Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Critical Frog- The Wind Rises

Okay, can I just confess that I think Hayato Miyazaki is the best Japanese filmmaker ever? It`s true. He`s also probably one of my favorite directors of all time, and today`s feature film just works to prove this. I love everything Miyazaki does, from Spirited Away to My Neighbor Totoro- every single piece of his is vibrant with animation and creativity. But since most of his work lies mainly in the realms of fantasy, what would happen if Miyazaki went into reality while still attempting to maintain a dreamlike atmosphere? For his final feature film, he decided to give it a shot, and it ended up becoming a brilliant film that touches the heart while still displaying the excellence of Miyazaki`s craft. This masterpiece displays the magnificence of Miyazaki`s work, real or fictional, and is known as The Wind Rises.

The film mainly revolves around the life and various exploits of Jiro, a boy growing up in WW2II- era Japan with dreams of becoming an aeronautical engineer designing airplanes. He is inspired by an Italian plane designer through his dreams, and his decisions of the future. Along the way he meets a girl, saves people from an earthquake, gets a job, sees Germany, and stays at a place with a name I`m about to invent: the Magical Hotel Of Insane Coincidences. You know, the hotel every movie character goes to where so many insane coincidences happen at once. But in this case, it`s a good cliche.

Things happen, Jiro gets married, he gets promoted, and so on until the sadness begins to emerge. Serious issues like disease and the threat of war slowly emerge in Jiro`s life, and he is forced to make important decisions regarding not only the fate of the Japanese air force, but for his wife and himself. Jiro`s life is told in a series of short experiences, and while many events seem disconnected, it`s actually a fantastic portrayal of modern life and how strange everyday occurences can all tie together.

The dream sequences are, as in all Miyazaki work, fantastic, but so are the descriptions of the everyday life of an engineer. After something happens to his wife, he is forced to care for her and balance his job at the same time, with the prospect of WWII slowly dawning on the horizon. Miyazaki paints an amazing picture of WWII Japan and of a man`s life.

OVERALL RATING: 10//10
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This film is genuinely a sad one, and I filed out of it with a sad and thoughtful face. Watch it and understand a man`s life told simply and beautifully.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Critical Frog: Frozen

Okay, I honestly have to confess that I love the Disney Princess CGI movies. I mean, who doesn`t? Many of them are creative, and I do admire the fact that in some of the newer ones the princess needs no prince to save her behind  But in the terms of criticism, my favorite CGI princess film has to be Frozen, a recent 2013 blockbuster with creative characters, a deep story with genuinely surprising plot twists, amazing CGI, and of course, kick-ass songs. Aside from the Toy Story franchise and the brilliance of Up, this is probably my favorite CGI film of the modern era. Of course, there are a few flaws, but every film has them.

The story involves Princess Anna and her sister Elsa. Elsa has magical ice powers that she uses to entertain Anna, but one day she screws up and instead whops her in the head, knocking her out. Elsa feels guilty about it and hides her powers through solitude. After their parents die, Elsa is preparing to be crowned queen, and Anna finds love with a prince who proposes to her the day they meet. Elsa is not amused by Anna`s instant marriage and snaps, revealing her powers and turning her kingdom into a frozen wasteland. Elsa flees and Anna goes on a grand quest to find her.

Along the way she meets many colorful characters, such as Kristoph, who joins Anna to save his failing ice business (and at the promise of a new sled), his reindeer named Sven and a little snowman named Olaf who wants to discover what life is like in summer and what snow does in the face of the sun (oblivious to the idea of what snow ACTUALLY does in summer). This group of colorful characters face challenges like wolves, icicles, storms and a snow monster together. It seems to take the `band of adventurers` genre and make it into a comedy, but to a very good extent. The relationship between Anna and Kristoph, while not clearly displayed (remember, Anna has a prince at home) can be seen in many parts of the film balanced out by Kristoph`s relations with Sven and the sheer randomness of Olaf (who knew a snowman could be good for impalement jokes?). It`s a very colorful band that works very well as a group.

As Anna reaches Elsa, bad things happen and the group must consult Kristoph`s family, who turn out to be rock trolls that adopted the apparently orphaned Kristoph and Sven (in an earlier scene). These trolls are very entertaining but sadly underused. Various plot points unfold, and we learn the only way to fix the bad things is for Anna and Elsa to return to the kingdom and set things right with beautiful plot twists, spectacular animation and Olaf providing a genuinely touching scene involving Anna and a fireplace. As you`d expect, the film has a happy ending, but what makes it stand out is how the background features are designed.

The backgrounds and landscapes in this film are amazing- vibrant villages and abandoned mountains brought to life with beautiful CGI- and of course the characters themselves are nicely designed. And the ice, The Ice!
The design and appearances of Elsa`s ice are beautiful to watch. From frozen spirals to enormous castles, the ice is very well-made and spectacularly animated.

And of course, the songs are fun, but the scene that really stands out to me is the music number "Let It Go", sung by Elsa. As Elsa proclaims her isolation, she causes an enormous castle of ice to rise, and coupled with the amazing voice of Idina Menzel it leads to an incredible scene. The song explains Elsa`s reasons for her isolation and her joyous release from the bonds of society, and it`s overall an amazing sequence.

OVERALL RATING: 9/10
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Frozen in itself is an amazing flick, and it`s easy to see why people love it. Go see it or buy the DVD. I`m being totally serious about this. You WILL come out humming one of the film`s many tunes. Stay away from any living snow monsters, although Olaf`s okay.

Friday, March 7, 2014

The Critical Frog: Furry Vengeance

So since my summer plans involve a lot of LARPing (Live-action Role Playing) and going to a gaming convention, the first thing I`m going to need, that I need to work on in advance, is my costume. That`s right, for the first time, The Critical Frog is probably going to cosplay. I`ve been spending a lot of time deciding on a costume, and I`ve chosen one of my new favorite video game characters: Teemo! Yes, the adorable squirrel/fox thing who doubles as a poison-dart shooting badass has forced his way into my heart.
On a side note, guess who`s been playing a lot of League of Legends lately?

All I need is an army helmet, some boots, a blowgun (although I may just use a marshmallow shooter) and some fox ears and I`ve got me a costume- the only thing I don`t think I can match is his remorseless assassination skills, but hopefully when I`m at a con I won`t need those (although LARPing is a different story). But why tell you about my awesome cosplay ideas when I can talk about today`s movie? 

It just so happens that the movie I want to talk about today involves things just as fuzzy as Teemo, but not as adorable and just as murderous. It is (appropriately) known as Furry Vengeance.

I remember when I went to see this when I was about 12, and boy, was it weird. I had no idea what was going on, and as I look back on the film, I STILL don`t. And bear in mind, I`m one of the intelligent/crazy people who actually understands the ending to 2001. So follow me into the woods and let`s try to understand exactly what`s going on in this flick. Trust me, I know what I`m doing- but don`t get too crazy, this blowgun is loaded with poison darts. 

The film opens with a guy named Riggs (not the main character) flicking a cigarette butt onto the road as he drives his car. A raccoon takes note of this and, in a jerky move even for Raccoons, has some other animals push an enormous boulder in the way of Riggs`s car, causing him to swerve off the road and fall down a cliff. If he did something terrible this would be funny because he gets comeuppance, but all he did was flick a cigarette. You see those all the time. Little overachievers, those Raccoons.

Riggs suddenly decides to hate nature and resigns from his job, forcing his boss to appoint a new person to Riggs`s position. This person is Dan, played by Brendan Fraser, and his new job is to turn the local forest into a real estate development, much to the chagrin of the apparently intelligent animals. Dan`s son Tyler seems very upset by this development, as he warns his father that many have tried to conquer the forest, but all failed horribly. Dan, clearly unable to speak foreshadowing, ignores Tyler and proceeds with business.

The animals of the forest, led by the Raccoon, do not want their homes to be bulldozed, and as such rebel against the building plans of Dan. They interrupt his meetings, destroy his work, and partake in other forest animal-like acts of protest.  Dan eventually becomes fed up with the little jerks and hires a park ranger to capture them and end their trolling. Miraculously, he succeeds and the evil little beasts are locked up in cages.

Dan suddenly comes to the realization that the company wants to bulldoze the forest and build a housing complex, complete with a mall that has a "forest theme" despite the fact that forests and malls have nothing in common. Dan`s wife is in a world of her own as she is forced to plan an environmentally-friendly festival with a stereotyped senile old lady. This is a really bothersome stereotype to me, having spent lots of time around amazing seniors, and I`m sure every elder I know would be grabbing this lady and telling her to act like a normal person (assuming priests would be open to such violence).

Anyways, the festival goes pretty well, we meet an Asian stereotype and Dan has a change of heart. He sets the animals free and helps them take back the forest in a confusing sequence of events that include, but are not limited to:
-A Raccoon raising hell,
-An Owl just sitting there,
-Ravens dive-bombing (cue Teen Titans joke), and my favorite,
-A Bear driving a golf cart (guess he`s smarter than the average bear)

So the animals revolt, the evil company doesn`t get the mall up and everything goes off without any other hitches. We see that three months later, the area has been converted into a wilderness park, where Dan is a park ranger who fines anybody who messes with the forest 1 million dollars (high price for dropping a soda can on the ground, no?). Cue a chorus of "Insane In The Brain" (a song I actually like that didn`t need to be in this) and roll credits.

OVERALL RATING: 2/10
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This confused the heck out of me when I was 12, and it still does. The ending, the stereotypes, the bland characters, and the poor animation of the animals make everything clump together in a giant mess. I give credit to Fraser though, for trying his best in a film like this. "Insane In The Brain" is actually a perfect term to describe how I felt at the end of the film. Now if you`ll excuse me, Renekton wants me to back him up at the top lane, and it would be rude to not answer the giant crocodile man.