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Hop (DVD)
by rubarbandginger
As a family of five, we love nothing more than curling up on the couch on a Sunday with a good family DVD. We chose HOP after watching the advertisments on TV and our sons thought it was hilarious, especially since E.B poops jelly beans. (my sons are two, four and five so think 'pooping' is the funniest thing going) We imagined this ... would be a fantasy animated childrens film with no real plot and some comedy scattered throughout, we were delighted to find however that HOP was so much more than that.
The story is about E.B (Russel Brand) who is due to become the next Easter bunny. Following in the 4,000 year long tradition of easter bunnies. E.B of course doesn't want to be the next easter bunny as he has dreams of his own. (There would be no film if this wasn't the case, so it was predictable to some extent)
Slipping away E.B heads to the big apple to seek fame and fortune as a rock star drummer. Stopping at the Playboy Mansion he thinks that he can live there as he hears they have bunnies staying he finds he is turned away. My sons never got this joke but my husband and i did. We where surprised that they would put a joke in like this with it being a childrens film.
Fred (played by James Marsden) nearly runs E.B over in his car while heading to his sisters boses house to house-sit. Fred is a work slacker who doesn't think that he should take a job as nothing feels 'right' to him. Fred knows there is the perfect job waiting for him but he just can't find it. Fred's parents get really annoyed with their sons work slacker attitude and kick him out!
The film slows down in the middle i feel and my sons started to get fidgety at this point as there wasn't many jokes or funny things happening until Fred and E.B decide to help each other out to achieve their dreams.
E.B wants to be a drummer in a rock band and Fred wants to take over E.B's role as the Easter bunny! E.B puts Fred through training to help him and my sons interest came back, they were killing themselves laughing as were we. (you really have to watch it to get it)
They both come across plenty of obstacles which strengthens their friendship. I loved the ending as i couldn't have guessed that it would end the way it did. Overall we all liked this film. My youngest loved it, i thoroughly enjoyed it and my eldest liked it but didn't want to re-watch it the next day.
Will they both reach their dreams? you'll need to watch to find out.
Film Details
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Directed by: Tim Hill
Rating: PG
Duration: 1 hour 34 minutes
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Spirited Away (DVD)
by theeccentric
This oscar winning anime directed by Hayao Miyazaki and created by Studio Ghibli is a tale of a girl Chihiro.
10 year old Chihiro and her family are moving to a new town where she will have to start a new school, make new friends and adjust to her new surroundings, however in spirit of a typical young child, she is incredibly ... pessimistic about doing so.
Her parents and Chihiro are driving to their new house however take a wrong turn which causes them to drive through a derelict forest. Eventually they discover an abandoned town which despited Chihiro's pretenses, they explore. While exploring they find a what seems to be "public" feast in which her parents immediately begin eating. Chihiro with her best efforts tries to pull them away but instead it just causes them to gobble it down further, so she decides to independently explore the rest of the town.
Soon after it becomes dark, and we are introduced to young Haku, an oddly familar boy, who in a panicked tone tells Chihiro to leave before night-fall: "It's not safe for a human after night-fall!" Confused and scared she runs to collect her parents but to her alarm and surprise they have transformed into despondent pigs. Unsure what to do, and unable to leave because of her parents, she is forced in to the dangerous spirit world full of odd and quirky characters all of which don't like humans.
Meanwhile, Haku helps her by instructing her to get a job at the bathhouse by aksing Yubaba; a selfish woman with an oversized head and oversized baby. Yubaba allows Chihiro to work in the boiler house under one condition, she can take her name. Unknown of the consequences, Chihiro accepts...
Will Chihiro save her parents? Will she ever get back home? What is this mysterious spirit world?
The film runs for 125 minutes all of which is hand drawn animation with impeccable attention to detail on every aspect of this alternate fantasy world. Like many Studio Ghibli classics such as "My Neighbour Totoro", "Howls Moving Castle" and "Ponyo" they all have stunning atmospheric soundtracks. The Spirited Away soundtrack goes perfectly with the film and really emphasises all of the strangeness and odd familiarity to the film. Such as some of the characters such as the adorable Sootballs, suit there music and almost move to the beat. Other pieces of music such as "One Summer's Day" and "Dragon Boy", set the scene and with the musics build up and stunning visuals, help to really evoke emotion.
The voice actors (english dub) are superb. Pixar Animation Studios dubbed it with the assistance of John Lassiter which really helped the voice actors give a believable performance. These actors consist of Daveigh Chase who voiced Chihiro and has voiced characters such as Lilo from Lilo and Stitch. Susan Egan who voiced Linn (a maid in the bath house) who has also voiced Meg in Hercules and many more.
I throughly enjoyed this movie and have watched it numerous times. It seems that every time you watch it, you spot something different that you haven't seen before. You will never tire of this film, it is such a contrast to most animations, and its surreal plot, alien characters and encapuslating world will be sure to create a perfect escapism.
I would not recommend this movie to any young children because the storyline is fairly sinister and like the majority of animes, it has quite a dark feel to it. However if you're an adult or child and are not easily scared and loves to be immersed in to a fantasy world then this movie is for you.
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Summer Wars (DVD)
by Anti
Summer Wars is a 2009 anime (Japanese animation) film. The director is Mamoru Hosoda who also did the Studio Ghibli classic 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' some years prior, and like that film 'Summer Wars' combines a story of science fiction and romance. I watched the film a few days back at a showing from my university's anime ... society, but had been sceptical about the premise despite its popularity. I admit that, upon watching it, whilst I do appreciate this film it is not at the level of the critical acclaim it has received.
===---Plot---===
The world in 'Summer Wars' has a global simulated virtual world called OZ, which practically most of modern society uses for business and personal purposes. Kenji Kaiso is a shy student and mathematical whiz who works part-time as a lowly moderator for OZ. One day he is invited by his secret crush Natsuki to come with him to her great grandmother Sakae's 90th birthday. Sakae is the head of the illustrious and rather dysfunctional Jinnoichi family and Kenji is being taken here to pose Natsuki's boyfriend for her family.
During one evening of his stay Kenji receives a text with a maths puzzle which he solves in his curiosity. The next day however, it turns out the puzzle was a password to OZ and someone has stolen Kenji's avatar and completely hacked the system, leaving him to be looking like the culprit. After discovering that the perpetrator is a malicious AI called 'Love Machine', Kenji and the Jinnoichi family must somehow defeat it before the whole world is threatened by a crisis that is very much real...
===---Opinion---===
At first I found 'Summer Wars' very slow going, as the beginning focuses on explaining the premise of OZ to the audience, then on Kenji and Natsuki making their way to Ueda (where the Jinnoichi family is) meeting all her relatives. Such splicing of virtual reality and family comedy felt very weird and unconnected to me. There are funny scenes throughout, but it feels more like a general romantic comedy for the first twenty minutes. Despite this the action and drama does pick up around halfway in the movie and I found myself empathizing with the characters more as the conflict in the story, starting off as a messed-up hack onto OZ and turning into a world-destroying crisis, meant that I really was drawn to this film at its climax. I loved how the situation in OZ escalates as Kenji grows closer to the Jinnoichi family, with all the relatives playing a part in the final battle.
The animation is seamlessly impressive. I have to give special praise to the virtual world of OZ; this has a mainly white background but with many areas of colour scattered around indicating it to definitely be a world which you can utilise to your needs. When OZ gets hacked the place becomes very warped in its design which looks very creepy indeed. The fight scenes in OZ are also spectacular as avatars clash on the screen at great speed.
So why have I knocked a star off? Well I wasn't really a fan of the main characters, who I felt were underdeveloped compared to the supporting cast. Kenji is very bland, a nervous introvert typical of many anime shows whose mathematical ability is his only major contribution to his own story. His crush on Natsuki isn't explained beyond finding her cute- we never know why he likes her or even how long it's been for. Natsuki herself isn't that likeable from the beginning as she forces Kenji to be her boyfriend- something even her family recognises as selfish- although she does come into her own element towards the end when she is facing the villain, plus she does go through a big dilemma just past the halfway point that causes her to take an emotional back seat. Their romance felt very artificial and a little rushed, because to me it didn't feel like they were genuinely falling in love but that Kenji just needed to have the confidence to confess. On the other end of the scale, the fact that the main antagonist is an artificial intelligence gone AWOL makes it hard for me to really hate it. Saying that the 'Love Machine' "thinks everything is a game" is difficult for me to comprehend, especially I sympathised a lot with the creator of the intelligence, who turns out to be Natsuki's illegitimate uncle Wabisuke. If the person behind it had the same malevolence as it then, in my opinion, it would be a bit more believable.
More interesting is the larger-than-life Jinnoichi clan, especially its head and Natsuki's great-grandmother Sakae. Despite turning 90 she still has a large range of contacts and influence that helps people get through the disruption caused in OZ, plus she can still wield a halberd if someone gets her angry! There's also the withdrawn young boy Kazama, who turns out to control the best fighter avatar in OZ called 'King Kazma'. Kazama intrigued me because he was outside the close-knit family, preferring to spend his time fighting in OZ, but when the threat there becomes real you learn that he really does want to protect his family (including his yet-to-be-born sister). The same goes for Sakae's illegitimate grandson Wabisuke, whom is regarded as an outcast from the family because of his connections and move to America. All these characters are likeable and, as with Kenji when he spends time with him, we find it funny and interesting when they interact together and particularly in regards to a certain death, which I won't spoil.
Generally, the voice acting(I'm referring to the original Japanese cast as I watched with subtitles) do their jobs well but none of them have memorable performances as they're voicing stock characters- your shy, nervous young male, old wise woman, fairly strong young girl who still cries a lot etc. They aren't bad and no-one is miscast in their role, but none of the voice actors stand out except in certain scenes of panic and sadness (then again, that's to be expected).
===---Final Comments---===
'Summer Wars' is an enjoyable film and does wonderfully at blending action and science fiction with humour. The animation is brilliant and OZ does feel like the kind of virtual world that could become a reality someday. However, I felt that the romance elements and some of the characters are quite sub-par and the concept isn't that original and if there were a half-star system I'd give it a 3.5 instead of 4 stars. Nevertheless this is a movie still worth your time.
You can find 'Summer Wars' at Amazon for £9.68 on DVD, or £11.68 on Blu-ray.
(Review is also on Dooyoo under the username Anti)
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