Category Archives: Family

12.07.13
by

Frozen

My rating: ratings3

Frozen, Disney’s latest animated movie, follows the story of princess sisters Elsa (soon-to-be Queen) and Anna in Arendelle. Elsa can create snow and ice, but has repressed her ability since a childhood accident. The climax of the movie occurs when Elsa let’s her powers get out of hand and freezes Arendelle into ice, cursing the kingdom with eternal winter. One of the movie’s antagonists, the Duke of Weselton, attempts to turn the people against Elsa, for personal gain. Anna, embarks of a journey to save her sister and the kingdom, meeting a handsome ice seller named Kristoff, his reindeer Sven and a snowman named Olaf along the way. The film’s cast includes Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Santino Fontana, Josh Gad, and Alan Tudyk.

I saw this movie this week with my family. We all liked the movie but my parents enjoyed it especially! The film has great animation, great songs, and a great story-line. I think kids and adults of all ages will enjoy the film!  I have to admit that I enjoyed the film more than Tangled, another Disney animated film with the same elements as Frozen, but not as much as other animated films this year, such as Despicable Me 2 and The Croods. I also have to admit that Frozen was better than I expected. At first when I saw the trailer for the movie, I thought it would just be another predictable Disney princess movie, but eventually I decided to give it a try. And then I watched the movie, and enjoyed it!

The animated short film that accompanies Frozen, a Mickey Mouse short titled Get a Horse, was very hilarious and clever, in ways that I don’t know how to explain. It is kind of like you are watching it in a theater, and when Mickey and other characters burst out of the screen, they are in CGI and no longer in black and white.

Here is Frozen’s trailer.

10.02.13
by

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

My rating: ratings3

In the end of the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie, Flint (Bill Hader) destroyed his  “Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator” (FLDSMDFR for short) … or did he? In the sequel, Flint and all the other residents must leave Swallow Falls (because of the food storm in the first Cloudy movie) and be relocated to the city of San Franjose, California. In San Franjose, Flint meets his childhood idol, an inventor named Chester V (Will Forte), the head of a company named Live Corp. One day, Chester recruits Flint to back alone to Swallow Falls to defeat a group of  huge cheespiders, a combination of a cheeseburger and a spider. These cheespiders where created by the FLDSMDFR. But against Chester’s orders, Flint brings along some old friends to the island: weather intern Sam Sparks (The Dictator‘s Anna Faris), policeman Earl (The Expandables‘ Terry Crews), cameraman Manny (Despicable Me 2‘s Benjamin Bratt), chicken mascot Brent (That’s My Boy‘s Andy Samberg), Flint’s dad (James Caan), and Flint’s lab partner, a monkey named Steve (How I Met Your Mother‘s Neil Patrick Harris), who can talk but only says a few things, including that he’s hungry. But when they arrive at Swallow Falls, hey discover that the entire island is infested with foodimals, including tacodiles, watermelophants, shrimpanzees, flamangos, wild scallions, hippotatomuses, mosquitoast, buttoads, fruit cockatiels, buffaloaves, crab cakes, meatbalruses, apple pie-thons, and much more! Now it is up to Flint and his friends to destroy the FLDSMDFR and defeat the foodimals!

I saw this movie not too long ago and was very impressed by the film’s amazing animation. The film was also pretty hilarious. But one major and extremely weird flaw in the movie was that Chester is extremely flexible. He can repeatedly move his arms and legs around in weird ways, as if he has no bones. He is similar to the titular character of an animated TV show called “Uncle Grandpa”.  Another flaw is that Chester keeps calling his second-in-hand (an orangutan named Barb (voiced by Kristen Schaal)) a monkey, but she keeps getting angry and yelling, “I’m an ape!”, but isn’t an ape a type of monkey?

Overall, the movie was hilarious and had amazing animation. I would recommend this movie for children of all ages. Even adults might enjoy this humorous movie.

Here is the film’s site and trailer.

08.29.13
by

Turbo

My rating: ratings3

Theo is an ordinary garden snail. He works 24/7 at the garden and dreams of someday racing in the Indianapolis 500, like his idol, Guy Gagne. One day, he gets into a freak accident when he gets sucked up into the supercharger of a street race car, fusing his DNA with Nitrous Oxide. Theo now has super-speed and calls himself Turbo. He makes friends with some more snails, a taco driver named Tito, and Tito’s friends, and together they go to Indianapolis so Turbo can compete in the Indy 500 and live his dream.

This movie, distributed by Dreamworks Animation, is filled with laughs and a lot of heart. I also think the storyline was very well-written. All of the film’s character’s were very funny, even though the minions from Despicable Me 2 are 10 times funnier. The film’s amazing cast includes Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luiz Guzman, Bill Hader, Michelle Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Maya Rudolph, Snoop Dogg, and Samuel L. Jackson. I would recommend this movie for kids 6 and up, because there are some things little kids might not understand. Overall the movie was funny and cute, but it was a little too short and is very predictable, too.

Here is the film’s site.

07.13.13
by

Despicable Me 2

My rating: ratings4

The minions are back in Despicable Me 2! Gru (Steve Carell) is now making jellies and is no longer a villan. He has 3 adopted daghters, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith and Agnes. One day, he is recruited by the Anti-Villan League (AVL) to track down the thief of the PX-41, a serum that transforms living beings into killing machines. While going undercover as a worker at a cupcake shop at a mall, Gru realizes that one of the suspects at the mall is actually El Macho, a villan who Gru thought had died 20 years earlier. This movie also stars Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand, Benjamin Bratt, Steve Coogan, Moises Arias, Ken Jeong, and Kristen Schaal.

I saw this movie with my family, and we all laughed out loud and enjoyed the movie. I think it was as funny and despicable as the first Despicable Me movie. I would recommend this movie for kids all ages. I think adults will also enjoy this hilarious film.

Also, here is the film’s site

 
06.24.13
by

Monsters University

My rating: ratings2

Did you ever wonder how James P.  Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) became such great scarers? The answer is that they learned all their scaring techniques from Monsters University, their college school. Mike and Sulley were both scaring majors who were kicked out of the Scaring Program. They then join the Oozma Kappa fraernity and compete against other fraternities, including Roar Omega Roar, Jaws Theta Chi and Python Nu Kappa, to win the Scare Games so they could get back in the Scaring Program.

This film has great animation, great cast, humor and is full of heart. Even though this movie is rated G, I think it is too mature for kids younger than age 10, because there are many things that they wouldn’t understand. So I highly recommend that you only take your child to this movie if they are 10 years old or over.

This movie wasn’t the best animated movie ever, and probably not the best animated movie of the year, either, and I think Monsters Inc. was better because it was funnier and didn’t have a disapointing ending like MU did.

The movie was accompanied by an animated short film called The Blue Umbrella, which I thought was really dumb, with every thing in the town having a face, including umbrellas, buildings, mailboxes, and water spouts. It’s like and umbrella version of Paperman, another Pixar short film that accompanied Wreck-It Ralph.

Also, here is Monsters University’s site and trailer.

??????????

05.30.13
by

Epic

My rating: ratings3

Mary Katherine (voiced by Amanda Seyfried), also known as M.K., is a 17-year-old girl who lives with her father, Professor Bomba (voiced by Jason Sudekis), and her 3-legged dog Ozzy in a cabin in the woods. Her father believes in a species of tiny people living in the forest. He does not know it but he is right. The Leafmen are tiny brave warriors who fight to protect their forest from Boggans, who want to destroy it. One day there is a ceremony in which the queen (voiced by Beyonce) choses a pod to become the next heir. But when she choses, the Boggans attack and kill the queen. Before she dies, she gives the pod to M.K, who is in the forest looking for her father. M.K is then shrunk and now must make sure the pod blooms in the light of the full moon and not in the darkness.

This film, which is rated PG and is directed by Chris Wedge, has great visual effects, humor, cast and animation. This is my favorite animated movie of all time so far. I saw this movie with my whole family (my parents and 2 younger brothers) and we all really enjoyed it. That is why I would recommend this great movie for the entire family! The cast of this movie includes Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Steven Tyler, Jason Sudeikis, Blake Anderson, Pitbull and Beyonce.

Also, here is the film’s site.

EPIC-Poster

04.11.13
by

Paper Clips

My rating: ratings5

This award-winning 2004 G-rated documentary, which I saw on Netflix this week, tells about middle school students in a school in Whitwell, Tennessee, wanting to understand the enormity of the Jews who died in the Holocaust, create a monument for the Holocaust victims by deciding to collect 6 million paper clips. Paper clips were collected by the students and donated to the school as well by Holocaust survivor descendants and Holocaust survivors themselves. At the last count there were over 30 million paper clips received. The school soon put all the paper clips in a railcar.

I think the Paper Clips Project was a very big accomplishment, and I am very proud of the school, the students, and everyone who supported the project. This movie also taught me more about the Holocaust.  I think people of all ages will enjoy this wonderful movie.

04.03.13
by

Under the Sea

I saw this IMAX movie at the IMAX theater in the San Jose Tech Museum yesterday. Narrated by Jim Carrey, this 40-minute film gives you an underwater look at sea creatures such as cuddlefish, sea snakes, great white sharks and seals. This beautiful family film is now showing in IMAX theaters such as the San Jose Tech Museum IMAX theater. I think the whole family would enjoy this movie, which is rated G.

I also learned some things from this movie, like for example, I never knew sea snakes were more venomous than king cobras!

Also, here is the film’s website.

03.28.13
by

The Croods

My rating: ratings4

In this animated comedy, Emma Stone plays the lead role, Eep, who is part of the world’s first prehistoric family, the Croods. Her family stays inside their cave for most of the time. All the neighbor families were killed by prehistoric animals, but only they have survived because of Eep’s dad, Grug (Nicholas Cage). His one rule is “Never not be afraid”. One night, Eep sneaks out of the cave and meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a prehistoric genius with ideas like fire and shoes who has a pet sloth named Belt. He warns Eep that the world is coming to an end, and gives her a shell, which he tells her to call him with if she survives.

The next day, an earthquake (which is actually the beginning of what is now known as the continental drift) destroys the Croods’ cave and everything familiar is gone. Soon Guy joins the Croods on their journey to a mountain, so they can “ride the sun” to a paradise land Guy calls Tomorrow.

The Croods is a beautiful, humorous movie filled with laughter, beautiful landscapes, and amazing visuals. It reminds me of Hotel Transylvania (another one of my favorite animated movies) because in both movies there was a very overprotective father who didn’t understand what his daughter really wants. I think The Croods is the #1 family movie of the year so far. CBS Radio News calls it “an animated Avatar”. I recommend this movie for people of all ages, whether you’re a child, adult, or senior! This movie is rated PG for “some scary action”.

Also, here is the film’s website.

Below is a picture of me sitting next to Belt and Douglas, a mutation of a crocodile and a puppy who soon becomes Thunk’s pet. Above me are the Croods and Guy (I don’t know why, but in the picture, I am hiding one of my hands!).

??????????

02.23.13
by

Escape From Planet Earth

My rating: ratings4

This 3D-animaed comedy takes place on planet Baab, where admired astronaut Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser) is a national hero to the blue alien population. Scorch works with his brother, Gary (Rob Corddry) and his boss, Lena (Jessica Alba) at BASA. When Scorch goes on a mission to “The Dark Planet” (which is actually our planet, Earth), he is captured by the ruthless leader of Area 51, William T. Shanker (Star Trek‘s William Shatner).  Now Gary must save his brother, his planet, his wife Kira (Sarah Jessica Parker) and their son Kip (Bedtime Stories‘ Jonathan Morgan Heit). the film also stars Craig Robinson, Sofia Vergara, Ricky Gervais, Jane Lynch, George Lopez and Steve Zahn. This movie is rated PG by the MPAA for “action and some mild rude humor”.

This film is filled with laughs and humor. It is now my favorite animated movie of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would recommend this movie for kids of all ages. I think everyone will enjoy it, even adults!

??????????