Daddy Mojo at the Movies | Page 7 of 27

Dumbo is a mostly joyless, PC driven pachyderm Free Willy

Please don’t mess this up. That was my thought when I first saw the trailer for Dumbo. It’s not that I have fond memories of the 1941 original. I’m sure I saw it as a child, but I have no memory of it. The only thing I know of Dumbo is that he’s a flying elephant. Having said that, it’s classic intellectual property, an icon and a symbol of all things Disney. If they could mess up this film then the next you know they’ll go about closing classic theme park attractions like The Great Movie Ride. *

To the film’s credit, Dumbo isn’t a total dumpster fire. It’s just that the film doesn’t know exactly what it’s trying to be. There are very few funny scenes so it’s not funny enough to be a comedy. There are enough dramatic elements for it to be considered a drama, but for what age? Audiences under 14 won’t find the laughs or entertainment that they require to fully hold their attention. Those older than 14 will be able to predict what’s going to happen the moment that we’re introduced to the characters-which aren’t given enough rope to run with.

We meet Milly, the daughter of Holt, a WWI veteran who returns home. Milly is a rebellious tween who wants nothing to do with the circus and has an interest in science. Note to Hollywood: we get it now; girls can be scientists too, thanks for the update and quit hammering audiences with this message. We also know that animals in the circus is a bad thing, now that we’re reminded of this can we get on with the guilt trip that audiences will pay $12 for?

When Holt returns from WWI we see that he lost an arm in battle. Wait, a one-armed rodeo rider in the circus, the same circus with a big-eared elephant, a strong-man and other human performers who are on the outcast of mainstream society? This is just one example where the not-so-subtle characteristics project their intentions from a big tent away.

There are a couple moments of joy. When Dumbo first flies it’s quite entertaining, but then the audience is labored with more story that’s as obvious as the obelisk to the chimpanzees in 2001. Here comes the wealthy investor who, wait for it, also has a theme park and circus. He’s looking for a main act and Dumbo could just be the ticket for the small town travelling circus and the big time entertainment mogul to make a match.

So now, Dumbo and (spoiler alert) his mother are in the same circus. You’ll never guess what happens next….unless you’ve seen the 1993 film Free Willy.

There are some nice inside baseball moments when the film goes to the investor’s theme park, Dreamland. It’s like a steam punk Disney World, complete with its own version of Carousel of Progress. Literally, this is a generic version of Carousel of Progress. Initially it’s quite complimentary, but as (spoiler alert) Dreamland burns down, we see the robots melting and malfunctioning. I’m guessing that Dumbo wasn’t given the theme park QA check before it went to print.

It’s obvious that the film, set designers and aspects of the cast are trying very hard to make it all work. That’s what’s all the more frustrating as a fan of everything involved with the film. I should have loved this film, yet it’s a hodgepodge of big ears, guilt and nostalgia wrapped up in a Disney bow.

Tim Burton directs Dumbo. In theory this is great because he’s a left of center guy that is capable of making the ordinary seem cool. Alas, Dumbo is more Planet of the Apes (2001) or (Mars Attacks!) than Alice in Wonderland. As a movie fan and Disney fan, I’m sensing that the live action movie parade is fading or at the minimum suffering from Star Wars fatigue or poor development. I’m getting the same vibe from Aladdin and The Lion King as I did when I first saw the Dumbo trailer.

The good news for Disney, to an extent; is that these bad review of their live action films will fall on deaf ears. The classic Disney fans will see them to be reminded of what they love and most likely take their children. The downside, if their kids are like ours then after they leave Dumbo they’ll be ambivalent at best or worst case for Disney, ask when the next Minions film comes out.

*I know that The Great Movie Ride closed. GMR4L yo.

Wonder Park is a beautiful, well made film that misses the mark

Imagine you’re invited to a party. It’s supposed to be a lively, social affair that bills itself as a loose, chatty affair. When you get there the party seems like it’s going according to plan. The guests are interesting and the conversation is quite fun, but then the host settles down and turns the party into a time share sales pitch. You’ve had fun at the party up until now-and all of the guests are still there, so you gamely sit down. It’s a beautiful sales pitch with a bit of guilt, done with panache and tons of personality. When the sales pitch ends you’re left slightly gape jawed because you came in expecting a fun, happy-go-lucky party, but instead got a slightly down beat gathering that was hosted by a tween goth wanna be.

That is the feeling I had when I left Wonder Park.

It’s like going to see Minions, thinking it’s a film about lovable yellow creatures; but 10 minutes into the film you learn they have jaundice.

Wonder Park sells itself as a child’s escape to an amusement park run by anthropomorphic animals. And for a while it’s the amusement park film you’ve seen. The film looks gorgeous. Its animation is stunning, at times looking like a hybrid stop animation and computer animation. It has a grand scope and characters that look like you’ve seen them before, but also seem like original tour guides to a place that you want to go.

June is the young girl who creates Wonder Park. She and her mother have a vivid imagination and it’s their go-to place to play. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes into the film her mother get sick, presumably Cancer and has to go away to the hospital for treatment. And here comes the time share presentation.

It’s not that serious subject matters don’t have a place in children’s entertainment. They do, but what Wonder Park did was the exact opposite of Inside/Out did and I completely blame Bing Bong. The time when Bing Bong floats away into the abyss is a gut punch that people can relate to. Inside/Out was a great comedy with a dramatic gut punch. The kick is that Inside/Out billed itself as a comedy.

Wonder Park bills itself as an adventure/comedy and doesn’t accomplish either category. It has elements of adventure that do work, but when the film is being adventurous it flips back to sad panda June all too quickly. Steve, the porcupine, voiced by John Oliver does manage to get in a couple of laughs and physical comedy bits, but they’re not worth the price of admission.

In the end June’s mother (spoiler alert) does come back home and audience members over 10 will be glad to head to the exits. Our 9 year old did enjoy the film, but he stopped talking about it by bedtime and didn’t talk about it with his friends. That’s quite different than his other reactions, like for Mary Poppins Returns, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Teen Titans GO! To The Movies or a couple others where we had to distract him with shiny object in order to get him to stop talking about it.

Wonder Park is a decent enough time waster for a rainy day on TV. It’s best if you save your movie theatre money for something else this spring.

Captain Marvel review, it’s above average-and that’s OK

Just how did a movie within the MCU become a political lightning rod? The fact that many people have strong opinions about Captain Marvel before the film’s been released is testament as to how much cinema and social media have evolved since Iron Man in 2008. A Captain Marvel film in 2008 would’ve seemed like the stuff of fancy, now it signals the next era of Marvel film making. This works for-and against it. The end result is that Captain Marvel is a very entertaining film that has very similar elements from the 19 films in the MCU the preceded it.

It is interesting how political and skewed the news has been about this film though. One person who was in the audience during my showing said that they thought that Captain Marvel was originally written with the man as a lead and that it was gender switched, a la, Ghostbusters, to placate today’s trends. I’ve also read some articles online about how Captain Marvel was nothing more than military propaganda. In reality, Captain Marvel is film about a character, who has been around for decades, and does have Earth memories of being a Air Force pilot.

What’s also true is that the film is quite entertaining. It takes a while to get to the period when it’s completely entertaining, but once Carol Danvers lands on Earth the film kicks into gear and really has fun. It’s about this time that Nick Fury enters the film and it takes on a buddy cop feel from the 90’s.

It’s not as humor heavy as some are expecting. There are some nice one liners, but for the most part its dry quips never hit home as often as Korg from Thor: Ragnorak or the dialogue between the Guardians of the Galaxy. In Captain Marvel the laughs are almost exclusively given to Fury, Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn) and the vast differences in technology between the 90s and now.

The action sequences are very good, the sound is amazing, the soundtrack is spot on and Brie Larson as Captain Marvel is very good. She’s a dry, confident super power who realizes that she’s the strongest force in the universe and swaggers accordingly.

There are a couple elements of the film that didn’t add up as well as Disney would’ve liked. Mainly the friendship between 90’s era Carol Danvers and her best friend, Maria Rambeau, played by Lashana Lynch doesn’t connect. They were best friends back in the day, but Rambeau (is this a play on Rambo…?) has since retired and lives on farm in the south east-and conveniently has a box of all of Danver’s old stuff.

Samuel L. Jackson as a young looking Fury works great, as does Mendelsohn who oozes charm in character or in voiceovers are particular bright spots. The cat also steals many scenes later on in the film. Captain Marvel is very entertaining and serves as a great jumping off point to Avengers: Endgame. If anything, the addition of Captain Marvel serves as a needed punch to the chest for an Avengers film that might’ve left fans feeling defeated. One of the post credit sequences sets up Endgame and leaves audiences wanting a Dirty Harry style end to Thanos and his finger snap.

Overall, Captain Marvel works and is a quickly paced popcorn film and that’s OK. This is an above average MCU film that you’ll want to see more than a couple of times. It’s loud, fun and fits very nicely within the films that have come before it. Moreover, it also sets the stage nicely for Avengers: Endgame, in which Captain Marvel might just (hopefully) up her game.

Mary Poppins Returns with spoonfuls of whatever you want

It is understandable for movie goers to be skeptical of Mary Poppins Returns. Mary Poppins is irrelevant. It’s a character better known fora classic movie that blazed technological trails 50 years ago and is one of the bright lights in Mickey’s castle. It’s not the kind of movie or character that one associates with having ‘continued adventures’. Our son wanted to see Mary Poppins Returns, even though he’s never seen the first one. On the way into the theater I told him that the first movie was made over 50 years ago and was a technical masterpiece then.

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From the first frames of Mary Poppins returns it’s obvious that there’s something different about this film. For starters, audiences will watch the credits at the beginning of the film. That’s a subtle nod to the original and the way that films used to be shown. “When does the film start”,our 9-year old asked after the movie started, while we were watching the credits.

The film takes its direction from that point and continues down the path without hitting any lamplighters or bicycles. Mary Poppins returns to the Banks family, this time to take care of the adult Banks children. It’s hard not to think of Doc Brown from Back to the Future at the end of the first movie. You know, the offhand remark about “I’m not here about you…it’s your children”, he said after visiting the future. While our son certainly didn’t catch this it raised my warning antennae on the film.

If I ever saw Mary Poppins I do not remember any of it. I recall seeing the images and scenes from our trips to Walt Disney World, but the rest is chim, chiminey forgotten. Here the Banks children; specifically Michael, is on the verge of losing his home. His wife passed away a couple of months ago and he’s never really gotten over it, despite obtaining a job at bank, that conveniently has the loan that is now being called due.

Overall Mary Poppins Returns is utterly charming. The dance and song numbers, for the most part, are uplifting and will bring in even those in the audience who have never seen a musical. Our son, who has never seen, actually he’s actively avoided musicals, really enjoyed the film, especially the more up-tempo numbers.

Mary Poppins Returns is a little too long and very diverse. It’s obviously diverse, so much so that it’s distracting and that’s something that filmmakers,especially Disney need to be wary of. Disney became very Princess heavy a couple of years ago, which if great; they needed to balance the scales of their characters, both in regards to their sex and their background. However, by making the heroes or villains the same cookie cutter format movie after movie they’re falling into the same trap that made The Last Jedi so bad.

Granted, the fan base between The Last Jedi and Mary Poppins will not be the same, nor will they have the same criticisms. Mary Poppins Returns is an entertaining film, it just feels hollow. It’s obvious that the filmmakers loved the original and did as much possible to stay true to its spirit.The result is a lovingly created vehicle that has a (very) slightly different story from the original and shows up at your doorstep 50 some odd years later asking you to love it just as much. You’ll like it, maybe buy a box of cookies,but it won’t stick too long in your memory.

The other view: when my nine-year old son and I were leaving the theater he said: “I can’t wait to see the next one in 50 years”. If that’s the reaction that the film makers were going for then they’ve hit a home run.If they’re looking for film that will return its investment and a little bit more then they’ll probably accomplish that.

Mortal Engines is a beautiful, fun time to (re) discover steampunk

I’m in a coffee place and two middle aged guys are talking. “I wasn’t familiar with the plot. But, I saw the movie in IMAX and it was amazing. The special effects were incredibly detailed and its steampunk elements were things that you really need to see on the big screen”, one said to the other. I didn’t need to ask them what film they were talking about. I knew that it was Mortal Engines.

The scope and scale of Mortal Engines is beautiful. See the film in IMAX, it’s worth the extra money to see it on the really big screen. It’s rated PG-13 for intense action sequences.

I was not familiar with the books, they’re a 4-part series by Phillip Reeve about a post-apocalyptic world where…..hey hey, eyes up here.I know that the whole ‘post apocalyptic’ tag line is over used. You’re expecting Jennifer Lawrence or some pasty faced vampire in the film just to lock down its middle school street cred. Mortal Engines is a different kind of end-of-the world tale, this is steampunk on the grandest scale that’s ever been displayed on the big screen.

From the opening moments Mortal Engines establishes what you might already know from the trailer. London is a massive city on wheels that consumes other smaller cities on wheels for their resources. As we dig deeper we learn that there was a 60-second war that shifted the crust of the Earth which somehow mandated that our cities are built on iron wheels.

Don’t get bogged down in the details. Mortal Engines is a fun, high quality popcorn time at the movies. If you’ve read the books you’ll notice that most of the downbeat under currents aren’t mentioned and that’s ok. If the film had spent any time on the elements that were not big machines, majestic mountains or big machines it would’ve tripped upon its good intentions.

Mortal Engines rarely lets its foot off of the gas and that’s a great thing. The only time that the film stumbles is when viewers get a moment to actually question why this or that is happening. How can his daughter be so trusting? What happened to that other guy who was helping her? Stop, don’t ask any question, just enjoy the film and everything will be fine.

For us the biggest let down was the ending music. The soundtrack during the film is strong and very effective. When the film ends the soundtrack goes soft and all but requires the audience to exhale. It also leaves you feeling let down, which the complete opposite of what the film did.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse surpasses all expectations

If you read our giveaway that we did for tickets to this film you’ll know that I was skeptical. A non-jokey animated superhero film can’t possibly be good can it? Teen Titans GO! To The Movies was successful because it was the exact same format and voices and the excellent television show. But Spider-Man has multiple incarnations, lots of films and more. That mythos is one of the first things that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dispels with. Get over what you know; this is not that story, that’s basically what the film sets up in its trailer and within the first two minutes of it. At the end of the film I was correct and an animated superhero film can’t be good, it can be superior and better than most of the films out now from any angle that you look at it.

Continue reading Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse surpasses all expectations

A chat with Sean Anders, the Director of Instant Family

We had the chance to speak with Sean Anders, the Director of Instant Family. Instant Family is the semi-autobiographical story of Anders and he and his wife’s decision to adopt children from foster care. “Based on a true story” or semi-autobiographical are interesting to me because I always wanted to ask where the ‘true’ stops and the ‘story’ starts. Out of the gate I asked Sean Anders where the story for Instant Family broke with reality.

Continue reading A chat with Sean Anders, the Director of Instant Family

Win passes to the Instant Family sneak preview in Atlanta

The other week we had the opportunity to interview Sean Anders, the director of Instant Family. Instant Family is a true story; it’s actually his true story of how he and his wife decided to adopt children. Actually, they decided to adopt three children, all at once. The movie looks funny and something that families can immediately relate to or for anybody that has children or any familiarity with the foster care system.

Instant Family was filmed in Atlanta. I remember seeing the signs for filming locations around certain neighborhoods and hearing the extra casting calls from some friends of mine who do production. While it’s the true story of one family’s decision to adopt, the film is not preachy and brings the humor and fun that kids bring-while not glossing over the difficulties that raising any child can present. It’s a delicate balance that was accomplished by weaving in conversations that Anders and other newly adopted foster families had in real life.

Win passes to the #InstantFamily sneak preview in #Atlanta on Monday, November 12 from @Daddymojo https://t.co/Iu5Sob1sE7 pic.twitter.com/6qNQdwVb31

— Daddy Mojo (@Daddymojo) November 8, 2018

The Atlanta sneak preview of Instant Family is Monday, November 12 at 7PM. If you want to go just tweet this out and the first 20 folks will get a pair of tickets to the show. You can also email us at trey@daddymojo.net and we’ll reply back with a magic code that will link you to tickets.

Instant Family is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, mild sexual material, language and drug references. In our opinion the film is OK for 9 year-olds, but that’s us.