I know, I know, this movie opened a month ago and nobody really cares about it anymore, but they’ll be reviews of new movies (End of Watch, Trouble with the Curve, Dredd 3D) later today too. For now, I’ll just make this quick…
What Works: The old school claymation has an entirely different look and feel than the more gleaming work of Aardman Animation (the Chicken Run/Wallace and Gromit guys) and it does a great job of capturing the feel of the schlocky 70’s B-movies that Norman so clearly loves. Plus, the movie’s climax is touching enough. And even though the message of the movie (even if you’re weird, be yourself) isn’t new, it’s still one worth hearing. The film is much…well, “uglier” than most kids movies, and I can tell some parents weren’t comfortable with that, but what good is it if a film says it’s okay to be different/strange/ugly…then looks like every other film that’s out there?
What Doesn’t Work: The movie’s just not very memorable. It does everything mostly right, but is it a knockout? No. A good movie and better than most you could see in theaters now OR even the rest of the movies I’ll review today? Yup.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I might have left off the 3D for this movie, the color-tinting glasses makes some scenes too dark and the extra dimension doesn’t really enhance the old-fashioned visuals. It’s kind of like looking at an oil painting through night vision goggles…you can’t really appreciate it.