I'm Free as a Bird Now

With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, what better than an animated kid's movie to put you off of your turkey day festivities? No, really, I'm serious.

Free Birds follows smarter-than-average Reggie (Owen Wilson), the latest turkey to be pardoned by the President of the United States, as he lounges away his stress-free days at Camp David. Soon, he meets and is kidnapped by fellow turkey (and intellectual counterpart) Jake (Woody Harrelson), a freedom fighter who recruits Reggie for a mission of the utmost importance, given to him by none lesser than the "Great Turkey". Using the government's super-secret time machine (naturally located near the President's vacation spot), the duo travel back in time to rally the turkeys of 1621 and to forever remove their species from the Thanksgiving feast menu.

Free Birds is the first animated feature film to be released by Reel FX Creative Studios, yet another in the growing list of companies hoping one day to be on the same level as Pixar or Dreamworks Animation. Just looking at the condition of their first feature, there's no doubt that there's a long way to go for there being any chance to reach that plateau, but there's still a lot to like here, especially when there's not a whole lot in theaters right now that looks to challenge it for family viewing.

Indicative of the "faceless government" we all know and love...

Under the direction of Jimmy Hayward (wisely returning to animation after the disastrous live-action Jonah Hex), Free Birds shows off intentionally cartoonish animation that is leagues better than some of what I've seen this year, especially when you consider how many movies from experienced filmmakers have come out in 2013. When you compare the sheer quality of the animation to Epic and Despicable Me 2, there's not much contest. Hayward and his team put in a solid effort on the character animation AND the design of the universe they inhabit, and the results are simply gorgeous.

...and unfortunately, that doesn't translate to still shots.

The film also boasts a very talented cast, led by Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler. Wilson's somewhat cartoonish voice naturally lends itself to animated fare, and if he wasn't so in demand for live-action gigs, I could easily see him easily transitioning into voice-only work for easy money. Despite frequent hiccups like The Internship, I remain convinced that Wilson is actually an underrated actor (watch Midnight in Paris for the best example), and when he actually helps out a production, it's worth noting. Considering Harrelson's vegan, pro-animals lifestyle, it's easy to understand why he got on board with this production. It helps that he's the film's greatest asset, combining the bravado of an American action star with the comedic timing of... well, Woody Harrelson. Poehler doesn't carry the same kind of weight with her performance as her co-leads, but she still does a decent enough job as a native Turkey fighting for survival before the first Thanksgiving. The cast is rounded out by genre standards, from a ruthless hunter (Colm Meaney) to an honorable Turkey Chief (leave it to Keith David to make me cry), though the film is stolen at many moments by Star Trek's George Takei as the voice of S.T.E.V.E., the time machine's charismatic artificial intelligence. Hayward also provides voices for several characters, and does a good enough job that it's surprising he hasn't done this kind of work before. The cast overall puts in a solid effort, and Free Birds is all their better for their dedicated involvement.

Reggie enjoys the simple things in life.

Sadly, we're reminded that this IS a film designed for small children, and even the most youth-minded of adults will become alert to this fact in quick succession. From the simplistic plot to the annoying sidekick who are just there to appeal to younger viewers, there's little here to appeal to people of older persuasions, and while there's a tender soul hidden within the story, Hayward doesn't do quite good enough job of letting it loose as the birds whose freedom he's advocating. Free Birds starts with the myth that turkeys are naturally dumb (which anyone who actually has spent time with the birds will tell you is an utterly false pretense), then never fully makes up for its missteps by the the film's end. Instead, a by-the-book story of uprising and justice is littered with jokes (some good, some cringe-worthy bad) and material that will be out of date in ten years' time (punctuated by an obligatory "Angry Birds" reference and the appearance of "Turducken"). Free Birds also doesn't recognize one of its best bits, as an early favorite for kids (and one heavily featured in the trailer) are the yellow-HAZMAT-suited government agents, who completely disappear after our heroes go back through time. By not revisiting them at all after the first act, it's clear that the filmmakers either lost sight of or never realized the true draw of their motion picture. In a year where Dreamworks makes cavemen more than a five minute joke and Pixar actually makes a CLEAN college film, it's a shame that second and third-rate animation studios do not take the lessons they SHOULD be learning from the big two, and only try to match them in terms of technology.

As per the norm, it's the lady that rules the roost.

For the record, Free Birds is a pretty good movie. No, it certainly doesn't appear that great when compared to the best and greatest of today's animated fare, but for a first-time effort from a fledgling studio, it could have been much, MUCH worse than the genuinely fun flick we get. It doesn't have much to offer the non-family audiences, however, so if you're flying solo or taking somebody more mature to the movies you'd do better to buy tickets for just about any other title out there. At least until Disney's Frozen hits theaters in two weeks, this is the best flick to take your young children, and while spending extra to see this in 3D wouldn't really be worth it (par for the course), it's still one you can take your kids to enjoy without worries that they won't get the message. And while the delivery is doubtlessly flawed, Free Birds' message is one just smart enough to which you might just choose to listen.

Sacred Secrets

Is it wrong that I've never seen Spirited Away? The film, directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, is probably still the most well-known Japanese animated movie more than a decade after its release. After a cutting a wide swath through audiences worldwide, it became the second ever recipient of the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature award, and remains the only winner of that particular prize to be made outside of the English-speaking world. Since then, Miyazaki has of course become a name synonymous with Japanese animation; one could argue that he has done as much for the medium as Akira Kurosawa has for cinema in general. Studio Gibli, the animation studio Miyazaki founded way back in 1985, has turned out eighteen films so far, many of which have managed to make their ways to our shores, albeit in the dubbed, Hollywood-edited formats many of us are used to. Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo are all well known to the more culturally cinematic out there, and Miyazaki was a big reason those films are so loved the world over. Now, Studio Gibli brings us The Secret World of Arrietty, notable not only for being based on English novel 'The Borrowers' by Mary Norton, but for being the first major US release by Gibli to NOT be directed by Miyazaki (he did co-write the screenplay, however). As my first interaction with Gibli and Miyazaki, the big question is whether I'll be impressed with hand-drawn animations and archaic visuals after more than a decade of The Incredibles, Up, and Rango pushing the envelope of believable and surrealistic 3D graphics.

Won't someone spare the lady an umbrella??

Shawn (David Henrie), whose parents are too busy to care for him, has temporarily moved into his aunt's home in preparation for a coming surgical procedure. A problem with Shawn's heart has left him somewhat frail, and he's moved here to avoid too much excitement, so as to avoid worsening his condition. It's lonely at the house, though, and through exploration and plain luck he happens upon Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler). Arrietty is descended from a family of Borrowers, tiny people who borrow (hence the name) small things that nobody will miss; things that the Borrowers need to survive. Along with her wizened father (Will Arnett) and her cautious mother (Amy Poehler), fourteen-year-old Arrietty is just learning how to survive in a world where a six-inch person has no shortage of natural predators. Though Shawn and Arrietty want to be friends, just his knowledge of her existence causes dangers to arise and the pair to make difficult decisions as to their prospective futures.

Wow, you looked a LOT smaller from a distance...

As far as stories go, this is as simple a tale of mismatched friendship as you're likely to see on the big screen. Simplicity is not a bad thing, however. By taking this theme and building mythology, dangers and heart around it, it becomes far easier to root for our two heroes, and hope that their friendship survives the tale ahead. It is the characters that have the true depth. Arrietty as a person has more depth than a dozen Disney "Princesses", and is the type of spunky and self-sufficient female character all films should aspire to create. She also has her flaws, which only make her all the more human and lifelike. In short, she is the perfect hero around whom to base a story. Shawn isn't quite as fun to focus on; he's a little whiny and mopey, though you can blame much of that on his situation (he's got a life-threatening condition, after all). Still, given the chance to help a friend he more than makes up for his negative attitude, and does more than his share in building the strong bond of friendship between the two. The simplicity of the tale also allows debuting director Hiromasa Yonebayashi a chance to grow into his opportunity. The youngest-ever director at Gibli, the experienced animator does an excellent job, though that might not have been the case had he been given a more complex tale to tell.

"Heeeere's Johnny!"

If there's one thing I couldn't get fully behind with The Secret World of Arrietty, however, it's the voice-over work. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed some of the performances that the voice actors put forward, but I was raised with the idea that when dealing with foreign films, voices in the natural language with English subtitles are always preferable to English dubbing (thanks, Dad!). I've seen plenty of foreign television shows and movies in which I've far enjoyed subtitles to dubs, but Hollywood has it in their head that to sell the most tickets, they need to handicap foreign films by releasing only the dubbed versions of these titles to mass audiences, and as a result the emotional connection between the native speakers and their translations are a bit far apart. Maybe I'm being snobbish, but I wish I could choose to purchase a ticket to a subtitled film in the same way I can choose to see a film in enhanced 3D or plain old 2D, whatever my personal preference might be. As for the voice actors, they were up and down quality-wise, with a large disparity of ability between the haves and have-nots. On the haves side are Bridgit Mendler as Arrietty and Amy Poehler as her mother Homily. Mendler captures a perfect blend of innocence and strength, making Arrietty a character whose motivations are deep and complex. Poehler plays a typical neurotic parent, but her delivery is genuine and emotional even as she's given not a whole lot to work with. On the other side of the equation are the men in the tale. The worst is David Henrie, whose Shawn isn't nearly as interesting as he should be. Too dry and emotionless, Henrie could have done more to inject some humanity into his performance. Will Arnett is also lacking a bit of flavor, but in his case he's given even less to work with than Poehler, and Arnett is one of those actors who needs a little more prodding to produce his best work. Somewhere in the middle is Carol Burnett as Hara, a caretaker who is familiar with the Borrowers. Maybe if we had a better idea of who the character was supposed to be from the get-go, Burnett's performance wouldn't be too bad; however her lack of character development means she's suddenly thrust into the spotlight without us even remotely understanding her motivations.

That can't be a comfortable ride...

Where the film excels, surprisingly, is the superb animation and artwork throughout the entirety of the film. In a world where 3D animation has all but wiped out hand-drawn work (remember the failure of The Princess and the Frog two years back?), it is so refreshing to see hand-drawn artwork look at times as photorealistic as what sometimes takes weeks to render on a computer. There are no "ugly" shots in Arrietty, and sweeping shots of grassy knolls, gardens and lakes are wonderful to behold. Character designs are simple, recognizable (as Studio Gibli characters often are), and unique enough to easily differentiate from one another. But what truly stood out for me was the excellent sense of SCALE captured in the animation. When focusing on Shawn's point of view, everything seems normal, but when we shrink down to witness Arrietty's, the world becomes much more grand in our eyes, and the artists did a perfect job making us feel like we were right there alongside Arrietty and her family in their world. The attention to detail is staggering as well, not only in the tools the Borrowers use in their exploits, but in every single color scheme in the background. After an adjustment, you stop thinking of this film as "animated" and simply "exhilarating."

"I wish I knew how to quit you..."

By the time I sat down to write this, there really was no contest. The Secret World of Arrietty easily tops all of 2012's entries so far, becoming the #1 film of 2012. Anyone still unsure about the Japanese animation movement, I'd easily recommend this release as an entry point, as the sweet, smart story is easy to pick up and impossible to ignore. It might not be the best title out there, but if nothing else, it's inspired me to go back and check out the Studio Gibli back catalog, to see what I have been missing out on all these years. The next review you see from that studio on Hello, Mr. Anderson might just be a look back at Spirited Away.

School's Out for Summer

This weekend didn't afford me any time to venture to the theater and see one of the few big screen releases I haven't yet seen (Midnight in Paris and Tree of Life will come soon), so it was up to Netflix to get me through the void. This time the film in question was another pick by Southland Dan, the 2001 camp comedy Wet Hot American Summer. I remember almost nothing about this film when it was first released, only the cartoonish movie poster and bad reviews that accompanied it. The same weekend Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes opened to the tune of $65 million, Wet Hot American Summer made less than the big screen re-release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I actually DID see. A critical and commercial failure, the film released in only twelve theaters across the country, drawing in less than $300 thousand. Created by members of one-time MTV comedy troupe The State, it eventually became a cult hit, mostly on the strength of its satire and all-star cast. Despite it being Dan's favorite film, I was unsure how to proceed. After all, Dan and I miss more often than we hit, and often the reason one of us likes a film is the reason the other hates it. There's a reason I refer to him as "Southland Dan" in the first place, and it isn't because of a film we agree on.

Just before her career went nowhere

Taking place in 1981 at Camp Firewood, a Jewish summer camp, the story (if you can call it that) follows the final day of camp activities before the campers go home to their parents and the counselors go home to theirs. Of the vast amount of input shown, there are two distinct storylines. In the first, Camp Director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) tries to capture the eye of associate professor Henry (David Hyde Pierce) who just happens to live near the campgrounds. In the second, nice guy counselor Coop (Michael Showalter) falls for camp hottie Katie (Marguerite Moreau), who is involved with bad-boy Andy (Paul Rudd). Both lead up (along with a half dozen non-sequiter asides) to the big talent show that caps off the final day of summer, which might also be the camp's last day of existence.

It's time to play: Name That Preppie!

Let's ignore the fact that this camp is run by the kind of teens who pretty much created Jason Voorhees, and that the film contains far too many stories to be encapsulated within a single day. That's obviously intended. In fact, it's obvious how inspired the filmmaking process was by sketch comedy, as most sequential scenes had little to nothing to do with one another, and often seem to break logic probes in their desire to tell the next joke. Sure, that's hardly a knock with this type of film, but it does make the whole thing feel disjointed and unbelievable. A little of that is okay; a lot of that spoils the milk.

Camp Firewood's entry-level Jedi program

The film does feature some funny stuff in between long pauses of wait, and of course almost none of it has anything to do with the main tale. Tops is easily Christopher Meloni as a disgruntled short-order cook who talks about surviving the Vietnam war and utters unintentional self-revelations to those around of him. If you ever wanted to see Law & Order: SVU's Elliot Stabler comment on his "dick cream" or announce that he's about to hump a refrigerator, then that would be more than enough to recommend this film. Other good scenes include sex-driven Victor (Ken Marino) undergoing off-screen heroics to save a raft full of kids, Andy (Rudd) disposing of witnesses to his supervisory negligence, and a scene in which many of the counselors visit the local town "if only for an hour". It's a shame that these scenes have far too much of a break between them, as the vast majority of the film is utterly unfunny, lacking even in interest.

Yes, this is a pre-stardom Elizabeth Banks. No, she was no good then, either.

The really sad thing is there simply wasn't much interesting for this talented cast to do. Future stars like Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks mixed well with veterans like Molly Shannon and Michael Ian Black, but there simply wasn't enough for the various characters to perform. Some, like Rudd, were at least a part of the main story, while Shannon was segregated into her own private skit for much of the film to the benefit of no one. And it doesn't help that the funniest thing Janeane Garofalo ever did was associate with Ben Stiller. Am I the only one who doesn't get how she became a big star, even if it was only for a short while? I get the feeling that if Wet Hot American Summer had been produced as a regular television program instead of a motion picture, the storytelling would have worked much better, and the film's aimless approach to narration would have felt much smoother. Instead we have a movie that could have been funny being merely silly, and not always in a good way.

I don't think he likes where his hand has gone...

I suppose I should have seen this coming. Dan almost certainly should have seen this coming, but to be honest I'm not sure how he couldn't. I barely made it through Wet Hot American Summer, a poor film with some good bits that is more interesting for what came after it than the actual film product itself. There are some films that I can understand becoming cult hits; this isn't one of them. I know I'll have those who disagree with me on this, but I can't in good conscience recommend this to anyone, as it's not funny enough for comedy fans and not even the parody and satire aspects are good enough to recommend. If you have to see it, fast forward to the Chris Meloni scenes and a particularly humorous road trip. That's all you really need from this film, and even that's more than most people really deserve to see.