Netfrost

First of all… bring a box of tissues with you! I found myself, not being able to see the screen half way through the movie, because my eyes were completely filled with tears from all the laughing… later on, if you’re the emotional type, there’s some touching bits that could cause a tear or two to well up. The comedy style includes some nice crass jokes about bodily functions, as well as some well placed sarcasm and pure slapstick.

Despicable Me is a film about Gru (Steve Carell), the world’s #1 villain… who was just outdone by a new villain in town… Vector (Jason Segel)! Gru, desperate in regaining his place in the ladder of villains, goes to no end to reclaim it… even if that involves unsuspecting orphans! With the help of his evil scientist, Dr. Nefario voiced by comedian Russell Brand, who… well is no Q and his countless minions (best one has to be Dave!), Gru tries to steal the moon.

Some of the other voice talents include Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig and Nickelodeon’s Miranda Cosgrove.

As with every thing else coming out of Hollywood these days, Despicable Me was done in Stereoscopic 3d… but unlike the multitude of films where the 3D was an after thought… I found myself loving this… All through the movie, you could notice that perspective was there… and make sure you stay seated during the credits, as the fun little minions play with a plethora of 3D stereotypes… ie: A ladder going into the audience, a fishing pole etc…

So, the story is fantastic… actually on par with Pixar’s story telling… but how was the animation itself? Just fantastic… Carter Goodrich was the brains behind the character design for this film and he seriously didn’t disappoint… you may remember some of his other creations in such films as Ratatouille and The Prince of Egypt.

Now, stop reading this and run out and go see it on the silver screen… seriously… I have to say, that this movie is possibly now one of my favorite films.

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Popularity: 5%

Two side of the coin, day and night, appear as characters and look on at one another in awe and jealousy. Written and directed by Pixar storyboard and concept artist Teddy Newton (Who also voices the Fisher Price Chatter Phone in Toy Story 3) with music by Oscar winner Michael Giacchino.

 
The real interesting thing with this short is that all the great 3D animation we’ve come to expect and love from Pixar… shows up INSIDE the two main characters Night and Day… who are actually traditionally drawn and act more as a mask on the screen.

Great story with a great message, awesome art (heck I was even hard pressed to believe some of it wasn’t filmed with a regular camera instead of modeled and rendered). Hope to see lots more from Teddy…
 
 
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Popularity: 1%

Where to start? Toy Story 3, directed by Lee Unkrich, who started off as an editor on Toy Story, then co-directed Toy Story 2. The movie starts off with one of the play sessions the toys loved so much… which turns to a great home video montage. Toy Story 3, progresses the story, with Andy now being 17 years old and heading to college. Unfortunately, with leaving for college comes the responsibility of starting to clear out your childhood stuff. The toys end up in a daycare, run by a brutal dictator (that smells like strawberries) Lotso…(voiced by Ned Beatty) This once cuddly pink bear, has become tough and heartless over the years and rules the daycare with an iron fist… and basically sentences our favorite toys to be played with by infants who honestly are too young to play with such toys. It’s now up to Woody to rescue the toys.
 

By far the best Pixar story to date… we found ourselves laughing, clenching our fists… and tearing up at various points in the movie. Now, the story was amazingly written, The animation was top notch… there’s scenes where Woody is running, and I have to give props to the riggers and animators, cause the really made him look like a boneless doll… not to mention Mr Tortilla head :)
 
Now, I wouldn’t say the movie was 100% perfect… there was a few things that bothered me. The first… Big Baby… he really seemed out of place… not to mention he gave me the creeps. An other thing was, we went to see it on the IMAX 3D screen… the movie started out great and we could really see the stereoscopic aspects of the film… come 1/3 of the way through… I forgot we were watching a stereo movie… (I can’t believe I’m going to say this… but it could of used some more 3D clichés). But all in all… FANTASTIC movie… I definitely want to see it again in theaters.

 
 
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Popularity: 5%

Donkey X follows the classic tale of Don Quijote, his “squire”, Sancho Panza, Sancho’s donkey, Rucio (who wants to be a horse) and a real horse, Don Quijote’s faithful steed, Rocinante (who hates leaving his stable) on their adventure to duel the “Knight of the Moon” where, if Don Quijote wins the duel the true identity of Dulcinea will be revealed.

This is definitely not your Shrek or Up quality film. This little spanish film, trying to capitalize on the popularity of other 3D animated films kinda fell flat. On the technical side, it can’t be faulted, the modeling and textures are pretty good, but you can tell they spent more time working on the main characters then anything else, there’s no famous actors lending their voices to the film and the story seems more like a spoofed telling of the classic story.
 
I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys the tale of the wandering knight and just wants to escape in movie about an other time…
 
 
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Popularity: 5%

Many times, you hear critics use a line such as “This movie has something in it for everyone” Well… I have to admit, How To Train Your Dragon is one of those movies.
 
Enter Hiccup, a young viking (voiced fellow Ottawanian, Jay Baruchel), who wants nothing more then to fit in… Unfortunately… he doesn’t… at all… After an attack to their village by dragons… Hiccup uses one of his inventions, to try and help… and actually hits a dragon (and injures it). When no one believes him, he sets off to find where the dragon fell… and doesn’t have the heart to kill it. Instead, he nurses it back to health and they become friends.
 
His father (voiced by Gerard Buttler), the village’s chief sets off for an other adventure and sends his Hiccup for Dragon Hunting training.
Hiccup, moves up the ranks by using tricks he’s learned from his pet dragon “Toothless”. Eventually, he becomes top of the class and wins the honor to kill his first dragon.. he refuses to do it and well… I won’t ruin this great film for you… go out and see it… it’s worth every penny. My main complaint about this film… I didn’t want it to end.
 
An other film from the DreamWorks Animation powerhouse… and I have to say… they are definitely doing something right.
There’s a great article on CG Society, that goes in details on the cloth, fur and fire in this film.
 
 
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Popularity: 13%



Based on a cartoon series created by Arthur Qwak and produced by the French company Futurikon, Dragon Hunters follows Zoe little girl who believes in fairy tales. Not because she is naive, but because she likes fairy tales. So in order to help her uncle Lord Arnold get rid of a terrible dragon, Zoe decides she has to find some heroes. In comes Gwizdo (Rob Paulsen) and Lian-Chu (Forest Whitaker) a pair of two-bit, fly-by-night dragon hunters.
 
The art style is very stylized and quite reminiscent of Igor. Set within a colorful fantastic world with floating islands and dragons (ok, so they aren’t the typical mid-evil dragons… it’s more of a, any monster is called a dragon.. but who cares)
 
Definitely not worth the acclaim of any major awards, it’s a cute story and it’s easy to get swept into their world.
 
 
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Popularity: 35%

Pigeon: Impossible is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.
 
The film, writer/director Lucas Martell, first attempt at animation, took nearly 5 years to complete. The project started off as an excuse for Martell to learn 3D animation… and did he ever learn.
 
Not on par with shorts from production houses such as Pixar or DreamWorks, but for a first attempt, it’s fantastic. The visuals are great, but what truly separates this from an amateur short is the fantastic story and the memorizing score.
 
Anyone interested in great story telling, and or animation should definitely make a stop to the site’sblog and make sure you check out his videos… informative and hilarious!
 
 
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Popularity: 31%

Planet 51, a story about an American astronaut who lands on an alien world and tries to get home…
 
Strip away the over abundant pop culture references and you’re left with a story that is a blatant role-reversal rip off of the likes of E.T or My Favourite Martian. The main character, an egotistical US astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (Dwayne Johnson), lands on what he thought was an inhabited planet, only to find that the planet is a mirror of a 1950s Pleasantville society, only inhabited by little green men. The only people err aliens who know that Captain Baker is not an evil alien bent on enslaving their race is teenage planetarium worker Lem (Justin Long), who with the help of his geeky friend Skiff (Seann William Scott) and girl-next-door crush Neera (Jessica Biel), decides to help Chuck get back to his Lunar module before his orbiting vessel returns to Earth.
 
The problem is that it has since been quarantined by order of General Grawl (Gary Oldman) and his consulting professor Kipple (John Cleese), both hell-bent on capturing the invading ‘Humaniac’ before he supposedly turns everyone on the planet into his Zombie slaves.
 
The animation is clean and well done, however, it’s hard to watch the movie and ignore the plethora of kitschy 1950s references and bad music.
 
 
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Popularity: 31%

First off… WOW! From the original concept art I saw a few years ago, and the trailers… I thought, ok, an other cute and mediocre Sony animated flick… was I ever wrong!
 
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, is a film based on a children’s book written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. Now, the movie follows the character, Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), as he sets about creating a machine that mutates water into food. Flint types a recipe code into his computer, presses a big red button, and voila, instant meal from the heavens.
 
After an unfortunate incident with the machine and the town’s unavailing of it’s new Sardine World theme park, burgers start raining from the sky. At first no one seems to worry about bringing their lunch to work; but a glitch in the computer program means that the food keeps getting bigger and more plentiful, to the point where pancakes are flattening entire subdivisions as maple syrup floods the streets and residents slip into food comas.
 
In comes a cute and perky weather girl (voiced by Anna Faris), which ends up becoming the love interest of Flint’s.
 
We saw the movie in IMAX 3D, and unfortunately, this is one film, that didn’t really need this treatment, as they didn’t really take advantage of the technology. It is a cute and cartoony film that I absolutely recommend.
 
Some other noteworthy voice actors in this film included, Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey (now one of my all time favorite side characters), James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Flint’s widower technophobic father. Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, Benjamin Bratt as Manny the camera man/doctor/pilot/comedian, and Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the Anchorman.

 
 
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Popularity: 98%

9 a new feature film, based on the Oscar nominated short by Shane Acker. A post apocalyptic world where machines and stitch dolls roam the world after man has been eradicated.
 
9 is the story of nine dolls stitched together and filled with parts of the soul of the scientist who created them. A film that is getting some mediocre reviews, but I personally found brilliant..
 
The film features voice acting from such greats as Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, Elijah Wood and Martin Landau.
 
It’s a visually stunning film, with a great story in an interesting world, I highly recommend it.
 
 
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Popularity: 96%