Brave (U) 3D ****

Brave (U) 3D ****

Dir: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson

Synopsis: Merida is a princess in medieval Scotland, a carefree character who fights with her overbearing mother about arranged marriage. In a temper, she runs away and buys a spell from a mysterious witch to change her fate - and that's when everything starts to go wrong.

Verdict: Disney Pixar films are always great to go and see, whether you are a kid, an parent or, like me, a 23 year old who is yet to grow up! And they aim to please all of this audience, with a story and humour that appeals to all ages.

The story itself is typical Disney: an arguing mother and daughter who end up going through and adventure where they realise they love each other really and make up. Simple stuff, and the story itself is similar to previous ones, but this doesn't stop it being a thoroughly entertaining hour and a half or so.

Having said that, it goes back to Disney films of old, with the 'villain' and fights concerning which being quite intense (I heard one younger member of the audience say that they found some of it a bit scary afterwards).

With the majority of the cast hailing from the British Isles (which adds to the value of the film at least for residents of the UK), the voice acting is brilliant. Obviously, the standout performances are from the main three, Macdonald, Connolly and Thompson, but I especially loved the son of Lord MacGuffin, (voiced by Kevin McKidd) whose thick accent makes him almost un-understandable (which is played upon in the film by other characters saying "I have no idea what he just said").


As you'd expect with Disney Pixar, the animation is beautiful. From the scenery to the characters and animals, the CGI is the highlight of any Pixar film. I loved how they managed to capture the essence of the voice actors in the characters (Billy Connolly's Fergus being very like him), with obviously animated faces but a depth of expression that I must admit is more lifelike than I've seen before.

The sad news though, is that the same cannot be said for the 3D which, unfortunately, left a lot to be desired. This brought the film down a little for me, as I honestly expected more from them, though I don't know why. Disney 3D has been known to work in the past, look at Tron: Legacy and Tangled, but here it didn't do the film justice. Where it worked it did add to the film, but the 'double effect' that so often plagues 3D was still apparent.

Ted (15) **

Ted (15) **

Dir: Seth MacFarlane

Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis

Synopsis: A lonely 8 year old boy wishes his Christmas present teddy bear would come to life to be his friend. When this comes true, they are the best of friends, but far from being an overly positive friend, Ted drinks, smokes dope and gets up to all manner of things.

Verdict: There's a lot of hype surrounding this film, the first from MacFarlane in a directorial role, and, unfortunately, it felt as though it didn't quite live up to that.

Don't get me wrong, it was hilarious and had a multitude of cameos and references to the geek pop culture that MacFarlane is famous for loving and referencing in Family Guy, but that was one of the reasons why I didn't think it lived up to the hype. It felt like a long episode of the show, with added American Dad and the Bad Idea Bears from Avenue Q. It didn't help the matter that the voice that he used for the title character sounded so much like Peter Griffin, and with Kunis who famously voices Meg, it all seemed a bit too familiar.

The humour is typical of MacFarlane: fart jokes, references to drugs, alcohol, sex and mocking celebrities and pop-culture. All of which will make this film a huge hit with fans of his work, and while I do love Family Guy and American Dad, thanks to BBC3 showing it constantly, it is starting to lose its appeal, just as E4 killed Friends and Dave is killing Top Gear.

Sadly, the story was all too familiar as well, and the cheesy ending was so expected that I willed him to do it differently just to, as he so often does in his TV shows, stick a middle finger up at the standard plot.

Having said all this, there are aspects I enjoyed about the film. For one, MacFarlanes ability to get all sorts of celebrity cameos in his work is great, building up contacts and friendships through his TV series', he has a lot of people to call on to help him get his point across and make jokes work.

The way Wahlberg and Kunis work together is good as well, with Wahlberg's child-like man and Kunis trying to help him grow up, and the way they, everyone else in the film, and the environment/props interact with Ted who, while filming, obviously doesn't exist is great.

As far as special effects go the teddy bear is also really well animated, to a point where you could almost believe that there was an actual bear come to life - especially with the fur, and the way they show his age so similarly to what happens to a much loved stuffed toy shows the bad-ass attitude of the character. Coupled with the interaction aspect that he has on the 'real' world, there is a lot more that goes into making him work than you might think.

All in all, this might just be another one of those films that I just don't get too well, such as The Hangover, which is hailed as hilarious and didn't make me roar with laughter the way I felt I was supposed to.

Paprika (2006) 15 - ***

Paprika (2006) 15 - ***


Dir: Satoshi Kon


Starring: Megumi Hayashibara, Akio Ohtsuka, Katsunosuke Hori


Synopsis: A machine that allows psychologists to view and enter the dreams of their patients is stolen, and the divide between reality and the dream world begins to tear itself apart. Paprika, the dream-world alter-ego of one of the machine's developers can stop the two worlds coming together.


Verdict: Japanese animation is known for being weird, and Paprika is no exception. It really is one of those films that you can tell while watching it that the writers and animators just let their imaginations run riot.

The story itself is easy enough to understand and follow, with the use of classic blurring the definitions between dream and reality - "am I awake or still dreaming?" - being used to great effect, especially when the idea of dreams is developed to incorporate something similar to wireless internet that is prominent in our daily lives. It is the interlink of the dreams, and their intrusion on the waking world that make this film stand out.

It is noteworthy that Christopher Nolan cites this film as an influence to the 2010 film Inception, a fact which is easy to see. But, where Inception goes into the sharing of dreams to effect ideas and/or steal them, Paprika focuses on what happens when the creations of a twisted mind, like those studied by therapists, is used as a weapon on the mass population.

The end result differs greatly from the 'structure' of the dream in Inception to the surreal, mesmerising and often quite scary side of dreams (the recurrence of the china-faced Japanese doll is most probably going to torment my sleep tonight).

The animation is as you'd expect from an anime, beautifully detailed and colourful, with some fantastic effects used to create a melting corridor and a city seen from above adding to the feel of the environment. When coupled with typical jaunty music that turns sinister at a moments notice (like two ways of singing 'Ring O' Roses' can by happy and terrifying), the film is successful in being more than a little bit trippy.