2012

Absolutely wonderful; gorgeous, thoughtful, funny, full of heart. Simple plot? Princessy? Eh, I guess. Well done, Pixar. HIGHLY recommended.

Originally reviewed on Letterboxd on 6/22/2012: http://boxd.it/gyq5

Absolutely wonderful; gorgeous, thoughtful, funny, full of heart. Was so happy to bring my girl to this; my wife and I loved talking about it in the weeks leading up to release, and it was so encouraging to hear her excited observations after we watched. Well done, Pixar. HIGHLY recommended.

Absolutely dreadful. Cynical stretching of 1 mediocre movie into multiple non-events; truly weak franchise deserving of home video death…

Originally reviewed on Letterboxd on 6/17/2012: http://boxd.it/gyYh

This was absolutely dreadful. I’m a dad; I take my daughter to a lot of movies that may or may not be my taste, but I really love the experience of going to the movies with her and sharing her joy. I try quite hard to suppress the inner critic and go with the audience.

Maybe that was part of the problem here; the audience was as bored as I was. I really didn’t think we were going to make it out of the first act; a theater full of kids on opening weekend and complete silence. I half expected the animals to stop desperately pandering for laughs and turn en masse to the audience for a quick admission that even the voice actors were napping.

Things picked up somewhat, earning the one star, but I honestly found the whole thing distasteful. I’ve seen some clunkers, but the cynical stretching of the original mediocre movie into a truly weak franchise reads like utter contempt for the audience of parents desperate for family-friendly entertainment. Without a bullet-proof audience base eager to have something safe to go see with their kids, these DreamWorks animated “franchises” would be relegated to the straight to home video market where they belong.