Ed's Review Dot Com

Twentieth Century Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios,

Anne Hathaway, Leslie Mann, Jesse Eisenberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Jemaine Clement, Jake T. Austin, Jamie Foxx, Kristin Chenoweth, John Leguizamo, Amandla Stenberg, Andy Garcia, Rita Moreno, Bruno Mars, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez

You may remember from the first film, Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) thought they were the last Blue Hyacinth Macaws left, so when they find out there may be others deep in the jungle along with their 3 children, they set off to find others of their species. The find their family, including Jewel’s father, and her ex-boyfriend, Nigel (Jemaine Clementa) who goes to head to head against Blu all the way. The Blu family are happy to find others of their kind, but there is trouble in the Jungle and Blu finds himself in the middle of it. It seems like there are too many problems to go around.

This sequel to the original Rio, Rio 2 was probably not as good as the first, but it was nice in many ways. This was more about the birds and much less about the humans which I found refreshing, and it is beautifully drawn. The scenery and colors are truly splendid, and the sound track was typically nice and tropical sounding. There’s an awful lot of Bruno Mars, so that’s a plus or a minus, depending on how you feel about that, but I couldn’t find fault with the music. The story is a little weaker. The battle between sides of the jungle is a lot like many of the old Our Gang shorts, and is nothing new, and we get preached at about the environment and taking care of the Earth which I find annoying, but I was able to enjoy the story and get past that. All in all, it was really well put together, and though they could have used a bit more work on the script, the voices, not only the ones who returned, but all the new characters, added a lot to the story. This is a who’s who of animation voice over characters. I really enjoyed watching this, and I think the folks at Blue Sky Animation did a good job for a sequel.

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Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Hemisphere Media Capital,

Neil Patrick Harris, Sofía Vergara, Christina Ricci, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alan Cumming, Brendan Gleeson, Hank Azaria, Jayma Mays, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, J.B. Smoove, George Lopez

For years we’ve known that the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) absolutely hates the Smurfs. But he’s created some little creatures similar to the Smurfs called “The Naughties” who are going to help him with this efforts to replace the Smurfs, but they won’t work. Gargamel needs the Smurf essence to turn them into real Smurfs that he can control. Only Smurfette (Katy Perry) has the knowledge to obtain the essense, so Gargamel convinces her that the Smurfs have forgotten her and kidnaps her and brings her to Paris to help him in his plan. The rest of the Smurfs have to find Smurfette and convince her to come back home.

First of all, I have to warn you that I’m too old to have grown up with the Smurfs. For some reason, I never got into watching them with my kids, so I’m not a Smurf fan by any means, and I always found the little rats a bit annoying. Well, maybe more than a bit. Therefore, the Smurfs start off with a big mark against them in my book. I wasn’t a fan of the first Smurfs movie, but I admit this one was probably at least as good, if not better than the first one. The acting is corny, the animation is corny, but I suspect that’s what the Smurfs are about anyway, so I’m sure anyone with a soft spot for the little fellows and one lone adopted girl Smurf will enjoy this revisit to their world, plus the added benefit of bringing them to Paris for an adventure. I am giving this movie a bit higher rating that I probably would if I was basing it on my own enjoyment, but I do realize there are Smurf fans out there, and this is not that bad of a movie, really. So if you have a Smurf fan in your group, this makes a decent rental film, but of course if you’re a Smurf grouch like I am, it’s more of the same old, same old.

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Blue Yonder Films, GRF Productions, Jon Shestack Productions,

Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba, Jane Lynch, Craig Robinson, William Shatner, Sofía Vergara, Rob Corddry, Ricky Gervais, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Chris Parnell, George Lopez, Steve Zahn

Far away in outer space is Planet Baab, where a population of blue aliens crave excitement and adventure. Their hero is Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser) who heads out into danger time after time, and is rescued by his nerdy brother Gary (Rob Corddry). But when Scorch decides to head out to the “dark planet” Planet Earth, Gary wants nothing to do with it. Earth has a history of ships that have gone in to explore and never returning, and no one has ever escaped the planet. Scorch insists to the brothers break up their team, and Scorch heads out on his only into a giant trap. Now Gary will have to head out to try to save Scorch or die trying.

This animated space adventure is a lot like many other of the same genre with either earthlings going into outer space to be captured by aliens or aliens coming to earth and getting trapped here. In fact, this is not far off a feature length “Marvin the Martian” cartoon from vintage Warner Bros. But it’s charming and funny, and does a few twists and turns that keep it interesting. In that respect, it’s a little like Men In Black where there is a whole world going on around us of which we normal humans are not even aware. It’s not highly cerebral, of course, but kids will love it, and this may be a pretty decent animated film that families can enjoy together. I didn’t pay to watch this film in the theater, as I was very willing to wait till it was out on DVD, but now that it is, I am glad I watched it. Though not the greatest animated film ever made, it’s certainly cute and funny enough to pass some time with the kids and enjoy the humor. I enjoyed this film.

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Film Training Manitoba, Government of Manitoba, The, Manitoba Film & Sound,

George Lopez, Lisa Vidal, James Kirk, Bianca Collins, John Salley, Roger Lodge

“Bum” Henry Ramiro (George Lopez) is a nasty sports reporter in Chicago. He’s number one in the city, although a new guy from New York, “The Hitman” (Roger Lodge) is bringing his show to Chicago to try to knock Bum out of first place in the ratings. While mocking a young fan who thinks that Bum ought to be nice and give out positive vibes, Bum later finds out that he’s a young athlete with a very serious heart problem. So on a mission of “damage control” Bum goes to bring a gift and meet the boy. Bum agrees to be nice for one day, and attempts to keep his promise, but suddenly the boy seems to recover and it appears “everything is connected”. Not only that, but things all around him begin to get better when he’s nice, even with the Chicago teams he reports on. Things are not going so well at home either. Bum’s sarcastic bent has alienated his wife and daughter who are planning to take some time apart. It all comes to a head on Christmas Eve when everything comes together.

There is a brand new “Naughty or Nice” from 2012 that has been released this year. This is NOT it. This is the 2004 film starring George Lopez. It’s a touching film, with a lot of sports humor, and it’s a Christmas movie guys can get into as well. The story is straight forward. As Bum works his way through the film, he learns a lot about how giving people the benefit of the doubt and cutting out the negativity does make a difference. George Lopez actually does a pretty good job in this role. He’s funny in his own way, and can be touching when he needs to be. There is a twist or two, but I’m sure they will be telegraphed a mile away. That is not the point. It’s a cool little holiday film that is fun to watch.

Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Kerner Entertainment Company

Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Hank Azaria, Sofía Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin, Kenan Thompson, Jeff Foxworthy, John Oliver, Wolfgang Puck, B.J. Novak, Paul Reubens

Gargamel (Hank Azaria) finally finds the way into the Smurf Village, and in escaping from him, the Smurfs (little blue people) are sucked into a portal that drops them in the middle of Central Park in New York City. Of course Gargamel has to follow them, and the chase is on. The Smurfs meet humans Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays) who make friends and try to help them to find a way to return. But with Gargamel and his cat on their tail, and with all the dumb stuff they do to sabotage themselves, the Smurfs may not live long enough to get back home.

Ok, I may be a little harsh on this film, but I have to admit right of the top, I was too old for the Smurfs and did not develop a fondness for the little creatures that I always did feel were a little creepy. After all, the film did just barely make it’s budget of 100 Million back, so it wasn’t a complete disaster, probably due to those that did grow up with the Smurfs and are nostalgic to see them again. But taking a half hour cartoon and trying to stretch it out into an hour long films just doesn’t always work. Many stories do much better in a half hour format.

This film, to me, seemed just a lot of silliness. I never felt a kindship to the little guys, and didn’t really care if they got back or not. A number of films of the same genre are a lot better done. Enchanted for example, was pretty clever, as was the unique Gnomeo and Juliet (which I also did not LOVE, but it was way better than this was). I didn’t hate this film, but I just didn’t really get into it. It was hard to keep interested in it, and when it was over, it seems highly forgettable to me.

I think two age groups would enjoy it. Obviously those who grew up with the Smurfs and really want to see them again will no doubt like it. Also I can imagine the little folk who don’t know the Smurfs will enjoy seeing them too, as they are well animated and quite unique in that respect. But anyone who’s looking for a story, this is pretty week.

Two other comments. I much preferred Neil Patrick Harris in A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. He was really funny there, as he is in How I Met Your Mother. He was good dramatically in a number of holiday films that are shown on the Hallmark channel and Lifetime at Christmas. But in this movie, he’s more like a prop. Not a complaint on Mr. Harris, he just wasn’t given anything to work with. Secondly, Sofia Vergara plays Patrick’s boss. I don’t know how they could possibly manage to make her appear non-sexy, as she is one of the most beautiful women in the world. But her plain Jane character in this film somehow makes her look neutral. I don’t know how they could do that! Not awful. Watch it if you’re interested, but it just wasn’t good enough to get me excited about it.

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