Category Archives: Movies

DVD Review: “Pete’s Dragon — High-Flying Edition”

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51vU-U4siCL._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1]Pete’s Dragon (High-Flying Edition) (2009, Walt Disney Studios)
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Released pretty much smack dab in the middle of Disney’s lost years, 1977’s Pete’s Dragon generally isn’t the first movie people tend to think of when they talk about the studio’s classics, and for good reason — though it was noteworthy at the time of its release as one of the few live-action/animation hybrids to grace the silver screen (1964’s Mary Poppins and 1971’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks used similar technology, but not as extensively or seamlessly), it was also the latest example of the distance Disney had drifted from its roots. Still, 1977 represented something of a miniature renaissance for the studio, at least in the context of the relatively barren ’70s; if you count The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a Frankenstein-style stitching of short features, three of the five features Disney released that year contained animation. Things had been worse (Superdad) and would get worse again (Condorman), and probably as a result, Pete’s Dragon has become a source of rather fond memories for the generation that grew up with it. Continue reading →

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DVD Review: “The Tigger Movie — Two-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition”

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61dp8eucgtL._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1]The Tigger Movie: Two-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition (2009, Disney)
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Nobody raids the vaults like Disney. Even now, in the era of the DVD’s death spiral, most studios refrain from pathologically reissuing catalog titles — particularly those that were never terribly popular in the first place — but Uncle Walt’s house has always treated everything it’s ever done (or almost everything, anyway) like a timeless classic. Which is why you shouldn’t raise your eyebrows (but probably will anyway, if you’re anything like me) at the double-disc 10th anniversary edition of The Tigger Movie, an enjoyable trifle that Disney sort of half-heartedly shooed into theaters roughly a decade ago. Part of a sort of low-profile renaissance for A.A. Milne’s beloved characters at the studio, The Tigger Movie is a kissing cousin to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, a more fleshed-out (and less Tigger-centric) adorable lesson in things like acceptance, friendship, and personal identity. Where Tigger Too mainly revolved around Rabbit’s perennial annoyance with Tigger’s brain-damaged antics, The Tigger Movie puts the bouncy-tailed wonder in pursuit of the family he’s certain is out there — despite his famous (and, it must be said, joyous) earlier insistence that he was the only one of his kind. Continue reading →

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DVD Review: “Race to Witch Mountain”

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Race to Witch Mountain (2009, Disney)
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The first words out of my son’s mouth after we finished watching Race to Witch Mountain were, “That. Was. AWESOME!” I concur, Jacob, Race to Witch Mountain is indeed awesome. Disney’s remake/newest adaptation of Alexander Key’s book, Escape to Witch Mountain,  is funny, full of some exciting action sequences, and has enough emotional appeal to make this movie well worth your time for the next movie night in your house. However, this is a movie that earns its PG rating, so if your kids are under the age of 7, the chases and final fight with an alien meanie may require some covered eyes; they get a little intense.

Dwayne Johnson stars as Jack Bruno, a former stock car racer, reformed mob driver trying to turn his life around by driving a cab in Vegas and living in a crummy motel. As the film opens, sin city is in the midst of a science fiction convention. Jack chauffeurs around geeks in Stormtrooper costumes and wonders “what have I done to deserve this?” One of his fares is a brainy, gorgeous woman named Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugiano), an author giving a lecture at the same convention about her proof that life does exist outside of the earth. Jack rolls his eyes and leaves her. But he’s soon to find out that she’s right when, after a run in with a couple of mob musclemen, Jack’s very next riders are a brother and sister whose behavior is strange and, well, a little out this worldly. The kids are Sara and Seth, played by AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig. Continue reading →

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