Winning

I fit in exercise session 68, cuddled a sweet baby, reunited with old friends and after years, finally played a home game of poker- and won! 

p.s. It doesn't happen often but Noah joins the ranks of rented movies that are so bad, I can't even finish them. This movie was terrible in so many ways, as better elaborated here: The Emperor's New Movie.

p.s.s. It was probably cute, but I fell asleep before getting through Dreamworks Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Reading through a Wikipedia overview after waking up didn't compel me to continue. 

I also saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which was cute but did not surpass its predecessor.

More Dreamworks Animation Movies

*focus*  *harmony* *honor* *sacrifice* *courage* *power* *agility* *speed* *grace* *balance*

I have watched also:

Kung Fu Panda - one of my favorites of Dreamworks Animation
Over The Hedge - okay
Flushed Away - cute
Megamind - entertaining

Puss in Boots - very cute 
Rise of the Guardians - not feeling it

Since I embarked on this mission in April, I have now seen 13 of the 29 Dreamworks Animated movies (not counting movies I had seen previously but will rewatch, including Shrek; How To Train Your Dragon; Chicken Run):

1	Antz	October 2, 1998
2	The Prince of Egypt	December 18, 1998
3	The Road to El Dorado	March 31, 2000
4	Chicken Run	June 23, 2000
5	Shrek	May 18, 2001
6	Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron	May 24, 2002
7	Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas	July 2, 2003
8	Shrek 2	May 19, 2004
9	Shark Tale	October 1, 2004
10	Madagascar	May 27, 2005
11	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	October 7, 2005
12	Over the Hedge	May 19, 2006
13	Flushed Away	November 3, 2006
14	Shrek the Third	May 18, 2007
15	Bee Movie	November 2, 2007
16	Kung Fu Panda	June 6, 2008
17	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	November 7, 2008
18	Monsters vs. Aliens	March 27, 2009
19	How to Train Your Dragon	March 26, 2010
20	Shrek Forever After	May 21, 2010
21	Megamind	November 5, 2010
22	Kung Fu Panda 2	May 26, 2011
23	Puss in Boots	October 28, 2011
24	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	June 8, 2012
25	Rise of the Guardians	November 21, 2012
26	The Croods	March 22, 2013
27	Turbo	July 17, 2013
28	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	March 7, 2014
29	How to Train Your Dragon 2	June 13, 2014

Exercise Day 9 & DAP Movie #7: Madagascar 3 - Europe's Most Wanted

Done & Done.

This is part of my ongoing series of DAP posts.

Dreamworks Animation Movie #7
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
2012
Rating: PG
Budget: 145 million
Box Office: 746 million plus (even more than the sequel!)

IMDb Logline: "Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple. Their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent - Madagascar style."

Lazy Review: Madagascar 3 was cute but 2 remains my favorite. 3 was less grounded as far as storyline which actually fit its circus theme. Running away with the circus also lent itself to really cool animated scenes. 

After the movie: I missed most of The Voice and am now in progress watching Christina Grimmie's major misstep singing Fun's "Some Nights." Too bad. 

Not exactly 10 minutes later: I'm not really loving Jake Worthington's rendition of Bryan Adam's "Heaven" either. Usher gave some helpful background on vocal issues that Jake has been suffering. This helps me to better appreciate, not hate. 

DAP - Movie #6: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

This is part of my ongoing series of DAP posts.

Dreamworks Animation Movie #6
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa
2008
Rating: PG
Budget: 150 million
Box Office: 602 million plus (over half a billion dollars!!!)

IMDb Logline: "The animals try to fly back to New York City, but crash-land on an African wildlife refuge, where Alex is reunited with his parents."

This sequel was absolutely delightful! It's rare for a sequel to best its predecessor but this one goes down as my favorite Dreamworks Animated movie of those I have viewed so far.

The characters were developed even further, and even Chris Rock's Marty won me over. Despite my not loving his voice in Madagascar 1, it was comedic genius to have him voice the entire herd of thousands of zebras in the sequel.

What's really impressive is how well Madagascar 2 balanced all of the cool animal characters introduced in the first Madagascar, while adding new lovable animals to the fold - including Zuba, Alex's dad, voiced by the late great Bernie Mac.

This is no easy feat, considering along with the main 4 animal friends of Marty the Zebra, Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo and Ross, I mean Melman the Giraffe, they have:
the still terrific lemur King Julien;
the still adorable Mort;
the still hysterical penguin commandos, who elevated the movie every time one of them opened his cute little beak (Skipper even gets married to a hula doll, Lola);

and the happy return of the Chimp Duo Mason & Phil, who recruit an entire barrel of monkeys!

Yet, the writers were able to effectively integrate all of the various storylines and tie them together with a satisfying, uplifting ending, without any animals we loved getting lost in the shuffle.

I also appreciated the film's less traumatizing angle on the "Lion King" (also known as the other animated lion movie set in Africa concerning a father-son relationship that shall not be named by Dreamworks). The story was sweet, funny, and fun for all ages.

The music (with an assist from will.i.am, who also voiced the beefcake hippo Moto Moto) and choreography (yes, choreography is involved even in animated movies!) were excellent too.

I liked the movie so much, I rewatched most of it with the Filmmakers Commentary, available as a DVD special feature. It was really impressive to hear more about the complexities, hard work, attention to detail and teamwork involved in bringing this type of endeavor to completion over the course of 3.5 years. This movie didn't seem to cut corners in bringing its story to animated life - the creative team even took a 10-day trip to Africa to collect art, thousands of photos and at least a day's worth of video footage to inform their story-telling/animation. It strikes me that Madagascar 2 truly earned its half billion in revenue.

DAP - Movie #5: Madagascar

This is part of my ongoing series of DAP posts.

Dreamworks Animation Movie #5
Madagascar
2005
Rating: PG
Budget: 75 million
Box Office: 532 million plus (daaaaaaamn)

IMDb Logline: "Spoiled by their upbringing with no idea what wild life is really like, four animals from New York Central Zoo escape, unwittingly assisted by four absconding penguins, and find themselves in Madagascar, among a bunch of merry lemurs."

There was great voice talent in this movie- especially noteworthy was:

Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien of the Lemurs (very entertaining and somewhat impersonating Babu from Seinfeld)


Ben Stiller (surprisingly worked) as Alex the Lion


David Schwimmer (especially surprising, until you realize his character is an exaggerated, more neurotic version of Ross from Friends) as Melman the Giraffe


and of course Tom McGrath (also a co-director) as Skipper, the leader of a hilarious troop of penguins


Chris Rock also starred as Marty the Zebra, a character clearly inspired by Eddie Murphy's Donkey in Shrek.


However, unlike the witty and winsome Donkey, Chris Rock's Marty lacked the necessary charm to compensate for his ridiculously annoying voice.

Chris Rock is a great comedian but not a great actor as evidenced by:
 

Seeing an energetic animated zebra instead of his continually perplexed acting face helped... somewhat.



There were also a pair of super-amusing chimps (like the monkey take on Jay & Silent Bob or Penn & Teller), who unfortunately disappear for most of the movie and reappear by the end.


 
While Madagascar was cute and I especially appreciated its NY roots, it still blows my mind that this movie made over half a billion dollars. Its sequel made even more moola. My research will involve seeing the entire trilogy.

Special shout out to the adorable Mort.

DAP - Movie #4: The Prince of Egypt

This is part of my ongoing series of DAP posts.

Dreamworks Animation Movie #4
The Prince of Egypt
1998
Rating: PG
Budget: 70 million
Box Office: 218 million plus


IMDb Logline: "An Egyptian prince learns of his identity as a Hebrew and, later his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people."

Review: One Rod Down.

I don't think watching Dreamworks Animated films this old will really be relevant to understanding the studio today. 

The dialogue was often painful and the story, while worthwhile, was ill-fitting for an animated feature film. The songs were unbelievably corny, with lyrics like: "With my father, brother, mother, oh so noble, oh so strong, now I am home, here among my trappings and belongings, I belong... I am a sovereign prince of Egypt, a son of a proud history that's shown, it's on every wall."

The Ten Commandments was epically entertaining. The Prince of Egypt is a weak copy, despite its ambitions and animated free reign, and even certain favorable changes (brotherhood rather than rivalry forged between Moses and his future rival, the Pharaoh). The animated Moses fell flat in look, movement and character development, never transcending a cartoon. Val Kilmer as his voice was meh, and when overly enunciating also served as the voice of God. The heart of the story was so dulled, by the time the plagues were unleashed, the animated Moses seemed more an antagonist than a hero. 

While I hope this movie was helpful to inspect for a historical perspective on Dreamworks Animation, it's galaxies apart from the studio's most successful contemporary ventures. Dreamworks has not only abandoned traditional animation in favor of computer animation, but possibly musicals along with hefty adult themes involving slavery and the smiting of children. Rather than prophets, heroes are now represented by an array of plucky animals. This movie is a good case for why.

DAP - Movie #3: Turbo

This is part of my ongoing series of DAP posts.

Dreamworks Animation Movie #3
Turbo
2013
Rating: PG
Budget: 127 million
Box Office: 282 million plus


IMDb Logline: "A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500."

Review: I wouldn't have imagined that an animated movie featuring snails would ever work. Snails are weird looking and seem limited as far as story prospects. Turbo is indeed strange to behold at first. However, the animation is really impressive and the funky snails actually won me over. The predictable story was cute and entertaining, although it could be argued that the character stereotypes were "borderline racist."

According to Wikipedia, the film had one of the lowest grosses in Dreamworks Animation history and the studio took a loss because the film fell short of their expectations. I don't remember hearing anything about this movie when it was released (not that I would have watched it anyway). Also, maybe others, like me, assumed cartoon snails would be boring.

Themes: Self-actualization; following your dreams; the underdog champion; exceeding limitations:"slo no mo" poster tagline/improving your circumstances; superpower; bro-love  

DAP - Movie #2: Antz

This is part of my ongoing series of DAP posts.

Dreamworks Animation Movie #2
Antz
1998
Rating: PG
Budget: 105 million
Box Office: 171 million plus

IMDb Logline: "A rather neurotic ant tries to break from his totalitarian society while trying to win the affection of the princess he loves."

Review: This movie was never meant for children. The dialogue would go completely over their little heads, not to mention animated ants, like their real-life counterparts, are creepy looking. This is an animated movie for adults. Mental Note - Dreamworks is down with this, even lines like:
"I was going to include you in my erotic fantasies."
"What are you bitching about?"
"Call me crazy, but I have a thing about drinking from the anus of another creature."

I didn't love it probably because I was at my animated movie saturation point for the evening. Also, Woody Allen's voice creeps me out even when I can't see his dweeby face. It wasn't a bad story though and the dialogue was clever. Overall, an admirable and bold leap for Dreamworks Animation's first feature film, paving the way for animated films catering to adult appreciation.

Themes:
As stated by Woody-voiced Ant hero at the movie's conclusion: "Your average boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy changes underlying social order story."
As stated on movie poster: "Every ant has his day." Self-actualization.

Dreamworks Animation Project (DAP) - Movie #1: The Croods

Step 1 - Research. 

Watch every a lot of Dreamworks Animated movies. I'll explain maybe later. This post will probably be a boring read as it's more record-keeping for me.

Movie #1:

The Croods

2013

Rating: PG (surprisingly- did you know that "thematic elements" qualify for a PG rating?!)
Budget: 135 million

Box Office: 587 million plus

IMDb Logline: "After their cave is destroyed, a caveman family must trek through an unfamiliar fantastical world with the help of an inventive boy."

Review: Started out wanting to hate it expecting an unnecessary copy of The Flintstones. Surprisingly, it won me over. Well-written. Clever dialogue and cute story. Charming characters. Opposable Thumbs Up.

Lessons/Notes:

Cute characters especially animals; angsty teen with ABC family sitcom parental themes; family friendly; vivid imagery (this one seemed inspired by Avatar); action scenes; happy ending; it's okay to be totally unrealistic; puppy love romance; comedy; modernized informal dialogue and lingo seemingly misplaced but that's the point; kid packaging but fully appreciable by adults 

Themes - family; father-daughter relationship; coming of age; overcoming fear

Character Notes:
Grug - Dad, loving, sacrificing, strong, overprotective, oaf, caveman Homer Simpson, comedic tool
Ugga - Mom, kind, sensible, cavewoman Marge Simpson
Eep - headstrong daughter, rebellious, carefree, reckless/brave, freedom-seeking, more busted cavegirl version of Ariel, the Little Mermaid
Thunk - younger brother, doofus, dimwitted, lovable, comedic tool
Sandy - baby, doubles as family dog, cavebaby Maggie Simpson, growls instead of sucking pacifier, comedic tool
Gran - Grandma, Grug's mother-in-law, ornery, wise-cracking, inappropriate, comedic tool
Guy - neanderthal hottie, Eep's love interest, surfer dude genius inventor, neanderthal Aladdin, comedic tool

Lovable animal crew:
Belt - Guy's pet sloth, akin to Aladdin's monkey Abu
Douglas - Thunk's dog crocodile, akin to The Flintstones' Dino
"Chunky the Death Cat" - Macawnivore, looks like furry giant, saber-toothed tiger, appears to be predator but is actually loveable and cuddly, akin to The Flintstones' Baby Puss
Other animals rescued by Grug when he overcomes his fear - Liyote (reminds me of Ren from Ren and Stimpy); Trip Gerbil (looks like siamese mini-koala twins)

Trick Worth Mimicking: The Full Circle
Dropping events/lines/jokes/animals that seem incidental but then revealing that they are meaningful via circling back cleverly (examples include snap shot, defining joke, rescued animals)