The Mad Prophets 2010

Cheer up, I promise that I saw your film.

Continuing on with the "awards season stuff" promised yesterday, it's that time of year once again. The Oscars are on Sunday, and foolishly, the Academy have not given a single inclination of the head, let alone a nod, to great films like Never Let Me Go or Buried. Bastards. My turn, I think.

As with last year's outing, this is for the period starting March 1st 2010 and ending on February 28th 2011, which is about the same period the Oscars are supposed to cover. "Supposed" still being the operative word, given how forgetful Academy voters can be. Also, as ever, going by UK release dates. Here goes...

BEST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky- Black Swan
Rodrigo Cortés- Buried
David Fincher- The Social Network
Christopher Nolan- Inception
Edgar Wright- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

As in most categories, it's been a good year. All of my usual problems with the Oscars overlooking great films are negated because there are very few cases of undeserved nominations. That said, I would have found room for Christopher Nolan in the Oscars' director race, at any cost. Fincher is the favourite there, having turned in the showiest and most visually engaging way of telling a story about nerds making a website.

Similarly, Aronofsky did his best Sam Raimi, clearly having more fun than you reasonably should with an awards darling, but still managed to turn a melodrama like Black Swan into something I'd love to see on an IMAX screen. Cortés did a marvellous job in the tiniest of spaces for a whole 90 minutes, but ultimately I was more impressed by directors holding together a molass of different elements. While I love Wright's work on Scott Pilgrim, I think Nolan ultimately managed that in a more collected and breathtaking manner.

WINNER- Christopher Nolan, Inception

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Keira Knightley- Never Let Me Go
Lesley Manville- Another Year
Chloe Moretz- Kick-Ass
Emily Watson- Cemetery Junction
Jacki Weaver- Animal Kingdom

While Hit Girl immediately became almost everyone's favourite characters of the year, other, more harrowing supporting performances than Moretz's have stuck with me more in the last year. My review of Animal Kingdom won't be online until tomorrow, but Weaver really impressed with her performance, building power as the film went on.

Emily Watson made a huge impression on me early in the year as the put-upon wife of Ralph Fiennes, his attitude to their relationship making a strong case for the banality of evil. Likewise, Keira Knightley recently gave her best ever work in a very melancholy context as Ruth in Never Let Me Go. but finally, it had to be Lesley Manville. So much of why Another Year resonates is down to her desperate and sympathetic turn, and it's a shame none of the big humdinger awards bodies recognised that.

WINNER- Lesley Manville, Another Year

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale- The Fighter
Andrew Garfield- Never Let Me Go
Ben Mendelsohn- Animal Kingdom
Kayvan Novak- Four Lions
Geoffrey Rush- The King's Speech

At the actual Oscars, I believe the smart money is on Bale, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Rush snuck in to take it. Bale is so magnetic in The Fighter that people seem to entirely forget Mark Wahlberg is the lead- like his character, you can't help but like his acting here even if you feel it's a little unfair. On the other hand, Rush bolsters The King's Speech by being just as important to the film as Colin Firth. The two go together perfectly.

Elsewhere, Novak's tragicomic turn as Waj almost entirely sums up Four Lions for me- so much of his performance is why the film works as it's meant to. And I was sad to see that Mendelsohn didn't get a Supporting Actor nod for being the absolute most batshit terrifying thing about Animal Kingdom. But let's not underestimate Never Let Me Go, as everyone else has. People might have first noticed Garfield in The Social Network, but his performance as Tommy is what really blew me away.

WINNER- Andrew Garfield, Never Let Me Go

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Buried
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Four Lions
Inception
The King's Speech

As much as I applaud Kayvan Novak for bringing it to life, I still have to give kudos to the great Chris Morris for taking suicide bombing and Islamic extremism and making exactly the kind of sensitive satire required. Feeling for the characters without wanting them to succeed is exactly right. The King's Speech is scripted for maximum sympathy with the characters too, but royalty are a little more readily likeable than suicide bombers. 

Although Christopher Nolan wins for imaginative direction, I'm more impressed by the use of one scenario for maximum value on the page. So while Inception is an incredibly imaginative concept, I was more bedazzled by the likes of The Disappearance of Alice Creed. You get the sense it's a calling card script, but it's a fantastic calling card script set in one contained scenario. But they don't come more contained than Buried, which was bloody brilliant.

WINNER- Buried 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Kick-Ass
Never Let Me Go
The Social Network
Shutter Island
Toy Story 3

Many would argue that Alex Garland's script was Never Let Me Go's failing, for being uncinematic. Our characters are not passive, but they're not exactly raging against the dying of the light. It's embarrassing to have had conversations with people who felt it should have been more like Michael Bay's film The Island. On a happier note, most people liked Shutter Island, with its script that gains even more depth upon multiple viewings.

It's possible to have a lot of fun with Kick-Ass, which is not something I could say about the source material, once I gave it a look. The script version takes the mean-spirited edge off, which works in its favour. It's also great to see the prison movie format put to use in both comedic and emotional ways in Toy Story 3. All good scripts, but ultimately, I'm blathering- we all know this one goes to Aaron Sorkin's amazing script for The Social Network.

WINNER- The Social Network

BEST ACTOR

Leonardo DiCaprio- Shutter Island
Colin Firth- The King's Speech
James Franco- 127 Hours
Ryan Reynolds- Buried
Mark Wahlberg- The Fighter

Poor Mark Wahlberg. I know The Fighter was his dream project and he's probably just happy it got made, but the way his performance here is being so shamefully overlooked was the indignant focus of more than half of my review of the film. I shan't dwell upon it much longer except to give him his dues alongside the likes of Firth, who did get nominated for an Oscar and shall probably win for his performance as King George VI.

DiCaprio played characters with similar backgrounds in Shutter Island and Inception, but the former gave him more to get his teeth into- it sucks that Shutter Island got bumped to a date after the consideration for last year's Oscars, and so Scorsese's film was too readily forgotten. I also managed to honour both of the excellent claustrophobic performances of the year- Reynolds' and Franco's. Franco bristles with such energy that you know he has even better performances to come, which is why Reynolds swipes it.

Winner- Ryan Reynolds, Buried

BEST ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence- Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman- Black Swan
Noomi Rapace- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hailee Steinfeld- True Grit
Michelle Williams- Blue Valentine 

Three out of five certainly ain't bad, Oscar. Portman is everybody's favourite to pick up the gold at the end of the month, but I wouldn't consider either Lawrence or Williams out of the running just yet. All three of them were pulled this way and that by their character's circumstances- Portman's Nina by her unravelling psyche, Lawrence's Ree by her shitty neighbourhood and Williams by her disintegating marriage.

Plenty of room for characters who were in control of their situation, mind. It's possible to draw a line connecting Steinfeld's Mattie Ross with Jesse Eisenberg's performance in The Social Network, and she also manages to outact even the fantastic cast of more experienced actors who co-star in True Grit. For me, it's all about Lisbeth Salander- due to plot restrictions, she peaked in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but none of the Millennium trilogy is ever as interesting when Rapace is off-screen as it is when she's on-screen. Rooney Mara has big shoes to fill.

Winner- Noomi Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

BEST ANIMATED FILM

How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
A Town Called Panic
Toy Story 3

As before, I'm loath to separating this category out on its own, especially this year. It does give me the chance to give a shout out to the profound message about the death of innocence in The Illusionist, and the sheer weirdness of A Town Called Panic, and the psychedelic and epic visuals of Zack Snyder's owl movie. But in this year above most others, it's been proven that animations can be just as great as the more celebrated live-action movies.

Take that other toy movie, for instance. Toy Story 3 is the cap on a perfect trilogy, bringing in prison movie tropes to great effect and wrapping up the story of the Best Loved Characters of a Generation. It's quite rightly proven to be the best reviewed movie of the year. So it sucks to be Dreamworks, perpetually trembling under the heft of Pixar's oeuvre, when they did actually make a really good movie this year. So it annoys me to separate stuff out with animation, because it means I have to be diplomatic and do this...

WINNER- How to Train Your Dragon

BEST FILM

The 10 best films of the last 12 months, according to me...

1. Toy Story 3
2. Inception 
3. The Social Network
4. The King's Speech
5. Never Let Me Go 
6. Buried
7. Animal Kingdom
8. True Grit
9. Shutter Island
10. Black Swan

Yeah, yeah, boo away. Toy Story 3 gets to be the Best Film of the last 12 months and yet not the Best Animated Film because there's no real reason to separate animations except to recognise films that wouldn't otherwise be recognised. So that's what I did. Toy Story 3 holds its own against any of the other sterling contenders of the year, and it won't win Best Picture at the Kodak Theatre.

The only other thing to discuss about the list is my placing The King's Speech below The Social Network. I maintain that The Social Network defines the last decade, like Wall Street and Network defined decades beforehand. Films like that don't tend to win outright though- The King's Speech is still a favourite of mine over it, and it's almost certain to win big on Sunday. Whether you like the list or not, Toy Story 3 still trumps the lot.

Winner- Toy Story 3

Join us next year for the 3rd Annual Mad Prophet Awards, where there still won't be any "sweeps" like in those other, boring awards ceremonies. Not unless Deathly Hallows Part II actually has sex with my brain, anyhoo.

The Mad Prophet's Top 25 Films of 2010- #10-1

"Them bad films can't hurt you no more..."

We are now in Flavour Country. Here come my top ten favourite films of 2010, and you can see what they are, after the jump...

Let's clear up, as ever, these are the films I consider to be the best of the year, but they're tempered by my personal favouritism as well. If you can see many appreciable flaws in, let's say, Buried, that I haven't mentioned, it doesn't mean I didn't notice them, just that I liked the film irrespective of any reasons why you didn't like it. And anyway, snark about my choices when YOU'VE watched 150 films. I even watched The Last Airbender! Twice!

In the interest of diversifying, you now have the choice of watching the video highlights reel that counts down my top 10 films, or scrolling down and reading why I liked them so much. Or both. Like last year's post then, really.




So as you all get to thinking you prefer my reviews when you didn't have to look at me, let's rationalise some of these picks, starting with number 10...

10. Buried (dir. Rodrigo Cortes) 

Buried is the film where you spend 90 minutes in a coffin with Ryan Reynolds, and that's much better than I ever would have anticipated. Cortes makes phenomenal use of the 6 by 3 space in which his movie is located, even managing to execute something of an action sequence in one particularly tense moment. He doesn't just rely on his surprisingly excellent leading man to carry the film, and he really got points from me for getting Stephen Tobolowsky on the phone for a skin-crawling supporting role.

On-screen for the whole film however, Reynolds gives the performance of his career to date by making you want to stay with him even in a consummately constructed nightmare scenario that leaves you gasping for air throughout.

9. Cemetery Junction (dir. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant)

An unexpected turn from the creators of The Office and Extras, the slightly more sober Cemetery Junction is an overlooked British gem this year. It's a sunny and nostalgic look at coming of age in 1970s Britain that also has some very profound romantic themes. It's not that there aren't touching moments of sentiment their other work, but this one is still more cinematic and perhaps more heartfelt than anything they've done before, without ever being totally deadpan.

A terrific ensemble cast and a script that's as moving as it is funny make Cemetery Junction worth seeking out on DVD, where I suspect it will do much better than it did in cinemas. It might be more something more restrained than fans of Ricky Gervais are accustomed to seeing, but it balances realism with nostalgia and once again casts Ralph “I Am Lord Voldemort” Fiennes as a magnificent bastard. Seek it out.

8. Rare Exports (dir. Jalmari Helander)

Christmas may have been and gone for another year, but if you didn't see Rare Exports, add it to your New Years resolutions- “watch Rare Exports at Christmas”. It's a darkly hilarious Finnish film that pulls apart the image of the Coca Cola Santa Claus piece by piece, instead setting loose the more monstrous legend behind the image in his native Lapland.

The cast are just what they need to be, and it pulls you into the thing nicely. It's a bit like Gremlins, in tone and in subject, but it finds time for references to The Thing and Raiders of the Lost Ark too. It's not an exploitation film like some might expect, and it left me feeling very Christmassy indeed. Rare Exports is a festive pleasure I'm definitely going to be revisiting in years to come.

7. Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have gone together very well over the last eight years of collaborations together, and Shutter Island keeps that going. It's a psychological thriller that hearkens back to the paranoia of certain Alfred Hitchcock films, but it's bolstered by its more contemporary mode of filmmaking to make for a very involving prestige horror film.

The elephant in the room is the allegedly predictable twist, but I defy anyone to have figured out the exact terms on which the film ends before we actually see it. Shutter Island even becomes accountable for its own contrivances, and Scorsese clearly appreciates that pulling the rug out from underneath the audience in a film that's largely grounded in reality is often more scary than the more popular supernatural strata of horror.

 

6. Kick-Ass (dir. Matthew Vaughn)

All I initially had to say when I came out of this was bloody fuckin' yeah, and that's still a sentiment that captures the experience of the film very well. Of course we also must look upon it as the British independent success story of the year, in exactly the same way that Monsters isn't. This is a big budget film that more than holds its own against less interesting comic book films that got their money handed out from studios.

It's irreverent, but still quite sweet in places, and in that much, it supersedes the Mark Millar series that it's based on. Most importantly, it's buckets of fun, with excellent performances from all of the cast and the gumption to go all out without being wilfully offensive or alienating. Bloody fuckin' yeah, ladies and gents. Bloody fuckin' yeah.

5. The Secret in Their Eyes (dir. Juan José Campanella)

While the critics' golden boys A Prophet and The White Ribbon set out to repulse and dehumanise, The Secret In Their Eyes is inclusive and sympathetic. Those critics used this film's much deserved Best Foreign Language Film Oscar as a stick to beat it with, never stopping to realise this is actually a much better film. The Secret In Their Eyes is a deeply romantic and thoughtful film that also has the capacity to shock and grip its audience with its powerful murder mystery.

I also have a great deal of admiration for Campanella, not only for his stunning direction, which integrates dazzling flourishes into a piece that's very subtle over all, but for his jubilant approach at the Academy Award podium, smiling even as the fucking rude orchestra played him off so Mo'Nique would have time to blather on later as she accepted a statuette. Campanella has made a stunning thriller about justice, love and a broken typewriter- unmissable and unforgettable.

4. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (dir. Edgar Wright)

Simultaneously a homage to many different mediums, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a film destined for cult greatness in the way that most films considered to be comic book flops definitely won't. Edgar Wright scores a near flawless victory with a film that's a romantic comedy at heart, crossing over the dynamic of John Hughes teen movies with the visual style of Mortal Kombat, and a banging soundtrack to boot.

To tell people about it is to do it a disservice when it's really much better when experienced. The studio didn't know how to market it because it's got so much going on, and even if it threatens to overbalance, it's remarkably composed for a film whose characters explode into coins in defeat. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a fun and subversive romcom that will soon find its wider audience in a big way.

3. The Social Network (dir. David Fincher)

Here's where that best vs. favourite thing comes into play, because The Social Network is probably the best film of the year, but it's not my favourite. It's not through any lack of emotional attachment on my part- there were just three films I liked more than this. It's definitely not to say that I don't like The Social Network a lot, because it's fantastic and unflinching, and it builds in your estimation for days after you first see it.

Aaron Sorkin's masterful script sits at the centre of a consummate construction that comprises David Fincher's artful direction and the terrific roles played by all of the cast, particularly Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerburg and more surprisingly, Justin Timberlake as the obsessive Sean Parker. It's a seminal film, defining an epoch without ever judging it, and making it accessible even for people who've never even touched Facebook.

2. Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)

Leonardo DiCaprio mourning his dead wife in an altered state of mind? No, it's not Shutter Island 2, it's Christopher Nolan's follow-up The Dark Knight- a risky statement in favour of smart blockbuster cinema. It's not perfect, but it's at least as close to smart cinema as you could ever hope to get from a film that costs $180 million to make. As with his other films, it's weathered the backlash and for me at least, that South Park episode actually enhanced my enjoyment of the film thereafter.

Just as he did for his Batman films, Nolan assembles a very talented cast, and no single one of them is bigger than the plot, which is rare enough in itself for a blockbuster film on this scale. And as a great lover of practical effects, was there a single frame of that corridor fight that I wasn't going to like? From the effects to the cast, via the lovely honking soundtrack, Inception is a dazzling effort that's meant to get you thinking rather than lull your brain into submission.

1. Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)

You can count the number of great third instalments on one hand, and Toy Story 3 takes pride of place on one of my fingers at the very top of the pile in 2010. Some will speculate that Pixar is due to end their stunning run of great films with upcoming sequels to Cars and Monsters Inc, but if this is the standard of sequel they turn out, there's no reason to suspect those films won't be fantastic too.

Compelling storytelling and genuine affection for the most-loved characters of a young generation make it a worthy sequel to its predecessors, and pitches to grown-ups without ever shutting the door on an adoring younger audience. The ending to this film had me shaking with emotion, and it continues to get me on repeat viewings- join in if you know the words, kids- Pixar can do no wrong. They pull out all the stops to make Toy Story 3 the cap on a pretty much perfect trilogy.

Revisit Toy Story 3 Week
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Related reading- #25-11 and the Bottom 10.
There we have it then. To agree or disagree, or talk about my choices in general, leave a comment below! For me, the New Year in filmgoing begins this evening, when I catch The King's Speech (reviewed later in the week). It's pretty exhausting, racing to do all this end-of-year coverage in the last week of the year. 2011 requires more planning, I suspect.

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

TOY STORY 3 WEEK- The Edinburgh Premiere

As you'll know by now if you've been reading this week, I saw Toy Story 3 at its UK premiere on June 19th, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. At the top of the week, I promised a vlog of some description, but as you might have surmised from how I also promised it would be poorly edited and hashed together, I kind of failed.

What I can do instead is blog about my experience in text instead!




The journey to and from Edinburgh was a five-hour trip each way, so upon arriving in the city at 4.30pm, I wasn't at my best. I caught a taxi to the hotel and from there, rushed off to the cinema to get some footage of the red carpet. Typically, I rushed out without my video camera.

The film started at 6pm and was generally rather excellent, as you'll have gathered this week. I also got hold of the first press screening pamphlet thingy of my film reviewing career, which was nice. There was a great introduction from animators Bobby Poedska and Mike Venturini before the film- everyone who works at Pixar seems personable enough that it really is the best workplace in the world.

One thing I haven't mentioned thus far is the traditional Pixar short before the film, this time called Day and Night, not to be confused with an upcoming and ambiguous-looking Tom Cruise film. My favourite of the Pixar shorts is still Presto! from before WALL•E, but this one makes a charming short out of the most simple concept imaginable. I'll say again, it must be the best bloody workplace in the world.

It should once again be reiterated though, seeing the film for the first time with a screenful of kids and their families probably enhanced the experience immeasurably. It's a great film anyway, but the reactions of the target audience were enjoyable too.

Despite what you see in that video though, I didn't see Sean Connery arrive. There were two more screenings starting after the one I saw, so he probably arrived on the red carpet later than I did. I also doubt I'd have been able to stop myself congratulating Henry Jones Sr. for not appearing in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and film geek determination doesn't go well with the kind of security stars of that calibre demand...

Anyway, afterwards I could've recorded some vlog stuff in my hotel room but instead chose to go and watch Macgruber, because it wasn't playing back in Middlesbrough and I had my Unlimited card with me. I reviewed that here, but didn't record much vlog material the following Sunday morning.

Even without the lack of material, my current video camera sucks, so the hotch-potch I was working on to show you today just sucks. Consider this my pledge to get a better camera and work on shooting enough material to give you worthwhile vlogs in the future.

In the meantime, this is the end of Toy Story 3 Week here for The Mad Prophet. Go and see the film when it's finally released in the UK on Monday!

Video courtesy of LondonCitySkies on YouTube, images from EIFF's Flickr stream and Millionaire Playboy.

TOY STORY 3 WEEK- The New Characters

In trilogies, so much of the world-building is done in the first two instalments that it's unusual to see many new characters appear in the third instalment. When you see The Lord of the Rings- The Return of the King, the only new characters with any bearing on the plot are Denethor, steward of Gondor and all-around douche, and Gothmog, who was a gnarly creature effect if anything.

Where Pixar have once again broke the mould is in introducing a wealth of new characters into Toy Story 3. As mentioned in my review at the start of the week, these characters figure nicely in the plot without ever short changing Woody, Buzz, Jessie et al. Spoilers may follow as I cover seven of those new characters.


Lotso Huggin' Bear

Lotso's a fairly beat up old-timer, based on a real-life toy from the 80s and voiced by Ned Beatty. He runs the show at the Sunnyside Daycare Centre, but like most of the toys therein, he's not what he seems and he proves an incredibly effective character when we see his origins.

Ken

With Barbie appearing for the first time in the second film, the third one brings her plastic beau to the screen, and gives him Michael Keaton's voice. The character proves an extraordinarily self-centred scene-stealer and you'll probably forget how awesome it would've been to hear Keaton voicing an unhinged Batman action figure.

Big Baby

This dopey lookin' bastard is one of those baby dolls that blinks its eyes, but his right eyelid was broken off long ago. Now he's something of an enforcer at Sunnyside, and his action figure has gone on tour with director Lee Unkrich to promote the film, arriving in the UK this week.

Bonnie's Toys

These toys belong to Bonnie, a young girl who's dropped off each day at Sunnyside. There's Mr. Pricklepants, a thespian hedgehog voiced by Timothy Dalton, which is just as funny as it sounds. The (male) unicorn is Buttercup and the triceratops is Trixie, who comes from the same range of dinosaur toys as Rex. These are the three I'll mention, but there's one more I'll let you see yourself, whose surprise appearance got one of the biggest laughs of the film.

The Monkey

Watch out for this scary bastard. That's all I'm saying. Jeez.

Toy Story 3 Week concludes tomorrow.

TOY STORY 3 WEEK- Wait, Go Back One...

It occurs to me now, in the middle of Toy Story 3 Week, that I never got around to doing a Toy Story 2 review on this blog. I did the new one on Monday, and there was a review of the first film when it was re-released in 3D in October. Time to plug the gap in my reviews of the series, and in the week's planned posts...

An accident during playtime leaves a demoralised Woody sitting on the shelf as Andy goes off to cowboy camp at the beginning of Toy Story 2. In his owner's absence, he finds himself abducted by Al, a voracious toy collector who's spent years looking for the centrepiece in his Woody's Roundup merchandise collection. As Buzz and co race to rescue him, Woody warms to the idea of becoming a collectable in a museum, to be appreciated by kids for eternity...

Many will know from both previous posts and my willingness to dedicate a whole week to a sequel that I'm a big fan of Toy Story. For me, as with many others my age, it's the foundation stone in my appreciation of films, and it remains my personal second favourite film of all time. Any sequel would have to match pretty lofty expectations, even though I was only nine years old when this one came out.

Pixar have proven equal to that task twice now, and Toy Story 2 is a film that's just as good as the first one. It lacks the sheen of nostalgia that fuels my insane appreciation of the original, but it's just as fine a film. More than anything else, it enhances the story of these characters, bringing forward the notion that toys get broken and lost sometimes as their owners grow up.

That works well when you factor in the antagonist, Al, who's an even bigger geek than Sid was the first time around. He's a tempting prospect for the likes of Jessie the cowgirl, Bullseye the horse and Stinky Pete the prospector, who've spent years and years in storage rather than getting the attention that toys are seen to crave in these films.

We're not going to broach the topic of Jessie too deeply except to say that Pixar is stupid, making stupid toys sing stupid songs that make people cry. Sniffle. But anyway, even academics have come forward to call this a perfect film. This story and these characters continue to garner high praise in the framework of a mere "kids' film". Critics have also bandied around phrases like "the Godfather II of animated movies", but there, I have to disagree.

The Godfather Part II is frequently brought out as shorthand when someone thinks a sequel is particularly good, but Toy Story 2 has what that other trilogy never had. It has heart, and characters you can actually empathise with. I've said before that I never particularly liked the Godfather trilogy, even though it's pretty much perfect on a technical level. Pixar somehow manage to get emotional resonance alongside technical perfection time and time again, and they don't need an excess of three hours to do it. Hell, they only need pixels and some great voice performances!

Toy Story 2 is just as epic as its live-action counterparts, from its nicely misleading opening to the big old traditional chase scene finale. It's bookended by a modern classic and the upcoming conclusion, but it is just as substantial as either of those, and well worth revisiting. I've heard people claim they didn't even know there was a Toy Story 2, so it's definitely worth revisiting. 

Toy Story 3 Week continues tomorrow.

TOY STORY 3 WEEK- Playing Nice

UPDATE: Despite me having discussed the main point of this blog with my friends for months, ever since that 3D re-release of Toy Story back in October last year, I've been pre-empted at the last minute by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier in this week's Smodcast. Yep, they discussed the Sid thing. Still, I'm a big fan of their films and they've given me hours of free audio entertainment, so we'll call it quits. You win this time, Smith and Mosier!

There's a scene in the trailers for Toy Story 3 where the toys meet the kids of the Sunnyside Daycare Centre and all hell breaks loose. They're damaged, drooled on, smacked around and generally played with in the way that little kids play with toys before they learn to value their possessions.

It's a theme that most will remember better as the main reason to dislike Sid, the kid next door and demented antagonist from Toy Story. This kid, aside from blowing up Combat Carls and attempting to launch Buzz Lightyears into orbit, deconstructs toys and re-assembles them as new and exciting toys, like a baby-headed spider or a duck with arms and legs. Wait, hang on...

 

Why is Sid, arguably the more creative of the two kids in this film, demonised for fucking about with toys? Alright, we know they come to life, and they're our heroes, but Sid's basically an outcast. He's a geek! He's easier to empathise with him than with Andy, to be honest, who plays imaginatively but somehow keeps all his shit in pristine condition for years. How the hell is Slinky Dog not a knotted mess like every other fucking slinky that leaves its box?


OK, so the people are ancillary in these films anyway, but let's be fair to Sid. The consequences of Woody's actions may have scared him off of pulling apart toys and putting them back together, but from there he was probably traumatised enough to move onto doing it to small animals, and then maybe people! Woody made The Human Centipede happen, ladies and gents!

That's obviously not what we see from the small shout-out to Sid in Toy Story 3, a shout-out you need to keep your eyes peeled for, but you can surmise that where he is now is not where he wanted to be in life. The kid seemed destined for a more creative course in life, dammit.

It's reasonable that the younger kids don't play gently with the toys in Toy Story 3, but when you're watching these films, everyone remember Sid Phillips, the true tragic figure of the Toy Story trilogy.

Toy Story 3 Week continues tomorrow.

TOY STORY 3 WEEK- The Spoiler-Free Review

You might not realise it, but it's been a good eleven years since Toy Story 2. Toy Story 3 thus finds an all but grown-up Andy packing his bags for college. His toys have been packed in storage for a good while, and many of their number have been thrown away or passed on. Woody the cowboy looks set to be taken along to college, and so Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the toys donate themselves to the Sunnyside Daycare Centre, Woody trying to keep the gang together all the way.

To say much more would be to rob you of the experience of letting the film unfold before you. If you're any kind of fan of this series, then Toy Story 3 should be the film that takes you back to your youth more than any other in 2010. Director Lee Unkrich and writer Michael Arndt have found a perfect balance in treating the characters we know and love in new and original ways while still bringing in scores of new characters, and never short changing any of them.

Let's take a moment to compare that to another recent animated sequel. It almost feels like picking on Shrek Forever After when its most relevant competitor is a Pixar film (especially this Pixar film), but just look at what went into that. There's been a Shrek film every three years, like clockwork, since 2001. In the time Dreamworks took to make one really good film, two fairly average sequels and an absolute stinker in the middle, Pixar lovingly crafted just one sequel to one of their most beloved properties and made it damn near perfect.

The story hits some of the same beats as we've seen before, but as I've said, the joy of Toy Story 3 is how differently its all brought forward. We get the now regular Buzz malfunction, but it makes for a great comic relief aside as the second act action ploughs forward. The crisis of ownership from the second film comes to the fore in a big way here, but while the earlier plot turns dealt with the idea of immortality, this one's dealing very much in the realm of Dante's Inferno. For toys.

And d'you know which of the characters should be singled out here? Mr. Potato Head. Pixar make it look so effortless that it might have been planned all along, but it's quite important that one point that the respective parts of the Potato Heads move independently of their brown plastic shells. It's a tremendously creative sequence in the middle of a tremendously creative film, and one that uses such body horror quite liberally, for a change.

More than expected, they're playing with horror conventions in this one. Certain new characters could be downright nightmare fuel for younger viewers, but there's always that level of subversion that keeps the proceedings warm and funny. It is a nice touch for older viewers though, who perhaps even more than before can be as engrossed in the action as their younger companions and offspring.

The studio has come into a reputation for tear-jerking since Toy Story 2, liberally tugging at heartstrings in the likes of WALL•E and Up, and with Toy Story 3, there's no exceptions. I've heard various people admit to crying their hearts out at various points in the film, so if you know and like these characters, there's no telling where the film will get you. It would be a spoiler to tell you where it got me, but there's not a lot of shame in admitting that it did get me.

It may seem odd to some who've heard the advance buzz that I haven't mentioned Michael Keaton's performance as a Ken doll. His great vocal work complements a scene-stealing character excellently, but what also distinguishes Pixar as the best studio around is how they get real talents to do voices rather than big names. Stars as high-profile as Tom Hanks are practically invisible here. Hanks is excellent of course, as are Tim Allen, Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton and the rest, but they're also subtle.

The only use you have for 3D glasses in this one is to hide the tears, a use that might have served you while watching Up last year as well. But all quibbling about the technology aside, it really didn't seem like this was in 3D at all. That's not to say that I forgot I was watching a 3D film, but that it seemed to make no difference. Naturally, I'm really looking forward to seeing Toy Story 3 in 2D, where the richly rendered visuals won't be impeded by a pair of plastic specs.

Don't doubt it for a second- Toy Story 3 is the must-see family film of the year. Hell, it eclipses most action films for thrills and spills, so if you don't have young ones in your immediate family circle, go and see it with some of your friends instead. But most of all, it preserves the same sense of humour and compelling storytelling that made its predecessors so great, capping off the story of some of the best-loved characters of an entire generation. Without a bit of hyperbole, I feel sorry for you if you're not going to see this one.

Toy Story 3 opens in cinemas, showing in 2D and 3D, on July 19th. Toy Story 3 Week continues tomorrow.

TOY STORY 3 WEEK- Introduction...

Welcome to Toy Story 3 Week on The Mad Prophet. Later in the week I'm hoping to bring you a somewhat uneven and hastily edited vlog on the business of my trip to see the film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last month, but it seems only right that the first order of business is my review of the film.

Yeah, there's been one of these things from me up on Den of Geek for a while now, written up in double-quick time at the hotel the morning after I saw the film. I'd like to think this one has the benefit of hindsight, although I'll still be discussing the film with next to no spoilers. There'll probably a spoiler-ish review after the film has been released next week.

OK, so it is another week before the film's proper UK release (FINALLY), but with nothing new out this week that I haven't already covered and The Karate Kid and Inception to cover next week, makes sense to do this themed week now.


Enjoy!

The Most I'll Ever Pay To See One Film...

Frequent readers of this blog (the appeal to improve your quality of life is ongoing) will know that I'm fairly buzzed about one film this summer. It continues the legacy of characters very near and dear to me. This third instalment is sure to be the film that everyone of all ages wants to see this summer.


NOT THAT! This!

Yep, Toy Story 3 is coming. In the UK, it's coming a month later than America and several other territories get it. It's funny how Disney then use this film in the summer's anti-piracy ads in cinemas, as it seems likely to be the most pirated film of the year. The platform releasing will see to that. But hey, Disney usually screws the UK over a bit on these things.

The main thing is, I'm getting around that in the way only an obsessive fan can- I'm going to see the film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival's 3D gala screening on June 19th. It's still one day after America gets it, but better that than one month.

On the down side, with accomodation and travel in addition to the ticket cost, this is going to set me back about £100. As a student who hasn't been able to find a proper job for the summer, that's only cheap if you say it quickly. Onehundredquid.

So you'd better believe that for that amount of money, I'm going to be covering Toy Story 3 for all it's worth on this blog and wherever else will allow me to ramble on about it.

Just so you know.