So this movie came out yesterday, and so far has garnered some
pretty favorable reviews.
The story revolves around Gru (Steve Carrel) who's a down-on-his-luck supervillain who has set his sights on stealing the moon. In the process of preparing for it, however, he ends up adopting three orphaned girls. Hijinks ensue.
This is neither a Pixar or a Dreamworks film, but instead it comes from Illumination Entertainment, a company started by Chris Melendandri (the producer of several animated Fox films like Ice Age, Robots, etc), in conjunction with Universal Studios.
I saw this movie yesterday, and thought it was pretty good myself. It's not necessarily Pixar, but very little is, and this film can hold it's own and be very entertaining. It's definitely worth a look.
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The overall plot is a bit weak, and the villain is especially underwhelming, but Gru, the minions, and the three girls manage to carry the movie nonetheless.
The three little girls, in particular, are absolutely adorable. They're probably the cutest animated children since Boo from Monsters Inc.
Really, every non-pixar film with humans seems to have just copied "the Incredibles" and called it a day.
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Ugh. Speaking to visual styles (in non-Pixar films), the style of Tangled looks really good. I can't wait for that one.
Anyways, about the movie, I plan on seeing it eventually
An animated film focusing on the villain seems pretty novel, and I really like the cast. Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Miranda Cosgrove? Yes please. Plus I have a bit more faith in non-Pixar Disney CG now; Bolt was surprisingly entertaining.
That is, the animated one by that other group, not the one that has the creepy uncanny valley dogs and cats. G-force actually did a pretty good job of balancing the animation and looking 'realistic'
My friend is really excited for Despicable Me but the trailers have all left me with a heavy meh, aside from the "ITS SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE". Hilarious. Might pay to see the movie to support that line alone.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
Come to think of it, I actually liked it quite a bit.
Did anyone have that Best Buy App thing? What was that all about? I stayed till the "Ref minion" took part in the game they were playing, credits started and I left.
Then I watched Knight and Day afterwards and was sad it would probably make more money than Despicable Me.
On the subject of Tangled, I understand the art direction they're trying to go with it, but I didn't really notice the detail in the trailer before Toy Story 3. Maybe it'd be more noticeable without the 3D; more vibrant too probably. But it came off, to me, looking like a Dreamworks affair, and while that's certainly not bad, I really wish they would've hand-animated this movie too, and Disney could solidify their stance on continuing quality hand-drawn movies.
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Not quite.
That's very heartening to see. Especially that it's almost made its full budget back.
"It's so fuzzy I'm gonna die!!"
My wife had made me watch that preview like a hundred times. Yet, when we grabbed a friend's kids to go watch it, I found that A) there was just enough more to the scene to make it feel new and it wouldn' thave gotten old anyway.
Not the best movie ever, by any means, but definitely a solid animated movie that gets a ton of laughs for young and old alike. Though, based on the squirm factor on the little one next to us, it drags a bit for the really little kids.
EDIT: Basically it seemed like there were some long stretches where all of the jokes would go over the heads of the single-digit kids in the audience. But then, if you pack it with humor for the nose-mining set, then it's no fun for the adults. Tough to balance.
It wasn't as touching as Up! or Toy Story 3, and Gru's character development felt like it was a little rushed, but otherwise... Fun, and I'm definitely glad that I saw it.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
"Does it wear off?"
"Um...no."
Did you see it in 2D? Because the bit before the end credits in 3D didn't have anything to do with a game and a referee. Instead, it was an increasingly elaborate series of attempts by the minions to reach out and touch the audience.
For me it was
I agree that the little girls were absolutely the cutest things ever. The minions were hilarious, and this is coming from someone who got annoyed at the previews featuring them and figured I'd also be annoyed during the movie. The fluffy unicorn bit was great. I teared up at several points, like when the littlest one handed Gru her piggy bank for example. Actually most of the parts I teared up with involved her... also teared up at
The weirdest thing was at the end I realized I only knew the oldest girls name - Margo - and that was only because Gru shouted it while she was on Vector's machine's wing. Otherwise I would not have known her name. I guess this wasn't important but it made me realize that their names really weren't used very much at all during the movie.
But what sucked was that I couldn't help but compare my reactions to those of Toy Story 3. I just saw TS3 early last week so when I got out I caught myself thinking, "Well, it was good... but TS3 was better and made me cry and laugh more..." It really is a great movie and I wish I wouldn't do that, just kinda sucks that it came out so close to an absolutely phenomenal Pixar movie.
Wait. Wait wait wait. They put Brad Pitt in an animated movie?
Good freakin' lord. You'd think Dreamworks would have learned their lesson when they cast Pitt in Sinbad, and it bombed hard. He's just not that interesting a voice actor! Sure, some celebrities can do it well. Steve Carrell I'm sure is great, and I'll bet Will Farrell will be fine. But stunt casting just for the sake of stunt casting never works. Here I thought they were calming down after How to Train Your Dragon, but I guess not.
Major spoilers from the wiki of that movie, but
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Edit: Ok, so I read the synopsis on Wiki....if that's true then it seems they have completely advertised this movie falsely. That tends to backfire.
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Uh... "who can reach the farthest" was the game. And there was a referee, with a measuring tape, who blew his whistle all penalty-like when one of the minions hit the other or otherwise "fouled".
That was the 2D version (which I saw). And from what you described, sounds like the 3D version as well.
Elsie Fisher
EDIT: This post came off much creapier than I had anticipated. :?
That's it! Thanks, I thought I was going a bit crazy.
They advertised a movie without laying out the plot in perfect, intricate detail?
Fiends. I weep to think at the people who will have coronaries when they find themselves unprepared!
Har Har.
But seriously, look at the trailer.
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Yeah, but it'd be like if the trailer for Inception showed all this reality bending stuff but in the actual movie that only takes place in the first 10 minutes.
You are complaining that the trailer doesn't spoil the plot? You realize what a miracle that is for a Dreamworks movie. Hell, go an see Megamind based on the strength of that alone. Wouldn't you kill to be surprised a little bit by a movie again?
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The movie sets up the expectation that this will be a movie about the quirky villain Megamind. That is what it will be. It's not like it is actually going to be a romantic drama about having sex on a road trip or something, and the difficulties faced by single mothers.