Trolls review

Story: After the Bergens invade the Troll village, Poppy, the happiest Troll ever born, and the curmudgeonly Branch set off on a journey to rescue her friends. 

Starring Anna Kendrick as Poppy and executive music producer Justin Timberlake as Branch, this animated musical takes the 90s good trolls and updates them for a fun filled, if strange at times, musical. 

 Its heading into christmas time, and this is usually the year where Disney releases some of its animated classics. For now we have Trolls, from Dreamworks. With being slightly strange in parts and no-explanation for some partial nudity its a well done musical with a colourful cast ranging from Anna Kendrick (she is the go to girl for musicals) to Justin Timberlake (who also accepted the job as music producer). Others such as Gwen Stefani, Russell Brand, Zooey Deschanel, John Cleese, James Corden, etc play great bit parts as well as Jeffery Tambour, Christophe Mintz and Christine Baranski (Beverly Hofstadter of The Big Bang Theory).

With its stellar cast Trolls is able to rise above convention fair and show itself to be something very unique. I have to admit, this movie gave me all kinds of feels, especially near the end. Trolls is not your typical musical, as the film also deals with how one wants to be happy but feels that their are only certain ways to go about it. It also presents its villains and heroes as more dimensional characters and not clearly one-sided.

Trolls is a surprisingly fun, entertaining musical with some terrific songs that will make you want to get up and dance. Anna Kendrick is perfection as Princess Poppy but Justin Timberlake really steals the show as the one troll who doesn't smile, sing or hug. We do eventually learn why, and you will get teary eyed I promise you. Honestly I felt that Trolls was even more tripy than the recent Marvel release Doctor Strange. Tons of bizarre looking creatures make appearances and try to even eat our lead troll while she sings.

Great music, terrific animation, and a worthwhile story that proves that everyone deserves to be happy. Trolls is that must see christmas movie that will indeed make you happy and perhaps get you into the christmas spirit. A wonderful kids film that adults are sure to enjoy as well.

Rating: A- 

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Story: On her return journey from abroad Alice learns not all is well at home as her mother has made plans to sell the company to Hamish, the man she was supposed to marry. But not all is well in wonderland either as the mad hatter has taken ill. Now she must save her father's company from falling into the wrong hands and find a way to save the mad hatter from certain death. What she needs is a little more time. 

Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp and the rest of the cast of Alice in Wonderland return for this sequel which deals with time. Its been six years since we last followed Alice down the rabbit hole. Now,  since coming home from her voyage abroad, she must deal with issues both at home and in Wonderland. The whole idea of time comes into play as Alice feels that time is becoming more and more fleeting. After getting into a fight with her mother (Lindsay Duncan) about selling her father's ship, she enters a magic mirror after following the blue butterfly Absolem (the final performance of Alan Rickman). She learns about the distraught Hatter and through the white queen (Anne Hathaway) she must confront time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen) in order to learn what is troubling the hatter.

Sacha is fantastic as the new comer Time. As with any Tim Burton film there is always that quirkiness and whimsy. The design of Time is brilliant and Sacha really plays up the role with fantastic vigour. Rhys Ifans also makes a great appearance as the Hatter's father. Similar to Christopher Lee's performance in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Rhys plays the fatherly role with both love and stern velocity. He's great and really stands toe to toe with Johnny. It's great as well to see the whole cast return for this follow-up. Other new comers such as Andrew Scott (as a doctor who suspects Alice for having mental instabilities) and Ed Speleers (as James Harcourt) make minor appearances. Andrew was pretty fantastic as usual but he is underused and the sequence where Alice wakes up in a mental hospital just drags the middle part of the film down as I find it better for films such as these (Narnia, Oz) to begin and end in the real world and the main journey taking place in the mythical world. For Alice to suddenly appear in the real world half way through and for not much to happen except to delay her just feels like a waste. Speaking of waste, who was Ed Speleers supposed to be, a new love interest. Poor guy barely has any lines and his character has no development at all.

The whole concept of time in the film does get a little convoluted. Its interesting to see how the villains and other characters got to where they end up in the first film, only thing is that it still felt like something was missing.

What was a cool twist to have in the film was to have the villains turn out to be the real heroes. Nothing is black and white, there's that grey area. It did give the film a more real feel. I also liked the concept of family and the importance of keeping your family together. Just as Alice wants to keep her father's ship in the family, the mad hatter wants to find his. I was very happy to see how well James Bobin was able to continue the same look and feel of the first film and when adding in new additions he is still able to keep it feeling like a Tim Burton film. I do wish that the film had a more easier plot to understand.

Alice Through the Looking Glass is a descent follow up with the original cast, some great themes about family and the importance about being in the now than worrying about the future. Where the film lacks in character development and story it makes up with great visuals, a continued sense of wonder and a fantastic villain.

Rating: B

Finding Dory Review

Story: The friendly-but-forgetful blue tang fish (Dory played by Ellen DeGeneres) begins a search for her long lost parents, and she learns along the way a few things about the true meaning of family.

Ellen Degeneres and Albert Brooks return to the second helping of the fish under the sea as one year after Dory helped Marlin (Albert) find his son Nemo, now Nemo and Marlin must help Dory find her family that she has just recently remembered.

Having lost her family years ago and then eventually forgetting them Dory becomes determined to not forget what she has just remembered and go on a journey to find her parents, she enlists Marlin and Nemo's help as she knows she can't find them on her own. She learns where she is from, California, and with the help of a familiar turtle she finally finds her way, and where to? A Marine Life Institute, where in quarantine she learns she was raised.

The story is a fun, family movie dealing really with parents who have to handle special kids. Dory is very forgetful and having a child like that can be a handle.  As a follow-up to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory is funnier, grander in scale and deeper in emotion. It also has a handful of amazing characters from sealions and a beluga whale to a red octopus and a whale shark.

Ed O'Neil and Ty Burrell play Hank and Bailey who help Dory try and find her parents. Ed plays Hank, the red octopus with a missing tentacle. He has a fear of the great big deep and says he only will help Dory if she gives him her orange tag, which will give him the chance to stay in an aquarium. Ty plays Bailey, a beluga whale who is able to eventually use echo location to help Dory locate her parents. He goes through a little self doubt at first as he feels he can no longer have echo location. With the help of his neighbour, the near sighted whale shark Destiny, he sheds his self doubt and helps in the release of a lot of marine life.

The film also stars Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy as Dory's parents, Idris Elba and Dominic West as sea lions, and returnees Bob Peterson as Mr. Ray and Andrew Stanton as the turtle Crush.

Thomas Newman returns to score the film. Having scored the past recent Bond films he does add in a familiar tune to the action scenes, which is fine however I would have preferred him to add more themes from the original but again this film has been made at least 13 years after the first. Sia provides a classic reworking of the song Unforgettable.

Finding Dory has a terrific cast, superb animation and a truly emotional story. The sequel adds another layer as it tells a story on the troubles families go through who have special needs kids. Its such an uplifting story and truly a perfect sequel.

Rating: A+