Disney Sequel Showdown- "The Lion King 1 1/2"

Disney Sequel Showdown: Round #3

The Lion King 1 1/2
Directed By Bradley Raymond
Starring Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Julie Kavner and Jerry Stiller

So this just came back into my head. It's late, I can't sleep, so let's talk about another Disney sequel!

Well I've already knocked two Disney direct-to-video sequels, follows up to Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I did say there were some decent ones in the canon. The Lion King 1 1/2, despite that ridiculous title, is probably one of, if not the best of the Disney direct-to-video sequels.

Where The Lion King is an adaptation of Hamlet,  The Lion King 1 1/2 is sort of an adaptation of Rosencrantz & Guilderstein Are Dead. The film takes us through the original again, but from Timon and Pumbaa's point-of-view. But before the "Circle of Life" begins, we get to see what life was like for Timon (Lane) back in his meerkat colony, complete with his mother (Kavner) and Uncle Max (Stiller).

After botching up a stint on sentry duty involving some familiar hyenas, Timon leaves home to find his place in the world. Along the way, he meets his future best friend Pumbaa (Sabella), who joins him on his quest to find their own patch of paradise. From there, the events of the first film run its course, but again it's their side of the story. We see what they were doing during some of the original's key scenes, including some that we didn't even know they were around for.

Perhaps Lion King 1 1/2's greatest strength is that it doesn't take itself seriously, right down to it's Mystery Science Theater 3000 set up of Timon and Pumbaa watching the film in a theater. It's a sequel to one of the greatest animated films of all time, but it's not going try to match it. It's going to be it's own thing. That was a coming-of-age story of a young prince, this is a buddy comedy/satire, that actually has a lot of laughs at the expense of the former.

All that aside, there is still an emotional Disney core, and that comes from the relationship of our two leads. It's always nice to see filmmakers successfully take sidekicks, and make them three-dimensional characters. Of course, you know they didn't do that on their own. Timon and Pumbaa have been around for years, were already loved by the public, and had two other films and a tv show before this. While this is a Timon & Pumbaa film, Timon is the star. It's his hero journey, and while Pumbaa does go through his own emotional arc, it spawns from Timon's.

The animation here is rather good despite this being a direct-to-video release (This was around the time these films started getting higher in quality, and were no longer being recycled episodes from a cancelled tv show stapled together. Looking at you, Belle's Magical World and Cinderella II).
The music is fine, featuring some catchy original songs, reprises of ones from The Lion King, and some from outside sources that are used for jokes and pop culture references.

I'm not surprised that nearly every cast member from the original film returned for this, with the exception of Rowan Atkinson as Zazu (Seriously what the hell was he doing that he couldn't be bothered?). I mean this was a sequel to what was at the time, Disney's most successful animated film (This was all B.F….Before Frozen.) Anyway, they're all great. Disney always knew how to put together a good voice cast for a film. New additions Julie Kavner and Jerry Stiller as Ma & Uncle Max provide a good amount of laughs, even though you can clearly tell that Kavner is the voice of Marge Simpson, and that Jerry Stiller is…well Jerry Stiller.

So to recap, if one should ever find themselves in a situation where you had to watch a Disney sequel, this is without a doubt your best option. I myself do actually get the urge to rewatch it from time to time, because it's just a fun, harmless film. The Lion King 1 1/2 is not one of those sequels that's better than the originals. Lord no. For what it is though, it's a fine film, and that's really nothing to fuss about. Hakuna Matata.

Film Review- "Kung Fu Panda 3"

Kung Fu Panda 3
Directed by Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh
Starring Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, and JK Simmons

Dreamworks Animation has always been hit and miss with their films. For a while back there, frankly the only good films they were putting out were Shrek and stuff they were distributing for Aardman Animation. Then in 2008 came the first Kung Fu Panda, and it sort of ushered in a new era of quality for the studio.

Six years later, and the quality of their output is still all over the spectrum. Blame it on financial troubles of the studio, poor creative decisions or some combination of both. Along side the How To Train Your Dragon's , the Kung Fu Panda film series remains their best work. Five years after the stellar Kung Fu Panda 2, comes the next installment, Kung Fu Panda 3. While the film only enforces my previous statement, I still found it to be the weakest of the three Kung Fu Panda's.

The film opens in the Spirit Realm, which apparently is where Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) went in the middle of the first film. Oogway is confronted by his old friend-turned-nemesis Kai (Simmons), who has stolen the chi from all the kung fu masters in the Spirit Realm. After stealing Oogway's chi, Kai gains the power to return to the mortal realm, where he plans to steal...even more kung fu masters' chi! Of course before he leaves, Oogway foretells of another warrior destined to defeat Kai. (Guess who it is?!?)

Back in the mortal realm, Master Shifu (Hoffman) tells his students he is ready to retire, and has chosen Dragon Warrior Po (Black) as his replacement. Po proves to be a horrible teacher. Shifu tells him if he wants to be a good teacher, he has to come to understand what it means to be him, to be the Dragon Warrior. Po's plate only gets heavier when his biological father (Cranston) returns and offers to take him back to a secret panda village, and teach him what it really means to be a panda. Then on top of that, Po must prepare to face Kai.

So while I do think this is a good story, I do wish they had taken one or two more passes at the script. The theme of Po discovering who he is, it's a bit of a rehash of his character arc in the previous film. I can see both sides of it though. While Kung Fu Panda 2 was Po discovering who he is, Kung Fu Panda 3 is more about what it means to be him. The former deals with more with the Po side of things, while the latter deals with the Dragon Warrior side. That's all well and good, I just wish the script in 3 did more to set it apart from 2.

The animation in this series has always been spectacular, and this film does not disappoint. The animators really craft a beyond beautiful Spirit Realm, which are the visual highlights of the film, and the Ancient China setting looks as good as ever. The fight scenes in the Spirit Realm look awesome, but ones taking place in other parts of the film never manage to match the grand scale of those in the previous films. The music is once again epic, particularly the theme for our villain, Kai.

The returning voice cast are more than comfortable in their roles by now, and all do great work, so let's focus on the new additions. Bryan Cranston as Po's father Li Shan…I mean it's Bryan Cranston. Has the man ever turned in a bad performance? JK Simmons is hard to recognize as Kai, except for a few moments, but sadly he's the worst of the series' three villains. His motivation and backstory sadly do not reach the compelling, emotional heights of Tai Lung or Lord Shen. Then there's Kate Hudson, playing like, kind of a new love interest for Po? Which is fine but she's just kinda there.

So while probably not worth the five year wait, Kung Fu Panda 3 is still a well-crafted film, and manages to still be one of Dreamworks Animation's best films in recent years. Never reaching the epic-ness of the first or the emotional gravitas of the second, it still retains the fun (If I could borrow from the film's dialogue) awesomeness of its predecessors. It provides a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, if this does prove to be the last film in the series. Fans of Kung Fu Panda and animation alike will not be disappointed, and I think will agree that this will go down in history as one of the best animated film series of our time.

Film Review- "Deadpool"

Deadpool
Directed by Tim Miller
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarain, and Ed Skrein


Like most of the general film-going population, I know that X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not a good movie. Back in 2009 though, I was not as Marvel savvy as I am now, and that was my first taste of the character of Deadpool. As time went on, I learned that iteration of the character was not the Deadpool fans know, love, and wanted to see. The more I learned about the character, the more I saw the idea of film adaptation really working. My reservations towards Ryan Reynolds notwithstanding of course, and the fact that Fox was refusing to green light production.

Then in August 2014 someone leaked the test footage, and I went, "Yes. I like that. Give me more of that!" Fox gave into the fans and a year or so later, after some really stellar trailers and one of the best marketing campaigns for a film I've ever seen, Deadpool is now in theaters. Folks, I can confidently say this is probably the best Marvel movie that-wasn't-made-by-Marvel yet.

Just as mercenary Wade Wilson (Reynolds) prepares to take the next step with his girlfriend Vanessa (Baccarain), he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Shortly after that, he is offered a chance to be a part of a shady but experimental program that could cure him. Wilson agrees after some hesitation, only to find the program is not what it seems. He is injected with a serum and put through a series of excrutiating tests to trigger his mutant genes. He soon develops the ability to heal from everything ("They didn't just give me the cure to el cancer. They give me the cure to el everything!") but his body is also left horribly scarred.

After escaping a fierce confrontation at the program headquarters, Wilson dons his infamous red suit and sets out for revenge against the program director Francis/Ajax (Skerin), despite the interjection of  two X-Men, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Stefan Kapicic and Brianna Hidlebrand).

What sounds like a fairly simple origin story is brought to a whole new level with heaping amounts of crude, laugh-out-loud humor and non-stop action. The filmmakers were really given the chance to make a proper adaptation of Deadpool, packed with pop-culture references and fourth-wall breaking. There is real heart to this film too. The relationship between Wade and Vanessa is at its core, and makes it more than just a raunchy superhero comedy.

I've said before that Ryan Reynolds can be a great actor but he wastes his time making the wrong films. I'm not saying that right now. He was born to play Deadpool, and naturally, is the highlight of the film. Everything he says, everything he does, is pure gold. Morena Baccarain brings a lot of spice to the role of Vanessa, a role that could very well have been just a bland love interest, if not for the combination of her and the screenwriter's talents. She's given plenty of jokes to crack as well, and has great chemistry with Reynolds. Skerin is perfectly despicable as Francis/Ajax. Kapicic and Hidelbrand are given some juicy material in their X-Men supporting roles, while never overshadowing our hero, and finally TJ Miller gets some laugh's as Wade's buddy Weasel.

If I did have to pick one flaw with the film, it would be that some of the origin story flashbacks tend to be a little slow, as is expected with most of these superhero films. Thankfully, this problem is minuscule  compared to the rest of this awesome film.

Deadpool has definitely met expectations after all the years of anticipation and hype. In a world where the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stand tall and proud, this outside-the-house production leaves a real lasting mark on the superhero genre. A truly faithful adaptation, and a real work of passion by its creative team, I feel as though we already have one of the best films of the 2016. I know it's only February! How crazy is that??

Oh yeah, and I'm still going to do a Top Films of 2015. Still got some more to see….Oh and just so we're clear they're my top films of 2015….Mine. Not yours…

...chikka chikkahhh.