HUGO

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 127 Minutes



In Paramount Pictures Hugo, Hugo Cabret, Asa Butterfield, is an orphan trying to survive as he makes his home amongst the tower clocks of a busy 1930's Parisian train station. While trying to survive in the train station community by stealing food from the station's dining establishments, as well as maintaining the complicated tower clocks that his drunken uncle had intrusted him to, Butterfield tries to repair an automaton that he has inherited from his dead father to find meaning in Butterfield's life.

Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, this is a wonderful family movie about an orphaned boy whose life is intertwined with a magician toy booth owner at the train station, Ben Kingsley - who just happens to be filmmaker Georges Méliès.

With Butterfield being from a family of clock-makers, Butterfield steals intricate mechanism parts from Kingsley in order to fix the automaton Butterfield and his dad Jude Law discovered in a museum. Convinced the automaton contains a secret message from his late father Law, Butterfield is determined to fix the writing/drawing automaton to discover the message his father might have put in it. When Kingsley catches Butterfield stealing a mechanical mouse from him, Kingsley takes Butterfield's father's notebook from him. Determined to get the notebook back, Butterfield convinces Kingsley's goddaughter Chloë Grace Moretz - who loves a secret and is looking to have an adventure - to get Law's notebook back for him. Butterfield then realizes that Moretz's necklace key is the key that unlocks Butterfield's automaton.

This film is basically two movies, one of the children-oriented movie with orphan Butterfield living amongst the clock towers of the busy train station in the city of Paris - while he searches for parts to fix his drawing automaton. Butterfield also tries to keep out of the clutches of the orphaned lamed Station inspector Sacha Baron Cohen, who was wounded during World War 1, as well as keeping away from Cohen's dog. The other movie about Hugo is one of filmmaker Méliès as the children discover who Moretz's godfather really is. In fact the film very easily could have been called Georges, as the film spends such a great amount of time on Méliès life. What is great about a movie about Méliès is that Producer/Director Martin Scorsese actually had footage of Méliès films, especially of Méliès most famous film A Trip to the Moon.

I saw A Trip to the Moon years ago - but in black and white. Hugo actually used the hand-colored footage that was recently found in a barn in France in 2002, which makes those film clips of A Trip to the Moon even more magical with the film clips being hand-colored like that. Since Méliès was a stage magician, he pioneered the use of the practical stage special effects to use for his short films - as compared to the heavily detailed computer graphic effects of today. The opening shot was of a computer graphic zoom/dolly, which made me think that the movie was going to be a computer graphics movie instead of a live-action movie - until the shot stopped at a closeup of Butterfield. I especially felt the movie was going to be a computer graphics film after I had just seen the trailer for The Adventures of Tintin just before the movie Hugo began. When you compare a computer graphics shot like that opening shot of the movie - to the primitive effects Méliès used to do in his short films, it is awe-inspiring to see what kind of film magic Méliès used to do at the movie industry's infancy. Méliès was such a pioneer of the movie industry in his time, that he is regarded as "The Father of Special Effects."

Scorsese usually makes hard-core period piece ethnic New York films, so although a child fantasy-like film is more a style for Steven Spielberg rather than a Scorsese film, this being a period Parisian film in a crowded train station was up his alley as Scorsese deals with the period and the crowded train station. You can see Scorsese's idolism for film pioneer Georges Méliès.

This film was also shot in 3D and should be seen in 3D. As it was shot in 3D, the 3D effects are much more believable and impressive than a 2D film converted to 3D. There was a closeup of Kingsley at the end of the movie that I noticed that, instead of being a flat closeup shot with a telephoto lens usually done with a 2D film, the closeup was a 3D closeup of Kingsley's face. I normally do not notice closeups in 3D as they are usually flat. It makes me wish I paid more attention to the closeups in the rest of the movie to see if they were also in 3D. This is what a 3D film should look like, especially when shot by a filmmaker like Scorsese. Considering that this is Scorsese's first 3D film, the film is amazing. The various clockworks mechanisms shown throughout the film are especially graphic in 3D.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 127 Minutes.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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PUSS IN BOOTS

Paramount Pictures/ DreamWorks Animation

Rated PG

Running time: 90 Minutes





















Click below to watch the Puss In Boots trailer.



In Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Animation film Puss in Boots, orphan Puss in Boots Antonio Banderas tries to regain his honor and retrieve some magic beans with his fellow orphaned brother Humpty Dumpty Zach Galifianakis from the bad guys Jack and Jill Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris.

While this is supposedly a prequel to the movie Shrek, in that these are Puss in Boots adventures before he met Shrek, this movie definitely stands on it's own and you do not have to see the Shrek movies in order to enjoy this film. Just as in the Shrek movies, Mother Goose characters populate the land, so it is in the same world - but the film is in the style of the Zorro movies with an Hispanic Old California type of feeling. This was quite an appropriate style given Banderas background as Zorro. There is the sword slash of a P which I wish happened at least once in the movie itself instead of being done as a logo for the beginning of the film. The DreamWorks Animation logo also had the same style/feeling that was appropriate for the movie. This is a swashbuckling film with lots of action and story - so much action and story, that I was surprised the movie was only 90 minutes long.

When Puss in Boots's caper of acquiring magic beans, beans that he has been searching for all of his life, from bad guys Jack and Jill is horned in on by the equally mysterious roguish rival Kitty Softpaws Salma Hayek - the upset Puss soon falls for Kitty and eventually tells her his story to woo her. Going from a kitten orphan to a disgraced hero, Puss struggles to regain his honor - especially after meeting his estranged orphaned brother Humpty Dumpty. As a baby kitten, Puss was very cute. His eyes were very expressive - especially when he was pleading, making him irresistible. I saw the movie in 2-D - but even in 2-D, the movie looked like it was in 3-D, that is how advanced the computer graphics have become. The use of old-style filmic techniques like split-screen and film wipes give a nice contrast to the high-technology of the 3-D style computer graphics. My favorite scene is the Dance Fight, which has a strong Latin musical arrangement. The character of the Old Man in the dungeon reminds me very much of my old friend UFO Bob, that I almost thought it was him.

While there are Mother Goose characters in the movie, they have a superficial resemblance to the characters that we grew up with. I always thought of Jack and Jill as brother and sister - but in the movie they were husband and wife, with desires for making a little Jack and Jill of their own once the magic beans lead them to the legendary Golden Goose. Jack and Jill's underhanded schemes make them worthy opponents to the dashing Puss in Boots. And several of the orphanage characters were not as nice as their original Mother Goose rhymes made them out to be. Executive Produced by Guillermo del Toro, his Commandante is determined to get Puss for the Commandante's belief of Puss's betrayal of Puss's heroic ideals from his hometown. It is rather sad to see what leads up to Humpty's story on the bridge, that his story has became so famous, especially after what you see of Humpty's childhood plans and dreams.

This is a wonderful family movie and I am so glad it had a theatrical release instead of going direct to DVD as was originally intended. It is a much more interesting story than the typical direct to DVD release. From the initial box-office, Paramount Pictures made a wise decision in releasing it theatrically. I think Puss in Boots is a better movie than Shrek, and I loved Shrek, although Shrek was more into turning the traditional fairy tale story upside-down. Puss in Boots is more of a traditional fairy tale story = that turns the Mother Goose characters upside-down.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 90 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

Shorts

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 89 minutes



Warner Bros. Pictures Shorts is another cute children's film by Robert Rodriguez. Made as a series of short vignettes, Shorts is about some kids finding a wishing rock and the greed everyone has for it.

With the film as a series of vignettes, the shorts are not always shown in sequential order which may make following the story a little confusing. Visually, the effects are better than the earlier of Rodriquez's children films. I liked that Jolie Vanier's character was named Helvetica Black, which is named after the type font. Even though she is named after a type font, Vanier was a sort of bad girl and her name sounded quite evil with the background choir chanting Helvetica, Helvetica as she races her bicycle down the street at night.

While the film has some heavy hitter stars such as James Spader and William H. Macy - Spader and Macy were never promoted in the marketing campaign as far as I know, as I never knew Spader and Macy were involved in the movie. Too bad about this lack of promotion, as they could have brought more interest to the movie with the adult audience - as well as getting more box office for the movie.

Rated PG. Running time: 89 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews