What an odd time for animation.
Even if we watch a film where the plot only ever hums and characters never pop,
we can still marvel at the onscreen techno wonder. Everything looks amazing! “The
Boxtrolls” and “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” – the former stop motion mixed with
CGI, the latter all CGI – are prime examples. Hum. No pop. “Boxtrolls” comes
from studio Laika, who made “Coraline,” an edgy horror tale for cool kids. But
“Trolls” misfires with title characters -- tiny ogres live under a
Victorian-era city and dress in discarded cardboard -- that fail to spark or
overcome their human counterparts, including a status-hungry villain (Ben
Kingsley) with a penchant for cabaret. Bummer. Only a fourth-wall-crashing
Monty Pythonesque riff on “free will” fired my brain, during the end credits. A
remake of the old cartoon shorts about a time-traveling dog and his
not-so-bright human boy, “Peabody” is full of a breezy slapstick, bad puns, and
warped histories of the Trojan War, Mona Lisa, and more. It relies on poop
jokes and greatly underserves a female companion, but it gets in a Mel Brooks cameo
as Einstein, and I love Mel Brooks. Boxtrolls: C+ Peabody: B
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment