MovieMonday: Missing Link

This good-natured kids' film mashes together several disparate themes to generally good effect.

Its star is Sir Lionel Frost (voiced by Hugh Jackman), an apparently well-funded British explorer, perhaps in the mold of Charles Darwin.  Frost receives an unusual letter from a sasquatch who lives in the woods of the Pacific Northwest and who has taught himself to speak, read and post mail to London.

Frost takes his letter to the Optimates Club, an all-male gasbag group that Frost wants to join.  He suggests that his correspondent may be the missing link between hairy primates and humans, an idea that enrages the science-denying bigshots.

"I say we are descended from great men, not great apes," thunders the head Optie (Stephen Fry,) who also opposes electricity and, of course, women's suffrage.  He orders a feisty hit man named Willard Stenk (Timothy Olyphant) to follow and kill Frost and his sasquatch.

Upon arriving in the forest and meeting Mr. Link (Zach Galifianakis,) Frost learns the sasquatch is the only survivor of his group and yearns to meet his presumed cousins, the yetis of the Himalayas or, here, Shangri-La.

Sir Lionel sets out to help his new friend achieve his goal  Such a project is fraught with problems, of course, including woodsmen horrified by an enormous hairy monster.  After Mr. Link is outfitted in a loud plaid suit, the Optimates' hit man takes aim.  Then Link and Frost are joined by a really smart and brave woman, Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana,) who's a dead shot with a pistol and who has the precious map that will lead them to Yeti Central.

The threesome set out in various conveyances (rail, ship, howdah) and against many, many obstacles to reach their goal, which is not resolved as planned but in a way that gratifies 21st century sensibilities about buddyhood and female agency.

The film was made with stop-action animation -- frame-by-frame rearrangements of characters' bodies and expressions (see below) -- and augmented by computer-generated imagery and, I believe, at least some photography.  The effect is exaggerated characters who are fun to watch against very detailed and often beautiful backgrounds.

Note:

One term the film uses as a synonym for "sasquatch" is "skookum." To this day, there arise periodic reports of skookum evidence found in the Pacific Northwest, rather as there are reports of the Loch Ness Monster, which also makes an appearance early in the movie.

In our 49th state, however, there is a more common use of the word "skookum," which derives from the largely extinct Chinook language.  If an Alaskan tells you a person is "skookum," that's high praise -- implying strength, bravery and smarts.

-----

Later:  A fun book on a semi-related topic.

MovieSunday: Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts

Above is the preview for a little Pixar/Disney animation that was shown in theaters with the "Incredibles 2" movie last year.  It is one of the finalists for an Academy Award in its category this evening, and my guess is it will win because 1) it's from Pixar and 2) more people have seen it.

I saw "Bao" along with the other finalists at a theater on Friday.  While I'm not interested in prize competitions -- too artificial, too responsive to fads of a given moment -- I do appreciate that the Oscar shorts are available for viewing in theaters around this time of year.  (A second shorts award is given for documentaries, and a roundup of those finalists still may be in theaters tomorrow.)

But back to "Bao."  It is the fantasy story of a Chinese mother in Toronto who is bereft after her son has  grown up and left the house.  To her surprise, another child sprouts from a stuffed Chinese baozi roll before she can pop it into the steamer.  She re-lives the joy of motherhood until she doesn't, and then something nice happens to knit the story together in a bittersweet sort of way that, ala Pixar,  mixes families, feelings and food to generate emotional nostalgia.

Domee Shi, now of Pixar, made the piece, a nice little 9-minute movie that you can live-stream at home for $1.99.


The Others


Late Afternoon (click for Vimeo promo)

This is a simple revery from Cartoon Saloon, the Irish animation studio.  In it, an older woman has a cuppa tea in her home as she recalls moments from her early life.  These are rendered in impressionistic, water color-styled images that start with childhood moments at the seashore and proceed through adulthood in a lovely and moving way. The creator, Louise Bagnall, has said she conjured the piece from memories of her grandmothers.


Weekends

Yet another personal story, also set in Toronto (in the 1980s) comes from Trevor Jimenez, now of Pixar.  It recalls his life shortly after his parents had divorced and when he was shuffled back and forth between their homes.  We understand the parents are different because the mom plays an arid Erik Satie piece on the piano and the father lives his life to the guitar riff from the Dire Straits "Money for Nothing."

The parents are distracted and pay little attention to their small child, who fills his mind with fantasies about riding a large antique horse, imagining the lives of animals he sees outside the window and wondering about another child who waves to him from an apartment far away.  Call it a cartoon that feels like truth.


One Small Step

This is the first project from Taiko Studios, a group of former Disney animators from China and the US.  Its plot involves a Chinese American girl, Luna, who dreams of becoming an astronaut.  Her father, a shoemaker, encourages her fantasies with moon boots, a helmet and a pretend space ship.  She grows up and there are disappointments, but as one of the animators has said, "All dreams begin with a single step."

Because this has a clearer narrative than "Late Afternoon" and "Weekends," this little feature might appeal more to children than the other two, but it also concerns itself with its main character's internal experience.


Animal Behaviour

This production from Vancouver, B.C.  is a too-witty-by-half story of a therapy group attended by animals with human problems -- guilt, OCD, relationship problems, separation anxiety, among them.  The group is led by a pit bull named Dr. Clement, who of course shares his own experiences.
Into the group comes an ape with a hot temper.  Wackiness ensues.

I don't particularly mind cartoons that anthropomorphize animals, but the idea is not particularly new (Mickey Mouse, anyone?) and the tensions between animal instincts and human psychology didn't work for me.  In short, this is a pleasant piece that aims for laughs where the other entries were more keenly felt and sincere.


Closing Note

In a film world that has hijacked children's animation and loaded it up with excess conflict and CGI distraction, the simple honesties of the first four of these movies were a pleasure to watch.  After the Academy Awards presentation tonight, perhaps we will have an opportunity to share them with family and friends.

MovieMonday: Smallfoot

This well-intentioned film is based on a long-forgotten book whose story has been kicking around Hollywood for at least two decades.  The resulting, much-revised script has been turned into a nice but sub-optimal animated movie.  

The hero is Mogi, a young, white-firred bigfoot (yeti, sasquatch, whatever) who lives in a happy community of similarly oversized Chewbaccas who live above the cloud line at the top of a Himalayan mountain.

Mogi's community has an origin story -- that it was pooped out by a larger being, which is less funny that it sounds -- and customs.  Each day begins when Mogi's father, the designated gong ringer, catapults himself a great distance to set off a noise that awakens a sleepy snail (the sun, hahaha) that lights the world as it oozes across the sky.

The village leader is Stonekeeper, a wise man who administers the rules of the place, as received in images on stones.  (Holy Moses!) The stones instruct that smallfoots (i.e., humans,) do not exist and that the known world ends at the clouds that sit below the village.  Obedience is expected. 

Mogi has followed the rules, but he succumbs to curiosity. With the help of other science-oriented yetis led by Stonekeeper's cute and smart daughter, he journeys below the clouds and sees forests, an airplane and town of smallfoots.

The fun ignites when Mogi meets up with Percy Patterson, the front man for a film company whose documentaries are not selling.  (This is illustrated when Percy performs his version of the1980s Queen song, "Under Pressure," which apparently is a great favorite with the pre-K to elementary-school demo.  FWIW, the rest of the film's music is, well, meh.)

Integrity-challenged Percy has been planning to film a fake Bigfoot to promote his program, and naturally, he meets up with Mogi.  The two make friends over time, then the story of the stones is revealed, then dangers arise and are averted, and then comes the happy ending.  

Like Aesop's fables long ago and animated offerings now, the story has a moral: "Be nice to other people and animals/primates of any size."  The more subtle themes -- think for yourself, challenge authority, be skeptical of all dogma -- may not resonate so much with small children but are standard grist for American drama.  No reason not to start early, I guess.

The best "Smallfoot" scenes are interactions between humans and yetis, particularly when they talk to each other.  Each group speaks its own English, but human ears register bigfoot talk as threatening growls;  when yetis listen to smallfoots, the messages are indistinguishable squeaks. 

Some famous actors and others voiced the characters in "Smallfoot," including Channing Tatum, Danny De Vito and LeBron James.  I'm sure that all did yeoman work with their lines, but I'm not sure it made much difference in the overall quality of the movie.

I watched "Smallfoot" in a theater with children aged four and up who seemed to enjoy themselves.  In American animation these days, it could be worse.




Note

"Smallfoot" is the fifth film from Warner Animation Group (WAG), which was founded in 2013.  Three of its five releases have featured Lego characters, and at least one (perhaps two) future Lego movies are in the works.  It's difficult to see such projects as dramatic releases and not product promotion.

There's nothing terrible about any of the WAG movies, but none comes close to the silliness and fun of Warner Bros.' storied animation shops, Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes.  I do hope children today are being introduced to Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny, Tweety and the rest of the gang. Those cartoons were made for fun, not moral uplift or product promotion.

And while I'm on the topic, let me also mention the 100+ short films of The Three Stooges, which were released long ago by Columbia Pictures and are available now on many streaming services.  These may look crude and insensitive, but I know for a fact that children love watching silly grownups when they are frustrated and let loose their ids.    

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.  Seriously.