Of four computer animated family films in 3D experienced over recent months I vote that Rio is the best because it satisfied the childhood wish that animation should be colourful, engaging and different. The film is full of standard characters, heroes and villains with whom young people can either identify or condemn without having to give great consideration, allowing them to wholehearted give in to their feelings.
Blu is a Blue Macaw who before he has learned to walk is captured in the Brazilian Rain Forest close to the capital city and flown to the USA to be sold. However before reaching its destination, the vehicle is involved in a jolting stop, the rear of the vehicles open and the single container holding the macaw drops out unbeknown to the diver and is found by a geeky young girl who on discovering the bird immediately adopts and is allowed to do so without question from parents and authorities, presumably because the thieves and importers did not report the loss,
The girl grows up as the owner/manager of the local book store with her companion the bird who she treats as a best friend. The bird has not learned to fly but is agile in terms of walking and climbing. One day out of the blue (pun intended) a geeky young man arrives from the Brazil endangered specie protection unit having discovered the existence of the male macaw and wanting to unite the bird with the only surviving blue female bird which was temporarily in the care of the unit. He offers to transport the owner and the bird to Brazil and back. She initially says no but the baddies take an interest she agrees.
In Brazil while Blu is immediately attracted to Jewel, the female blue macaw she is independent and seeking to escape back to her free world. She is scathing on learning that Blu does not know how to fly and this disability is a key issue throughout the rest of the film.
The bird thieves and exporters who were originally responsible for Blu going to the USA are still at work and in the process of completing a new consignment aided by a street boy and a vicious rogue Cockatoo who participates in the capturing and acts as a terrorising jailor.
Blu and Jewel are captured and placed in chains. Her owner friend Linda and the sanctuary manager Tulio print thousands of flyers in attempt to find the missing birds, and go on a desperate personal search. The blue macaws still chained escape into the rain forest. The macaws meet up with two bird friends Blu established arrival and offer to take the pair to meet a salivating bloodhound garage watch dog Luiz with access to a metal saw. Meanwhile the bird snatch gang have approached a thieving gang of chimpanzee type of creature to locate the blue macaws,
Free for their chains the blue macaws are taken to a pre Carnival party where they are attacked by the chimps and Jewel is captured. The street boy has second thoughts about that he has done and takes Linda and Tulio to the hide out but find the place deserted, They learn that the birds are being taken to the airport but because of the Carnival in a mock float has been created to enable them to progress through the capital as part of the procession. The street boy has exchanged a vehicle belonging to Tulio for a motor bike in order to get though the crowds and then the due dress as carnival participants with Linda selected to stand at the top of a float as the star attraction. This provides her with a view of the float ahead carrying Jewel and with Blu and his friends also on the track of the enemy.
All the birds are captured and despite a hectic chase by the float conveying Linda and Tulio, the thieves are able to take off in plane with all the birds. However Blu uses his skills to break out of the container and free all the birds who then release the loading bay in mid air and they all escape except Blu who unable to fly elects to remain on the plane until he releases that Jewel is injured and cannot fly. He therefore leaps off the plane and rescues Jewel and realises the freedom of flying for the first time. The Cockatoo Nigel had an unpleasant experiences in which he loses his feather as the plane crashes and the gang descended to ground by various means where they are captured and sent to jail
In the final scene Linda and Tulio are together running the rescue centre with the Blue and Jewel free to fly the skies by using the centre as a secured base with their friends. There some original songs and tunes created for the show.
Rango was awarded the best animated film Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards and has a Johnny Depp voice over as a pet Chameleon who rather like Blu is travelling from one destination to another when an accident results in finding himself in an unexpected location (he falls off the roof of his owner’s car). On the road in the desert he finds an Armadillo (Alfred Molina) who is on a quest to seek the mystical spirit of the West. He is given directions on a nearby town where he can find water with water being a key issue in the film.
Rango has an early confrontation with Bad Bill (Ray Winston) until a hawk chases the man off and then turns its attention to Rango who unintentionally kills the hawk with whom he had a earlier confrontation while making his way across the desert to the town. The town officials are so pleased with this result that Rango is appointed Sheriff although the populace is concerned that without the hawk, they are at the mercy of Gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake.
Before reaching the town Rango has met an Iguana called Beans played by Isla Fisher who guided him into the town and expresses concern on finding out that the town’s water supply is kept in the bank because it is running out. She asks Rango to investigate the situation. Later Rango makes an unwitting mistake giving directions to a trio of creatures for the location of the bank and they steal the water supply overnight, Rango organises a posse and they discover the bank manager dead from drowning. There is a protracted chase between the posse and the robbers and their friends until they discovered the water stolen water container is empty. The thieves are brought back to town for trial but the whereabouts of the water remains unknown.
Rango then learns that the Mayor has been buying all the land around the town. The Mayor says that his purchases are part of a plan to build a new town but his story is challenged with the result that the Mayor brings rattlesnake Jake into town (Bill Knighy) who is able to demonstrate that Rango was not the killer of the hawk but the death had been accidental. Disgraced before the towns people Rango is driven off into the desert on his own.
Rango then meets the Spirit of the West who inspires Rango by saying that no man can walk out of his own story. This of course is not true and should have only gone as far as saying that no man should walk out of his story unless with good cause or words to that effect. There are a number of situations where inaction, walk away, accepting circumstances, is appropriate and at times heroic.
Rango with help eventually finds that the Mayor is the villain for having cut off the town’s water supply diverting for the construction of the new town. There a duel between Rango and Rattlesnake during which supporters of the robbers attempts to free them. However Bean is captured by Rattlesnake and forces Rango to surrender but Rango finds a way to break free and in turn Rattlesnake discovering he has been used by the Mayor takes him into the desert for revenge. With the water supply reconnected Rango is recognised as a hero by the town again.
Despicable Me is another computer animated 3D film with a kind of Scrooge subject. A super villain uses his suburban home as the base for his partner (Russell Brand) to use thousands of yellow minions to prepare their schemes in subterranean workings. The super villain is beaten by a rival to stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza and his vanity threatened the super villain decides to embark on a long standing wished for project to shrink the size of the moon. This plan has been long opposed by his mother (Julie Andrews) as foolhardy as well as costly. In order to finance the project he approaches the Bank of Evil for a loan which is offered conditional upon the villain gaining access to the Shrink Ray first.
The supervillain and team are successful in the mission only to have it stolen from them by the rival who took the Great Pyramid. Three orphan children are required by the orphanage to earn their keep by making and selling cookies door to door and while observing the secure compound of the rival he sees that the girls are able to enter to sell their merchandise. He therefore devises a plan which first involves adopting the girls only to find they quickly become demanding, trusting and at an times endearing handful.
After using the girls to get the ray back he decides to take them to a local theme park as a reward with the intention of leaving them there but enjoys the day and to his own surprise takes them back to his home. He agrees to attend the concert at the Ballet school in which the girls are going to perform.
The villain then goes to the Bank only to be refused discovering that his rival is in fact the son of the Bank owner. Depressed the villain is brightened up when he girls offer to give him their savings and he is able to go ahead with the plan and goes to the moon by rocket and shrinks the moon returning to earth in time to attend the concert. Unfortunately he does not make it and then discovers that the rival has kidnapped the girls. He will trade the girls for the moon but reneges and flies off in a rocket with the girls and the moon, unaware that the shrink effect will quickly wear off.
The villain, his assistant and team manage to rescue the girls from the space craft just before it explodes as the moon reaches is true size and leaving the rival marooned on the dead planet. The villain readopts the girls who perform the routine he missed with his mother Brand and the minion also watching.
It was difficult to appreciate the target audience for Despicable Me other than young girl girls yet the film banked $543 million on an investment of $69m ($474m) and is therefore not surprising that a sequel is due in 2013. Rio came next making $390m more than its budget while Rango where the outlay was the highest $135m failed to double the investment with a take of $245m ($110m). I was not surprised that Spy Kids 2 at a cost of $38m only grossed $120m (82M)
I found Spy Kids 2 3D the least enjoyable and failed to pay close attention. The film mixes real adults and children with computer aided graphics and starts off on the premise, (I have not seen Spy Kids 1) that the USA Security Services have established and trained children as James Bonds style special agents. The second premises are that two sets of children compete against each other for assignments egged on by their respective parents. When the precocious brat of the President sabotages a thrill ride at a theme park to grab attention for herself, the two sets of children compete to rescue although given the waste of resources I started off by wondering why bother and hoped the President would be censured for misusing national resources.
The parent of the obnoxious boy agent manages to fix the computer system to get himself appointed the new head of the service instead of the parent (Antonio Banderas) of the nice spy kids and the new head also takes out of service Banderas son after blaming the boy for something his own son has done. The problem is that the son’s sister has a crush on their effective enemy.
The reason for the double dealing and subterfuge is a device which shuts down all electronic devices the possession of which enables the holder to rule the world. The device is held and used by a mad scientist to protect the island where he lives and created miniaturised animals with a view to creating a market for these world wide for children in the form of miniature zoos. The problem is that he has become a prisoner within his own compound because of an earlier failure in which he got the process wrong and created super monster creatures which includes a flying pig. In a spin off from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films there are also aggressive fighting skeletons ( although why is not explained) and this leads to both sets of spy children ending on the island as their power cuts out and with no communications except of a tracking device fitted to the tooth of the son of Banderas.
They have various adventures before Banderas and his father Ricardo Montalban set off to find their children not knowing that the island is cloaked so when the children get their the signal disappears. The children persuade the mad scientist to risk venturing out where because he created the creatures they do not attack him and the special cloaking device is switched off and destroyed. The spy boy’s sister realises at last the wickedness of the son of their rival and helps out to stop the boy and they all return to the USA.
The father becomes head of the service with the children reinstated and there is a final sequence over the credit which suggests a possible direction for the next episode.
Blu is a Blue Macaw who before he has learned to walk is captured in the Brazilian Rain Forest close to the capital city and flown to the USA to be sold. However before reaching its destination, the vehicle is involved in a jolting stop, the rear of the vehicles open and the single container holding the macaw drops out unbeknown to the diver and is found by a geeky young girl who on discovering the bird immediately adopts and is allowed to do so without question from parents and authorities, presumably because the thieves and importers did not report the loss,
The girl grows up as the owner/manager of the local book store with her companion the bird who she treats as a best friend. The bird has not learned to fly but is agile in terms of walking and climbing. One day out of the blue (pun intended) a geeky young man arrives from the Brazil endangered specie protection unit having discovered the existence of the male macaw and wanting to unite the bird with the only surviving blue female bird which was temporarily in the care of the unit. He offers to transport the owner and the bird to Brazil and back. She initially says no but the baddies take an interest she agrees.
In Brazil while Blu is immediately attracted to Jewel, the female blue macaw she is independent and seeking to escape back to her free world. She is scathing on learning that Blu does not know how to fly and this disability is a key issue throughout the rest of the film.
The bird thieves and exporters who were originally responsible for Blu going to the USA are still at work and in the process of completing a new consignment aided by a street boy and a vicious rogue Cockatoo who participates in the capturing and acts as a terrorising jailor.
Blu and Jewel are captured and placed in chains. Her owner friend Linda and the sanctuary manager Tulio print thousands of flyers in attempt to find the missing birds, and go on a desperate personal search. The blue macaws still chained escape into the rain forest. The macaws meet up with two bird friends Blu established arrival and offer to take the pair to meet a salivating bloodhound garage watch dog Luiz with access to a metal saw. Meanwhile the bird snatch gang have approached a thieving gang of chimpanzee type of creature to locate the blue macaws,
Free for their chains the blue macaws are taken to a pre Carnival party where they are attacked by the chimps and Jewel is captured. The street boy has second thoughts about that he has done and takes Linda and Tulio to the hide out but find the place deserted, They learn that the birds are being taken to the airport but because of the Carnival in a mock float has been created to enable them to progress through the capital as part of the procession. The street boy has exchanged a vehicle belonging to Tulio for a motor bike in order to get though the crowds and then the due dress as carnival participants with Linda selected to stand at the top of a float as the star attraction. This provides her with a view of the float ahead carrying Jewel and with Blu and his friends also on the track of the enemy.
All the birds are captured and despite a hectic chase by the float conveying Linda and Tulio, the thieves are able to take off in plane with all the birds. However Blu uses his skills to break out of the container and free all the birds who then release the loading bay in mid air and they all escape except Blu who unable to fly elects to remain on the plane until he releases that Jewel is injured and cannot fly. He therefore leaps off the plane and rescues Jewel and realises the freedom of flying for the first time. The Cockatoo Nigel had an unpleasant experiences in which he loses his feather as the plane crashes and the gang descended to ground by various means where they are captured and sent to jail
In the final scene Linda and Tulio are together running the rescue centre with the Blue and Jewel free to fly the skies by using the centre as a secured base with their friends. There some original songs and tunes created for the show.
Rango was awarded the best animated film Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards and has a Johnny Depp voice over as a pet Chameleon who rather like Blu is travelling from one destination to another when an accident results in finding himself in an unexpected location (he falls off the roof of his owner’s car). On the road in the desert he finds an Armadillo (Alfred Molina) who is on a quest to seek the mystical spirit of the West. He is given directions on a nearby town where he can find water with water being a key issue in the film.
Rango has an early confrontation with Bad Bill (Ray Winston) until a hawk chases the man off and then turns its attention to Rango who unintentionally kills the hawk with whom he had a earlier confrontation while making his way across the desert to the town. The town officials are so pleased with this result that Rango is appointed Sheriff although the populace is concerned that without the hawk, they are at the mercy of Gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake.
Before reaching the town Rango has met an Iguana called Beans played by Isla Fisher who guided him into the town and expresses concern on finding out that the town’s water supply is kept in the bank because it is running out. She asks Rango to investigate the situation. Later Rango makes an unwitting mistake giving directions to a trio of creatures for the location of the bank and they steal the water supply overnight, Rango organises a posse and they discover the bank manager dead from drowning. There is a protracted chase between the posse and the robbers and their friends until they discovered the water stolen water container is empty. The thieves are brought back to town for trial but the whereabouts of the water remains unknown.
Rango then learns that the Mayor has been buying all the land around the town. The Mayor says that his purchases are part of a plan to build a new town but his story is challenged with the result that the Mayor brings rattlesnake Jake into town (Bill Knighy) who is able to demonstrate that Rango was not the killer of the hawk but the death had been accidental. Disgraced before the towns people Rango is driven off into the desert on his own.
Rango then meets the Spirit of the West who inspires Rango by saying that no man can walk out of his own story. This of course is not true and should have only gone as far as saying that no man should walk out of his story unless with good cause or words to that effect. There are a number of situations where inaction, walk away, accepting circumstances, is appropriate and at times heroic.
Rango with help eventually finds that the Mayor is the villain for having cut off the town’s water supply diverting for the construction of the new town. There a duel between Rango and Rattlesnake during which supporters of the robbers attempts to free them. However Bean is captured by Rattlesnake and forces Rango to surrender but Rango finds a way to break free and in turn Rattlesnake discovering he has been used by the Mayor takes him into the desert for revenge. With the water supply reconnected Rango is recognised as a hero by the town again.
Despicable Me is another computer animated 3D film with a kind of Scrooge subject. A super villain uses his suburban home as the base for his partner (Russell Brand) to use thousands of yellow minions to prepare their schemes in subterranean workings. The super villain is beaten by a rival to stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza and his vanity threatened the super villain decides to embark on a long standing wished for project to shrink the size of the moon. This plan has been long opposed by his mother (Julie Andrews) as foolhardy as well as costly. In order to finance the project he approaches the Bank of Evil for a loan which is offered conditional upon the villain gaining access to the Shrink Ray first.
The supervillain and team are successful in the mission only to have it stolen from them by the rival who took the Great Pyramid. Three orphan children are required by the orphanage to earn their keep by making and selling cookies door to door and while observing the secure compound of the rival he sees that the girls are able to enter to sell their merchandise. He therefore devises a plan which first involves adopting the girls only to find they quickly become demanding, trusting and at an times endearing handful.
After using the girls to get the ray back he decides to take them to a local theme park as a reward with the intention of leaving them there but enjoys the day and to his own surprise takes them back to his home. He agrees to attend the concert at the Ballet school in which the girls are going to perform.
The villain then goes to the Bank only to be refused discovering that his rival is in fact the son of the Bank owner. Depressed the villain is brightened up when he girls offer to give him their savings and he is able to go ahead with the plan and goes to the moon by rocket and shrinks the moon returning to earth in time to attend the concert. Unfortunately he does not make it and then discovers that the rival has kidnapped the girls. He will trade the girls for the moon but reneges and flies off in a rocket with the girls and the moon, unaware that the shrink effect will quickly wear off.
The villain, his assistant and team manage to rescue the girls from the space craft just before it explodes as the moon reaches is true size and leaving the rival marooned on the dead planet. The villain readopts the girls who perform the routine he missed with his mother Brand and the minion also watching.
It was difficult to appreciate the target audience for Despicable Me other than young girl girls yet the film banked $543 million on an investment of $69m ($474m) and is therefore not surprising that a sequel is due in 2013. Rio came next making $390m more than its budget while Rango where the outlay was the highest $135m failed to double the investment with a take of $245m ($110m). I was not surprised that Spy Kids 2 at a cost of $38m only grossed $120m (82M)
I found Spy Kids 2 3D the least enjoyable and failed to pay close attention. The film mixes real adults and children with computer aided graphics and starts off on the premise, (I have not seen Spy Kids 1) that the USA Security Services have established and trained children as James Bonds style special agents. The second premises are that two sets of children compete against each other for assignments egged on by their respective parents. When the precocious brat of the President sabotages a thrill ride at a theme park to grab attention for herself, the two sets of children compete to rescue although given the waste of resources I started off by wondering why bother and hoped the President would be censured for misusing national resources.
The parent of the obnoxious boy agent manages to fix the computer system to get himself appointed the new head of the service instead of the parent (Antonio Banderas) of the nice spy kids and the new head also takes out of service Banderas son after blaming the boy for something his own son has done. The problem is that the son’s sister has a crush on their effective enemy.
The reason for the double dealing and subterfuge is a device which shuts down all electronic devices the possession of which enables the holder to rule the world. The device is held and used by a mad scientist to protect the island where he lives and created miniaturised animals with a view to creating a market for these world wide for children in the form of miniature zoos. The problem is that he has become a prisoner within his own compound because of an earlier failure in which he got the process wrong and created super monster creatures which includes a flying pig. In a spin off from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films there are also aggressive fighting skeletons ( although why is not explained) and this leads to both sets of spy children ending on the island as their power cuts out and with no communications except of a tracking device fitted to the tooth of the son of Banderas.
They have various adventures before Banderas and his father Ricardo Montalban set off to find their children not knowing that the island is cloaked so when the children get their the signal disappears. The children persuade the mad scientist to risk venturing out where because he created the creatures they do not attack him and the special cloaking device is switched off and destroyed. The spy boy’s sister realises at last the wickedness of the son of their rival and helps out to stop the boy and they all return to the USA.
The father becomes head of the service with the children reinstated and there is a final sequence over the credit which suggests a possible direction for the next episode.
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