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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ralph and Paperman




I picked up a blu-ray copy of Disney's Wreck-It-Ralph at the local Wal-Mart a week or so ago. I wanted to see it in the theaters when it came out last November but never got around to it (often, the story of my life). Anyway, most everyone gave the movie high marks and enjoyed it. When I saw the 3D trailers last year, it looked like a fantastic idea for a movie where various characters from some classic vintage (and modern) video games come together for laughs, fun, and adventure. And certainly Wreck-It-Ralph is entertaining enough. The problem is the movie just quite didn't live up to some lofty expectations I had for it. 

The movie is fun, told a good story, but really didn't stick me with me in any memorable way. And while Disney Animation did a fine job with rendering the film in CGI, it doesn't quite equal Disney's own Pixar Animation Studios quality. You can see that Pixar, given their pedigree, puts a little more color and polish (and money) into their animated films.

Liked Ralph, didn't love it. Should have rented it.



Disney's short animated film Paperman, which brought Disney its first Academy Award for an animated short film in decades this year, is included with the Wreck-It-Ralph blu-ray package. Paperman is worth the price of a Ralph purchase even if it is only about 5 minutes long or so. Disney as a company started with Walt animating short cartoons. It is where the company began and Paperman would make someone like Walt Disney proud. Paperman isn't a kids cartoon like Mickey, or Donald, or Goofy. Paperman is adult elegance in animation, telling its simple love story through drawing rather than words. Add a terrific music score and it is easy to see why Paperman got its Oscar. Let's just hope Disney continues to fund these efforts in animation and recaptures some its glorious past.



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