Posts Tagged ‘Buzz Lightyear’
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The first order of business today is a call to arms. Today is June 1. That means the ranking list over at Top Web Comics has been reset. If we’re going to crack the Top 10, this is our best opportunity. So, please, for The Gipper… vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics right now.
For your trouble, you can see how Truman handles the Buzz and Woody uprising in his own inimitable style!
Today’s comic calls back to something very specific in Theater Hopper’s history. Back in 2005, Cami gave Tom an early Christmas present – Dewey, the havok-wrecking monkey. Truman and Dewey didn’t get along with each other, which is expected when a new pet is brought into the home. But things came to a head after Tom snuck Dewey into a screening of King Kong. It fill him will all sorts of terrible ideas. Of course, Truman came to the rescue the only way you can possibly hope to stop a rampaging monkey… buy flying a biplane, guns blazing.
I don’t know if you’ve seen Up yet, but if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve probably seeing Dug the talking Dog. Dug is a member of a larger pack of talking dogs and, well, long story short… at one point, three of them fly biplanes.
YOU TOTALLY STOLE MY IDEA, PIXAR!
Please note my tongue placed firmly in cheek because I TOTALLY stole the dog-flying-a-bi-plane gag from Charles Schultz, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.
But, yeah… I have to admit it was my own comic that came to mind when I watched that scene in the movie.
Describing the dogs in biplanes scene makes me realize how completely odd Up is. Maybe even a little to idiosyncratic for its own good. But I don’t care. I love, love, LOVED this movie. Despite its flourishes, Up is probably Pixar’s most emotionally relevant film to date.
I never thought Pixar would be capable of making me care about their characters as much as they were able to hook me with Wall-E and Eve. If they can make you care about robots in love, they can do anything.
As we know, Up is the story of Carl Fredrickson, a widower who ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies it to South America. But what we don’t know is where Carl got the idea.
In the film’s first act, we’re introduced to Carl’s childhood sweetheart, Ellie – a girl who, in all likelihood, for who the term “moxie” was invented. It is her childhood dream to build a house next to Paradise Falls. In a stirring, wordless montage, we see the couple grow old together, scrimping and saving to fund their bold adventure into the jungle. Before long, Ellie succumbs to old age, leaving Carl to fend for himself. Punctuated by Michael Giacchino’s brilliant score, both Cami and I were an emotional wreck after watching that scene. That’s when Up got its hooks into us – deep. After that, you’ll pretty much let a movie get away with anything – even a trio of talking talks flying biplanes.
I can’t stress the value of Giacchino’s score in this one, folks. Occasionally when Carl looks to the heavens and speaks to the ethereal Ellie, Giacchino’s score returns to the first act and drags up those memories of a life spent together. Carl’s pain becomes our pain as we remember alongside him. Absolutely fantastic work. That’s why I was disappointed to learn that Disney is not releasing the Up original soundtrack as a physical CD, but in digital download only.
I think what I appreciate most about Up, is that even though it is pulling your heartstrings, it never feels manipulative. It feels completely organic to the story. Carl’s quest to the Amazon is completely in service to his wife’s wishes. Love that conquers continents. The romantic in me can’t resist.
Additionally, Carl is joined by a young stowaway, Russell – a motormouth “Wilderness Explorer” seeking to collect his “Assisting the Elderly” badge so he can become a Senior Explorer. Rotund, yet hyperactive, Russell’s backstory as a child of divorce is only alluded to. But it is a powerful representation of what he hopes his obsessive collection of badges will achieve – his father’s attention and approval. Russell never says as much in such detail, but the animators make his despondency clear on his face. That’s note-perfect storytelling, folks. If nothing else, Pete Docter’s direction does a fantastic job of showing and not telling.
In addition to Up being Pixar’s more emotionally affecting film, I will also go out on a limb and say it is it’s funniest. Lots of rapid-fire jokes throughout, mainly courtesy of its animal cast introduced in the second act – Dug, the aforementioned talking dog and Kevin, an exotic 9 foot tall bird that joins them on their journey.
Things fall apart a little bit in the third act as Carl and Russell bump into the recluse adventurer Charles Muntz who has tucked himself away in the tabletop mountains seeking to capture one of Kevin’s species to bring back to the civilized world. At this point, the film becomes more of a farce than an adventure and if I were to lob any criticism toward the film, it would land here.
But as I said earlier, these details are almost incidental to the primary plot device of seeing Carl through on his epic quest. His is almost a Quixotic folly, but you believe in the love for his wife and cheer him on.
Of course, what Carl discovers after the task is complete and the lesson learned that adventure can be found in your own backyard, become profound for their simplicity. Carl traversed the globe keeping everything familiar to him within arms reach. But in order to achieve peace, Carl has to let go of everything that was keeping him locked inside a widower’s despondency. We witness his growth as a characters and as all his pain is lifted off his shoulders. It’s an amazing transformation.
I can’t recommend Up highly enough. It is far and away my favorite film of 2009.
What about you? Did you see Up this weekend? Did you succumb to it’s emotional right hook or did the film’s eccentricities get in the way? Leave your comments below!
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Remember a week ago when I said that I had three different comic ideas about Toy Story 3? I realized after uploading today’s comic that my idea for the third comic had completely evaporated from my mind. So unless I get kicked in the head by a mule or the idea comes to me again in some other random fashion, this might be it for Toy Story 3 comics for a while. I hope you enjoyed it!
Thinking about the Toy Story movies, I was always a little bit mystified by the absence of Andy’s father. Where is he? Did he move out? Did he and Andy’s Mom divorce? Is Andy’s Mom a widow? Maybe she went to a fertility clinic? The world may never know!
More likely than not, the animators of the original Toy Story didn’t want to design, model and animate ancillary characters that didn’t advance the plot. For example, I don’t think we ever see the face of the Pizza Planet delivery guy. It makes sense, if you think about it. Why go to the trouble of creating a “Dad” character when there isn’t much he can say that wouldn’t be mirrored by the “Mom” character.
That, and it’s a story about toys. So who really cares about the Dad?
Although, now that I think about it, didn’t Sid – the kid next door that tortured toys in the original movie – have both a Mom AND Dad?
Granted, we only hear the Mom off camera. But I think we see the Dad (or at least the Dad’s arm) when Buzz sees his television commercial for the first time and realizes he’s a toy.
As I recall, the Dad was also fast asleep in his armchair and it was fairly early in the morning. From that, I think you can infer that he maybe fell asleep in front of the television the night before. But I prefer to imagine that he was a raging alcoholic that passed out in front of the television. He’s an absentee father and that’s why Sid tortures toys – because no one is their to guide him.
Clearly I think about these things far too much.
Of course, you’re also dealing with a guy who tried to unravel the existential meaning of being a sentient toy. What does the passage of time mean in this context? Does consciousness come and go? Also, how and when do the toys officially become self-aware? When they’re manufactured? Or only after they’ve been packaged and “brought to life” by imaginative play.
Clearly these are questions for the ages.
Something else I’ll say, I don’t want people to assume that I am promoting the idea that a single mother can’t raise two well-adjusted, college-bound children with today’s comic. I’m just saying it would be challenging. I have two kids barely out of diapers and I feel like I’m screwing them up all the time. Thank goodness I have Cami to bounce things off of. If you’re a single mom, you have to have serious stones to keep kids on the right track.
So, in other words, hooray for single moms!
Did that sound creepy? Maybe a little forced… No. Definitely creepy.
I’ll stop talking now. You pick up the slack. Toy Story 3 comments? Leave ’em below!
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As if you needed another reason to check out The Muppets when it lands in theaters next week – but it will be prefaced by a NEW Toy Story short called “Small Fry.” From the synopsis…
Buzz Lightyear is left behind at a fast food restaurant when a kids’ meal toy version of Buzz takes his place. While Bonnie’s toys are stuck with the annoying three-inch-tall Buzz impersonator, the real Buzz is trapped in therestaurant at a support group for discarded toys. As Woody and the gang devise a way to rescue their friend, Buzz tries to escape the toy psychotherapy meeting.
Check out a clip here:
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