Hot Takes On Film

  Frozen ( 2013 US) Its #FemaleFilmmakerFriday and todays entry is this Billion (with a capital “B”) dollar franchise from Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. A Princess was born with super powers she has a hard time controlling. This is not a hidden gem that got overlooked. A good chunk of the planet has seen this film so I won’t go into what its about or if its any good. You probably have a good idea by now if you like it or not. However, what I love to talk about in this film is what Lee & Co didn’t say. I originally saw this in theaters with my daughter like every other parent. On the way home we had so many unanswered questions. Why isn’t Elsa a card carrying member of the X-men. She created sentient ice creatures. She had some serious powers going on. How would a queen like this shift the balance of power in Europe and other places. The implication is that it took place in the mid 19th century. The kingdom would not need an army just round the clock guards on Elsa and food tasters.

 Mary and the Witches Flower (2017 JP) A young witch finds a broom and a flower that makes her a witch. In a wonderful cross between studio Ghibli and Harry Potter comes this anime inspired glossed over gem from newly formed Japanese animation Studio Ponoc. If you recognize the art there is a reason for that. Several employees including critical animator  Hiromasa Yonebayashi , left Studio Ghibli to form their own company. This is their first endeavor. Yonebayashi directed this and boy howdy does it look like Spirited Away. Even has a very similar tone. Well that's because he was key animator for Spirited Away. Apparently, Miyazaki was none too happy about this whole drama. The team at Ponoc went to Ghibli with a print of the film to show their former colleagues and Ghibli studio head Miyazaki refused to watch it. He just said, "I'm not watching that". Needles to say if you like studio Ghibli you will like this or more if you like Spirited Away you will like this. Fin

 The Sea Beast (2022 US) Karl Urban voices Jacob Holland, a monster hunter straight out of a Robert Lewis Stevenson Novel encounters a precocious little girl who gets him to see things in a new light. This gem seems to have been overlooked for the most part last year. That's a shame because it had a lot to say. The primary theme was the heights of colonialism in the 18-19th century hence the Stevenson reference (Treasure Island) or even Pirates of Penzance. It even had a Kaiju nod with a smart monster who was neither bad or good but just defending itself. It even had the monster whisperer in the little girl. Super common in Kaiju films. I loved the color grading in it. So pleasing. Sea Beast was directed by veteran animator Chris Williams who has been animating since Mulan. Recently he directed Moana and Big Hero 6. This film was nominated for Best Animated Feature in the last Oscars but lost to Pinocchio.  Tough year. I really did enjoy it and do feel it deserves more fanfare. So

 BoxTrolls (2014 US) An orphan is raised by creatures living beneath the city of Cheesebridge. When the aristocracy comes for the creatures the boy takes action. Based on the book "Here be Monsters". Laika Studios brings you this dark but relevant story about corruption, entitlement, hypocrisy, and marginalized communities. You will remember Laika from some of their other works such as Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. I like to call the Oregon based studio a "stop motion factory". I have always despised hypocrites and used the word when I was very young, like 4 yo. Adults were well impressed. Not so impressed when I called them one. I just love stop motion. When you are making it, it's like playing with really expensive dolls. When I was a kid my dolls had quite an involved storyline and backstory so this was a very natural evolution. Don't judge me. What is so lovely about these types of films is that the puppets are hand made as is some of the sets.

 Rango (2011 US) A domesticated Chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp finds himself the sheriff of a corrupt town and he also finds spiritual enlightenment after having an existential crisis.  Salon dot com coined a termed and associated it with this film. They called it Kidult animation. Yup that's about right. So much of this will go over a kiddos head, like way over. For Example this exchange with a prophet armadillo:  Depp: I need to find water Prophet: To find water you need to find dirt. Depp: Umm sure?! You don't get the joke until Depp shows up in a town called Dirt. OK I see what you did there but it took twenty minutes to get to the punchline. Kids won't get that or at least most kids. There was a lot of call backs to classic westerns including Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. The spiritual element is pretty strong. So yeah, Kidult. Rango won best animated feature at the 2012 Oscars. Well deserved. I don't' know why but for some reason I always thought it did

Treasure Planet (2002 US) Obviously based on the Robert Lewis Stevenson novel Treasure Island. Disney brings to life (sort of) this adventure story about finding hidden treasure in space. I really feel like this film is one of Disney's underappreciated animated films. I'm a space opera fan and its hard to find stories in that genre that haven't been so "done". Don't get me wrong I like franchises like Star trek and Stargate but its fun to find a new story. This is your standard Disney fare so don't expect something that is groundbreaking. Except it has a steampunk vibe to it. It's not steampunk but there are a few similarities. Disney was not big on taking risks back then. Michael "stay the course" Eisner was CEO at the time. He was all about satisfying stories. Bob "if it aint broke" Iger was president so between the two output was pretty standard. Having said that it's just fun to watch. Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads an all-star

Alita: Battle Angel (2019 US) Based on the Manga Gunnm by  Yukito Kishiro . A cyborg in the future enters a brutal game to fight corruption. To be clear Manga is not for everyone. Rotten Tomatoes has this at 63%. However, clearly people liked it because it made bank at the box office. James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis and Kishiro teamed up on the screenplay with action director Robert Rodriguez directing. It runs like a Manga: good news for Manga fans and not so good news for people who really don't get it. What I liked about it is the mixing of animation styles with live action: CGI and motion capture. The True Detective Mahershala Ali plays the baddie in this and as usual kills it. I don't know why I thought he had passed and was pleased when I looked and discovered that he had not. Sorry Ali, you look great. Long story short; if you like Manga you will like this. If you don't you won't. Find it on Hulu and for rent on most streaming.