The Missing Link

The Missing Link (2019)

Featuring the vocal talents of Hugh Jackman, Zach Galifianakis, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Fry, Timothy Olyphant, and Emma Thompson

Directed by Chris Butler

Written by Chris Butler

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Featuring the vocal talents of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, and Matthew McConnaughey

Directed by Travis Knight

The stop-motion animation from Laika Studios is always exquisite.  When their films begin (be it Coraline or Paranorman or The Boxtrolls) I find myself completely enthralled by the hand-crafted nature of the work and that awe was no exception with Kubo and the Two Strings, the company's latest venture.  Unfortunately, as is also the case with films by Laika, I find myself disappointed with the story and the company's inability to pace their films properly throughout.  Promising starts always lead into disappointing middle acts which are sometimes lifted in the finales.  Gorgeous animation can only get you so far.

That isn't to say that Kubo and the Two Strings is bad by any means.  It certainly is successful during its first half when we are introduced to our title character, a young one-eyed boy (voiced by Art Parkinson) who lives in a secluded cliffside cave with his depressed and sickly mother.  Every day, he makes the trek to the Japanese village near the cave to regale the townsfolk with a glorious story about a warrior who defeats an evil warrior -- all told through magical origami that comes to life when Kubo strums his guitar.  (Yes, it sounds odd, but it's rather beautifully imagined.)  Kubo has always been told to return home before dark, but one day Kubo attends a festival in town during which the living townsfolk create remembrances of the dead.  Enthralled by the festivities, Kubo stays out too late and the ghostly visages of his mother's two sisters Karasu and Yukami (Rooney Mara) come to try and steal Kubo's good eye in order to give it to his grandfather who, legend has it, stole his missing eye.  Kubo's mother fends off her two sisters and tells Kubo to run away and hide.  Upon waking up the next morning, Kubo is greeted by Monkey (Charlize Theron) which seems to be a real-life iteration of a wooden snow monkey figurine he had his entire life.  Together, Kubo and Monkey trek across the landscape of Japan in order to find the pieces of a magical armor that will protect Kubo from his grandfather who obviously wants to do him great harm.

In and of itself, that aforementioned story is engaging, unique, and melds modern and historic Japanese traditions.  However, once Kubo's trek starts, Kubo and the Two Strings loses much of its dramatic tension, essentially becoming a road movie with Kubo meeting the warrior from his stories (Matthew McConaughey) who helps the young boy and monkey on their quest.  Sure, there is some nice repartee between the voice actors with the trio of Theron, McConaughey, and Parkinson creating an enjoyable listening experience.  And, as mentioned before, the animation throughout the entire film is stellar.  Lush landscapes, gorgeous costumes, and fascinating imagery populate the entire film, creating a visually stunning experience.  However, the story falls apart a bit and while the animation saves it -- this one ekes out a win for me thus far when it comes to the animated films of 2016 -- I really want Laika to step it up in the story department because they've got the goods visually that's for darn sure.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls (2014)

Featuring the vocal talents of Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Dee Bradley Baker, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Jared Harris, Toni Collette, and Simon Pegg

Directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi

The one thing The Boxtrolls has going for it is that the stop-motion animation from Laika Studios (who brought us Coraline and Paranorman) is stunning.  Not only are the characters they create richly detailed and incredibly fluid in their motion (a little too fluid thanks to some computer animation techniques), but their production design from the costumes to the sets is astonishingly rich and creative.  (And, to the studio's credit, they've improved in these hands-on areas with each subsequent film they've released.)  Unfortunately, something with the story of The Boxtrolls doesn't measure up to what the animators and designers bring to the table.

Many years ago, a young boy was taken away by some underground creatures who come to the surface at night to collect trash which they turn into treasures in their dwelling.  Believed to be kidnapped, the community of Cheesebridge has since felt that these creatures whom they've named the Boxtrolls (because they wear disposed boxes as their clothing) are to be captured and killed for what they did.  The town puts their trust in Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), a slimy sleazeball of a guy who seems to be ridding Cheesebridge of the Boxtrolls, but really has a much more nefarious scheme in mind.

The Boxtrolls themselves aren't the least bit evil despite what the townsfolk may think.  Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright), the young boy they "took" nearly a decade ago, has grown up with the creatures as his good friends and family.  One evening when he ventures up to the surface for the first time, he comes across Winnie (Elle Fanning) -- his first encounter with a "human" -- who after years of being told by her father (Jared Harris) that the Boxtrolls are nasty, discovers that the creatures may be friendlier than anyone could have ever imagined.  Together, Eggs and Winnie attempt to change the town's mindset towards the Boxtrolls and take down Archibald Snatcher in the process.

There's a promising story here, but the flow of things doesn't quite click perhaps because there's too much fighting for attention.  While the Boxtrolls are cute and oddly cuddly, the relationship between Eggs and Winnie leads to quite a bit of humor, and Archibald is amusingly evil (in small doses), I can't help but think some story editing would've helped things out.  Rather than move along swiftly, more often than not the film feels like it's meandering without any real direction and its conclusion feels oddly unsatisfying.

Still, despite it's somewhat major problems, I always found myself glued to the screen because of the aforementioned stellar visuals.  Laika always brings a sense of quirkiness to all of their films and I sometimes think that strive for uniqueness feels as if they're trying a bit too hard.  They've got what it takes to make a great film (see Paranorman as an example), but they just need to spend a little more time in the story department.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Paranorman

Paranorman (2012)

***viewed in 3D***

Featuring the voice talent of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Elaine Stritch, and John Goodman 

Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell

Kid flicks today often seem sugar-coated or, at the very least, a bit more sanitized than the movies kids from the 80s grew up on.  The weirdness of The Neverending Story or Labyrinth or even Disney's The Black Cauldron just aren't present in movies that have a goal of appealing to kids.  In fact, at times, it might have often seemed that movies like those aforementioned, while made for the younger generation, almost held more interest for the adults dragged to the theaters with their young'uns.  Paranorman reminded me more of the movies of my childhood generation than much of what is released today (and I don't mean that in any demeaning way to today's family films).  Oddly off-the-wall, kooky, and entertaining, although I had to wonder if it would hold the interest of a kid.

Norman Babcock is a seemingly normal boy with one exception -- he can see and talk to ghosts.  Naturally, this doesn't sit well with his parents who want him to stop living in a dream world and it certainly doesn't help him at school where he finds himself bullied for his "gift."  With the whole New England town of Blithe Hollow thinking he's a nutjob, Norman finds himself quite the loner.  One evening, however, the town's crazy hobo (who also happens to be Norman's uncle) crosses paths with the boy and tells his nephew that it is up to him to stop a rising of the dead from occurring.  While he doesn't believe it, Norman eventually succumbs to his uncle's wishes, but finds trouble along the way that causes the dead to actually rise from their graves and begin invading the small town with only Norman having the ability to get the zombies back to their below ground residences.

In addition to the very nice stop-motion animation on display, Paranorman comes with a decidedly adult sensibility in tow filled with humor that will go over many a ten year-old's head.  I'm not talking about raunch here, but I am impressed with screenwriter Chris Butler's sensibility to not talk down to the kids in the audience (and the parents who accompanied them).  [There's a character "twist" at the end is shockingly ballsy -- even though it maybe shouldn't be in this day and age -- and further exemplifies the "mature-skewing" nature of the film.]  I'm sure the homages contained in this film are plentiful, but even something as simple as a slight rehashing of the Friday the 13th synthesizer score was enough to bring a smile to this reviewer's face.  Still, despite honoring some horror movies of the past, the film feels fresh and innovative, standing rightly on its own.

Somehow, though, Paranorman never quite allows us to connect to the characters in a way that Pixar movies do.  Those Pixar folks have seriously cornered the market on heartfelt animation and even when something like Paranorman attempts a tugging on the heartstrings, it never quite reaches the levels the Pixar guys manage to set.  That's not taking anything away from this movie, however, it does stop it from reaching the upper echelon of modern-day animated classics.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review -- Coraline 3D (2009)

featuring the voice talent of Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher

directed and screenplay by Henry Selick

Odd. Simply odd. I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad thing here. Coraline is just odd.

From the talent behind The Nightmare Before Christmas (which I loved when I was younger and I think is as dull as can be now), this film is just about as un-kid-friendly a kid pic can get. There's nothing objectionable here, but there's nothing that will grab a young kid's interest either.

Coraline is a young girl who is completely unsatisfied at home -- her parents don't pay her any attention and a recent move to a new home has left her with no friends but the annoying weirdo kid next door. One night, she goes through a small door she finds in her home and is taken to a seemingly "mirror" world of her current life -- her parents are incredibly (and overly) kind and loving and the boy next door can't annoy her because he is unable to talk -- for you see, Coraline's "other mother" in the new world not only has buttons for eyes, but has sewn the neighbor's mouth shut simply because Coraline was annoyed by him...you see, this new "other mother" wants Coraline to be as happy as can be and if that means sewing a boy's mouth shut then so be it. Like any kid flick, Coraline realizes that things may not be hunky-dory in this seemingly ideal world and she soon understands that she wants her "old" life back, however imperfect it might be.

First off, the movie is too long. It could have been much better as a 80-minute film than a 105-minute film. There's not much story here and cutting characters and subplots could've helped immensely.

My second problem with the flick certainly branches off of that first problem -- there's too many extra characters that were simply thrown in for their sheer eccentricity. Add to that another subplot dealing with dead ghost kids and, while I wasn't confused per se, I was perplexed as to why this was the least bit important.

Animation-wise, it definitely looked new (they were going for a computerized stop-motion look), but as the characters moved around, I couldn't help but think of the old-school Rankin/Bass "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" of the 1960s. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but things weren't always fluid all the time which I found a little odd.

Maybe I'm spoiled by Disney World 3D movies, but the 3D effects were once again not all that special. There were scenes that looked cool, but I don't think it would've been any different in 2D.

I realize I'm kind of complaining about the movie, but I didn't hate it. I appreciated the fact that the animators kind of said, "Screw the audience...we're gonna make the kind of movie that we want and we don't care if parents have to deal with kids that get nightmares," but at the same time, the story really lacked oomph.

I don't know what I think about this one at this point. I certainly wouldn't rush out to see it, but I think I'm making it sound worse than it was. That being said, it certainly wasn't anything great, but it was acceptable (yeah, I know, a rousing recommendation there).

But hey, if you want to see the biggest animated breasts that you've ever seen, this is the movie for you! (shudder...shudder...)

The RyMickey Rating: C+