Animated movie round-up

Oct 1, 2004 by  

The Incredibles, Spongebob Squarepants, Team AmericaI apologize for the lack of posts in the past week or so, life gets in the way sometimes. Also, although I’ve had stuff I’ve wanted to write about, for some reason I just haven’t been in the mood to actually write. I’m sure the creative juices will start flowing again very soon…

Enough about me…

The holiday movie season is almost upon us, and I’m sure the studios have a plethora of gee-whiz blockbuster and touching, Oscar® nominees-in-waiting headed our way. Despite all this there are just three movies that I’ve been itching to see for months:

The Incredibles, Team America: World Police and Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie.

Seriously.


In case you’re not familiar with these selections, here’s a short description of each based on what I know about them:

The Incredibles: A superhero family that was once well-renowned has to adjust to living a boring life like the rest of us, until some catastrophe causes them to be recalled to duty.

This is a Pixar film, so you can just go ahead and buy your ticket now. They have yet to produce a lemon, and from the trailers, this looks like another great family-friendly home run.

Team America: World Police: A parody of the current world situation, which while nothing to laugh at, could only be pulled off by the creators of South Park. A string-puppet movie along the lines of the old Thunderbirds TV show, it looks like in the film America pulls out all the stops to defeat terrorists around the world once and for all. It looks like they won’t spare anyone: everyone from President Bush to Michael Moore gets lampooned.

Folks, leave the kids at home for this one, would you please? I know there are puppets in it, but it’s rated R, and I have a feeling that the trailer is giving us the barest hint of what’s in store with this movie. Having said that, it looks hysterical.

Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie: I have no idea what the plot of the movie is, but it’s Spongebob. What else do you need to know? As the tagline says: “Bigger, Squarer, Spongier”.

My daughter and I will be first in line for this bad boy. If you’re not familiar with Spongebob and the gang, I highly recommend you check out the show on Nickelodeon or rent the DVD containing some of the best episodes. Check out the trailer.

Right now Shark Tale is out, and you probably won’t see a review of it here because it just looks bad to me. They’re trying to make a “hip” Finding Nemo. I think I’ll pass.

Going a little farther out to next March, there’s Robots which is from the creators of Ice Age (which kind of grew on me). Maybe the trailer just went on too long, but it got kind of old. It has a star-studded cast (which can sometimes be a BIG red flag) which includes Robin Williams. His manic energy is great, but sometimes I think a director needs to rein him in a bit. In the trailer for the film after a while I just wanted him to stop yakking.

"Follow us if you want to live."

2 Comments - Comments are closed.

  1. Brian    7 years ago

    The Incredibles: Agreed, it’s a must-see. The Disney suits should be kicking themselves for dissolving their relationship with Pixar.

    Team America: World Police: There’s no way I’m missing this one. I’m sure it will be hysterical.

    Spongebob Squarepants: Never saw the TV show, so I have no need to see the movie. Still, if Trey Parker and Matt Stone did their own spin on Blue’s Clues, I might be interested. They could get Steve to take a break from his music career and come back to the show. “Hey kids, I had a little too much to drink last night, so I can’t even see straight. Can you help me with this latest clue?”

    Shark Tale: No interest whatsoever. It’s an obvious rip-off of Finding Nemo, and it doesn’t even look like a very good one. I’m sure it will make plenty of money, though, since CGI-animated movies are rarely money-losers.

    Robots: I agree, Robin Williams needs to be reined in quite a bit. He’s shown restraint in movies such as Good Will Hunting and One Hour Photo, so why is it so tough for him to do the same in animated movies? I’m guessing the directors want him to cut loose, hoping for the same success he gave to Aladdin.

    Brian

  2. Vic    7 years ago

    Brian, you just don’t know what you’re missing with Spongebob. You really should check it out sometime. It’s so wierd in an innocent sort of way that it’s impossible not to laugh of the silliness of it.

    I’m pretty sure you’d love it. :-)

    Vic