Theatrical Review: The Lego Ninjago Movie

Date: Saturday September 23 2017
Location: Cinemark at Stroud Mall
Time: 11am
Party: 3 (my mom sister and I)

Directors: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan
Writers: (too many to list)
Composer: (too many to list)

Notable Cast:
Master Wu- Jackie Chan
Lloyd- Dave Franco
Garmadon- Justin Theroux


Duration: 141 minutes (+6 trailers)

Opening comments

Yeah I’m posting this a little late but with this movie I figured there wasn’t a big hurry.
Like with Lego Batman this was another movie my sister wanted to see but she was also a fan of the Lego Ninjago series. I’d seen very little of it myself but any excuse to go to the movies these days (when there aren’t as many I want to see for whatever reason- I hope it’s just an off year) I’ll take.
The theater had a good crowd, a lot of kids but none that distracted too much from the movie. They laughed at most of the right parts- although I can’t remember which drew the most laughter.

Coming attractions

 A bunch repeated from the previous movie, Leap!
Daddy’s home 2, my little pony (my mom told us there’s no way she’s taking us to that one and we didn’t argue lol), coco and paddington 2 (the one trailer I forgot from the last one- hey, I’m used to only having to remember 3 trailers per movie, give me a break).

Then there was another rendition of Peter Rabbit. (Nick Jr had a series a few years ago with Peter Benjamin Squirrel Nutkin and a new female bunny named Lily- Peter has three sisters and they had to come up with another female protagonist? I don’t get it. Also have no idea if that series is still on but what little I saw of it I enjoyed).
This time it’s about the origin of Peter rabbit and how he became what he is... except it showed him hosting a party at mr mcgregors house and James Corden is doing his voice. Uh... I mean I like James Corden and Peter Rabbit but together? I’m kinda concerned- this is my child hood I’m talking about and I hope they didn’t ruin it by having this be a more PG version.
Then there was the curious “Isle of Dogs” which looks like Wes Anderson’s attempt at recapturing the success of Fantastic Mr. Fox (but with dogs and it takes place in Japan- and is likely to catch flack from the PC crowd cuz no lead roles are done by Japanese actors). The sense of humor feels very similar so I think this movie could be good. Just gotta see what the critics have to say.

The Main Event

 Maybe this is a Japanese thing but the methodology of our main characters seems extremely similar to Power Rangers. They even have their own Zords (although I think they’re just called Mechas in this case). But these 6 characters are high schoolers that will make an excuse to leave at the same time when the main villain attacks their town. And nobody seems to have a clue.
The other interesting coincidence is that the green one seems like the odd man out while poised to become the leader of the group. They even have an old dude as their master- except he’s in the flesh and he can hold his own in battle easily. I think the similarities end there (I guess between the ill advised peter rabbit and power ranger reboots I’m feeling nostalgic)

But here’s a couple of twists that make things interesting and set them apart-
The green ninja Lloyd is the least popular kid in school (unlike Tommy the green ranger)... because the villain Garmadon who is always attacking the town is his father. Yeah- how’s that for awkward?
Plus- all his friends have elemental powers like fire lightning ice earth and water. He’s just... green. (Funny enough I was thinking why he is the only one without an elemental power minutes before this conversation takes place)

Things boil up to a point where Lloyd decides the only way to defeat his father for good is to use the ultimate weapon. Which of course backfires or we wouldn’t have much of a movie.
This “weapon” (not saying what cuz it’s kinda hilarious how badly this turns out) summons Catzilla who proceeds to destroy the city.

Adding more to predictability- the ninjas need to go into the jungle to get the ultimate ultimate weapon and they need a true ninja to lead them. Their master is temporarily lost to them so, yeah, they gotta take Garmadon with them. By this point Lloyd had already revealed his secret identity to him (“and now we got bad blood, hey!”— sorry, couldn’t resist) so it makes the journey awkward at times but things happen and.. I’ll just leave the rest to the imagination.

Kinda hard to believe what a funny villain Garmadon is. I mean yeah he is kind of an idiot and kinda predictable but well written and acted. Justin Theroux isn’t very big in Hollywood and I know him better for co-writing Tropic Thunder and Iron-Man 2 (I think one led to the other and may be why Iron-Man 2 fell short of the original... but that could also be Sam Rockwell’s fault- his character is such a tool in that movie). But yeah he was great.
The funniest gag is him “firing” his generals when they say something he doesn’t like or they just have no ideas... but unlike with Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, this comes back to get him in hilarious fashion.

One nice difference about this movie is that it begins and ends in reality with Jackie Chan telling a kid the entirety of the movie and we get to see the story unfold without interruption. I thought to myself- I’m going to forget that the movie was being done this way by the time it ends. And sure enough I did.
And it’s worth sticking through part of the credits cuz we don’t just see the characters sing and dance but also Jackie Chan outtakes.

As for the movie itself, it was funny, had great characters and killer action scenes (although maybe a little too fast paced at some points). But even though it wasn’t a terribly long movie I found some scenes ran too long and I was asking myself when they’d be over. But my sister enjoyed it and that’s the important thing.
As far as Lego movies go, I liked how it was different from the others where they didn’t go too over the top with humor or pop culture references. And of course everything is better with ninjas- or for me some Asian influences just to set things apart.
It was kinda funny how it made fun of the formula of your typical “bad guy regularly tries to take over the town” story. We have GMA’s Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts hosting the morning show and asking themselves what % chance is there of an attack. Not to mention someone posing the question how effective the ninjas are because they defeat Garmadon but he always gets away. I kinda like it when cartoons ask the deep questions but the seriousness of said question doesn’t kill the fun tone of the movie or genre being presented.

Grade: B

Theatrical Review: Kubo and the Two Strings

Date: Sunday August 21 2016
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Time: 12:30pm
Party: 2 (my sister & I)

Director: Travis Knight (1st time director, worked on "Boxtrolls" and "Coraline")
Writers: Marc Haimes, Chris Butler (wrote/directed "ParaNorman") and Shannon Tidle
Composer: Dario Marianelli

Cast:
Kubo- Art Parkinson
Monkey- Charlize Theron
Beetle- Matthew McConaughey
The Sisters- Rooney Mara
Moon King- Ralph Fiennes

Duration: 101 minutes (+3 trailers... that seems to be the standard)

The Audience:

It was a decent group of people. Mostly families with kids between the ages of 8 and 13. They enjoyed it right along with us. Laughed at all the same moments.

Coming Attractions:

A Monster Calls
I had the hardest time deciding whether this was a kid-friendly movie or a horror movie. It's about a boy who goes to private school who is bullied and his mom is also diagnosed with cancer. He summons an imaginary friend, who I think at first is might be Slenderman (an Internet phenomenon that is reportedly behind some gruesome murders committed by kids). But there's more to it than that.
Plus, a monster voiced by Liam Neeson can't be all bad, right? I think this monster is a metaphor for helping this kid deal with his mom's cancer.

Sing
Looking at the first trailers of this, I thought it was a cute gimmick, but didn't know how much substance it could possibly have. Animals singing pop songs. But after seeing this full-length trailer... I think I might actually want to see it.
This singing competition was created to help save a dying theater, but there are all these animals that are just trying to achieve their dreams or change their lives. Who isn't gonna relate to that?

Storks
I'd already discussed this trailer in a previous movie. It'll be interesting to see how it goes when it's released, but I don't have a lot of expectations about it.

The Main Event:

Speaking of not having a lot of expectations...

My sister wanted to see it and I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

This movie is seriously so good that I really don't want to go into too much detail about it. I bet it probably be great in 3D with the animation. Really impressive. And you get sucked into it and it's hard to break free from it.

The story is also really good for an animated film. It could appeal to people of all ages. I'm sure people that are older than the intended age group might get a little more out of it. But I see this as the type of movie where, if you grow up watching it, it will be a different movie each time and you'll get a different message from it.

Kubo is an 11-year old boy who lives with his mother. During the day, he goes to a local village where he entertains them with stories, which he tells with his trusty guitar and the magic to make origami figures move. But he has to return home before the sun goes down. Not only to take care of his mother, but also because the two of them are hiding from her family. And they come out at night.

This family is her two sisters and her father, who murdered her husband (Kubo's father), and want to steal Kubo's remaining eye and steal him away to the heavens where they live an immortal life away from humanity.
There's a little more to it than that, but I don't want to go into it. Other than saying that there is some deep stuff here. Including what it is to be human and whether immortality is worth it when you consider what you're sacrificing.

The gist of the story is that there's the one time Kubo stays out after sunset (he wants to take part in a village tradition of honoring the spirits of loved ones and he loses track of time), his aunts find him and using her last bit of magic, his mother sends him away and brings the monkey charm he carries with him to life.
And along the way they meet this guy they call Beetle who says he was with Kubo's father's legion of samurai.
Their journey is to find the three pieces of legendary armor, which they will use to defeat Kubo's grandfather the Moon King.

The rest of it... I'll let play out as it does on the screen.
There are some funny moments, a lot of heart, some drama, action... just a little bit of everything. Something for everybody like I said before.
I'm surprised that it only made $12.6 million so far because it is definitely worth seeing.
As much as I liked "Finding Dory," this is the movie that really should win Best Animated Film at the Oscars next year. It's something special and unique.
I'm sure there will be a handful of people who will complain that, despite the fact this takes place in Japan and it deals with a lot of Japanese culture and values, none of the main characters are played by Japanese people. There are several Japanese cast members, but none play characters that are referred to by name in the actual movie.

At the same time, I think this would be a great film for my college animé club to go out and see. The values and symbolism used throughout the movie, I'd seen explored in some of the series we watched. If the movie is still playing by the time the club has its first meeting, I really hope they give it a shot.
But of course I'd been out of college for 7 years now (OMG!), so what I say really doesn't count for all that much. It's still worth a shot, though.

One final thing: stick around for some of the credits. Regina Specktor sings a really cool version of "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" while some animation plays out in the background. We also get a unique behind-the-scenes look at one of the film's big action scenes.

Grade: A
(If not for a bittersweet ending, I might have given it an A+.)

2. Spirited Away (2001)

Code-name: Haku

Writer/Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Type: Fantasy Japanese Animation

Cast:
Chihiro- Daveigh Chase
Haku- Jason Marsden
Yubaka/Zeniba- Suzanne Plushette (RIP 2008)
Lin- Susan Egan
Kamajii- David Ogden Stiers
The Baby- Tara Strong

Notable Award:
OSCAR- Best Animated Film

Write-up:

First Impression: Oscar Hate

At the 2003 Oscars, "Spirited Away" was one of five movies nominated for "Best Animated Film."

Others included:

• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
• Treasure Planet
• Lilo & Stitch
• Ice Age

At this point, I believe I'd seen all of these movies. Or I had at least HEARD of them.
Ages before my blow-ups over "Brokeback Mountain" and "Avatar" losing, I was extremely vocal over "Spirited Away" beating out all these other movies...Now in hindsight, I don't think if I'd have considered "Treasure Planet" Oscar-worthy. And while the original was great, the sequels have diminished my opinion of "Ice Age."

But this was the skinny:I'd heard of all these movies BUT the movie that wound up winning... and I didn't like that at all. Plus the one scene they showed struck me as very strange (which, again in hindsight, was the tip of the iceberg)

So I guess part of me did want to see if the hype was worthy. Again, this was one of those life-changing moments...and my skepticism was immediately erased... and replaced with... well, all the words below for starters.
"I was enchanted to meet [all of] you"
I'm still trying to put together a visual display to go with my favorite Taylor Swift song "Enchanted"... but for now, this lyric fits this movie perfectly.
Some Spoilers...But Not All
So many enchanting moments and spell-binding characters. It truly felt like I'd crossed over into another world and saw something new, exciting and, more of all, special. This movie was just special. When we rented it from Blockbuster, I had to see it twice and I bought myself a copy not long after that.The first time in, for those not familiar with Japanese animation (aka animé), can be disorienting. I'd file this under "just go with what you see" because chances are few things, outside our main characters, get any sort of explanation. So it helps to have compelling characters you can count on to get you through it.
John Lasseter of Pixar Studios is a HUGE Miyazaki-phile so he gives introductions before all these movies. "Spirited Away," he believes to be his masterpiece... and I agree with him :P obviously (or I'd be discussing some other film right now)

We're introduced to Chihiro and her parents while they make the trip to their new home. She's... not your ideal protagonist... she's spoiled, apathetic and somewhat of a brat.
But that's the thing about starting at the bottom: the only way to go is up and the growth Chihiro experiences throughout this movie is staggering.They stop by what happens to be an abandoned fairground. Chihiro's parents help themselves to the food while she goes off on her own. She encounters a mysterious boy who warns her to leave before night falls.
She returns to find that her parents have been transformed into pigs and the fairground overrun with spirits and other strange creatures.Haku helps Chihiro get into the bathhouse (think of it as a spa for the spirits) where she needs to get a job to stay in this world until she's able to help her parents.
She meets the six-armed boiler man, Kamajii. He doesn't need any more workers (those animated balls of soots are to-die-for cute!!), but he asks [Chihiro's future bathhouse bestie] Lin to take her to the witch Yubaba.
Yubaba, with some convincing, agrees to give Chihiro a job and takes her name: henceforth calling her "Sen."

Chihiro's dependence on Haku begins from the fact he's her one connection to helping her parents. But over time, she goes grow to care about him, despite Lin trying to convince her otherwise. (We get a brief glimpse of the way she perceives him shortly after Chihiro gets her new name).
Likewise, the other characters (Lin, Kamajii, even Yubaba) grow fond of Chihiro as she does them.

After the Prologue (which introduces us to the main characters), the movie falls into two distinct parts.
Part One of the movie is Chihiro learning how to work in the bathhouse
And Part Two takes her from her main objective (saving her parents) to another-- saving Haku after he's made ill by a cursed seal he stole.

Haku
...right off the top, I'll say this. I don't remember much of my first impression until this point, but if I still had any reservations or skepticism about this movie winning the Oscar, they vanished the moment Haku appeared the first time.
As a teenager, I was very boy-crazy... both animated and in reality... and yeah, by animated standards, he was a good looking young man of 12-13 (I was 16 at the time).
But in the animé art form, a character is only as strong as their voice actor. I gave up on several animated series when the casts changed (one included my longest-standing animated crush).
The one time I tried watching "Spirited Away" in its original language, I gave up immediately after Haku opened his mouth... and the voice of a boy came out. Sounded like someone between the age of 5 and 9. Miyu Irino (who was also the original Sora in the "Kingdom Hearts" series pre-American translation) may have been the same age of Haku at the time but that's irrelevant.
Nor does it matter to me that Jason Marsden is twice Haku's age. I'd previously seen him as DJ's rebound boyfriend Nelson on "Full House." The fact he was rich did nothing for me. Really I didn't think much of him (other than the fact he was not Steve #DJandSteve4Ever), but after "Spirited Away," I had a change of heart. [btw, kudos to him for continuing to do voiceovers!] I cannot stress enough how crucial the perfect voice is for animé characters because they define the line of make and break.I mean, think about it. Haku had been in the spirit world, working as Yubaba's henchman for a long time. He knows this world like the back of his hand and is Chihiro's guide at the beginning of her character arc when everything is frightening and unfamiliar. That's something that requires a sense of maturity and knowledge.

As for the questions surrounding his character, whether he's all good or bad. Why he agreed to be Yubaba's henchman. Why he stole Zeniba's solid gold seal. If I had the time and energy, I could spin a couple theories to explain all that. (Never thought to do so, but maybe I should sometime)
But for now, I'll settle for this: Despite the hearsay abut him, questionable things he'd done, the sudden change in attitude he had after Chihiro became Sen (and went back to normal as if nothing happened the next morning)... there was not a single moment where I doubted him. You could say it was me being naïve, but with all that he'd done for Chihiro up to this point, how could he be bad?
And the ultimate pay-off is that Chihiro and I were right about him ;)

Kamajii
Easily the most eccentric character is Kamajii. When we first meet him, he seems a little strange and a little harsh, but deep down, he has a good heart. He asks Lin to take Chihiro to see Yubaba, claiming she's his granddaughter. He also comes through in a big way when Haku gets himself into trouble, giving Chihiro what she needs to help him.
He may not be her real grandfather, but he certainly fit the bill of the grandfather figure: authoritative but very kind.

Lin
Maybe it was because I was very much into Yu-Gi-Oh! at the time, but Lin immediately reminded me of Mai Valentine. Both are very strong female characters chock full of sarcasm. Looks aside, Lin surpasses Mai because she's not completely self-absorbed or materialistic.
They don't get off on the right foot at the beginning (although most of it is Lin complaining about escorting a human to Yubaba's loft... the bathhouse workers look human to me so I don't really get the distinction), but Lin is so impressed Chihiro got hired that she offers to help her with anything she needs.
The two of them make a pretty good team. Such an great friendship.
Yubaba
The witch who rules the bathhouse... for starters, she is UGLY. And in this striking animation style, she can be pretty intimidating  I mean, she can be downright scary when she's angry. And her magic makes it even worse.
But like all classic bad guys, she does have her weakness. Search me how a woman her age has a baby (nevermind that this baby is HUGE), but she's willing to do anything to keep her baby safe and happy. Including giving Chihiro the employment contract so she'll stop yelling (the same yelling that woke the crying baby).

Zeniba
Otherwise known as Yubaba's twin sister... yeah, I found that plot a little bit of a stretch, but just go with me on it. She sends her shikigami [I first learned this term in the animé series InuYasha] after Haku after he steals her seal. Within the same scene, she also transforms the baby and some other creatures in Yubaba's loft into different forms.
Initially, she appears as intimidating as her sister, but when Chihiro officially meets her (previously, it was a hologram projected by the shikigami), she winds up being the opposite. The "good" sister, if you will. As they get to know each other, she asks Chihiro to call her "Granny" and she really does come off that way (although, personally, I think they write this into the English translation to match the lip-flaps better).
Suzanne Plushette did the voice of both sisters so well (giving Zeniba a softer touch). My first encounter with her was "Lion King II: Simba's Pride" where she played evil lioness Zira.
(Strangely enough, I did NOT pick up the fact Jason Marsden did Kovu's voice until after seeing this movie)..

Noh-Face
Easily the most mysterious character in this movie (yeah, even though Haku is full of surprises, I still stand by this because Haku does some explanation).
Chihiro encounters him a number of times early in the film. He's this dark cloaked (at times even transparent) being whose face is his most distinct feature. Likely, he was dubbed after the Noh masks used in a form of ancient Japanese theater. He appears to appear at random, but after Chihiro lets him into the bathhouse (it was raining outside), a sense of Hell winds up breaking loose.
The workers are enamored by him because he can produce gold, but things quickly escalate. He gets large in size after eating all the food offered to him. He ends up eating a couple people. Because he only speaks a few lines (after eating the anthropomorphic frog... who might have been a human Yubaba transformed.. I don't know), his motives are never fully explained. Chihiro finds a way to fix the situation and he's able to get back to his normal self.
And it's nice that he gets his own happy ending towards the end.
Aftermath and After-Effects

I didn't have time to go into this before, but yeah... this is a very strange film. As is the case with a lot of animé, it's best to have a capacity to accept things as they are. Thinking too much about what's chaotic and what doesn't make sense mid-film only leads to headaches.
[My parents claim all of it was drug-induced as they always do with things that can't be fully explained]
I also didn't want to give all of the secrets away because it's worth experiencing visually.

I watched a lot of 4Kids animé series those days... Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, CardCaptors... and since a couple of my friends were into animé (and were no longer into any of the above), I was curious to brush up as well... but we fell out of touch before we could start a dialogue on them.
I credit those friendships with the reason I checked into my college's animé club (which got me some lifelong friendships and to Comic-Con where I met my favorite voice actress).
"Spirited Away" not only introduced me to the genius Japanese animation writer/director Hayao Miyazaki, but instilled in me a tolerance for the weird/unusual that helped me through most of the series we watched at the club.
There were still exceptions, of course. (Off the top of my head, Gantz, Abenobashi and Ninja Scroll... Fooly Cooly was part of that club as well, but repeated viewings have since conditioned me to that uniquely enjoyable brand of insanity).

The strangest parts in this movie, aside from Chihiro's parents becoming pigs...
1) the scene with the "stink spirit"
2) the three green bouncing heads that move as one entity, one of Yubaba's companions... that was never explained.. they're weird and they're just... there

I'd since seen 3 other Miyazaki films. (4 if you included 50-60% of "Princess Mononoke"... the excess commercials on Cartoon Network ruined it for me... been meaning to revisit for years).
Nauscaa in the Valley of the Wind was our first animé club film (I remember enjoying it but little else)
Kiki's Delivery Service (by far the "tamest" and another animé film I LOVE)
Howl's Moving Castle (great up until the 3rd act that surpasses even my limits for absurdity...again, an explanation would have been nice here).

Lastly, this movie receives my #2 for one very special reason:
It was the final piece to a story idea I'd been incubating in my head for some time. The idea of a classic good vs. evil story that featured mythical creatures... all that was missing was my hero.

In a way, "Nina and The Voice in the Wind" was my answer to the one question I had in my head after the movie ended:
Would Chihiro and Haku meet again?

Jonas is the culmination of many sources of inspiration. The most important being the pale blue eyes my 10th grade crush had. But what I got from Haku was a character misunderstood by those around him... and all it took was the right person to unravel the mystery.

The afternoon after I saw the movie, I penned what became my story's prologue. An evil sorcerer took control of two natural elements, threatening to throw the ancient world into chaos and is thwarted by an angel.
Jonas is that angel incarnated and by the end of my story, he fulfills his destiny...only this time, he has help.

After that story, I wrote a couple more. All in the fantasy/romance (ergo: romantasy) genre.
As if overnight, I went from being a fanfiction writer to someone with original fantasy work.
[from 2003-2008... then from 2009-present, I've managed one short story a year... no longer in the fantasy department, at least not in the general sense]

I'd spent the past 10 years with my first story writing, revising and trying to get it published with zero luck.
It's gotten to the point now where I feel like I need to start from scratch... which may well mean my title needs to change.
The whole "voice in the wind" concept was very vague to begin with and if you want to get technical, that was another "Spirited Away" allusion.
It's bad enough the way my two characters come together might be dubbed a "Twilight"-rip-off (even though I finished my first draft in 2005 predates it by 3 years)... and Mai Valentine practically makes an appearance as one of Nina's new friends (although technically a combination between her and Lin).

I put together a soundtrack and my writer's blog for the sake of promoting this story.
[http://romantasyland.blogspot.com... which I hadn't updated in forever and the last time I did was for a non-fantasy/romance story]
I don't want to give up on it after all this, but I gotta admit, there's a lot about that doesn't quite work.

[Edit: I've started work on a different version of it... giving Nina a little more of a back story than just her being the one person Jonas needs to be his friend]

I also used the name "Chihiro" for my heroine in an InuYasha fanfiction I wrote (and have since been trying to transition to something original because she's one of my favorite creations).

Coming Soon

My #1 favorite movie of all time...

And a review of "Mockingjay" whenever we go see it.