Blog

The third in Pixar’s Toy Story animated pictures, Toy Story 3 (available for viewing in 3D), is a treat for the family. Beginning and staying with an exciting and extended sense of play (this Disney movie’s main theme), Andy’s toys fret about their future as the 17-year-old packs his stuff for college. The familiar characters are all here, led by Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) and Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), and the 3D is fine if that’s your thing, though, as with Tim Burton’s Disney picture, Alice in Wonderland, the technology doesn’t make the movie (and the glasses are heavy on the bridge of the nose, as Chicago film critic Roger Ebert observed earlier this year). Andy gets a bit more screen time (apparently, he is an artist) and when his box of toys winds up at a day care center rather than in the attic, the toys break as usual from Woody’s loyalty to Andy and insist that it’s time to let go since, as they believe, they are no longer valued. One of the enjoyable aspects of Toy Story, and this is a Pixar quality born of John Lasseter and Steve Jobs, is a reverence for material possessions, contrary to those who denounce materialism and the concept of ownership, as inherently valuable to the individual owner (note the former’s worship of cars and the latter’s brilliant creation of things that improve our lives in Apple’s fabulous products). Toy Story 3 does not disappoint in upholding the ownership of toys and, in fact, when a counterfeit capitalist (Ned Beatty) shows up at day care praising individual initiative but seeking “the good of the community”, the toys get another lesson in the dangers of collectivism. Woody is a lone voice of reason, as usual, reminding himself to “think, think,” and leading by example in showing the toys (Jessie, Bullseye, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, Slinky) the difference between a team of individuals and a group ruled by a dictator. Even Mattel’s Barbie (Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid) goes rogue, making a short speech about having the consent of the governed. But, mostly, TS3 is hilarious and fun, adding a classic Fisher-Price toy, Barbie’s Ken (Michael Keaton), who has to choose between self-absorption and self-interest, and the delightful wit and humor in Michael Arndt’s (Little Miss Sunshine) screenplay. Besides the running gag that the day care center is like a prison, there are peppered, veiled references to The Shawshank Redemption (a character voiced by Bud Luckey is a hoot) and even Saving Private Ryan’s lesson that undeservedly forgiving an enemy soldier is a huge mistake. Toy Story 3 is not as new and fresh as the 1995 original. But it delivers the same clever, wholesome family entertainment of its predecessors and, in a toddler character named Bonnie, who represents the child at play and, in this context, man at his best, TS3 reminds us dearly and richly that having things, owning things, and “being played with”, matters very much indeed.

In her dramatic film debut, Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) shows she can act. But The Last Song, opening March 31, is not exactly her movie. The Disney drama is based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, whose Southern-based stories (The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe) always involve death, grief, young love, and scenes on a beach. Miley, with her distinctive look and voice, is one of those taste-specific actors, like Stewart or Hepburn (not that she’s in that league), and she might be better suited to comedy or musical fare. Here, in another heart-wrenching Sparks tearjerker built as her vehicle, she’s generally fine, even very good, in most scenes, but at other times she seems forced and anxious. She plays a musical prodigy who is also a troubled child of divorce recently busted for shoplifting. Told by her mom (Kelly Preston) to spend the summer with her dad (Greg Kinnear, in top form) on an island off the coast of Georgia, with younger brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) tagging along and nearly stealing the movie, she tries to bond with her absent father and possibly re-connect to playing Liszt on the piano. Subplots encompass arson, church, domestic abuse, dishonesty, rich parents (another Sparks staple) and sea turtles, and it’s too much. But Miley’s bitter, black-booted, nose-pierced brat from New York finally warms up for a handsome local kid (Liam Hemsworth) who, like most of the males in Sparks’ pictures, follows her around like a pup. Amid the first kiss, the mudfight, and scribbling “forever” on a sneaker, something dreadful is bound to happen and it does, though it is not as awful as the long-term self-sacrifice in the recent Sparks release Dear John. Though The Last Song is not an elegy, with an anti-climactic deliverance and strings that come from nowhere, there is goodness in what Sparks, with first-time director Julie Anne Robinson, offers on loss, love, and the joy of being alive.

El Capitan’s organ was sadly silent during a recent kid-filled rainy day matinee, and the leading character does not make a live appearance, but at least Walt Disney’s classic 1941 picture, Dumbo, is being screened at the once-legendary studio’s Holllywood Boulevard movie theater. The animated feature, which was affectionately introduced by El Cap’s extremely knowledgeable manager Michael, runs at the historic theater through January 28 to honor the film’s 70th anniversary next year. Next door at Disney’s Soda Fountain and Studio Store, there’s a caramel-topped ice cream sundae and exclusive Dumbo merchandise. Unfortunately, Dumbo is preceded by a trailer for the latest Tim Burton horror movie, sharing the title of Walt Disney’s 1955 animated feature, Alice in Wonderland. The new, live action version looks like just another of his visually striking nightmares.

If only the currently volatile, unfocused, and increasingly generic Walt Disney Studios were creating movies of Dumbo’s caliber, showing them in venues to match the quality of these outstanding twin enterprises, and cultivating outstanding cast members (that means you, ushers Melvin and Lucia). Read my review of this wonderfully colorful motion picture here.

Disney’s Surrogates is a generic affair yet it is not without value. Written and directed by the creators of this year’s Terminator: Salvation, another dystopian picture about a society in which economics and state are mixed, Surrogates poses some interesting questions. Bruce Willis stars as a cop who, paired with Radha Mitchell (Feast of Love), investigates the murder of a young man who is the son of the inventor of the robotic surrogates that everyone uses as proxies for dealing with reality. That’s about it. With an underlying theme that it takes courage to face reality while most fake reality, certainly a timely message in this text-messaging age of heads buried in technology as a religion instead of as a tool for living, Surrogates scores some points. But it gets bogged down in static characters, a lack of suspense and a thinly plotted climax. Still, borrowing from Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives, Westworld, and, of course, Blade Runner, this slice of science fiction about a world in which everyone wears a mask, with society’s charismatic leaders urging us to “sacrifice yourself for the greater good,” offers more than most in the genre. A touch of irony: in one scene, the hero chases one government-sponsored machine by commandeering another: the Toyota Prius.

This weekend, The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock offers a sorely needed respite from the worsening news of the nation. The Disney comedy is defined by what it is not: it isn’t an endless stream of vulgar jokes; it isn’t an assault on the senses; and it isn’t another asinine star vehicle. Though it also is decidedly not among the greatest movies made, The Proposal, featuring Craig T. Nelson (The Family Stone), Mary Steenburgen (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) and Betty White (The Golden Girls), and co-starring a young actor named Ryan Reynolds, who reminds me of Ashton Kutcher, is a delight. Miss Bullock portrays a hard-headed, Canadian-born businesswoman who, like most hardworking immigrants to America, is the victim of our arbitrary immigration system. She forces her secretary (Reynolds) to agree to marry her to avoid deportation, though she treats him (and everyone else) like dirt. The put-upon assistant to the boss from hell makes his own terms and conditions and the odd non-couple are off to his warm family home to keep up appearances and escape detection by a suspicious official. Yes, it’s sort of silly. But affable Ryan Reynolds balances his rising young New Yorker against her cold fish and his character’s disinterest in Miss Thing adds comic chemistry. Their ridiculous arrangement juices the movie’s screwball sensibility and it’s good to see Sandra Bullock in a decent role again. After a week of Obama fatigue, with the President doing to a housefly what he’s doing to capitalism, do yourself a favor and say ‘yes’ to The Proposal.