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LOS ANGELES — Fifteen years ago, when a 23-year-old David Ellison rolled into Hollywood with oodles of trust-fund cash, entertainment insiders licked their jackal lips: Oh, the fleecing we will do! More
John Cho, as Long the dragon, does his best Robin Williams impression in this film animation about a teenage boy who releases him from a magic teapot.In the engaging animated feature “Wish Dragon,” a teenage boy comes into possession of a magic teapot containing a world-weary dragon who’s obliged to grant him three wishes.The movie is geared toward children, but for anyone old enough to remember the Disney Renaissance, there should be a déjà vu warning: Netflix’s newest animation effort is essentially Disney’s “Aladdin” transposed to Shanghai. John Cho, who voices Long, the dragon, does his best impression of Robin Williams, who lent his voice to the fast-talking Genie in the 1992 Disney animation. But without the catchy songs and intergenerational appeal, this movie can only wish to measure up to that classic.When the story begins, Din (Jimmy Wong) is a genial, imaginative child who soon befriends Li Na (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), a fellow troublemaker in school. The pair is shown cavorting in a best-friend montage that screeches to a halt when Li Na’s father moves her out of their humble neighborhood, saying, “We’re off to a better life, and we have to leave this one behind.”Fast-forward by a decade: A chic Li Na appears on billboards around town, while Din lives in the same cramped apartment with his mother (Constance Wu), and works as a food delivery boy, all the while yearning to win back his partner in crime. If only a magical dragon could help Din bluff his way into Li Na’s moneyed circle.Here, the movie goes full folk tale. Some moments, such as when Long’s voice turns squeaky-high as he squeezes back into his itty-bitty teapot space, seem to explicitly quote “Aladdin,” not to mention the airborne date Din and Li Na have on a flying dragon.The biggest break from formula arrives through Long, the wish granter. Unlike the Genie, Long possesses a compelling human back story and follows a defined character arc. Absent a razzle-dazzle production number akin to “Friend Like Me,” endowing the dragon with some emotional depth is the least this movie, directed by Chris Appelhans, could do. “Wish Dragon” is a transporting experience, but it’s far from a whole new world.Wish DragonRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More
This spinoff of “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” is a bland, bubbly romp through the Wild West, with a heavy dose of girl power.Nearly two decades after “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” and its eponymous yellow mustang came on the scene, “Spirit Untamed” — a chirpy, digitally reupholstered spinoff — has arrived. While both are from DreamWorks Animation, the reboot has little in common with the 2002 original, which clung to hand-drawn visuals at a time when the pseudo-realistic computer animation of “Shrek,” also from DreamWorks, and Pixar movies like “Monsters, Inc.” began taking over. For better or worse, this new “Spirit” takes a modern approach.Instead of a heavy-handed, power-ballad-filled melodrama about a bronco and his saintly Native American comrade, “Spirit Untamed” is innocuously geared toward young (horse) girls everywhere. It uses the racially diverse characters from the Netflix series “Spirit Riding Free,” which debuted in 2017 and reintroduced the franchise, to deliver a coming-of-age tale with a predictably heavy dose of girl power.At the film’s center is the thrill-seeking Lucky Prescott (Isabela Merced), who is essentially banished from her stuffy East Coast abode and sent to spend the summer with her estranged father (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the frontier town of Miradero. Instantly drawn to a stallion she names Spirit, our American Girl-esque protagonist strives to earn the horse’s trust, simultaneously getting in touch with her Mexican roots and defying her dad, who remains scarred from her mother’s horse-riding-related death.Thankfully, Lucky (who also goes by her real, Spanish name, Fortuna) is not a loner. When brutish wranglers horse-nap members of Spirit’s herd, our heroine is joined by her intrepid gal pals on a perilous obstacle course-like rescue mission through the outback.The kiddies, I’m sure, will be satisfied. The film (directed by Elaine Bogan) is a bubbly, fast-paced romp through the Wild West, which is not to say it’s an improvement on the maudlin original. With its saucer-eyed, bobblehead-like characters, it’s a version barely distinguishable from the majority of animated children’s movies these days — more like Spirit domesticated.Spirit UntamedRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. In theaters. More
The anime movie, a global hit during the pandemic, is finally arriving in theaters Stateside. You may have to do some homework before seeing it.While Americans hunkered down at home for the last year, theatergoers in other countries were buzzing on social media about an anime movie, “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.”The film, which follows a teenage boy seeking revenge against demons that killed his family, has been one of the most successful movies to ever come out of Japan. After shattering box office records when it debuted there last October, “Demon Slayer” has earned more than $400 million in ticket sales, surpassing Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece “Spirited Away” to become Japan’s highest grossing anime film of all time. On Twitter, fans gushed about it, and, remarkably in a pandemic, many said they would return to the theaters for repeat viewings.After much delay, “Demon Slayer” will finally make a splashy debut in the United States on Friday in 1,500 theaters, including some Imax screens. But unlike “Spirited Away” and typical box office hits, this film doesn’t stand on its own. If you walk into it blind — without viewing, say, the “Demon Slayer” TV show — you may find yourself confused.“If you just want to see why the film has gotten so big, that’s fine,” said Varun Gupta, host of a “Demon Slayer” podcast. “But you should probably go in with a little bit of context.”So from streaming shows to reading manga, here’s what you can do to prepare before partaking in this global phenomenon.At minimum, you have to watch the anime series.The movie, directed by Haruo Sotozaki, picks up from the Season 1 finale of the TV show. The series lays a great deal of groundwork, introducing the franchise’s plethora of characters and story arcs that lead up to the movie, where our protagonist, Tanjiro, and his teammates are on a mission to defeat a demon that has been eating people on a train.The 26 episodes of Season 1 are available dubbed or subtitled on streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and Funimation.If you don’t have time to binge-watch the show, there are more options. You could read the manga, which is the source material for the anime, published on the subscription service Shonen Jump. Read through Chapter 53 and you’ll be caught up.There’s also a three-episode recap of Season 1 available on Funimation. (Be warned: Each episode is more than 90 minutes long.) And if you are starving for time, plenty of YouTubers have posted videos recapping Season 1 in a few minutes.The movie is for adults (sort of).In Japan, the “Demon Slayer” franchise is part of the “shonen” genre, which literally translates into “few years” because teenagers are the target audience. Though the movie has many gruesome moments, the overall tone is silly, like a typical cartoon. Nonetheless, the movie is rated R in the United States in large part because of graphic violence, including a lot of bloodshed.“Demon Slayer” is a love letter to pop culture.For many, part of the allure of “Demon Slayer” will be its familiarity: it bears the influence of a host of movies and anime from the last few decades.The movie’s main villain, Enmu, whose superpower involves putting people to sleep and infiltrating their dreams, may remind movie fans of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception.”Muzan, the most powerful demon and the only one capable of transforming other humans into demons, is reminiscent of many famous baddies with brainwashing powers, like Darth Vader and Magneto.The franchise also has a video-game-like quality that creates a hierarchy of power. There are the low-ranked demon slayers who can swing a sword but have yet to level up to their true potential, but there are also godlike ones (known as “pillars”) with exceptional strength and speed. Anime and manga fans may see parallels to the power structure in classics like “Dragon Ball,” whose characters were ranked by more than a dozen levels of “super saiyans.” Tatsuhiko Katayama, an editor of the “Demon Slayer” manga, has said in interviews that the red-haired, scar-faced Tanjiro was inspired by “Rurouni Kenshin,” the 1990s manga about a similarly drawn swordsman trying to escape from his past life as an assassin.You can also stream it.If you have trouble finding a theater showing “Demon Slayer” or simply don’t feel comfortable going to the movies just yet, the movie will be available on June 22 on major digital platforms. More
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘On-Gaku: Our Sound’ Review: They Will Rock YouThe anime film, which took seven years to produce, combines groovy musical vibes with delightfully deadpan humor.“On-Gaku: Our Sound” is a quirky homage to classic animation and 1960s-70s rock.Credit…GkidsMarch 9, 2021, 5:12 p.m. ETOn-Gaku: Our SoundNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Kenji IwaisawaAnimation, Drama, MusicalNot Rated1h 11mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Rock ’n’ roll is here to stay, and so is “On-Gaku: Our Sound,” a quirky homage to classic animation and 1960s-70s rock with an idiosyncratic style and the thrumming heart of a musician.In the film, directed by Kenji Iwaisawa, three high school friends with nothing better to do than play video games and ambivalently pick fights with a rival gang impulsively decide to start a band. The friends end up performing in a local music festival — despite their utter lack of musical knowledge. Narratively that’s the extent of it, but “On-Gaku” is a subdued filmmaking experiment, with the visuals and sounds of the movie positioned in the forefront of our attention. No worries, just good vibes.[embedded content]In a world of C.G.I.-everything, “On-Gaku” comes as a refreshing blast from the past; the film, full of soft, streamlined animation, took more than seven years to produce with over 40,000 hand-drawn frames. Allusions to the wonder years of rock abound (music is by Tomohiko Banse), from the black bowl cuts of the Beatles and the famous crossing of Abbey Road to the more rebellious shaggy-haired style of the Rolling Stones.Expertly atmospheric, the brief film (71 minutes, not one minute too long) includes the sounds of gentle folk and smooth, lengthy sequences of, say, the friends simply walking down the street to a funky bass line. Other scenes erupt with the cacophonous crash and bash of an arena performance, as Iwaisawa uses the process of rotoscoping, tracing over real movie footage to animate the characters’ movements.This offbeat jam session is also peculiarly funny; the deadpan absurdism of the writing is accentuated by Iwaisawa’s bold direction, which uses long periods of stillness and silence and odd shifts in action. The guys in “On-Gaku” may be new to the stage, but this droll musical comedy tops the charts.On-Gaku: Our SoundNot rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 11 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Review: Fool Me OnceA new Disney princess from Southeast Asia battles factionalism and her own trust issues.A scene from “Raya and the Last Dragon.”Credit…DisneyMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETRaya and the Last DragonDirected by Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Paul Briggs, John RipaAnimation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, FantasyPG1h 54mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Disney’s newest princess, Raya, has some serious trust issues.Not long after she follows her dad’s lead when he extends an olive branch to the fellow leaders of the other kingdoms that once comprised Kumandra — an ancient utopia of cross-cultural unity — she’s betrayed by a new friend, Namaari (Gemma Chan).Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) had giddily offered to give her pal — a fellow warrior princess with whom she’d bonded over swords and curry — a peek at the dragon gem that’s causing all the grown-ups to act out. Unfortunately for Raya, Namaari’s chumminess is part of a ruse to get that precious rock: in this factionalized, dog-eat-dog world, even the kids are con artists.Turns out the stone is the only thing standing between humanity and the Druun, a “mindless plague” that turns people into terra-cotta statues. This shapeless, electric-purple evil is unleashed when the gem shatters, throwing the planet into the Dark Ages.Six years later, Raya is a young woman and a solo adventurer zooming around a desert wasteland on her trusty pill-bug-armadillo. Her moment of past weakness haunts her — figuratively and literally, with a pugilistic Namaari always on her tail.Faith in the goodness of other people — even those from distant lands and of different persuasions — is the governing theme of “Raya and the Last Dragon,” which the directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, and the screenwriters Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim, set in a fantasyland version of Southeast Asia complete with floating markets, water taxis and lots of shrimp congee.In typical Disney-princess fashion, our brooding heroine acquires a joke-slinging sidekick in nonhuman form: Sisu (Awkwafina), the titular last dragon, who (like Mushu in “Mulan” before her) isn’t a menacing behemoth so much as a klutzy, shape-shifting My Little Pony-like creature.Raya and company traverse multiple lands to collect the scattered pieces of the stone, giving the creators an excuse to indulge in expansive world-building, while snappy editing and rousingly choreographed action scenes animate these settings with comic strip panache. The animators don’t stray far from the overall style of recent Disney fare like “Frozen” or “Moana,” though the film’s meticulously detailed environments — rainforest shrines teeming with visible moisture, snowy mountain fortresses shrouded in fog — are particularly impressive.The Disney treatment, like the Druun itself, seems to neutralize whatever it touches, no matter how hard it works to preserve the distinctive elements of the non-Western cultures it has brought under its label, especially recently. Is Disney paying tribute to these cultures? Or are these cultures instruments of corporate strategy? Places as different as Mexico (“Coco”), the Polynesian Islands (“Moana”) and now Southeast Asia are flattened along the Disney continuum, with each feeling like one in a collection.In any case, the gender politics of the recent live-action “Mulan,” which some found to be retrograde, puts “Raya” in perspective: There’s no doubting our heroine’s abilities, nor is there mention of her being exceptional. “Disney princess” may eventually just become another word for “superhero,” but at least she won’t need saving.And here, the most meaningful and transformative relationships are between women, er, feminine beings. Raya and Namari must learn to trust each other despite the history of betrayal — and between them there’s maybe, just maybe even the faintest hints of sexual tension. Then there’s Sisu, whose unwavering faith in humanity will leave its mark on both ladies. The unity rhetoric feels awfully trite, but it also teaches forgiveness: a worthy lesson for the kids.Raya and the Last DragonRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. In theaters and on Disney+. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run’ Review: Still SquareThis new franchise installment, “Sponge on the Run,” wants to be clever in nodding toward genre conventions. But its execution is poor.SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny) in “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.”Credit…Paramount AnimationMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunDirected by Tim HillAnimation, Adventure, Comedy, FamilyPG1h 31mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.I’m no stranger to Bikini Bottom. I may not have a pineapple home there, but I know the residents and local spots. Though after my unfortunate recent visit, for “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” I’m packing up my swim trunks and heading elsewhere.In “Sponge on the Run,” directed by Tim Hill, our favorite undersea fry cook must journey with his best friend, Patrick, to rescue SpongeBob’s pet snail, Gary, who has been snail-napped by King Poseidon. They’re headed to the Lost City of Atlantic City, a “scary, vice-ridden cesspool of moral depravity” (sorry, Jersey, you didn’t hear it from me).[embedded content]“Sponge on the Run” wants to be clever in nodding toward genre conventions: Patrick suggests they’re on a buddy adventure while SpongeBob thinks he’s on a singular hero’s journey. It’s both — and both executed poorly. With the internet’s boyfriend, Keanu Reeves, using his celebrity clout to no avail as SpongeBob and Patrick’s spiritual guide, the duo pass through a Western saloon-style underworld inhabited by cowboy-pirate-zombies dancing to Snoop Dogg. If that last sentence confounded you, let me just say that’s only one of the inane and illogical narrative turns in this stubbornly unfunny film. But that Snoop song? A jam. With Weezer covers and a reggaeton-style remix of the show’s theme, the movie at least knows how to drop a beat.The rest is studded with references to the first (and vastly superior) SpongeBob film, from 2004, and chokes up its third act with an endless, overly sentimental lovefest. All this rendered in C.G.I. animation so nauseatingly garish and artificial it’s like inserting LED lights directly into your eyeballs. “Sponge on the Run” may take us back under the sea, but this sponge is all dried up.The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters and on Paramount+. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Earwig and the Witch’ Review: Domestic IncantationsA headstrong orphan girl gets taken in by a witch and a demon in this computer-animated film from Studio Ghibli.A scene from the animated film “Earwig and the Witch,” directed by Goro Miyazaki.Credit…GkidsFeb. 3, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETEarwig and the WitchDirected by Gorô MiyazakiAnimation, Family, FantasyPG1h 22mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.A strong-willed young heroine, a witch, a talking cat, cute magical minions: “Earwig and the Witch” has many of the familiar qualities of a Studio Ghibli film. And yet Ghibli’s latest, directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of the famed animator Hayao Miyazaki, uses ingredients from the tried-and-true Ghibli recipe while serving a film that lacks the heart the studio has always brought to its best.A headstrong orphan girl named Earwig gets adopted by a witch named Bella Yaga (Baba’s cousin, perhaps?) and a reclusive demon writer named Mandrake only to serve as the equivalent of a sorcery sous chef, prepping ingredients for spells, doing dishes and mopping floors. Earwig, whose own mother was a witch, is used to being the boss lady; with her perilously arched eyebrows and pigtails perched like devil horns on top of her head, she typically charms and manipulates her way to her goals but is stumped by her new surroundings.[embedded content]“Earwig and the Witch” brought many other stories to my mind: a bit of “Little Orphan Annie” and “The Little Princess,” a stretch of “Pippi Longstocking,” a parcel of “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” And yet the story, adapted from the novel by Diana Wynne Jones (whose work has also been tackled by Ghibli in my personal favorite, “Howl’s Moving Castle”), feels vacant. For one, it’s the abundance of red herrings in this fleeting 82-minute feature; connections and relationships are implied (and a plot point about a witchy rock band flies by) but end up leading to dead ends, making the journey feel incomplete.But the most regrettable part is the animation. “Earwig” is the studio’s first entirely computer-animated feature. The younger Miyazaki has referred to this as a move into the future. But in foregoing the hand-drawn animations, Ghibli has lost whimsy and character. Like Pixar on steroids, “Earwig” doesn’t look remotely Ghibli, instead like an overly glossed, digital scrim laid over a narrative that reaches for the fantastical. There are bright colors and spirited music and a solid English dub cast (Richard E. Grant, Vanessa Marshall, Dan Stevens, Taylor Paige Henderson, Kacey Musgraves), but there’s less attention to detail.Does one animator a whole studio make? Of course not. And yet, Studio Ghibli, as piloted by Hayao Miyazaki, became a history-maker in the animation universe. Things must inevitably change; one Miyazaki makes room for another. That said, I hope “Earwig” is not a harbinger of a new age of C.G.I. films that are more shine and pixels than soul and sketches. When I consider the hands that summoned the magic of films like “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away,” I can only say this: If that’s now just an artifact from the past, I’m not ready for the future.Earwig and the WitchRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters now and on HBO Max Friday. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
