cladmartin
11-29-99, 06:49 AM
Favetti, you saw an awful lot of movies this past week, but missed the best of all. Forget that its aimed at the kiddies, "Toy Story 2" is my favorite movie this season, perhaps this year.
I brought my kids to the noon show on Wednesday and the theater was packed with little ones and their parents, and the parents probably enjoyed the film more than the kids. The best kids movies can entertain the kids and the parents that take them.
Filmmakers make kids films in one of two ways:
1) Entertain as many age groups as possible.
2) Screw the adults and shoot straight for the kids.
"Pokemon", according to a friend that brought his kid, was a solid type 2 film. He said it was painful to sit through. "Toy Story" was the best example of a type 1, as is its sequel. The film is able to entertain adults without resorting to scatalogical humor or innuendo (except for a "hubba-hubba" scene with Barbie and the gang). There is nothing crude or offensive. Instead, it relies on parody, slapstick, and nostalgia to get most of its laughes. And there are plenty of laughs in this film. The animation was even more immpressive than in the first film. The human characters were a lot less rigid. I need to see it again, but I think I enjoyed it more than the original.
In the film, it turns out Woody is a collector's item and when he is stolen, Buzz and the gang mount a rescue. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen provide the voices for Woody and Buzz again. Joining them are Joan Cusack and Kelsey Grammar as other toys from "Woody's Round-up" (the show starring Woody from the 1950s), and the rest of the original cast. Their adventures take them onto city streets, into a high rise apartment, and into a toy store. In the toy store, the gang runs into a party of Barbies, Rock'em-Sock'em Robots (I swear Michael Dorn voiced them), a huge display of Buzz Lightyears and Emporer Zurg. My favorite part is when self-aware Buzz meets up with a Buzz who doesn't think he's a toy.
Don't use the "I don't have kids excuse". This film is for everyone.
[This message has been edited by cladmartin (edited 11-29-1999).]
I brought my kids to the noon show on Wednesday and the theater was packed with little ones and their parents, and the parents probably enjoyed the film more than the kids. The best kids movies can entertain the kids and the parents that take them.
Filmmakers make kids films in one of two ways:
1) Entertain as many age groups as possible.
2) Screw the adults and shoot straight for the kids.
"Pokemon", according to a friend that brought his kid, was a solid type 2 film. He said it was painful to sit through. "Toy Story" was the best example of a type 1, as is its sequel. The film is able to entertain adults without resorting to scatalogical humor or innuendo (except for a "hubba-hubba" scene with Barbie and the gang). There is nothing crude or offensive. Instead, it relies on parody, slapstick, and nostalgia to get most of its laughes. And there are plenty of laughs in this film. The animation was even more immpressive than in the first film. The human characters were a lot less rigid. I need to see it again, but I think I enjoyed it more than the original.
In the film, it turns out Woody is a collector's item and when he is stolen, Buzz and the gang mount a rescue. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen provide the voices for Woody and Buzz again. Joining them are Joan Cusack and Kelsey Grammar as other toys from "Woody's Round-up" (the show starring Woody from the 1950s), and the rest of the original cast. Their adventures take them onto city streets, into a high rise apartment, and into a toy store. In the toy store, the gang runs into a party of Barbies, Rock'em-Sock'em Robots (I swear Michael Dorn voiced them), a huge display of Buzz Lightyears and Emporer Zurg. My favorite part is when self-aware Buzz meets up with a Buzz who doesn't think he's a toy.
Don't use the "I don't have kids excuse". This film is for everyone.
[This message has been edited by cladmartin (edited 11-29-1999).]