Hmm...

OK, then. As the Suburban Hen said on the comment on my last post, "Kung Fu Panda" is OK. Sadly, though, when you are talking a broad appeal animated movie, 'OK' really isn't enough to cut it, now is it?

It is not a disaster, but I thought that "Kung Fu Panda" was a bit disappointing.



"Kung Fu Panda" is big, bright and colourful (and, by the way, looks wonderful in an IMAX DMR print). It does have wonderful animation, some nice comedy sequences and good characters, but "Kung Fu Panda" is not nearly as funny as it could have been, and is severely lacking in character.

I think the worst crime of "Kung Fu Panda" is the waste of a potentially top class voice cast. Half the fun of modern animated movies, especially for adults, is in the spotting of various celebrity voices having fun. "Kung Fu Panda" manages to leech all of the character and idiosyncraticness out of the voices of fine character actors like Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, and others, that you may as well have used a cast of unknowns.

A real shame, then, but not a total waste. My Nephew (12 years old) liked it. My Niece (11 years old) thought that it was OK.

Great minds think alike, eh Hen?

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army".



I took my Nephew to see this on Sunday afternoon. He used words like 'sick' (which apparently means 'really, really good') and 'awesome', to describe it. I don't think I would disagree with one word of that.

I really enjoyed "Hellboy II: The Golden Army". I thought that it was better than the first "Hellboy" movie.

It is action packed and very funny (great slapstick), and as far away from the brooding and dark comic book hero as it is possible to go. Hollywood take note. It is possible to make a good comic book movie without having to go 'dark' on the material. I read recently that, with the success of "The Dark Knight", it is believed that a 'darker' take on the next Superman movie, and other movie adaptations of DC characters, is the way to go. Rubbish. Horses for courses. 'Dark' will not work for every adaptation. Here is a crazy idea. Try making the next Superman a not boring film. That is the way to go.

Anyway...

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" would be nothing without it's cast. Ron Perlman was perfect as Hellboy, and so was Selma Blair as Liz Sherman. Nice to see Doug Jones this time being able to use both his body and his voice as Abe Sapien. I also really loved Seth McFarlane's ectoplasmic scientist Johann Krauss and the 12A rating pushing German pronunciation joke. My Nephew especially liked that one.

It is extremely important to point this out. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is a stunningly beautiful looking movie. Imagine the creatures of "Pan's Labyrinth" multiplied by a thousand and you will get some kind of idea of the range and variety of creatures that fill the screen during the Troll Market sequence. Amazing. Really amazing.

It is such a shame that a lot of movies have been squashed during this Summer of "The Dark Knight". According to IMDB "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" only just made back it's budget on it's US release. Hopefully worldwide "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" will do well enough to give us a 3rd movie.