[MOVIE REVIEW] The Pied Piper (Krysar) (1986)

 

OR

Title: The Pied Piper (a.k.a Krysar)

Starring:  Oldrich Kaiser, Jiri Labus, Michal Pavlicek, Vilem Cok

Genre:  Horror / Fantasy / Romance

Company:   Kratky Film Praha

Directed by: Jiri Barta

Year: 1986

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  Amazon

The film starts off with the people of Hamelin doing their daily tasks when suddenly, a large group of rats come and invaded the village, causing mayhem for the townspeople.  The leaders of the town tried to find a way to get rid of the rats when they suddenly meet up with a mysterious man, who stated that he will help get rid of the rats if the town leaders pay him money.  The town leaders agree to this and the Pied Piper ended up getting rid of the rats by using his flute to send the rats to their deaths.  After that, the Pied Piper falls in love with a young woman who is very innocent.  But then, things start to go wrong when the town leaders refused to pay the Pied Piper and so, the Pied Piper decided to take his revenge against the town of Hamelin.

So, for years, I have been watching and reading lots of darker and edgier takes on various fairy tales; but I had never seen a darker and edgier take on "The Pied Piper" before, until I saw this movie.  This movie was such a dark yet entertaining experience for me as I just loved how dark this particular story got as the film goes on.  There were so many dark moments in this film, like how the Pied Piper deals with the rats or how depraved the townspeople really are and those dark moments really made this film stand out to me.  I also loved the bizarre and disturbing designs of the characters and the town of Hamelin itself as everything looks so disjointed and the animation style reminded me so much of "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  Another thing that I loved about this film was that it showed us just how corrupted the townspeople were.  In the original fairy tale, the town leaders did refuse to pay the Pied Piper, but the story seemed to be lighthearted, at least until the end.  Here, the town leaders are corrupted themselves and we get to see just how disturbing and depraved they really are, and it helped upped the bleakness of this film.  I also loved the design of the Pied Piper himself as he is not portrayed as a jolly guy like he usually is in other interpretations of the fairy tale.  Instead, he is portrayed as a creepy and silent man whose only goal is to take down the rats to get his money.  However, I do like the fact that the film tried to give the Pied Piper a softer side as he falls in love with the innocent woman.

One of the issues that I had with this film was that the first half of the film was pretty slow.  Even though the first half of the film was introducing us to the townspeople, it wouldn't be until the halfway point of the film where the Pied Piper shows up and it was a bit of a slog to go through the first half of the film.  I also found the characters of the innocent woman and the fisherman to be a bit bland in comparison to the rest of the townspeople as they don't really have much in personalities other than being more innocent than the townspeople.  I actually wished that they had developed the fisherman and the innocent woman a bit more in this film.

Overall, "The Pied Piper (Krysar)" is one of the best and darkest adaptations of the "Pied Piper" story!  Even though the beginning was very slow and the characters of the fisherman and the innocent woman weren't that well developed, the dark atmosphere and the unique animation really made this film a treat to watch and I would highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see a darker and edgier take on the Pied Piper story.

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[MOVIE REVIEW] We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)

OR

Title: We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

Starring:  John Goodman, Rhea Perlman, Jay Leno, Julia Child

Genre: Fantasy / Family / Adventure / Science Fiction

Company:   Universal Pictures

Directed by: Phil Nibbelink, Simon Wells, Dick Zondag and Ralph Zondag

Year: 1993

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated G

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

The movie starts off with a young bird wanting to run away from home because he got embarrassed by his mother coddling him in front of his brothers.  But then, the young bird meets up with a tyrannosaur named...Rex and Rex then starts telling the little bird about how he and the other dinosaurs came to New York City.  When a kindly inventor named Captain NewEyes brings the dinosaurs from their era and gave them a cereal brand called "Brain Grain" in order to make the dinosaurs smarter, he sends the dinosaurs on a mission to get to the Museum of Natural History.  When the dinosaurs finally reach New York City, they meet up with two kids named Louie, who is a young boy with a tough attitude and Cecilia, a young girl who comes from a rich family. The two kids then accompany the dinosaurs to the Museum of Natural History, but unfortunately, they meet up the evil Professor ScrewEyes, who wants to turn the dinosaurs back into their feral states in order to showcase them in his terrifying eccentric circus.

I will admit that when I first heard about this movie, I wasn't that excited to watch it and I actually was afraid to watch it the first time.  But, then I finally caved into this movie and I ended up enjoying it!  I loved the way that this film explored the importance of family and friendship as the dinosaurs' friendship with Louie and Cecilia is what helps them make it on their journey to the Museum of National History and help them try to resist the evil temptations of Professor ScrewEyes.  I also really loved the voice acting in this movie as all the voice actors gave it their all in voicing these characters.  John Goodman did a fantastic job at voicing Rex as he makes Rex have a booming sounding voice while having a gentle tone to his voice to show Rex's kind nature.  Yeardley Smith did a great job at voicing Cecilia as she made Cecilia sound so adorable.  The animation was also fantastic as it was quite ahead of its time and I especially loved the scenes of New York City being lighted up as the lights look so gorgeous.  The late James Horner's music was the highlight of this film as it sounds so beautiful and uplifting and I always wanted to get the soundtrack for this film!

Some of the issues that I have with this film is that there is a lack of character development.  There are some characters that weren't quite fleshed out, like Professor ScrewEyes himself and I wanted to learn more about the backstories of these characters, so I would have a better understanding of them.  Also, there were times where the themes of this movie were a bit clunky in its execution, like the theme of family in this film.  I can see how Rex is trying to teach the little bird at the beginning of the film about the importance of family since Louie and Cecilia both had family problems of their own and it connects with the little bird's predicament.  But, I don't see how the family theme connects with the dinosaurs themselves since they never really mentioned their own families to Louie and Cecilia and the movie never really implied that the dinosaurs considered each other as a family.

Overall, "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" is a great film for anyone who loves films that deal with dinosaurs and for anyone who is looking for a more family-friendly version of "Jurassic Park."

[MOVIE REVIEW] How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

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Title: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Starring:  Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Molly Shannon, Christine Baranski

Genre: Fantasy / Family / Romance / Adventure / Comedy

Company:   Universal Pictures

Directed by: Ron Howard

Year: 2000

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG for Some Crude Humor

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

In the town of Whoville, all the Whos were getting ready it celebrate Christmas, but there was one Who that was curious about the true meaning of Christmas and that was Cindy Lou Who herself.  Not only was Cindy Lou wondering about the true meaning of Christmas, but she was curious about one person who doesn't live in Whoville and that's the Grinch himself.  The Whos almost never talk about the Grinch or want to be reminded of him, but Cindy Lou wanted to be friends with the Grinch and tried to invite him to the Whoville celebration.  But, when the Grinch is humiliated at the celebration, he decided that he will steal all the Whos' presents on Christmas Eve.

Wow! I was actually pretty surprised that I enjoyed this movie!  I never would have thought that Jim Carrey would do a great job at portraying the Grinch!  Jim Carrey made the Grinch's character much more humorous and hammy, which made the film much funnier in tone and the Grinchs' jokes easily land at the right times.  Taylor Momsen was fantastic as Cindy Lou Who as Cindy is shown as being a friendly and determined girl who only wanted to be friends with the Grinch and I liked the fact that she truly cares for the Grinch and only wanted to make him happy.  James Horner's music was probably the highlight of this film as it surprisingly goes well with the emotional scenes in the movie, such as during the scene where we learn about the Grinch's tragic backstory.  The special effects were surprisingly well done for the year 2000 and the film did a fantastic job at showcasing the bizarre yet beautiful world of  Whoville and greatly captured the creative style from the original Dr. Seuss book.

My biggest issue with this movie is that the Whos seem to be portrayed in a negative way as they are much more cruel towards the Grinch in this version than in the original book and the 1960s cartoon special.  Also, there were times where Jim Carrey's performance as the Grinch got so hammy that I couldn't take his more emotional scenes seriously, like he constantly gets upset whenever the Whos teased him.  I also didn't like the fact that Martha, the Grinch's love interest, didn't have much of a role in the film other than just standing around and looking at the scenery and being a love interest.
I always have a problem with certain love interests not having much to do in the film other than just being defined as a love interest to the protagonist and not having a personality of their own.  It would have been great if Martha had more scenes with the Grinch so that their relationship would be much more believable to me.

Overall, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is one of the most hilarious interpretations of the Grinch ever made on film and it is definitely worth the watch!

[MOVIE REVIEW] Return to Oz (1985)

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Title: Return to Oz

Starring:  Fairuza Balk , Nicol Williamson and Jean Marsh

Genre: Fantasy / Horror / Alternate World / Friendship

Company:  Walt Disney Company

Directedby: Walter Murch

Year: 1985

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

 Dorothy Gale had just come back from the Land of Oz, but when she tried to tell her aunt and uncle about her adventures in Oz, they thought that Dorothy had gone crazy, so they decided to take her to a doctor that will give her treatment for her insanity.  The treatment turns out to be shock therapy and Dorothy, with a little help from a mysterious girl, escapes from the mental hospital and ended up in the land of Oz once again.  But, once Dorothy arrives in Oz, she discovers that the Land of Oz has been taken over by the Nome King and that the Scarecrow, who was the King of Oz, has been kidnapped by the Nome King.  So, Dorothy along with some help from a pumpkin man named Jack Pumpkinhead, a mechanical robot named Tik-Tok, her hen Billina and a half moose half sofa creature named the Gump try to journey to the Nome King's kingdom to rescue the Scarecrow, while encountering nightmarish creatures such as Princess Mombi and the Wheelers along the way.

Now I have a confession to make.  Whenever I talked to people who have seen "Return to Oz" when they were little, many people were terrified of this movie when they were kids.  Me however, I wasn't that scared of the movie when I was little and I actually found it to be pretty interesting and I still find it pretty interesting to this very day!  This movie has actually turned my expectations on its head as it is a much darker sequel to "The Wizard of Oz" that has caused some controversy among "Oz" fans and yet, it was pulled off extremely well to make it stand out from "The Wizard of Oz." The surprising thing about all this is that this was the most faithful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "Oz" books in terms of tone, even though "The Wizard of Oz" is hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time.  What I really loved about this movie was the fact that it was darker and edgier than "The Wizard of Oz" and the villains in this movie seem genuinely threatening and are actually out to harm Dorothy and her friends.  Probably my favorite scenes in this movie were any scenes with the Nome King as he seems to be friendly towards Dorothy and her friends, but you can tell that he has some evil intentions up his sleeves and he actually means to trick Dorothy into a sense of security in order to manipulate her throughout her adventures.  I loved the new friends that Dorothy makes along the way, especially Tik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead as they were truly original and fun to see on screen.

Parents should know that this movie can be pretty terrifying for small children.  There are many scenes where Dorothy and her friends are in constant peril and are in danger of being killed by the vllains.  Also, there are some genuinely scary scenes such as the scene where Dorothy accidentally wakes up a headless Princess Mombi, who tries to capture Dorothy and the scenes with the Wheelers.  Parents might want to screen this movie first before showing it to their children.  Also, the reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because the movie can get pretty confusing at times and it was hard for me to follow what exactly happened in the plot at times.

Overall, "Return to Oz" is a truly enjoyable film that "Oz" fans would enjoy extremely well!  However, this movie can get pretty scary at times, so watch this film with extreme caution.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Coraline
• Corpse Bride