Monday at the Movies - December 22, 2014

Welcome to another edition of “Monday at the Movies.”  Just in time for Christmas, The Cinema King gets to one he’s never actually seen before!

Elf (2003) – If I were to redo my “Top 10 Christmas Season Movies” list from two years ago, I imagine Elf would make the cut.  As the film began, between Bob Newhart’s nonpareil delivery and the credit “directed by Jon Favreau,” I knew I was in for a good time.  In the film that everyone else had seen but me, Will Ferrell stars as Buddy, an elf by adoption who discovers he’s a human being and sets out from the North Pole in search of his real father (James Caan).  Along the way, he falls in love with department store elf Jovie (a distractingly blonde Zooey Deschanel) and helps Santa (Ed Asner) recapture the Christmas spirit.  Elf utilizes the “fish out of water” plotline very well, juxtaposing Buddy’s wide-eyed enthusiasm with the cynicism of New York City but without going for either a laugh at Buddy’s expense or the moral equivalent of treacle.  What makes it a wonderful Christmas feature, aside from the music and the set dressing, is the way the film participates in the basic premise of most of the classic Christmas specials, that of the misfit who saves the day.  It helps that the cast, comprised of people who wouldn’t jump immediately to mind for the holiday season, is in top form, especially Caan who miraculously isn’t playing another version of Sonny Corleone.  Favreau, who makes a cameo, keeps the laughs coming, though, without ever resorting to the heavyhanded moralizing one might have come to expect from a Christmas classic.  No, the word of the day is “fun,” youthful and fresh, and I think I’ve found myself a new holiday tradition.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!  Have a holly jolly Christmas, all.

Up (2009)

Up, the latest Pixar/Disney joint, is an exhilarating breath of fresh air at an otherwise stale time in cinematic history. With remakes (I'm still reeling from the God-awful Nic Cage version of The Wicker Man), reboots (Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street might have been better off dead, though Star Trek wasn't bad), sequels (how many Ice Ages do we need?), re-quels (as Terminator Salvation has been dubbed), and uninspired film versions of media better left unadapted (I'm looking at you, GI Joe), an original story with a breathtaking production value is more than welcome.

Facing a string of troubles after the passing of his adventurous wife Ellie, Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) decides to fulfill the one adventure the two never had - travel to South America's Paradise Falls. Facing a court-ordered retirement home and grabby construction agents, Carl rigs his colorful home with scads of helium balloons and sets off - with Wilderness Explorer (a kind of Boy Scout) Russell (voice of Jordan Nagai) in tow.

To say any more of the adventure the two have would be to pull back the curtains on one of the most magical movie experiences I've had in a long, long while. Up is, like almost everything in the Pixar canon, a whirlwind of a picture, taking advantage of starkly stylized visuals to create a powerful film that never stops being entertaining. This is escapism at its best, simultaneously awe-inspiring and just plain inspiring.

There was an old commercial back in the day for popsicles or something where a kid exclaimed to his dog, "The colors, Duke, the colors!" (Am I the only one who remembers this one?) And so, with a cast of talking dogs in Up, it seems apropos to ruminate briefly on the colors of Up and more largely the visuals as a whole. I don't want to overuse the word "breathtaking," but the images that accompany Carl's flight are so realistic you'll want to rub your eyes in disbelief - but don't, or you'll miss precious seconds. Vibrant colors accompany both the balloons and the wildlife on Carl's journey, and the motions are so fluid you'll forget you're watching a cartoon.

Confession time: Up put the same mistiness in my eyes that Wall-E did, only here it's over an impressively translated tour de force through Carl and Ellie's marriage. This, dear readers, is the single best time-lapse montage since Citizen Kane's "dissolution of a marriage" scene. It won't be long, I predict, before Pixar puts real tears on my cheeks - you're close, dash it all.

Carl is a lovable character, one of the best in the Pixar catalog. Though I was initially suspicious of his grumpy demeanor as depicted in the trailers, Carl turns out to be a curmudgeonly cross between Spencer Tracy and your grandfather, gruff but lovable. Asner does a great job voicing Carl, giving real life to the already emoting digital eyes of the old man. Most of the laughs, though, come from Dug the talking dog, gifted with the power of speech by his intelligent though mysterious master---squirrel! Try not to laugh every time Dug stoically points and brings the pace of the film to a dramatic halt while we watch this ne'er-do-well pup attempt to... well, do well.

It's good to see that Pixar, ten films into its production catalog, has lost none of the magic. Indeed, Up is one of their best (Wall-E might be the most moving, Ratatouille the best animated, and The Incredibles downright the most fun), one of the best of 2009, and - to borrow a line from Superman - you'll believe a man can fly. Squirrel!
The MPAA rather uncharitably handed Up a "PG for some peril and action." Some of the dogs in the film could be a bit frightening, and the antics in the sky may scare some, but I saw this movie in a theater filled with tykes, none of whom seemed particularly terrified. They clapped at the end, though - out of the mouths of babes, eh?