It’s not that the folks at Pixar are incapable of making a bad movie.  (I, for one, never cared for Cars.)  It’s just that it’s so very very rare that they do.  But after watching the marvelous Toy Story 3, it’s easy to believe that Pixar can do no wrong.

It’s been eleven long years since Toy Story 2.  One can perhaps be forgiven for doubting that even the mad geniuses at Pixar could recapture the magic of Toy Story after such a long hiatus.  But I am pleased to report that Toy Story 3 continues Pixar’s powerful winning streak.  It might not be quite the masterpiece that Toy Story 2 is (that film still stands as one of my all-time favorite movies), but I found it to be relentlessly entertaining and deeply moving.

At the end of Toy Story 2, Woody and the gang gave up the possibility of a lifetime of preservation (behind glass in a toy museum in Japan) in favor of a few more years being played with by Andy.  Toy Story 3 follows that decision through to its painful, inevitable conclusion.  Yes, Woody, Buzz and friends got a few more years being loved by Andy — but at the beginning of this film, he is all grown up and heading to college.  This leaves the toys facing the prospect of either years of storage in an attic, or being taken out with the trash.  Both prospects are devastating to the toys, whose main desire is to be played with and loved by a child.

Pixar could have easily kept Andy — and the rest of the characters — forever frozen in an ageless state, like Peter Pan or Bart Simpson.  I could easily imagine Pixar making sequel after sequel featuring the gang’s adventures in Andy’s room, without feeling the need to allow real-world issues like the realities of time and aging to intrude on the fun.  God bless the folks at Pixar, then, for not taking that route, and instead grappling head-on with the tough questions raised by the end of Toy Story 2.  The result is a film that — while still absolutely hilarious in parts — I found to be surprisingly melancholy.  This is not a criticism, it is a powerful complement.  The artists at Pixar haven’t created another simplistic, cookie-cutter franchise-extender.  They’ve produced a poignant fable that wrestles with issues that have no easy solution.

That statement leads me to consider (as I have many times since walking out of the theatre), the film’s marvelous ending.  (I’m going to be vague here, to try to avoid major spoilers — but nevertheless, please beware.)  I gladly admit that this film had me fooled — I really was expecting a thoroughly dour ending.  No, I didn’t believe the toys were all going to get incinerated.  But I just didn’t see any way out of the characters’ predicament that wouldn’t be a total narrative cheat.  Once again, god bless those geniuses at Pixar.  They managed to create an ending to the film that could be called a happy ending, while still remaining emotionally true.  (And I wrote “could be called a happy ending” because, despite some upbeat turns, I still found the end of the film to be powerfully bittersweet.  Again, this is a strong compliment, not a criticism.)

The core group of voice actors have all returned for Toy Story 3 and are as entertaining as ever.  Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen (Buzz), Joan Cusack (Jessie), Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), Wallace Shawn (Rex), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Estelle Harris (Mrs. Potato Head), are, of course, all just phenomenal.  They’re joined by a few great new additions.  The amazing (and woefully under-used for the past few decades) Ned Beatty (who I’ll always think of first as Lex Luthor’s bumbling assistant in the Richard Donner Superman films) knocks it out of the park as the villainous Lotso (as in “Lotso Hugs Bear”).  I was also thrilled to see the long-awaited introduction of Ken to the Toy Story films.  Ken is voiced by Michael Keaton, who is so perfect for the role that after seeing the film I couldn’t possibly imagine any other actor in the role.

Toy Story 3 may be an animated film about toys, but make no mistake — it is an adult, emotionally rich and complex piece of work.  If this is the final Toy Story film, it provides a fine conclusion to the story.  But it’s so good, that I sure hope it’s not!

Yesterday I began my list of my Top 10 Movies of 2009!  Let’s continue, shall we?

5.  Inglourious Basterds — Quentin Tarantino demonstrates, once again, that no one can wring more nail-biting tension out of simple conversation than he can.  What I thought would be  a simple men-on-a-mission story wound up being a much more complex, intriguing tale.  Filled with astounding, unforgettable performances (Brad Pitt as the tough-talking Aldo Raine, Melanie Laurent as the fiercely intelligent Shosanna Dreyfus, and of course Christopher Waltz as Col. Hans Landa, one of the most unforgettable film villains of the past decade) and some great Tarantino touches (yep, that is a Samuel L. Jackson voice-over at one point), the film is ridiculously compelling.  And that ending.  Ho boy.  Read my full review here.

4.  District 9 — With a budget reportedly in the ballpark of 30 million dollars (which, if my information is correct, is about a third of what was spent on the Alec Baldwin/Meryl Streep comedy It’s Complicated), first-time director Neill Blomkamp fashioned one of the most gripping sci-fi tales I have ever seen.  The film is set in Johannesburg, almost thirty years after an enormous alien spacecraft appeared over the city.  The aliens, nicknamed “prawns,” have been settled in slum-like conditions in a refugee camp called District 9.  When the corporation MNU bows to public pressure to remove the aliens from the vicinity of Johannesburg, the hapless Wikus Van De Merwe (who participates in the forced evictions) finds his life turned upside-down.  As a sci-fi fan I am always looking for smart, original new works of sci-fi, and this film has both qualities in spades.  With jaw-dropping special effects (I am amazed at how well the alien “prawns” are brought to life), a career making performance by Sharlto Copley (who plays Wikus), some terrific action, and edge-of-your seat intensity from start to finish, District 9 is a magnificent and haunting creation.  Read my full review here.

3.  Fantastic Mr. Fox — A deliriously fantastic combination of Roald Dahl’s story (about a family of foxes menaced by three vicious farmers) and director Wes Anderson’s unique sensibilities, Fantastic Mr. Fox feels to me like the film Mr. Anderson has always wanted to make.  He has filled the movie with his specific style — detail-filled sets and precise, stage-like staging — and the foxes are a classic addition to Mr. Anderson’s repertoire of wonderfully idiosyncratic, somewhat disfunctional families.  The script is complex and sophisticated (with characters who all possess strengths as well as character flaws, and no easy answers to their dilemmas in sight), and the voice-actors (including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, and many others) are wonderful.  The stop-motion animation has a hand-crafted, low-tech feel that fits the story perfectly.  (But that is not to take away from the great achievement in animation that this film represents.  Between the animation and the voice-acting, these foxes — and other animals — are unquestionably ALIVE.)  Somber and joyful, playful and serious, I can’t think of another movie that is anything like it.  Fantastic.  Read my full review here.

2.  Up — At this point I am really starting to believe that the mad geniuses working at Pixar can really do no wrong.  After each new Pixar magnum opus I continue to declare that there’s no way they’ll ever be able to top THIS one, and then the next film comes along.  Well, here I am again.  My jaw was pretty much on the floor from beginning to end.  The heartbreaking opening sequence (in which we follow Carl Fredrickson and the love of his life, Ellie, from childhood to old age over the course of a matter of minutes) is absolutely devastating, a gut-punch that could be one of the most powerful few minutes of film that I have ever seen.  It’s a hell of a way to start a film, and luckily the rest of the movie earns the emotional investment garnered by that opening sequence.  I absolutely adore the way the film slowly builds upon that somber opening until it becomes an explosion of, well, all sorts of wonderful weirdness that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling for you if you haven’t seen the film.  I will only add that Dug is, without question, one of the greatest characters created on film in recent memory.  The computer animation is absolutely stunning, and the 3-D effects give the film an extraordinary depth without ever becoming gimmicky or annoying.  It’s a masterpiece, and there’s absolutely NO WAY that those folks at Pixar will ever be able to top THIS ONE…  Read my full review here.

1.  Where The Wild Things Are — If there’s a theme to my choices this year, I think it’s pretty obvious that I am drawn to films that feel like unique, singular creations.  I love walking out of a movie thinking, boy, I’ve never seen anything quite like THAT before.  Well, no film made me feel that way — that I had been lucky enough to go on a cinematic journey unlike any I had taken before — more than Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved book, Where The Wild Things Are.  This film hit me like a ton of bricks, and I almost don’t know where to begin in describing my love of it.  To begin with, I was blown away by the emotional intensity and honesty of Max’s journey in the film.  A young boy with an enormous amount of energy and creativity, Max is also filled with great loneliness and anger, feelings that he is not yet old enough to be able to process or really understand.  This causes him to lash out at his sister and his mother (Catherine Keener).  After one such explosion, Max runs out of the house, at which point he finds a boat and sails away to the domain of the Wild Things.  The creatures are fierce and violent, but also gentle and childlike in their emotions.  Where the Wild Things Are is gripping but also almost dreamlike in its storytelling.  The film is not in any rush to draw obvious morals for either Max or for the audience, and it studiously avoids a standard narrative structure.  This gives the film a naturalism (which is a funny thing to say about a movie with giant Wild Things) and a sophistication and complexity that I adore.  The visual effects are astounding, as the Jim Henson Company’s giant puppets were seamlessly combined with computer-generated facial animation (not to mention terrific voice acting by the likes of James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, and others) to bring the Wild Things to extraordinarily convincing life.  Young Max Records is phenomenal as Max — one of the best child performances I’ve seen in while, believable and gripping.  Spike Jonze (who directed the film, and co-wrote the screenplay with Dave Eggers) has created a true masterpiece, one I relish having the opportunity to revisit many more times to come.  Max may have gone home to his family, but I can’t wait to return to Where the Wild Things Are.  Read my full review here.

So that’s my list!  Do you agree?  Disagree?  Let me know.  In the mean-time, I’ll see you back here on Friday for my final Best Of 2009 list, my listing of the 10 Best Comic Books of 2009!  See you there!

OK, so this is about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of — Star Wars fans worldwide are uniting on a project to re-make the original film (A New Hope), 15 seconds at a time.  Fans can claim individual 15 second moments of the film, recreate them in whatever for they desire (re-enactments, animation, etc.), and then the whole thing will ultimately be strung together.  Wild.  Click here for all the details on Star Wars Uncut, or just watch this bizarre trailer below!

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

After watching Julie & Julia with my wife Steph recently (you can read my review of the film here)  I was interested in learning more about Julie Powell, so I tracked down her Julie/Julia Project blog and her current blog (since she ended the Julie/Julia Project blog in 2003, with only one additional post in 2004 after Julia Childs’ death).  Both blogs were  fun to read through after having seen the film.

Not a week goes by, it seems, that I don’t read about Ridley Scott being attached to yet another movie-in-development.  I’m not the only one who’s noticed, it seems.  Check out this helpful guide: Know Your Ridley Scott Projects That Will Probably Never Happen.

I am an enormous Beatles fanatic.  Thus it is really painful for me that I have not yet had an opportunity to sample the newly remastered versions of all of the Beatles albums that were released last month.  Scorekeeper from AICN’s detailed run-down of each Beatles album, and how the new versions match up against the original CD releases from 1987, has only further whetted my appetite.

CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) has been running a ridiculously entertaining series of posts entitled “Bad For Us, Worse For Them.”  What is it about?  Let me quote from their intro: This is a list of forty deaths in cinema, twenty of which that have a profound affect on the viewer whether by the sheer tragedy of it, how emotionally impactful it is, or how it is a catalyst for a real descent in the progression of the story. The other twenty are deaths that go beyond the call of duty, not because they’re cool or really well executed FX, but because they are just knee-capping in their immediacy, brutality, or simple visceral impact. Kills that will probably leave a mark.  The whole list is fantastic, but I was particularly pleased to see that Spock’s death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan merited inclusion.

Here’s a great piece from DVDActive.com (one of my favorite DVD/Blu-Ray web-sites) that calmly and methodically dissects everything wrong with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I will not be purchasing this film on DVD.  One viewing was more than enough for me, thank you very much.

I love the film scores of James Horner.  His score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite scores of all time, so I was very excited to read this article from Movie Score Magazine that previews his work on James Cameron’s upcoming film Avatar!

Click here to check out a trailer for the new film from the director of Donnie Darko, called The Box. As I’ve commented here before, it looks just like a classic Twilight Zone story.  Can’t wait.

Speaking of trailers, the new full trailer for Toy Story 3 (that those of us who caught the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3-D double feature got to see on the big screen) is now on-line.  Check it out:

Toy Story 3 Trailer in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Videos

If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, then I don’t know what to tell you!

Last week I had the pleasure of taking in a double-feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, re-done in beautiful 3-D.  What a glorious time in a movie theatre!

It seems that 3-D is really starting to be embraced by the studios.  There have been a number of big 3-D releases in the past year, with a LOT more on the horizon.  (Personally I’m looking forward to James Cameron’s Avatar and, further in the future, Steven Spielberg & Peter Jackson’s collaboration on Tintin.)  I’ve skipped most of the recent 3-D films since they really didn’t interest me.  I did see Robert Zemeckis’s Beowulf (from 2007), and while the 3-D was cool, it still made my head hurt at times, and the film itself (minus the excitement of the 3-D effects) was entirely forgettable.  After that I stayed away from 3-D films until I saw Pixar’s Up this summer (read my review here), which was magnificent.  The film itself was wonderful, and the gorgeous visuals were only enhanced by the beautiful, immersive 3-D.

Pixar’s big release for summer 2010 will be the long-awaited Toy Story 3, which will be presented in 3-D.  To build some anticipation for the film, Disney and Pixar have re-done the first two Toy Story films in 3-D, and released them to theatres for a limited 2-week engagement this month.

Even without the 3-D, it was an enormous pleasure to re-watch those two films.  I really liked the first Toy Story, and I was bowled over by Toy Story 2 when it came out — I thought it was endlessly clever, quite effectively emotional, and also totally hysterical.  The Toy Story “Toy Box set” (containing both films plus a third disc filled with special features) was one of the very first DVDs I ever bought, and I watched Toy Story 2 several times those first few years.

So while I know Toy Story 2 really well, it had been quite a while since I had last seen the first Toy Story.  I was really pleasantly surprised by how well it holds up.  There are moments when it is clear how far Pixar’s animation has progressed (the fur on Sid’s dog, for instance, is pretty much just a solid shape, as opposed to the dynamic fur effects we’d see later on with Sulley and the Abominable Snowman a few years later in Monsters, Inc.), but over-all the animation holds up wonderfully.  The characters move naturally and — more importantly — really feel ALIVE as opposed to being just nicely-rendered CGI constructs.  This is helped by the genius voice-casting.  Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are absolutely perfect in the roles, and their relationship is the heart of the film.  While Toy Story may be a simpler tale than the more elaborate and emotionally complex sequel, it is still gripping almost 15 years later.

Which brings me to the profoundly amazing sequel, Toy Story 2.  From the astounding opening action-adventure sequence with Buzz Lightyear (which is chock-full of gorgeous imagery and wonderful jokes, such as the battery-shaped “source of Zurg’s power” to the Also Sprach Zarathustra chimes emitted by the holographic steps Buzz jumps on in Zurg’s lair) right through to the very, very funny fake out-takes that play over the closing credits, this film fires on every cylinder.  The story is remarkably complex, filled with interweaving narratives and some surprisingly sophisticated story-lines.  The tragic nature of the limited time that Woody and the gang have to be enjoyed by Andy before he grows up and discards them is laid bare, and the film doesn’t provide any easy answers to that dilemma.  And Jessie’s lament, set to the song When Somebody Loves You, is as powerful a two-minutes of animation as I’ve ever seen (perhaps only equalled by the opening scenes of this year’s Up).  Despite those tough issues, there is also an extraordinary amount of humor in the film.  The voice-cast is really let loose, and it’s the side characters (including Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm, Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, and Jim Varney as Slinky Dog, not to mention all the new additions to this sequel including Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head, Kelsey Grammer as the Prospector, Joan Cusack as Jessie, and Wayne Knight as Andy “the chicken man”) who really make the film.

All of which brings me to the new 3-D.  Wow.  As with Up, this isn’t gimmicky, in-your-face 3-D.  (This is hardly surprising, as these films weren’t originally designed for 3-D.)  Instead, the 3-D effects are used to create an expansive, immersive environment.  While it might be an exaggeration to say that you, the audience member, feel as if you’re right there amongst the characters, the 3-D does serve to open up the visual world of the story to a remarkable degree.  It’s the highest compliment that I can pay the artists and technicians involved to say that after a few minutes I completely forgot about the 3-D effects, and just found myself carried along by the films.  I am also happy to report that I didn’t experience any annoying 3-D-created headaches, despite watching two complete films back-to-back wearing the 3-D glasses.

I wish more studios would re-release classic films to be enjoyed again on the big-screen.  It was a great pleasure seeing Toy Story and Toy Story 2 again, and the wonderful new 3-D enhancements to both films were just the icing on the cake.

I’ve written about a few of the films that I’ve seen this summer (click here for my review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, here for my review of Year One,  and here for my review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) but there are a lot more that I’ve seen but haven’t had time to write about.  Hence, this first installment of my Summer Movie Catch-Up!

Let’s start with Pixar’s latest opus, Up.

Carl (voiced by the great Ed Asner) is an elderly widower, living alone in his small house.  When we meet him, it seems that all of the happiness has been drained from his life, and the only thing that gives him any energy at all is his cranky refusal to sell his home to the real-estate developers who want to purchase his land.

When things take a turn for the worse, and it looks like Carl is going to lose his home after all, he comes up with a cartoon movie plan to escape — and also to fulfill one of the life-long dreams that he and his wife shared.

The trailers for this film were remarkably successful in refusing to spoil any of the wonderful weirdness that happens next, and I won’t either.  Suffice it to say, after a fairly serious beginning, to my delight and surprise the movie takes several sharp left turns into loony mayhem.  It winds up channeling almost as much adventure-serial energy as did The Incredibles — something I was not expecting but really enjoyed.

Much has been written about the beautiful, haunting prologue to the film in which we learn everything we need to know about Carl’s life and his relationship with his wife.  Those scenes are Pixar at its very best — dazzlingly economical storytelling that is tender and poignant, and not at all the way one might expect an “all-ages” film to begin.  It’s every bit the work of genius that you might have heard, and luckily the rest of the film is able to live up to the incredibly high bar set by that prologue.

I had the pleasure of seeing Up in 3-D, and it was magnificent.  Before the movie started, the theatre played several trailers for upcoming 3-D movies, and those were filled to the brim with all sorts of annoying in-your-face 3-D gimmicry.  But I am pleased to report that there is very little of that in Up.  Rather, the artists at Pixar have used the 3-D in an entirely different way: to subtly enlarge the visual palette of the film, adding enormous depth to the visual wonders on display.  As Carl and his house, born aloft by an enormous cluster of balloons, floats through the beautiful animated vistas, the 3-D gives the film a “you are there” sensation that is engaging and quite remarkable.

I must also note that, as always, the Pixar feature was preceded by a lovely animated short.  Mostly Cloudy tells a whimsical tale of a baby-delivering stork and the living cloud who creates the rather bizarre youngsters that this unfortunate stork is tasked with delivering.  As always with Pixar, it is funny and sweet.  I wish more movies played animated shorts before they began!

It’s another winner from Pixar, and if you missed it this summer you should be sure to check it out on DVD in the fall.