really pretty excellent! positively crammed with witty little parodic nods for adults, and the voice acting is really great (Miley is merely okay). a little hokey and predictable, but the movie makes it worth your while.
awesome! visually gorgeous, well-paced and with great music and voices.
really pretty creepy, not necessarily appropriate for younger kids. the 3-D didn’t do much for me, but your mileage may vary.
REALLY JUST A KIDS’ MOVIE! very cute and sweet and pretty and surreal, but not transcendent like other Miyazaki movies. actually, this is the first Miyazaki i’ve seen that *ONLY* functions on a kid level. so really kind of boring for grown-ups, but i think most kids under 7 would LOVE it.
there is one great thing about this movie, and his name is Tom Felton.
why do they insist on making these movies without having read the book? i get that things must changed and omitted in an adaptation, i DO, but they truly don’t seem to understand what the IMPORTANT parts are, and they end up gutting the dramatic peaks in favor of pointless diversions that don’t further the plot. it’s as though the producers are so offended that the books are good that they’re determined to take every high point of the story and re-do it from scratch with no regard for how it affects the story as a whole – or toss them entirely. what kills me is that the story they abandoned was clear and simple, and they replace it with something convoluted that doesn’t have dramatic power.
there’s no funeral?! they could have wrung that theater like a washcloth, but nah, skip it. instead of having an exciting final quidditch match at the end of the year where harry finally gets to smooch ginny, they remove that in favor of a 15-minute practice at the beginning, slip that kiss in there quickly and randomly, no big whup.
i admit that all these movies are strongly hampered for me by Daniel Radcliffe and Micheal Gambon. Radcliffe is a pretty young man but has never been right for Harry, and at this point is just not a good actor – stiff and fakey with an emotional range consisting of vague amusement or PMS. Michael Gambon lacks that je ne se Dumbledore, always playing him as just some old guy, no impishness or hidden power. and how far can you go when your 2 protagonists are so lame?
SQUIRREL!!!!
how does Pixar do it?! they had the goddamn Midas touch – everything they do is funny and smart and sweet and beautiful, and yet each film is unique. the dog jokes had me peeing my pants, the music was terrific, and the 3D was elegantly done. just perfect. AGAIN.
had this movie come out, like…7 years ago? i would have liked it 25% better. but Pixar has set the bar much higher now, and this cute, earnestly hokey movie falls pretty short. there are a few laughs, and kids would _definitely_ like it better than adults, but it’s mostly just meh. comic timing is pretty off, and the whole thing is too mild to be engaging. i spent most of the time identifying the voice actors in my head.