Musical

A World of Pure Imagination

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  • IMDb: link

Willy Wonka

Years ago Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), the world’s foremost creator of chocolate treats, closed his factory to the public to prevent people from stealing the secrets of his candy making. Out of nowhere the reclusive inventor ships five hidden golden tickets hidden in Wonka bars. Whoever finds a ticket will be allowed to enter the Wonka factory.

The five children include Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner) who never saw a snack he didn’t eat, Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson), spoiled rich girl Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), and television obsessed Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen). The fifth ticket is found by Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) who lives in the slums just blocks away from the fatory with his mother (Diana Sowle) and his bedridden grandparents: Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson), Grandma Georgina (Dora Altmann), Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing) and Grandpa George (Ernst Ziegler). Charlie and Grandpa Joe join the others for the tour of the factory led by Willy Wonka himself. Inside they find wonders that they could not even imagine.

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Country Strong

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Country Strong
  • IMDB: link

“Was [Townes Van Zandt] famous?”
“In some circles. But not as famous as Carrie Underwood.”

Coming out of rehab (again) country music star Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) hits the road with her manager and husband (Tim McGraw), and two young aspiring stars (Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester) on a comeback tour.

The film’s running time is under two hours but it feels much longer as the characters and plot struggle to make their way to the story’s climactic performance in Dallas.

The performances are solid, but nothing special. The music is more country pop than country, and both Paltrow and Meester are adequate at performing them. However, neither the songs nor the performances will make you buy the soundtrack. And the story itself, aside from the ending (which serves up a very questionable message), is all to predictable.

Although the version I viewed contained no extras (not even the trailer was included), some version do include deleted scenes, the film’s original ending, an extended musical performance, and cast and crew featurettes.

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Rio

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Rio
  • IMDB: link

Rio is by all accounts a very traditional animated feature. We get likable stars in the form of cute animals, a few big musical numbers, stories centered around friendship and true love, and even a menacing villain or two. Although the film doesn’t stray too far off the path of what we’ve seen (many) times before, Rio delivers a colorful film and its share of fun.

The story centers around Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), a domesticated Spinx Macaw who never learned to fly. Blu travels from his cozy home in Minnesota to the Brazilian wilderness with his owner Linda (Leslie Mann) when an ornithologist (Rodrigo Santoro) convinces them to help save Blu’s endangered species.

I would have liked to have seen more of Linda and Blu’s life together in Minnesota. After a brief introduction, we only get a montage of the two growing up together and then a single scene before moving onto to their adventure. Although the film has plenty of relationships, this is the one that held the most promise, and is sadly interrupted by the series of events which follow.

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The Princess and the Frog

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Princess and the Frog
  • IMDB: link

It’s been awhile. For more than a decade Disney has been, well, very un-Disney. In many ways, with the latest animated feature, the company returns to the roots. We’ve got a classic tale, a princess (of sorts), talking animals, big musical numbers, true love triumphant, a wicked villain, and a curse.

The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s 49th animated feature film, might not be in the same class as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, but for the first time in a long time the studio has released a movie that feels like a Disney film (and not an animated feature that any studio could have produced).

That’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its warts. The Princess and the Frog is at least 15 minutes too long, the story meanders a bit in places, and the animation isn’t as crisp as I’d like. That said, over the course of the film you can feel (at least in places) the old-time magic being re-awoken. In many ways through the process of making this film it feels as if the studio is slowly rediscovering itself.

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