The Princess & the Frog

There are three things that are delightfully wonderful about Walt Disney’s latest animated feature “The princess and the frog”. To begin with I am extremely thrilled to see Walt Disney breaking the race barrier and having an African –American woman being portrayed as the Princess. Equally more exciting is the fact that Walt Disney had gone back to its earlier roots of making hand drawn animated features, rather than using computer generated animations. But what I really enjoyed the most is the return to the Broadway-style musical just like the good old Disney movies.

The Princess and the Frog is loosely based on E.D Baker’s novel,” The Frog Princess”, which again is inspired by the classical fairy tale, “The Frog Prince”. The film follows the tale of a young waitress Tiana, who works hard in multiple shifts, to save enough to open a restaurant of her own. She encounters Prince Naveen of Maldonia, who has been cut off by his royal parents and is desperately, seeking a rich bride to continue his high life of luxury. Being tricked by an evil voodoo man, known as the shadow man, Prince Naveen is transformed into a frog and the shadow man places some one else in Prince Naveen’s place to marry the town’s richest mans daughter Charlotte, who is a friend of Tiana. Prince Naveen encounters Tiana, and believing her to be a princess, convinces her to kiss him, so that he can be transferred back to his original form. But instead of Naveen becoming a Prince again, Tiana is also transformed into a frog. Accompanied by the trumpet playing alligator Louis and the Cajun firefly Ray, Tiana and Naveen travel, risk life and limb to return to their beloved New Orleans. Their encounters with the shadow man and how they fall for each other forms the rest of the plot.
The Princess and the frog instantly grabs you with its classical animation. It’s been quite some since we last saw a hand drawn animated movie. The characters seem more real and life like and we are immediately drawn to them. If you are some one who is not too much into 3D and CGI animations, you will definitely love this one.

The movie has all the making of a classic: love, emotions, magic, comedy you name it. But most importantly it has a plot, and a very good one I might add. Set in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the movie has some great foot tapping jazz numbers, which is a trade mark of the great city of New Orleans. The Broadway style musical renditions are very well done. The characters are well written and neatly executed.

But sadly, the movie fails to deliver anything above the ordinary. Enjoyable as it might be, but it is definitely not a “Lion King” or a “Finding Nemo”. The plot towards the end is a bit cheesy and forced. Not all adult audience might find this movie amusing. Disney made a bold statement, by going back to hand drawn animations and reintroducing some of its trademark styles. But the movie as a whole failed to establish itself as a classic and all I can say is that they squandered a golden opportunity. Sadly, when you finally leave the cinema hall, a sense of incompleteness lingers!!

I would definitely recommend this movie if you are someone with young kids. It’s always amazing to see the little ones laughing their heads out, in the movie screens. It’s a good effort from Disney, but definitely not a classic.

Why Avatar did not win the best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards?

What an Oscar it was. When Avatar swept the golden Globe awards this year, no one had any doubts that it would do the same at the academy awards. Everyone were surprised that not only did Avatar failed to win the best picture, but James Cameroon, the brains behind the multi million dollar movie also failed to pick up the best director Award. Many were surprised. Well I was not.

Let me be frank. I am not a huge fan of either James Cameron or his latest cinematic rendition. To put it in plain words, I liked Avatar. Like millions of movie buffs around the world, I waited for a ling time to watch this 12 year in the making science fiction. But no movie can ever live up to such huge expectations, and one is always bound for some disappointment. May be if I had watched Avatar with an open mind and zero expectations, I would have joined the millions protesting against the Academy for handing over the coveted prize to “The Hurt Locker”. But mere technical excellence is not good enough for the Academy.

I have a quick question. When was the last time a science fiction movie got nominated for the best picture category? Think of the best science fiction movies of the last two decades. Matrix, Jurassic park….. Any guesses. Well you have to go up to 1982. Yes, it was Steven Spielberg’s ever green epic E.T. Does it mean science fiction movies are not to be given best picture awards? The thing with science fiction movies is that you rarely feel for anything in those movies except for the splendor it has to offer. The year in which E.T got nominated, Gandhi took home the best picture award. Richard Attenborough the director of Gandhi remarked “I was certain that not only would E.T. win, but that it should win. It was inventive, powerful, [and] wonderful. I make more mundane movies”. On watching E.T in a special screening at the White house, President Regan and Nancy Regan were moved to tears. Did you have any such emotions on watching Avatar? There are many who are critical of the Academy for ignoring science fiction movies for the best picture category. All I have to say is that just take a look at which movie took home the best picture Oscar, the year your favorite sci-fi movie was denied a nomination. The Academy made a rare exception in 2003, when it awarded the Lord of the rings with the best picture award, the first fantasy movie to do so in many years. It is not about the genre, although it’s easy to win the best picture if it is not a sci-fi or a fantasy movie. But a sci-fi or fantasy movie must do more than just concentrating on the visual and sound effects. This brings me to my next point, the screen play.

One more question for you. When was the last time a movie won the best picture at the Oscars without being nominated for either original or adapted screenplay? Well surprise…. surprise .It’s James Cameroon again and yes it is Titanic. In 1997 Titanic walked away with 11 Oscars (including best picture and director) but failed to get a nomination in the screen play category. Twelve years later, Avatar gets nominated in 9 categories including best picture and director but failed to get the nomination for screen play. There are many who would agree with me that the screen play of Avatar was below expectation. At times it was so forced and cheesy. On the contrary, District 9 another science fiction movie also got nominated for best picture had a gripping screenplay and deservingly picked a nomination for best adapted screenplay. Had Cameroon worked a little bit more on the screen play of avatar, things would have been definitely different.

I am not overly critical on Avatar. I am also not over the moon on “The Hurt Locker” sweeping the Oscars either. My favorite movie this year was definitely “The Inglorious basterds”. But I am very happy that a movie like the hurt locker walked away with the honors this year.

At the end of the day, nobody makes a movie to win at the Oscar’s, especially James Cameroon. All that James Cameroon wanted to do was to entertain and he did one hell of a job. I am not taking anything away from him. Avatar is a once in a generation movie. But it was definitely not the best picture, this year had to offer.

The Hurt locker made just $12.6 million in the U.S, a respectable showing for an independent film without big stars. "The Hurt Locker" is the lowest-grossing best-picture winner in this modern era of detailed box-office bookkeeping. It took in less than one-fourth the haul of 2005 best-picture winner "Crash," itself one of the least commercially successful recipients of the top Oscar. The academy awards puts the spotlight on great movies which otherwise would have lacked the money power to showcase themselves. Avatar is a grand success, with or without the Oscars. But the journey for “The Hurt Locker” had just begun.

Congratulations Kathryn Bigelow. I am so happy to see a woman winning the best director Oscar for the first time. You truly deserve the honors!

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince-Movie Review

Steve kloves and David Yates come together to bring JK Rowling’s sixth installment to the big screens. The task of writing a screen play for a Harry potter book is a difficult one. The Half blood prince is extremely tricky as the book involves very limited elements that can be cinematized. The sixth Harry Potter book is where lot about Lord Voldemort is unearthed through a series of conversations and flashbacks. But all these necessarily do not make a good movie script. Steve Kloves has taken a lot of poetic license in omitting such things and adding a few interesting ones. Some have come out well, while others were found wanting. I must say he has done a fair job in putting together a decent screen play.

The movie beginning for example is very impressive. Unlike the books which opens at Harry spending his summer with the Dursley’s, the film opens with a flashback to just after the events of The Order of the Phoenix when Harry and Dumbledore are being questioned for the Daily Prophet . The collapse of a bridge in the muggle world which is mentioned briefly in the book is set as the opening sequence of the movie and has been done brilliantly.

The cast of the movie is what makes this edition brilliant. David Yates does not waste any time in introducing the real star of the movie Jim Broadbent(Earlier seen in Iris, Bridget Jones Diary, Moulin Rouge) , who plays the role of Horace Slughorn, a retired potions master being persuaded by Dumbledore to return to Hogwarts once more. Jim Broadbent is an exciting addition to an existing galaxy of extremely talented veteran British actors such as Michael Gambon, Alan Rick Man and Maggie Smith. Jim Broadbent’s portrayal of Professor Slughorn is mesmerizing. He easily glides between the two sides of Professor Slughorn, the one where he is a proud, haughty man who prides on his success and his contacts to the one who is extremely ashamed of helping the young Voldemort learn about horcrux. The teenagers in the movie are also maturing well as actors. There is a marked improvement in the performance of the three lead characters (Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliff). Tom Felton who plays Draco Malfoy has for the first time in the series was given a more central role and he has grabbed it with both hands. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dillane each play Tom Riddle, the child who becomes Lord Voldemort, at age eleven and as a teenager respectively and both of their performances were stunning. All retuning veteran actors were at their best, especially Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) and Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange).

The screen play is lot more character driven and emotional, which is a welcome relief form Steve Kloves previous attempts. The love- hates relationship between Hermione Granger and Ron Weasely were captured well, given the limitations Kloves had. Rupert Grint naturally brings out the funny side of Ron Weasely and makes you laugh quite a lot. Although I understand, that the movie cannot be made word to word as it is in the book, Kloves missed a few interesting plots. For example, there is only one class room scene in the movie. The running feud between Professor Snape and Harry reaches a melting point as Snape is appointed as the DADA teacher, which is Harry’s favorite subject. Kloves and Yates have denied Alan Rickman a wonderful opportunity by deleting all DADA class room scenes. Harry kissing Ginny was the highlight of the 6th book. But the scene was replaced by a very filmy romance scene which did not go too well with the die hard Rowling fans. The burning of the borrow was unnecessary and I still don’t understand the purpose of adding a completely new scene out of the book when the 5 minutes could have been used for any of Rowling’s original plots.

If you have not read the books, you will definitely loose the plot in the middle. Lot of prior knowledge is assumed by the writer which leaves the non reader clue less at many places.

But what makes the film stand out, is its outstanding cinematography, visuals, art direction and the over all dark theme of the movie, which haunts you throughout. The scene where Harry and Dumbledore visit the cliff by the sea is breath taking. Easily the best part of the movie, it has been executed brilliantly. Although you know what’s going to happen, the scene terrorizes you and keeps you in the edge of your seats.

The climax is what leaves you wondering if the movie is really that great. The death of Dumbledore in my opinion could have been done better (no disregards to Alan Rickman & Michael Gambon). Daniel clearly failed to lift himself in what was the most testing scene for him in the movie. When Harry’s great mentor just got killed by a man who Harry loathes the most, it is not unfair to expect some amount of fury and anguish from the lead actor. Clearly Radcliff disappoints in what was otherwise remarkable performance. However I can say that the movie clearly sets the tone for the closing two editions which are due for release on late 2010 & 2011 respectively.

There is a buzz that, the half blood prince could be the first Oscar entry for the franchise, give that the number of movies to be nominated for Best picture has been increased from 5 to 10 this year. However if on Feb 2010, if I find the Half blood prince in the list for best picture, my only conclusion would be that there were not enough good movies for the year 2009. But I will not frown if Jim Broadbent gets a nomination for his performance. The HP franchise is still a long way behind the Lord of The rings trilogy in spite of Yates best effort.

Overall a thorough entertainer, for die hard potter maniacs. There is no point in even considering the question “Is the movie as good as the book?’. Let me just say that the half blood prince is probably the best movie yet from the HP franchise. But that does not say much, as the earlier movies had not set much of a bench mark.