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Movies In Review
Chicken Run
By Greg Walton
Ah, the magic of animation! Animals that sing & dance, worlds that
defy description, and women with curves the size of Texas. The
possibilities are endless! Free from the logistical constraints of
traditional filmmaking, animation is the closest cinema will ever get to
free-form imaginative expression, which explains the bi-annual Disney
heroine scandal. And may also explain why most animated features are
straight-jacketed into anthropomorphic musicals and other kiddie fare. The
sheer number of options
must be overwhelming. And in a medium where anything is possible, the Snow
White structure becomes both a passe punching bag and creative life
preserver.
Titan A.E. pretentiously pronounces It like nothing you've ever seen!
But, trust me, you have. Many, many times. And for a film that brags how
far it pushes the limits of 2D and 3D animation, Titan could just have
easily been a live-action summer spectacular. Co-director Don Bluth's film
may well push the technological envelope, but it delivers the equivalent of
a chain letter.
Set after Earth (hence the A.E. ) has been destroyed by some hot-wired
hostile aliens called the Drej, our disenchanted hero, Cale (Matt Damon)
drifts through the cosmos with the rest of mankind that managed to escape
destruction. Homeless, hopeless, and hand-drawn in a Saturday
morning-style, the survivors spread stories about the Titan, a mysterious
ship built by Cale's father that holds the key to their salvation.
Cale is conned into joining up with some space cowboys in search of the
ship. Korso (Bill Pullman) enlightens Cale to his true heritage; a ring
genetically encoded with a map to the missing ship's location. Now it's a
race to reach the promised land before the vengeful Drej return to finish
off what's left of humanity.
With a script blessed by Buffy's Joss Whedon, there's an obvious attempt
to up the teenage fanclub quotient. Cale even shows a little animated skin
to make the young girls giggle, and Barrymore's cartoon alter ego, Akima,
does a sultry striptease behind a curtain. We're not talking Heavy Metal
here, but Bluth, whose previous work (An American Tail, Land Before Time)
was predictably pre-pubescent, is shooting for an older audience.
Enveloping its characters in fully 3D environments, Titan's action
sequences are impressively staged(drawn...inputted...whatever),
particularly a game of cat-and-mouse with spaceships in a frozen asteroid
field. But the character design never seems to gel with the
photo-realistic surroundings. And the story evolves with such un-animated
inspiration, exciting detours like a visit to the planet of the Pterodactyl
people seem
too short. Cale's teenage angst and father-figure fixation almost make you
long for a chorus line of dancing hippos.
Chicken Run, meanwhile, is very comfortable with its Disney-isms. The
opportunity to stage Stalag 17 in a henhouse seems reason enough for
Wallace & Gromit' creator Nick Park to break out the clay. Like his
previous shorts, Chicken Run is cleverly British, combining slapstick and
rapid-fire witticisms. But underneath their play-doh grin and googly eyes,
Park's characters have a contagiously endearing charm.
Locked into a life of egg-producing servitude, Ginger (Julie Sawalha)
prods her fellow chickens to dream of a life beyond the farm, staging
frequent but unsuccessful escape attempts. When Rocky (Mel Gibson) the
Flying Rooster, on the lam from a traveling circus, drops into their laps,
it seems their prayers have been answered. Pledging to hide Rocky from his
pursuers if he agrees to give some flying lessons, Ginger sets her plan
into motion, under the gun to escape before the cruel farmwife, Ms. Tweedy
(Miranda Richardson), finishes assembling her Chicken Pie Machine.
Much of Nick Park's success comes from his choice of animation materials.
Put simply, the man can make clay emote. There's more feeling and
genuine enjoyment in Ginger's performance as a claymation chicken than in
Patricia Arquette's entire oeuvre. That human element, a sort of organic
humor, comes across in each stop-motion frame. And Chicken Run, despite a
pace that might give A.D.D. kids the shakes, is filled with moments that
make you grin like a 3-month old with gas.
Rocky's rescue of Ginger from the clutches of the Pie Machine has to go
on the all-time animation highlight reel. Park cranks up the pressure to a
mercilessly manic level as his chickens dodge gravy guns, mixed vegetables,
and pastry crusts. Chicken Run certainly doesn't break any new ground (The
Nightmare Before Christmas had more style, if only it didn't have
those annoyingly un-hummable songs). But working within the talking animal
framework, the film succeeds on a solid foundation of eccentricity - where
personality triumphs over pop-culture - proving once and for all even a
stick figure can be funny with the right punchline.
TITAN A.E. o C+
CHICKEN RUN o B+
PERFECT STORM (Capsule Review)
George Clooney sets sail for the elusive white whale of movie star
status once again, and this time his career compass is right on course.
The
Perfect Storm, based on the real-life tragedy of the Andrea Gail and its
six man crew caught up in Hurricane Grace, leaves you shaken, stirred, and
more than a little somber by the time it spits you out of the theater.
Desperate to make up for a bad year, Captain Billy Tyne (Clooney) convinces
his
working-class crew to head back out to sea in search of swordfish and a
decent paycheck. When the storm hits, Director Wolfgang Petersen (Das
Boot,Airforce One) unleashes a tidal wave of tense situations and
knuckle-biting heroics - jumping from one disaster to another without
taking a breath.
The stormy special effects are impressive, but it's Clooney and his cronies
(Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly) that make you care whether the
movie sinks or swims.
GRADE: A-
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