myself took to Super News and discussed live. We answered all of your burning comments, as always, and as a special bonus this week, we’re offering a second giveaway prize for those of you who can’t make it live! To enter for consideration, go to Super News on Facebook and leave a comment now. The drawing ends soon.
We’ll be off next Wednesday, so I’m planning to do a different video coming out at around the same time. See you then, and don’t forget to check out The Pixar Detectives live every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. (Pacific) to hang out with us and talk about Disney and Pixar!
Also as a bonus (and because of the strong reaction to last week’s live stream), be sure to check out the latest video from SuperCarlinBros below, where they also chat about Disney allegedly “confirming” the Pixar Theory. Enjoy!
There’s a small chance, and tragedy, you’ve never watched a Laika film, but you’ve probably heard of this Oregon-based animation studio. They’re on a winning streak of consistently remarkable stop-motion animated films, including ParaNorman, Coraline, Box Trolls, and now, of course, Kubo and the Two Strings. With the latter, they’ve certainly crossed new territory into becoming the Pixar of stop-motion animation, to say the least.
This is because Kubo and the Two Strings is one of the finest films of 2016, animation or otherwise. For one thing, it’s impossibly beautiful, and that’s not understating it . Blending stop-motion mechanics with subtle blink-and-you’ll-miss-it CG placement is what gives Kubo its unique flavor of both flow and visuals. Not one moment stutters, and the film treats both character and setting designs with the kind of care and detail you’d expect from Studio Ghibli’s finest films, like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.
The story is a stylized epic that borrows heavily from multiple Japanese folk tales to make its original story feel more legitimate. There’s some Hero’s Journey, of course, but it’s intentionally combined with stories more rooted in Eastern storytelling, as some of them will be very familiar to Americans who love Avatar the Last Airbender, for example.
At one moment, a character focuses on a quest that feels straight out of Legend of Zelda, until the dreamlike wonder Laika has become famous for takes over with ships made of leaves, literal dream sequences, and all manner of impressive set pieces designed to astound your skeptical eyes.
The narrative opens with some profound family drama that persists throughout the film. Kubo, voiced by Art Parkinson, is the son of a powerful spirit woman and a legendary samurai, two important figures of this noticeably small mythos who started out as enemies. Kubo’s grandfather, known throughout the lands as the Moon King, took one of Kubo’s eyes at birth, and now he wants the second one.
We’re not immediately privy to the Moon King’s motivations, but it’s easy to suspect that it has something to do with Kubo’s magic powers, which he inherited from his mother. He can use music to bring inanimate objects to life, his entertainment of choice being origami. This ends up being one of the most oft-used quirks of the stop-motion animation, and to great effect. Kubo’s powers are certainly a key reason why this film has as much agency as it does. There’s never a moment when Kubo has to come to terms with the supernatural, or some surprise at how the world around him works. We’re placed in the middle of Kubo’s story, and it allows for some efficient storytelling.
Later in the movie, Kubo is on the run from his masked aunts, two flying (and frightening) demons voiced by Rooney Mara. He’s protected by one of his charms, a monkey figure brought to life and voiced by Charlize Theron, and an amnesic beetle samurai who thinks he used to be a man, voiced by Matthew McConaughey. From there, the story becomes even more akin to Legend of Zelda, with fetch quests, magical items to hunt down, and extravagant action scenes. Studios who want to make great movies out of video games should take note.
One of the best things about Kubo and the Two Strings is its gimmick-free storytelling. It’s a pure, mostly uncomplicated epic that’s still layered in a poignant message that speaks more to adults, rather than children. But a downside of this “pure” narrative is a lack of any real surprise. Savvy viewers will see the obvious twists and pivots far too early to fully appreciate them, and the film’s repetition on some of its most interesting themes dulls the effect and sours any insightful conversation you might want to have about the film after the fact. Not enough is left to interpretation, mostly because the film is overstuffed with “this is what the movie is about” dialogue.
But that’s not a problem if you’re willing to enjoy the journey more than the destination.
Grade: A-
Extra Credits:
This week on the podcast, we review Hugh Jackman’s latest film, Eddie the Eagle along with the Coen Brothers’ latest, Hail, Caesar!
We also cover all of this week’s biggest entertainment news, discuss directing/writing styles we can’t stand, and answer all your feedback from last week’s show.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Which directing/writing styles do you dislike the most? And how many of you have ever heard of Magic Tree House?
“Summing Up” is a fun exercise I used to take part in during public speaking courses in high school. The premise is simple: you’re tasked with sharing five things about yourself to someone else so that they can properly sum you up.
We would do this with books, sports, TV shows, and of course, movies.
I’m sure you can all relate with how frightening it is to tell someone your favorite movie, even if you’re reasonably confident and have good self-esteem. For whatever reason, many of us can have this lingering doubt that the movie we pick is somehow embarrassing or, worse, wrong (whatever that means).
Choosing a “favorite movie” says a lot about who you are, whether you like it or not. You immediately put that movie on a pedestal above legions of others movies that are probably better, and this creates a slight conflict between you and the person who’s listening.
For this reason, I used to play “Summing Up” when I was still figuring out my movie tastes. Instead of telling people that my favorite movie of all time was this or that, I gave them a few movies that illustrated my love for movies.
And you know what? That’s way more fun than just boldly implying that “your” favorite movie is something special, even if you really think it is.
Nowadays, I just tell people what my favorite movie is because it hasn’t changed in a long time and probably never will. But looking back, I’m compelled to revisit this exercise more often, and as it turns out, my favorite movie is on this list anyway.
If you’re thinking of movies right now that fit this exercise, please share in the comments at the end of the post so we can get to know you in a non-creepy way. For now, here are the 5 movies that sum up my love for movies, starting with #5.
OK, let’s just get this one out of the way. While A New Hope isn’t necessarily the best “Star Wars” film, it’s certainly the most iconic, at least for me. No, Yoda isn’t in it, and Vader’s big twist isn’t until the next one, but I’m talking about story, not set pieces.
The story arc of A New Hope is my personal favorite version of the Hero’s Journey (or monomyth), made famous by Joseph Campbell. You have a central hero, impossible circumstances, a ragtag team of allies gathered along the way, and beautiful locations to watch them complete their journey.
You have a progression from zero to hero, a damsel in distress, and a main character who returns triumphant and transformed. A New Hope is my favorite movie that has this admittedly common storytelling, and it’s one of the first movies I ever watched that captured my imagination for heroes and adventures.
For that reason, most of the adventure movies I watch now end up getting compared to this one, rather than Empire Strikes Back or the Indiana Jones films.
Based on an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, this retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most satisfying story arcs I think I’ve ever watched on the big screen.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the basic set up, this movie is about a lovable adventurer named Edmond who is betrayed by his best friend for a crime he didn’t commit and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, his best friend steals his fiancé without batting an eye while Edmond plots his revenge in jail.
I won’t spoil the rest, but you can probably tell what’s coming. This movie is such a well-crafted revenge story that manages to be decently faithful to the source material. As someone who loves a great revenge movie starring Guy Pearce, this movie doesn’t disappoint in the slightest.
Every scene is pivotal, the relationships between the characters are unforgettable, and the actual message of the whole thing is timeless.
Yes, I realize this movie is a bit of a ham, but I’ll never stop loving You’ve Got Mail. Even though the movie was considered underwhelming during its time, I’ve found it better and better the more I’ve watched it. I honestly can’t say that for a lot of movies that came out in the 90s, especially comedies.
Choosing this movie as the “romantic comedy” of the list was a hard decision because it had to win over Crazy, Stupid, Love. But really, the big difference between these movies is that You’ve Got Mail is more than just an archetype for what Crazy was trying to poke fun at.
Mail does much more with its subject material in that it contrasts relationships within the context of technology and even touchy subjects like capitalism, all set in the “center of the world,” New York City. The story works on a lot of levels, even if you’re not that entertained by the budding romance between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, so every time I rewatch this movie, I find more things to like about it.
While that doesn’t put this movie in the league of superior rom coms, of which I’d actually include Crazy, Stupid, Love, it’s still a movie that perfectly sums up what I look for in a movie about people falling in love.
This may surprise a lot of you who were expecting to see Toy Story be my animation pick, but as some of you know, The Lion King is the first film I ever saw in theaters, so it had a much bigger impact on me. Though to be fair, both movies cover a compelling story about redemption, which is where I’m really going with this pick.
Granted, The Lion King is basically Disney doing Hamlet with lions, but if we can give Robin Hood a free pass, then why not this? Watching both stories, I certainly enjoy The Lion King the most because it does a much better job of getting me to invest in its characters, while Hamlet suffers from being bound to an older story that was made for a different audience.
So for that reason, The Lion King is an animated movie that I compare to almost every movie I watch that tells a story about someone finding redemption after a major tragedy and achieving their destiny.
This is actually why I enjoyed the recent Jake Gyllenhaal movie, Southpaw, which tells a similar tale with a boxer who realizes he isn’t as great as he thought it was. Even though the movie isn’t a classic, I gravitated toward Southpaw‘s story because it reminded me so much of other great redemption arcs like The Lion King and even Rocky III.
True, I could include a host of other great animated flicks that would fit well here, like Finding Nemo, The Prince of Egypt, and Aladdin. But I can’t help but hold Lion King to a much higher standard all these years later.
This is my favorite movie of all time. Not because it’s objectively the best movie ever, but because in my eyes, it’s the perfect superhero movie.
Yes, this is my superhero pick, and it’s based on one of the first superheroes ever fictionalized (unless you count Greek mythology).
The Mask of Zorro has everything you could possibly want in a superhero film. It establishes its credibility with an original Zorro who has a compelling backstory. We watch the new Zorro train, fight, and fail under motivations that get you excited to see his transformation pull through. Even the romance plays an integral part in the story and doesn’t feel forced like some other superhero movies.
And the action scenes, even to this day, are some of the most fun moments I’ve ever had in a movie theater. Every set piece is a marvel, there’s tension when there should be tension, and there’s swashbuckling fun when there should be swashbuckling fun.
The first Pirates of the Caribbean does a good job of capturing this too, which is why I also hold that movie up to a pretty high standard for adventure films. But unlike Pirates, Zorro doesn’t rely on one interesting character to make its story intriguing. And at its heart, it’s still a superhero movie that fully delivers on everything you expect to see in one.
So there you have it! These are the five movies that sum up my love for movies. Adventure, revenge, romance, redemption, and superheroes. All of these movies are my first thoughts when said tropes are brought up, and they’ll probably stay that way for a long time.
What are your picks? Let everyone know in the COMMENTS.
I’m Jon and thanks for reading this. You can subscribe to my posts by clicking “Follow” in the right sidebar. Or just say hey on Twitter! @JonNegroni
Brad Bird — the director of the 1999 animated cult classic, The Iron Giant — announced today via Twitter that the aforementioned film will be rereleased as “The Signature Edition” in select screenings between September and October of this year.
The kicker? The film is now 10 minutes longer with never-before-seen material. It’s essentially a director’s cut with two new scenes.
I’ve written a more comprehensive review for Inside Out elsewhere, but I thought it would be fitting to craft a shorter review for this site’s readers, many of them being longtime fans of Pixar Animation Studios.
Yes, Inside Out is the latest Pixar feature. It takes you inside the head of an 11-year old girl and tells you her story through her five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust.
Directed and produced by the team behind Up, this new story is all about the struggles of growing up. Its lessons aren’t cliche, however, in that the final message isn’t simply “do whatever makes you happy.” This is a staple of children movies that Inside Out rightfully tosses in favor of emotional truth.
The movie doesn’t pull its heart-wrenching punches, but it’s also decisively clever and humorous. I haven’t laughed this much during a Pixar movie since Finding Nemo, which I consider Pixar’s funniest film ever. For that reason and others, I consider Inside Out Pixar’s overall best movie since Finding Nemo, and I’ve heard many say that the movie even surpasses that level of praise.
It’s easy to give Inside Out a little too much credit. Many of us have been yearning for an original Pixar feature of this caliber for years, and I’ll admit that I wanted this movie to be good. But I know myself, and I think I’m giving Inside Out the proper amount of praise based on both viewings I’ve had of the film so far.
Grade: A.
This is due to some minor nitpicks I have, including a missing antagonist for the movie and some of the film’s over-reliance on themes from other Pixar movies. If you’re curious about the score, then you can check out my full review on Moviepilot, where I discuss the film in detail.
Extra Credits
Inside Out was directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen. It was produced by Jonas Rivera and stars Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Mindy Kaling (Disgust), Lewis Black (Anger), Bill Hader (Fear), and Kaitlyn Dias (Riley).