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THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (Blu-ray)

July 24, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, Drama, Entire Family, PG rated, Reviews (by Genre) Leave a comment

SecondBestExoticcoverGrade: B-/C+
Entire family: Yes, but….
2015, 122 min., Color
Rated PG for some language and suggestive comments
20th Century Fox
Aspect ratio:
Featured audio:
Includes: Blu-ray, Digital HD
Bonus features: C+
Trailer
Amazon link

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) was a surprise hit because it hit home with its basic messages. A group of older British retirees traveled to India because of a brochure that glamorized The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and made it look like the ideal place to retire, to find a replacement husband, or to stay there while getting a hip operation. Unknown to each other, they discovered things in common; foreign to India and some of them suspicious or awkward, they found an appreciation for a different culture and a level of comfort; and feeling a little tired and depressed by their late stage of life, they found some measure of renewal by their association with the hotel’s optimistic and energetic young owner. It was a feel-good movie about growing old, and there aren’t many of those around.

But The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) is a sequel that really didn’t need to be made. Missing is the charm and freshness of the first film, replaced by a formulaic plot and a paucity of humor, with a running gag that’s a 180-degree turn from the positive attitude toward aging that we encountered in the first film. In the original, one of the residents died, but what kind of tone does it set when in the sequel the proprietor, Sonny (Dev Patel), begins each morning with a roll call so the residents can answer . . . and let him know they’re still alive?

Two standard plot devices that we’ve seen before drive the narrative: a wedding and an anonymous visiting inspector who will decide whether Sonny can create a second hotel. Sonny is finally marrying the love of his life, Sunaina (Tina Desai), and there are some song-and-dance numbers SecondBestExoticscreenthat liven up the film. As with the first, each character has a subplot. Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench, Bill Nighy) are now working and fully immersed in local culture and finding occasional times to date each other. Carol and Norman (Diana Hardcastle, Ronald Pickup) are learning how to be exclusive to each other, while Madge (Celie Imrie) still plays the field and juggles two wealthy suitors. Somewhat lost in the shuffle is Muriel (Maggie Smith), who has been named co-manager of the hotel and seems to exist only as a confidante for everyone else. Meanwhile, there are two new arrivals (Richard Gere, Tamsin Greig) and only one nice room, and of course one of them is thought to be the inspector. Another sideplot about a business rival seems thrown in for good measure.

More than in the first, the screenplay feels like a paint-by-numbers affair, but the acting and the characters remain strengths. Patel is as energetic as a stand-up comic, and his onscreen mother (Lillete Dubey) gets something fresh to do as the object of Gere’s attentions. As with the first film, India itself is really the most colorful draw, and if you want to make a pilgrimage you can visit the Pearl Palace Heritage Guesthouse in Jaipur, where Second Best was filmed. But the movie truly is “second best,” which is not an uncommon thing for sequels. I was charmed by the first film, yet as much as I wanted to like this one I found it slightly dull. So did my family.

Language: some mild swear words
Sex: n/a
Adult situations: n/really
Takeaway: No matter what your age, after watching this film or the first you’ll dream of going to India.

TREASURE PLANET (10th Anniversary Edition) (Blu-ray Combo)

July 24, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, PG rated, Reviews (by Genre) Leave a comment

TreasurePlanetcoverGrade: B
Entire family: Yes
2002, 95 min., Color
Rated PG for adventure and peril
Disney
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Featured audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD
Bonus features: C+
Trailer
Amazon link

Pirates in space?

Why not? But Treasure Planet is a strange combination of futuristic space age, recent pop culture, and 17th century elements. The plot and characters have one foot in the past and one in the future. It’s the same with visual design. Ships that look like Spanish galleons fly in the air. Whales fly. Jim Hawkins, the lad at the center of this Robert Lewis Stevenson adaptation, has a solar board and rides it like a skate punk or parasailor. And the architecture? It’s like Tortuga in space. Disney was trailblazing in its combined use of 2D and 3D animation, and the results are stunning to look at. But the past-and-future mix doesn’t work nearly as well when it comes to content.

Fans of Disney’s live-action Treasure Island may be disappointed that the spaced-up version has more breakneck action and not nearly the intrigue of the 1950 classic. What’s more, Robert Newton carried the old film as Long John Silver, playing just the right blend of a benign old peg-legged pal who fascinates Jim Hawkins, and a menacing fellow with a hidden agenda—a blackguard who could be ruthless when the time came.

We don’t get that same type of character in Treasure Planet’s John Silver, who’s a menacing looking cyborg from the start. His face is drawn a little like Fagin from Oliver & Company, but fuller and meaner. And he’s armed with a gadget that slices, dices, shoots, and scares the heck out of everyone. There’s only menace in this fellow, so he’s nowhere near as interesting as Newton was in the more complex live-action role.

TreasurePlanetscreenBut fans of Stevenson’s novel will at least have fun picking up plot points and variations. In this animated version from directors Ron Clements and John Musker (Aladdin, The Little Mermaid), Jim Hawkins (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a bit of a delinquent at a crossroads. His mother (Laurie Metcalf) runs the Benbow Inn, and the adventure begins when Jim finds a dying pirate named Billy Bones (Patrick McGoohan) and brings him back to the Inn. In short order, the pirate is dead, Jim is holding an orb the size of a grapefruit and told to “beware the cyborg,” and pirates are ransacking and torching the place, forcing Jim, his mom, and a family friend, Dr. Doppler (David Hyde Pierce), to flee.

As in the book, Silver (Brian Murray) and his crew keep their identities secret and hire on as hands on a mission to follow the orb-map to Treasure Planet . . . which is curious, since their own planet, Montressor, is French for basically the same thing. Oh well.

Unlike the 1950 film, this souped-up, spaced-out version drags a little, despite the action, because the characters and their relationships are more superficial. Take Ben Gunn, for example. Instead of a lunatic who’s been away from people for too long, it’s an annoying robot named B.E.N., who’s supposed to provide some of the comic relief. The rest comes from the doddering Dr. Doppler, a dog creature with an obvious fondness for the catlike ship’s captain (Emma Thompson), and a little thing that looks like one of those goofy, unidentifiable things that Olympic cities present as mascots. Morph (Dane A. Davis) is a shape-shifting blob of pink mass that perches on Silver’s shoulder, like a parrot. But I’ll take the parrot any day.

So what does that leave us with? The stunning art and animation. Andy Gaskill worked as a visual development artist on The Little Mermaid, and, promoted to art director, he oversees a crew that creates frame after frame and sequence after sequence of breathtaking art design and animation. The palette is largely orange and brown, and yet there’s plenty of visual pop. Only in a few scenes do we get grain and a soft image.

Given the artwork, if a better character had been inserted than the one-dimensional cyborg Silver, we’d be talking about Treasure Planet as another Disney classic. As is, it’s still a stirring animated adventure with near non-stop action that can be shelved in the “underappreciated Disney” category.

Language: n/a
Sex: n/a
Violence: The usual peril and fighting
Adult situations: Several deaths of minor characters
Takeaway: Disney’s adaptations continue to be inventive, if not always successful at the box office. And Treasure Planet deserves a second life.

WELCOME TO SWEDEN: SEASON 1 (DVD)

May 21, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater PG rated, TV Comedy Leave a comment

WelcometoSwedencoverGrade: B/B+
Entire family: No
2014, 220 min. (10 episodes), Color
Not Rated (would be PG)
Entertainment One
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Featured audio: Swedish and English Dolby Digital 5.1 (English subtitles)
Bonus features: N/A
Amazon link

Welcome to Sweden is a Swedish situation comedy in English and Swedish (with English subtitles) that aired simultaneously on The Comedy Network in Canada and on NBC in the United States last year. Executive produced by comedian Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation), it stars her brother, Greg, as a New York accountant to celebrities who makes a ton of money but realizes that what he really wants is to be Swedish . . . to move to Sweden to live with his serious new Swedish girlfriend.

In a TV series that’s built around culture (and personality) clashes, because of his honesty poor Bruce (Poehler) gets into almost as much inadvertent trouble as Larry David does in Curb Your Enthusiasm—except that unlike David, he’s actually a nice, thoughtful guy. Bruce was raised in a small midwestern town, though he isn’t nearly as conservative or religious as his parents. His philosophy is the kind of laid-back “things will work out” (i.e., fix themselves) attitude more common to California than New York. So when he meets Emma (Josephine Bornebusch) and they hit it off, he decides to quit his lucrative job and follow her to Sweden, where she returns to be with family and to work in a bank.

For a sitcom, Welcome to Sweden has a real low-key indie vibe to it, but once Greg gets off the plane in Stockholm and moves in with Emma and her family, it also starts to feel like a milder, more sophisticated, tongue-in-cheek version of Meet the Parents. Viveka (Lena Olin) is the vivacious mom who feels herself getting older and wants to live a second-chance life through her daughter, but the fact that she married a much older man (Claes Mansson as Birger) who’s now less vital is an annoying reminder of how much she herself has aged. A former sea captain, Birger is as tall as Bruce is short, quiet and reserved as Bruce is prone to babble nervously. And those contrasts too add fuel to the comic fire. So does Emma’s slacker brother Gustaf (Christopher Wagelin) and a host of minor characters with single quirks or identifiers.   More

FRANK SINATRA 5-FILM COLLECTION (Blu-ray)

April 30, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Musical, PG rated , Leave a comment


FrankSinatra5FilmcoverGrade: B
Entire family: Yes, but…
1945-1964, times vary (see below), Color
Approved (would be PG for some adult situations)
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio: Varies (see below)
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 1.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Guys and Dolls)
Bonus features: C
Amazon link

For family movie night, the best bet in the Frank Sinatra 5-Film Collection is Robin and the 7 Hoods—a 1964 prohibition musical-comedy set in Chicago that offers an amusing gangster version of the Robin Hood legend. That film and others in this collection new to Blu-ray are available as single titles as well. Whether the five-film collection is worth buying will depend on how much your family likes old musicals (four out of five films are musicals) and how tolerant the kids are of older films. But at least all five are in color, and all are the equivalent of PG-rated films. The discs seem to be identical to the single releases, with the same bonus features, but with a handsome hardcover book of color and black-and-white photos from the five films and the discs on separate plastic pages in an oversized Blu-ray case, all tucked inside a sturdy cardboard slipcase. Picture quality is terrific for all five films, though the Mono DTS on four of them may not be what viewers are used to. But if your family loves musicals—old ones included—this is a great collection.

Robin7HoodsscreenRobin and the 7 Hoods (1964, 123 min., 2.40:1 widescreen, trailer)—This clever and funny riff on the Robin Hood legend stars Peter Falk (TV’s Columbo) in a hilarious role as Guy Gisbourne (in the movies, it was Sir Guy of Gisbourne), who bumps off Big Jim and takes control of the city racketeering, with the Sheriff offering protection for a fee. Naturally Robbo (Sinatra) objects, and their rival factions square off in a battle for speakeasy supremacy. Bing Crosby stars as the troubadour Allen A. Dale, with Dean Martin playing John Little (instead of Little John), and Sammy Davis Jr. as Will Scarlet. But the Robin Hood legend really kicks in when Big Jim’s daughter, Marian (Barbara Rush), thinks the Sheriff responsible for her father’s death and Robbo responsible for his disappearance. She gives Robbo a $50,000 payoff. “Get rid of it,” Robbo says, and his merry men donate the whole bunch to an orphanage. Other charities follow, and it’s fun to watch this legend play itself out on Chicago gangsterland turf. There’s bootlegging and flappers in skimpy costumes but no sex, no language to speak of, and no onscreen violence. Great songs, clever plot, and funny moments. My teenage son gave it an A, he liked it so much. I’d say it’s more of an A-.

GuysandDollsscreenGuys and Dolls (1955, 150 min., 2.55:1 widescreen, trailer)—The second best title in this collection is the film adaptation of the Broadway hit that itself was based on a Damon Runyon story about Broadway gamblers. Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) runs a floating crap game and has been dating dancer Adelaide (Vivian Blaine) for more than a decade. He’s fond of her but unable to commit to marriage because he’s just as fond of gambling and his gambling pals, which include his “second,” Nicely-Nicely Johnson (comic actor Stubby Kaye). There are plenty of Broadway denizens in need of saving, and Jean Simmons plays Sarah Brown, who is in charge of the local Salvation Army. The action is set in motion when Lt. Brannigan (Robert Keith) puts the heat on and the only place that will host Nathan’s illegal gambling operation for one night wants $1000. How to get it? With famous better Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) in town, Nathan tries to get him to bet on a sure thing for him. When Sky brags that he can convince any woman to go with him to Havana for the night Nathan looks out the window and points out Sarah Brown. “I choose her,” he says, and the bet is on. The song-and-dance numbers are old-school musical and the dialogue is Runyonesque, but after a while you get used to it. My son liked this one too, and we’d give it a B+.   More

WITHOUT A CLUE (Blu-ray)

April 3, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, Entire Family, Mystery, PG rated , , Leave a comment

WithoutaCluecoverGrade: B
Entire family: Yes . . . but
1988, 107 min., Color
Rated PG for some violence, smoking, and drinking
Olive Films
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1 (says the box, but it looks more like 1.85:1)
Featured audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Bonus features: D (trailer only)
Trailer/Amazon link

From 1982-1987 Stephanie Zimbalist starred as the assistant to private detective Remington Steele, whom she had invented because no client would trust a female detective. He got the credit, but she was the sleuth. TV writers Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther took that concept and applied it to the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. And TV veteran Thom Eberhardt made the leap with them to direct the 1988 PG-rated crime comedy-mystery Without a Clue.

It’s a PG-rated light comedy that tries for slapstick at times and satire other times and often gets caught in-between. The result is a kind of tongue in cheek (or maybe bubble-pipe in mouth) parody that has a warm, tea cozy feel to it.

Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine make a good pair as Dr. Watson and the third-rate actor he hired to play the part of Sherlock Holmes so that he could be free to practice medicine and deduce all he wanted, without criticism or scrutiny. Of course, when you hire a bad actor it should come as no surprise that he turns out to be a ham who hogs the spotlight and has any number of habits that annoy the real detective—including drinking too much and clumsy attempts at womanizing.

By film’s end, of course, they’ll end up becoming a real team, but the fun comes from watching them get there. Without a Clue is a light mystery that features famed Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarty (Paul Freeman, who played Indiana Jones’ nemesis René Belloq) masterminding a plot to flood the market with counterfeit British money and cause the collapse of the British economy. The £5 printing plates have disappeared, and so has the printing supervisor. Scotland Yard’s Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones, who was the principal in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) is jealous of Holmes and competes with him to solve the case, standing in the wings every time adoring reporters surround Holmes.

WithoutaCluescreenThere’s a kidnapping and several skirmishes, all of which are handled with the same light touch as elsewhere in the film. Any potential trauma from the kidnapping, for example, is muted by a comic sequence that has Holmes pinned behind the door so that all we can see is his scrunched face as he threatens to pounce on the ruffians and urges a woman to keep a stiff upper lip. A few gunfights and an explosion are the only exceptions. Otherwise, moments of tension are defused by similar humorous devices, so that there’s never much in the way of serious peril—only comic danger. There’s no language, and the only sexuality comes from the unmasking of a transvestite and a little keyhole peeping in which a woman is seen taking off stockings. Overall, it’s a relatively wholesome film that relies on some familiar, but softened elements from private detective mysteries—including a woman in distress (Lysette Anthony) and a housekeeper (Pat Keen) who sees more than anyone thinks.   More

INTO THE WOODS (2014) (Blu-ray)

March 20, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Musical, PG rated , , , , , Leave a comment

IntotheWoodscoverGrade: B+
Entire family: Not really
2014, 125 min., Color
Rated PG for thematic elements, fantasy action and peril, and some suggestive material
Disney
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 widescreen
Featured audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, Digital HD
Bonus features: B-
Trailer/Amazon link

I was surprised to see that more than 52,000 readers at the Internet Movie Database collectively rated Disney’s Into the Woods a mere 6.2 out of 10. And at Rotten Tomatoes, only 53 percent of some 85,000 viewers liked it. Obviously, these were people more familiar with the Disney formula than the Broadway musical penned by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, because the film version stays pretty true to the theatrical production.

In fact, despite the addition of greater visual depth and special effects, Disney’s Into the Woods has a very staged feel to it, except that the actors aren’t consciously playing to the audience. We’re not talking about the insertion of occasional songs, either. Like an operetta, Into the Woods features plenty of monologues and conversations that are sung rather than spoken. It’s a very theatrical film, in other words, and I can see where, if you’re not expecting that, it could throw you for a loop.

So could the encroachment of serious themes and an ending that undercuts the fairytale notion of happily-ever-after. You and your family may find yourself tearing up, and that’s almost unheard of with a Disney film. In the past, there may have been weepy Bambi’s mother and Old Yeller moments, but all was usually well that ended well. There’s a difference between a happy ending and a hard-earned optimism that reinforces the old adage about making lemonade when life gives you lemons, and it’s the latter that audiences encounter when they travel vicariously Into the Woods.

Disney’s film version may be rated PG, but the emotional content may make the film appropriate only for children old enough to understand and accept what was repackaged in The Lion King as “The Circle of Life.” If they can handle The Lion King, they can handle this. But they have to love live theater and musicals to love Disney’s Into the Woods. It’s that simple. They also need to be able to understand the basic premise, which is an intricate weave of familiar fairytales.

Everybody wants something, which is what the cast sings about in the long, opening title song that begins, “I Wish.” It might help to share ahead of time with smaller children that Into the Woods is a mash-up of fairytales, and that we jump from tale to tale and character to character.

The Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) desperately want a child, and the witch next door who had put a curse on their family (Meryl Streep in her Oscar-nominated role) offers them a way to do that: they must bring her a milky white cow (from the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale), a slipper of gold (from the Cinderella fairytale), a blood-red cape (from the Red Riding Hood fairytale), and hair as yellow as corn (from the Rapunzel fairytale).

All the characters go into the woods: Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) is sent by his mother (Tracy Ullman) to sell the cow, Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) goes there to talk to her dead mother and receive the gift of fine clothes that will allow her to attend the ball, Little Red (Lilla Crawford) skips to her grandmother’s house deep in the woods, Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy) rebels against her witchy mother by secretly seeing a prince, the baker and his wife try to acquire their objects, and the giant and giant’s wife from Jack and the Beanstalk eventually wreak havoc.   More

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB (Blu-ray combo)

March 11, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Comedy, PG rated , , 1 Comment

NightattheMuseum3coverGrade: B/B+
Entire family: Yes
2014, 98 min., Color
20th Century Fox
Rated PG for mild action, some rude humor and brief language
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 widescreen
Featured audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Bonus features: B-
Trailer

Quick. Name five action comedies that are rated PG. Can’t do it?

I’m not surprised. That’s not the direction Hollywood has been going. Most action comedies aim for an adult audience and then try to ratchet down the adult content in order to squeeze by with a PG-13 rating. But like its predecessors, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is obviously aimed at children, with an eye toward producing something that adults might enjoy as well.

And wholesome doesn’t mean dumbed down. Sure, there are more silly gags and sequences that will delight kids (like the “rude humor” bit where a monkey takes a page from Gulliver’s Travels and pees to put out a fire). But there’s also some smart writing, and as one of the excellent bonus features on this Blu-ray combo pack reveals, just as much ad-libbing from the stars—nuanced performances that adults can appreciate.

NightscreenBen Stiller anchors the cast again as Larry Daley, a security guard at a New York museum who works at night, when a magical Egyptian tablet brings all the exhibits to life. If your family liked Night at the Museum (2006) and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), you’ll like this one too. My wife and I thought it was just as good as the others, while my 13-year-old daughter said it was her favorite of the three. My 17-year-old son liked it except for Rebel Wilson (he hates her) and Larry’s 17-year-old son (Skyler Gisondo), whose character “wasn’t developed enough” for him.

Though Wilson doesn’t get much screen time as a British Museum security guard, the rest of us thought she was every bit as funny as the others. This franchise shifts the spotlight each time, and in Secret of the Tomb newcomer Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens) and caveman Laaa (also played by Stiller) are featured. Attilla the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) gets more to do this outing, while miniature diorama guys Octavius the Roman (Steve Coogan) and cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) have a side adventure that requires their rescue by Dexter, the stuffed monkey that comes to life with rest of the fake exhibits.

The plot has a Back to the Future vibe to it, since the magic tablet is gradually turning black and the museum gang starts to malfunction and lose mobility. To save them, Larry convinces museum director Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) to let him take the tablet to London, where Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) can be reunited with his parents, who know the secret of the tablet. Can he find the answer and fix the tablet before his exhibit friends forever lose the ability to come to life?   More

BIG HERO 6 (Blu-ray combo)

February 15, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Animation, Entire Family, PG rated 1 Comment

BigHero6coverGrade: A
Entire family: Yes
2014, 102 min., Color
Disney
Rated PG for action and peril, some rude humor, and thematic elements
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 widescreen
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Bonus features: B
Trailer

“Different, but as good as Frozen,” my wife pronounced it. “Four stars,” both teens said. And Big Hero 6 was easily my pick for Best Animated Feature of 2014. We all loved it, though I have to admit the poster didn’t sell me, nor did my hearing that the story was about a main character named Hiro (Hero?) and his brother Tadashi. How in the world would Disney be able to deliver a robotics story involving Japanese-named characters without being locked into an anime style?

Well, if you’re Disney, you confidently (and I might add, audaciously) create a future city named San Fransokyo, which, we learn in one of the bonus features, combines a geological mapping of San Francisco with the visual and cultural look of Tokyo—a hybrid that allows them to do pretty much anything, visually. That invented city, which was rendered using a new method called “Hyperion,” is so infused with vibrancy that you’re almost blown away by some of the cityscape scenes.

That’s not surprising, given the fact that it’s Disney and they’re all about originality and heart. Both of those traits drive Big Hero 6, which takes its name and spirit (and a few characters) from an obscure Marvel comic book.

Big Hero 6 tells the story of a 14-year-old robotics prodigy named Hiro (Ryan Potter) who’s already graduated from high school and hopes to be accepted into the nerdy robotics school his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) attends. He visits the school and meets some of the other students, a quirky group that includes a tough bicycle-loving woman named GoGo (Jamie Chung), the neurotic and overly self-protective Wasabi (Damon Wayans, Jr.), and a fast-talking hyperexuberant chemistry wiz named Honey Lemon (Génesis Rodríguez).

It’s an origin story, really, about how this group of brainy misfits comes together to form a superhero group called Big Hero 6, but it’s also every bit as much of a relationship story between a boy and robot as a film like The Iron Giant. The plot is set in motion when Hiro’s project on microrobotics blows away the competition at a big school science fair, and Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell) hands Hiro a letter of acceptance after warning him not to sell his idea to billionaire businessman Alistair Krei (Alan Tudyk).

BigHero6screen1As one of the animators says in a bonus feature, Disney has never shied away from the issue of loss, having traumatized one generation with Bambi and Old Yeller and another with The Lion King. A new generation will vicariously learn to deal with loss through this film, which begins with two already orphaned boys living with their aunt (Maya Rudolph) and introduces three situations where a loved one may have been killed. That’s as much as I can say without getting into spoiler territory, except to add that Big Hero 6 is full of emotion. It’s also full of humor, with the soft vinyl robot Baymax (voiced by Scott Adsit) sharing the comedic duties with all the nerdy characters and a rich wannabe superhero friend named Fred (T. J. Miller).

More

THE WONDER YEARS: SEASON 2 (DVD)

February 7, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, Drama, PG rated Leave a comment

WonderYears2coverGrade: A-
Entire family: No. Age 10 and older.
1988-89, 520 min., Color
Time Life/StarVista Entertainment
Not rated (would be PG because of mild language, content)
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Bonus features: B

As I wrote in my review of The Wonder Years: Complete Series, this coming-of-age TV comedy-drama gets it right. Lots of things can shape a person, and just as WWII defined a generation, so did the Sixties—which historians date from John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination to Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 resignation. The Wonder Years managed to capture the perfect storm of events that were always in a family’s consciousness—even as the father tried to put food on the table, siblings fought and sought to find their place in the world, and the mother tried to hold them all together.

Like Leave It to Beaver, the series’ episodes were seen from the point of view of an adolescent, and you knew you were in for an interesting ride when this 1988-93 series shunned a laugh track and introduced the kind of voiceover narrator that we got in A Christmas Story—an adult version of the main character. And you knew that the series would meet the ‘60s head-on when the pilot called for the girl-next-door’s older brother to be killed in Vietnam, and for our hero to comfort her in a scene that would culminate in a first kiss for each of them—both as characters, and as actors.

Kids Kevin Arnold’s age were too young to worry about a draft number, but too old to ignore the events that were shaping history and the lives of Americans—things like the Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, the moon landing, Woodstock, the Apollo 13 crisis, and events that were an outgrowth of Civil Rights, women’s liberation, and the increasingly violent anti-war protests. The result is a series that combines the innocence of childhood—of who likes whom, and passing notes—with a world that’s pushing them to grow up more quickly.   More

DOWNTON ABBEY: SEASON 5 (Blu-ray)

February 6, 2015

James Plath, Family Home Theater PG rated, TV Drama Leave a comment

DowntonAbbey5coverGrade: B+/A-
Entire family: No
2014-15, 525 min. (9 episodes), Color
Not rated (would be PG for adult situations)
PBS
Aspect ratio: 16×9 Widescreen
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Bonus features: C-
Trailer

Downton Abbey is the most watched British costume drama series since 1981’s Brideshead Revisited and the second most-watched PBS series ever—behind Sesame Street and in front of The Magic School Bus. I’ve talked to a number of parents who watch the highbrow soap opera with their children and noticed this pattern: it’s easy to get hooked, but teenage girls like the show best, and teenage boys will watch if the whole family is doing so or if they’re trying to impress a girl. That’s no surprise, since there’s more intrigue in Downton Abbey than action, and much of the intrigue revolves around matters of the heart. Though nothing overly graphic is shown, there are scandals and affairs and secrets that people desperately try to protect.

Like Upstairs, Downstairs, this Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series focuses on both levels of society at a British manor—in this case, the aristocratic Crawley family and the servants who work mostly in the subterranean level of the grand Yorkshire country house known as Downton Abbey. The show’s hallmarks are intelligent writing, multiple plotlines, soap-opera situations, and a cast of characters that includes ones we love and ones we love to hate. Because the characters are sufficiently complex, that’s often a matter of opinion.  More

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