I spent the first weekend of Spring Break being absolutely unproductive in regards to school, which was my goal. I achieved it handily and instead got some shopping done, redyed my hair, read for pleasure, and watched a lot of movies.
So here are some thoughts:
Ponyo on the Cliff: Ponyo was...ridiculously good. It's very Miyazaki, very Japanese, and it has a lot of fantastical elements to it - but it was the brightest and most uplifting Miyazaki film I've ever seen. Ponyo was so cute and strange and endearing; Sosuke was earnest and sweet. The most frightening or dark part of the entire movie had to be the violent tsunami/storm, but it's nothing compared to the darker elements of Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle or, god forbid, Princess Mononoke.
A lot of the background art was colored with pencils and it was simply gorgeous. The little details in animation really stood out to me - the way Lisa closed a door with her foot, for example, when her arms are full of groceries. The way Sosuke ran - carefully and awkwardly - when he had a pail full of water in his arms. All the little details were very realistic despite the supernatural elements of the movie, and it was so sweet and innocent and it is currently fighting Howl's Moving Castle as my favorite Miyazaki film. Honestly speaking, I liked it more than I liked Up! The storytelling styles are obviously very different, but I think Ponyo did a better job. While Up! was also fun and moving at parts, I kept comparing it to Finding Nemo and the kind of cohesive storytelling it could have been - but it fell short. Ponyo, being measured on a different scale, still did really well. Imo, of course. But I have a thing for more subtle stories that seem to focus only on one narrow premise (a tiny goldfish princess meets a five-year-old boy and falls in love) but really say much more.
Also, the ending song is too cute for words. I love this movie.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: So I only vaguely remember this picture book from my childhood, but I'm pretty sure it did not turn out nearly as cracky as the movie did. The movie is... Okay, so the directors got high, and then they made this movie. That is basically what happened and watching the extra behind-the-scenes bits did not do much to convince me otherwise.
That said, this movie is hysterical. Very, very funny. I laughed out loud so many times throughout the movie.
So it's a lot of fun to watch - Mr. T's character steals the screen every single time he speaks - but it's full of utter over-the-top ridiculousness. But in a very PG way, which is refreshing.
T&T really liked this movie; for me, it was just entertainment. I liked Ponyo better. But I'd recommend watching this for the laughs, regardless - it's not an amazing story or movie by any critical standard, but it is damn funny.
Alice in Wonderland: We watched this in IMAX 3D which, I think, made the movie that much more enjoyable. Without those extra effects, I'd probably be even iffier on the movie than I am. To briefly sum up the movie, it is very quintessential Tim Burton - a little psychedelic, walking the edge of dark and crazy with an endearing edge. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter are great, doing their best at their best typecast roles. It'd be impossible not to recognize their style. They were excellent and fully immersed in their respective characters. Alan Rickman was delicious - or at least his voice, was.
Somewhat surprisingly, I really enjoyed Anne Hathaway's White Queen - she had a fun, human edge of exasperation to her ethereal, good, fairy-princess role. Whoever wrote that in, I approve of it. I connected with (and liked) her character far better than I did with Alice, whose lines came off a bit rote and recited and the emotion behind the words somewhat lacking.
Story-wise, I did like the fact that it was a sequel of sorts to the original Alice, but there were a lot of tropes that I felt could have been better handled: They came off a little too trite and, rather than transforming the cliché, the movie seemed burdened by them.
But, oh, the costuming and the sets were gorgeous. Oh art. Such lovely visuals made up a lot for the lack of deft storytelling (I kept thinking it would have been better off as a book, but that is always assuming that the author of a book is also writing with a deft touch - something that is not always guaranteed in today's mass publishing...).
I'd still recommend watching it, but in IMAX or 3D or both, if possible. The visual effects are necessary to really enjoy this movie. Plus, Cheshire. Now that's an unforgettable smile.
One day I will actually find the time to sit down and meta on other facets of life. This blogging thing, I am growing more and more abysmal at it...
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