American Girl Hits the Big Screen in Kit Kittredge, Hopefully Not for the Last Time

When I was about ten years old, I fell in love with the American Girl company. First I read the books, and then I sent away for the catalogs, which I would rapturously peruse for hours, studying each of the dolls from various historical periods and marveling at all the intricate props and costumes available for purchase. My level of obsession was high enough that when Christmas arrived, I received Samantha, a Victorian orphan living with her wealthy grandmother, along with the glasses meant for World War II-era Molly and the Santa Lucia dress belonging to Kirsten, a Swedish immigrant living on the frontier in the mid-1800s. At that time, those were the only three girls in the collection. Now that number has increased to nine. One of the newbies is Kit, whose books take place during the 1930s. Though I hadn't read any of the stories pertaining to her, I trust the quality of the American Girl franchise and was looking forward to watching Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, the first American Girl movie to be released in theaters rather than on television.

Kit, a plucky ten-year-old who dreams of being a reporter, is played by Abigail Breslin, and she's only one of the big names in this charming piece of historical fiction. Others include the dashing Chris O'Donnell as Kit's doting dad Jack, who leaves town to search for work after he is laid off early in the film; the explosive Wallace Shawn as Mr. Gibson, a newspaper editor who sees reporter potential in Kit but isn't about to print one of her stories unless it genuinely wows him; Joan Cusack as eccentric mobile librarian Miss Bond; Stanley Tucci as Jefferson Berk, a charismatic magician with a ridiculous mustache; and Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It, Anyway? as a kindly hobo Kit and her friends encounter in a settlement just outside of town.

The context of the tale is the Great Depression, and the situations may ring all too true for many of the children watching. Job loss is rampant, and many of those accustomed to extravagant living find themselves having to drastically alter their lifestyles in order to scrape by. Kit's compassionate mother, Margaret (Julia Ormond), copes by opening her home to boarders. She also hires on Will (Max Thieriot), a teenage transient with a strong work ethic, in exchange for food. Kit's home becomes a place of constant activity, and she and her loyal friends, wealthy Ruthie (Madison Davenport) and destitute Stirling (Zach Mills), are always on the lookout for a promising lead that could win her that much-desired publication.

There's adventure aplenty in this wholesome tale, which encourages generosity, determination and tolerance. It's rare these days to see a G-rated movie, especially a live-action one; Kit Kittredge feels like a throwback to the glory days of family-friendly films. I would certainly consider it appropriate for children and adults to watch together; the movie is likely to entertain as well as educate viewers of all ages. Ann Peacock's script, based in part on the books written by Valerie Tripp, is full of fun little twists that keep even adults guessing. All the clues are laid out so that the audience can draw the correct conclusions, but they are subtle enough that if you'd rather just go along for the ride and be surprised, the solutions to various mysteries won't necessarily jump right out at you.

I was impressed by every aspect of this movie, from the excellent cast to the clever plotting and the attention to detail with the costumes and props. I especially loved Kit's tree house and the cart that she uses to sell eggs later in the movie. Although I've been a fan of American Girl for many years now, I found this movie even better than I expected. Nothing about it suggested to me that it should have been put on television like its predecessors; if anything, it made me wonder if perhaps the earlier films should have gotten the theater treatment as well. I'm eager to investigate that matter, and I hope that, although Kit didn't make much of a splash at the box office, she won't be the last of the American Girls to hit the big screen.

101 Dalmatians Meets Air Bud in Air Buddies

A few months ago, I watched Snow Buddies, the most recent in a series of films that started with Air Bud. While that first movie and its immediate sequels are about an unusually athletic golden retriever, the focus shifts to his pups in Air Buddies. Although the original dog remains involved, this might almost be called a new series. Though Snow Buddies stands fairly well on its own, Air Buddies, which I saw the other day, is the movie that establishes the personalities of the pups, so if you're inclined to watch the Buddies film, it's probably best to start with this one.

Air Buddies introduces viewers to Buddy (Tom Everett Scott) and Molly's (Molly Shannon) brood, which includes spunky Rosebud (Abigail Breslin), messy Mudbud (Spencer Fox), gluttonous Budderball (Josh Flitter), athletic B-Dawg (Skyler Gisondo) and meditative Bud-dha (Dominic Scott Kay). As the movie begins, the five rowdy pups are causing big headaches for their owners and especially their long-suffering nanny. It's time to break the pups up, and so begins an extensive process to find perfect new owner for each of the puppies. Though young Noah (Slade Pearce) is reluctant to let the puppies go, his dad (Richard Karn) is sure the time is right. The pups have similar reservations, however, and when the list is completed, they decide to run away rather than be split up.

In the process of running away, they meet up with a pair of goony thieves sent to kidnap Buddy. So it is that they inadvertently lead their parents right into the thugs' trap, leading to a story that in many ways mirrors 101 Dalmatians, with the pups in pursuit of the parents instead of the other way around. (The debt this movie owes to that animated classic is acknowledged in a scene at a drive-thru theater in which 101 Dalmatians is playing.) The stakes are lower in this case, since the would-be possessor of Buddy wants him to amuse his son, not to turn him into a fur coat. The only moderately frightening villain is the thieves' boss, Selkirk Tander (Holmes Osborne), who threatens to feed his lackeys to his tiger if they fail in their mission, but that never feels like a very real possibility. Denning (Paul Rae) and Grim (Trevor Wright) are every bit as ridiculous as Horace and Jasper, though they lack those great English accents. Rest assured, though, they take more than their fair share of pratfalls as they struggle to carry out their task.

Director Robert Vince shares writing credits with Anna McRoberts and Phil Hanley, and none of them have too much to brag about, since most of the dialogue, especially that delivered by the puppies, is pretty groan-worthy. All of the pups seem like they're trying too hard to sound hip, which results in some of what they have to say sounding dated after just a couple of years. Denning and Grim, meanwhile, are hopelessly dim, though this does make for a lot of laughs as long as you don't dwell on their inordinate foolishness.

Interestingly, my favorite characters in Snow Buddies were the sheriff and his canine deputy, and that's the case here as well, though they are different characters. In this case, they're played by Patrick Cranshaw and Don Knotts, both of whom capped long careers with this film. Knotts voices a bloodhound named Sniffer, who has a more active role in tracking down the pups' parents than his boss does. While both are comical characters, they also bring a sense of wisdom and integrity to the movie. I also enjoyed the always-amusing Wallace Shawn in his voice role as a take-charge billy goat who helps the pups, and Michael Clarke Duncan is appropriately imposing as a mentorly wolf who guides them in the last stage of their journey.

Air Buddies is not a great movie by any stretch. It's derivative, corny and filled with juvenile references to bodily functions. But kids who can't get enough of movies about puppies will probably enjoy it, and long-time fans of Knotts or Cranshaw may be interested in seeing their final roles. It's not up there with 101 Dalmatians, but anyone who likes that movie is likely to get a laugh or two out of this harmless kiddie flick.

The Incredibles: Superheroes Entertain, But Not as Much as Toys and Monsters

I love Pixar. So much that I can't believe I still haven't seen Ratatouille, which looks glorious and which comes so highly recommended. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, however, I did manage to catch The Incredibles, the previous Pixar flick also written and directed by Brad Bird. I'd seen it before, in the theater, and although I enjoyed it, I didn't like it as much as the others and couldn't quite understand the heaps of acclaim it seemed to be getting.

After seeing it again, I'd still rank it at the bottom of my Pixar list, but that doesn't mean The Incredibles isn't fantastic. As a send-up of spy and superhero films, it delivers plenty of laughs, though the jokes generally seem to aim at an older audience. This aspect of the film is both an asset and a weakness. It's sly and clever, but some of it probably goes over the heads of children.

Not only is the overall tone of the movie rather more sophisticated than would be expected for an audience of youngsters, the film gets pretty dark at times, and there is cartoonish violence aplenty. Nothing too graphic, but the fact that these are actual people as opposed to toys, monsters, cars or any of a variety of small animals makes the mayhem feel that much more ominous. And good as the animation is, these heroes in hiding just aren't as much fun to look at as Woody, Sully or Mater.

Still, the Incredibles, known to the rest of civilization as the Parrs, are an engaging family. Dad (Craig T. Nelson) is overweight and unfulfilled, dreaming of his glory days as a superhero in his prime while he fritters away his life in a tiny cubicle, attempting to actually help his clients despite the disapproval of his explosive, diminutive boss (Wallace Shawn). His wife Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) is determined to allow the family to blend in, even if it means never making use of their unique abilities. Hyperactive young Dash (Spencer Fox) races to and fro, always full of energy and frustration that he doesn't have a decent outlet for it, and brooding Violet (Sarah Vowell) feels invisible even when she isn't cloaking herself. Only infant Jack-Jack seems to boast no remarkable powers, but he has time to grow into that sort of thing...

Also integral to the plot are Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), the hip buddy of Mr. Incredible who does all sorts of nifty tricks involving the freezing of water, and Syndrome (Jason Lee), whose poisonous attitudes toward Our Hero were shaped during an unfortunate encounter years earlier. Bird himself joins the party as savvy fashion designer Edna Mode, who is eager to give this family a new look for this phase of their lives.

The animation is eye-catching, though again, I just can't quite get used to Pixar's humans. It's a movie that almost seems like it would've worked just as well as a live action movie, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. As with most Pixar efforts, this isn't a musical, but Michael Giacchino, who also composed the music for LOST, created a fun and evocative score.

The Incredibles are a family with a very unusual dynamic, since they must juggle superpowers with the desire to remain in cognito, the urge to help humanity with the need for some quality time on the home front. They're the average middle class family in many ways, one of which is demonstrated in a hilarious scene in which Elastigirl plays back-seat driver as her husband attempts to maneuver their car through heavy traffic. I think I laughed more the second time around and was a little less shocked by how sinister the plot occasionally became. The Incredibles is quite the entertaining ride. It's just not quite as incredible as its esteemed company.

Toy Story Took Disney and Pixar to Infinity and Beyond

I recently learned that Disney and Pixar will be parting ways soon, after the release of the upcoming Disney/Pixar projects The Incredibles and Cars. It seems a shame that such a successful partnership should dissolve after only seven movies, but apparently Disney has had some trouble keeping its friends lately. It remains to be seen just how badly this split will hurt Eisner and company, but I suspect the loss will be felt keenly. Their five films together thus far have met with roaring success, counteracting such projects as the string of cheaply made sequels to Disney classics. Toy Story is the movie that started it all.

I don’t often get to see movies in their first run at the theater, and Toy Story had left Tinseltown before I even heard much about it. The first extensive praise I heard of film was from my ninth grade English teacher, also a friend of the family. For reasons forgotten to me now, she had offered me a ride home, and as she drove she told me how much my family and I would enjoy Disney’s latest offering. Shortly after that conversation occurred, my family dropped by the dollar theater to see for ourselves if Toy Story was really as impressive as she intimated. We were not disappointed.

The first notable thing about this film at the time of its release was the fact that it was entirely computer animated. This animation style was just becoming widespread. The first Veggie Tales video actually preceded Toy Story by a couple years, but I would not discover my beloved singing plant life until the next year. No, it was Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) who introduced me to the next frontier in animated films.

The story and its cast of characters were particularly suited to this new style. Such creativity and care went into the crafting of this film, most children probably gave their toys a second or third look when they got home and wondered what their playthings had been up to during their absence. The film has nods at lots of traditional childhood toys; Etch-a-Sketch, Slinky Dog (Jim Varney), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Hamm the Piggy Bank (John Ratzenberger), a troop of toy soldiers, Rex the dinosaur (Wallace Shawn), Little Bo Peep, and many others make up the supporting cast in a tale whose core relationship is between Woody, the boy Andy’s faithful pull-string cowboy, and Buzz, the high-tech space adventurer who usurps Woody’s position of favor when he arrives as Andy’s birthday gift. Buzz is a bit overconfident when he makes his debut, but he harbors no ill will toward Woody, the established leader. Woody, meanwhile, is consumed by a most unheroic jealousy that sets in motion the great adventure he and Buzz must undertake. As Buzz and Woody’s rivalry blooms into friendship, they are each able to combine the best that each has to offer in order to get them out of their precarious situation.

The toys in Andy’s bedroom interact hilariously with one another, via both the dialogue expertly delivered by the seasoned actors voicing them and the movements dictated by their particular traits. Slinky Dog’s front walks halfway across the room while his hind legs remain rooted to the floor. Mr. Potato Head loses all his facial features and reconstructs himself a la Pablo Picasso. Woody and Etch-a-Sketch challenge each other to a draw, with Woody pulling the gun from his holster and Etch-a-Sketch literally drawing a gun. There’s also a bit of romance, with Bo Peep showering affection first on Woody than Buzz and Mr. Potato Head dreaming of the day when Andy’s sister will receive a Mrs. Potato Head.

Outside of Andy’s house, the toys are no less engaging. When Woody and Buzz finagle their way into the Pizza Planet where Andy is eating dinner, they find themselves in a claw machine surrounded by adorable squeezable alien clones who speak in unison. Once they become imprisoned in the home of the sadistic Sid, Andy’s neighbor, they encounter a host of freaky toys that have all been mutilated and redesigned to reflect their owner’s ghoulish personality. These silent masses seem to pose a grave danger to Woody and Buzz, but they soon reveal themselves to be innocent victims of Sid’s operations and powerful allies against him.

Hanks is as lovable as always here, and it’s easy to forgive Woody the touch of arrogance that comes to light when he feels his position is being threatened. Allen puts just the right amount of bombast into the valiant but not too bright Buzz. Later in the film, Woody’s regret and Buzz’s uncertainty add a lovely layer of vulnerability to these initially indomitable characters. The stages of their development as individuals and in relation to one another are beautifully illustrated with Randy Newman’s evocative soundtrack.

This endearing, imaginative story of friendship set the standard for all future Pixar / Disney projects, and while I have no doubt that their last two projects will be just as rewarding, and that Pixar will be successful in future ventures, it all started with Toy Story.