The Princess and the Frog, Astro Boy and A Single Man reviews

Despite the half term break, I seem to have more work than before, but I couldn't ignore the great selection of films out at the moment, and managed to see The Princess and the Fro, A Single Man and Astro Boy, which turned out to be a relatively good batch.

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
Although the 2D animation takes a while to get used to (all the CG glut makes you forget about old school hand drawn animation!), the storyline is more charming than many other films of its ilk for Princess. Telling of a young waitress' struggle to try and buy her own resteraunt in 1920's New Orleans is a different storyline for a Disney Princess Story, and finally gives a female character some true gravitas- Tiana (voiced and sung superbly by Dreamgirls' Anika Noni Rice) can stand on her own two feet, and is ready to get her hands dirty. It's not the colour of her skin that makes this a new page for Disney, but the fact that this princess has a brain. Of course, all those plans must be put on hold when she kisses a prince, who is cursed to be a frog. The two must find a way to return themselves to human form, but that will involving taking on the slimy Shadow Man and his voodoo cronies.
The charming, funny script, as well as an eccentric voice cast makes this is a thoroughly entertaining hour and a half, as well as a reminder that Disney can make fantastic animations just as well as Pixar. Admittedly, the storyline is very predictable, whilst the music doesn't stand out in the way that a picture like Up does, but this is a welcome return to form for Disney. John Lasseter really is the saviour of Disney.
OVERALL GRADE: 8/10

ASTRO BOY
Oh Dear. Despite the fantastic year that the film industry has been having (practically everything I've seen has been good this year), some hideous animaton wanders in to ruin things. While Astro Boy has some neat slapstick moments, it's nothing that hasn't been done before by other, superior animations. Borrowing heavily from films such as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles (the ending is a complete rip off of the latter), David Bowers simply doesn't direct with any oomph during the all important uplifting speechs. His standard, flat direction only lifts during the odd, mildly entertaining action sequence. And despite the odd fun moments, the henious dialouge, horrendous voice cast (someone really needs to adjust Nic Cage's meds) and the downright rubbish animation (my eyes are still trying to recover) ruins what is a fun television classic for many young kids across the world, myself included. An absolute monster failure, but for the kids, they may be entertained by this origin story of how a young boy is killed, only to be brought back to life, and then thrown away, as a robot. My sister (4 years younger than me) loved it, but younger children left perplexed by the odd, manic story plotting and weird humour. A mixed bag.
OVERALL GRADE: 4.5/10

A SINGLE MAN
This is more like it; a proper, tour de force performance that lifts a B grade film into the A class. Colin Firth is simply astonshing as a college professor preparing to finish his life as he suffers to cope in 1960s America after his gay lover's death. Though the taught dialouge helps, Firth's face does all the talking. The scene where he recieves the news of his partner's death is a masterclass of acting ability. The anguish, pain and devastation is etched all over him, and that torterous stance is held throughout this simply gorgeous directional debut from fashion director Tom Ford. While his camera floats over the lush cinematography, and the swooning, classic esque soundtrack, it's the incredible art direction that makes this such a tantalising watch. The clothes, make up and hair are perfect for thhis American era, capturing the elegance we see every week on Mad Men, the team who also work on this film. Julianne Moore once again shines, but this is Firth's show. He manages to carry the whole film, even the horribly overlong ending. A possible classic in the future.
OVERALL GRADE: 7/10

As about 471 films came out this week, I'm going to try and get as many as possible done this week. Expect reviews for Ponyo, Percy Jackson, The Lovely Bones, Invictus, Mugabe and the White African, The Wolfman and Valentine's Day by next weekend.