The Little Prince (2015)

A pilot crashes in the desert and meets a little boy from a distant planet.

Director:

 Mark Osborne

Writers:

 Irena Brignull (screenplay), Bob Persichetti(screenplay), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, James Franco |See full cast and crew »

Storyline

From Mark Osborne comes the first-ever animated feature film adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's iconic masterpiece, The Little Prince. At the heart of it all is The Little Girl, who's being prepared by her mother for the very grown-up world in which they live - only to be interrupted by her eccentric, kind-hearted neighbor, The Aviator. The Aviator introduces his new friend to an extraordinary world where anything is possible. A world that he himself was initiated into long ago by The Little Prince. It's here that The Little Girl's magical and emotional journey into her own imagination - and into the universe of The Little Prince - begins. And it's where The Little Girl rediscovers her childhood and learns that ultimately, it's human connections that matter most, and that what's truly essential can only be seen with the heart. 

User Reviews

This review is intended for all those fans of Le petit prince, the original book, and all those who like the character of Le Petit Prince.

The Little Prince (original story book) has a very simple storyline (although it's quite rich and complex in analogies and depth), written in French, first published in 1943, shorty before the untimely death of its author/illustrator, a real pilot.

I am a French teacher who has always included Le petit prince in my classroom whenever possible and for almost any age group (making the necessary modifications of course). I am a big fan of Antoine de St-Exupery and Le petit prince IS my favourite classic of all time. 

I don't have a problem with the storyline of this film. I actually think it was made to entertain and even educate a little. My great concern arises from the fact that this film is NOT Le petit prince.

This film is trying too hard to cater to so-called modern audiences who like disproportionate faces and odd looking animations that barely resemble human faces. This is an insult to the author whose goal was to put his readers in touch with what's human, as opposed to money, business, rush and all those mundane exigences of the modern world.

Instead, the makers of this film exploited a well-loved story and broke it down to pieces, placing the Le petit prince story in a totally unrelated frame story to make it what I call Hollywood-friendly. Even worse, they did not bother to give it a more appropriate title such as Discovering the Little Prince. This film is not the story of Le petit prince. They named it after the original story to attract more viewers and create a poster which makes you believe this is the story of The Little Prince. If I believed in the afterlife, I'd say Antoine de St-Exupert must be shaking in his grave.

I have a three year old daughter who is very intelligent and although part of the modern generation, she already knows about this book. Do yourself and your children a favour and if you understand French, read the original. If not, read the translation of the book. Do not go for this film unless you have already read the main story.

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Frozen Fever (2015)

On Anna's birthday, Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but Elsa's icy powers may put more than just the party at risk.

Directors:

 Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Writers:

 Chris Buck (story), Jennifer Lee (story), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff |See full cast and crew »

Storyline

It's Anna's birthday and Elsa plans to throw her the perfect surprise party with the help of Kristoff and Olaf. However, after planning the huge party and as Anna is being led on a "party treasure hunt," Elsa finds that she has caught a cold. She starts sneezing and produces a group of small, cute snow people, much like Olaf, with each sneeze. After some near-misses, a very exhausted Elsa finally makes it with Anna to the courtyard where the party has been arranged. It is a big hit, and at last Anna manages to convince Elsa into letting her to lead her to bed and take care of her. Meanwhile, Olaf has taken the tiny snow creatures under his wing and takes them to Elsa's ice castle with the help of Kristoff.

User Reviews

First of all there are a lot of easily pleased people on here. stop calling this a movie or film because it is neither, it is a short animated "Clip", nothing more, thinking it is anything other than that only shows how deluded most people are, My Child was left with " was that it", there wasn't enough time for it to grab any attention and served only as a means to give frozen attention it has otherwise lost.

Frozen Fever lacks any sort of real story telling and falls short when attempting to get you interested, from an un-catchy tune to an ending leaving you thinking, didn't that thing fall of a cliff in the first one, now it's friendly.

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The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015)

When a diabolical pirate above the sea steals the secret Krabby Patty formula, SpongeBob and his nemesis Plankton must team up in order to get it back.

Directors:

 Paul Tibbitt, Mike Mitchell

Writers:

 Glenn Berger (screenplay), Jonathan Aibel(screenplay), 3 more credits »

Stars:

 Tom Kenny, Antonio Banderas, Bill Fagerbakke |See full cast and crew »

Storyline

During a fight between the Krusty Krab and Plankton, the secret formula disappears and all of Bikini Bottom goes into a terrible apocalypse. The Bikini Bottomites go crazy and they all believe that Spongebob and Plankton stole the secret formula. The two new teammates create a time machine to get the secret formula before it disappears and also go to some weird places along the way including a time paralex where they meet a time wizard named Bubbles who is a dolphin. The two later get to the time when the formula disappeared and take it back to the present day time. They then realized that it's a fake formula Plankton made when he was taking the real one and the Bikini Bottomites try to destroy Spongebob (Plankton runs away) Spongebob smells Krabby patties and so does everyone else so the Bikini Bottomites follow it (instead of destroying Spongebob) and they arrive at the bank of the surface. Everyone except Spongebob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Squidward, Sandy, and a stowaway Plankton go ...

User Reviews

Movie was fantastic!!!! I loved the comedy jokes. The awesome animation. Just amazing. Thank you Nickelodeon. I can't wait for season 11 in summer 2015 :) Also The Voicing of the characters was fantastic! Awesome HD quality. Action packed comedy perfect for kids.I loved the film, I think a lot of people would also agree with me!! I just want to thank Nickelodeon for their hardwork. And to let you know all the Spongebob fans love your work. And We can't wait for more Spongebob episodes.So that's it, what are you waiting for, watch the brilliant movie now :D I recommend everyone should watch this movie. It's hilarious.

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Strange Magic (2015)

Goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion.

Director:

 Gary Rydstrom

Writers:

 Irene Mecchi (screenplay), Gary Rydstrom(screenplay), 2 more credits »

Stars:

 Evan Rachel Wood, Elijah Kelley, Kristin Chenoweth| See full cast and crew »

Storyline

"Strange Magic," a new animated film, is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion.

User Reviews

This film is really quite good and will probably develop a bit of a cult status among animated films. It's one of those unfortunate films that was declared dead before it was even given a chance to shine in theaters and as a result was poorly marketed and thrust into a unknowing world. Really I think the film would have done better released Valentine's Day weekend since the films main theme is love, a fact I'm certain you would not have guessed from viewing the poorly edited trailers. This film is also a musical, another thing the trailers failed to mention, and does a pretty decent job on the soundtrack. However if you're going into this film without knowing the prior too facts you are probably going to be a bit jarred by how it just leaps into them. The characters (even the sidekicks) are all pretty likable, and no one is particularly annoying save for maybe one character who doesn't get a lot of screen time. There are plenty of good jokes and a little a cheesiness (the good kind). Is everyone going to like it? No, it's definitely not going to sit well with people who hate musicals and a little sappiness, but overall it's a pretty likable movie that isn't anywhere near deserving the amount of hate that it is getting. If you have a chance to see it I recommend giving it a shot.

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Monkey King: Hero Is Back (2015)

The all-powerful Monkey King once roamed freely between Heaven and Earth, but after angering the Gods, he was imprisoned within an ice cage deep within the mountains. 500 years later, monsters attack a small village and a child flees to the mountains. Unknowingly, the child releases the Monkey King from his curse. With the help and encouragement from this special child, Monkey King saves the village from the evil monsters.

Initial release: July 10, 2015
Director: Tian Xiao Peng
Running time: 1h 29m
Screenplay: Tian Xiao Peng
                                                   Genre: Animation
                                     Awards: Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation

Storyline

The all-powerful Monkey King once roamed freely between Heaven and Earth, but after angering the Gods, he was imprisoned within an ice cage deep within the mountains. 500 years later, monsters attack a small village and a child flees to the mountains. Unknowingly, the child releases the Monkey King from his curse. With the help and encouragement from this special child, Monkey King saves the village from the evil monsters

User Reviews

1, The character image is more mature.

In the animation image design, the film didn't use children's characters for leading roles, like Monkey King, make the characters more mature.The image of Monkey King and Pig Zhu Bajie are all adult who have a background of adult socialization, which is beneficial to the depth of the hero image, rather than the superficial adventures.

It is very distinctive that Villain the leading monster's face design for Sichuan Opera Face, and the leading monster's body feels elegant in the sky, I would like give him a name of "the beauty of evil".But after he become a big worm, disgusting, and the modeling of the worm, feel copying the image of the other films.

2, Technical level greatly ascend.

The mouth moving is more realistic;The background picture more rich layered. 

Disadvantages:

1, The plot is weak.Writers had neither according to the novel, nor made innovation. The screenplay is only designed some abused poking fun which amused the audience once or twice. Even more worse, the focus is not prominent that the Monkey King turned into a hero of justice, slightly weak, it is not enough to convince me.

2, Poor continuity in action.Action before and after in a few action scene is not smooth, give me a feeling of unknown cause and effect.

3, Insert abrupt improper music.When the Monkey King, Pig Zhu Bajie, and Liu went alliance, background music style suddenly turned from the traditional Chinese opera into rock & roll, it appeared not harmonious.

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Wolf Totem (2015)

During China's Cultural Revolution, a young urban student is sent to live with Mongolian herders, where he adopts a wolf cub.

Director:

 Jean-Jacques Annaud

Writers:

 Jiang Rong (novel), Jean-Jacques Annaud(screenplay), 3 more credits »

Stars:

 Shaofeng Feng, Shawn Dou, Ankhnyam Ragchaa |See full cast and crew »

Storyline

In 1967, a young Beijing student, Chen Zhen, is sent to live among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia. Caught between the advance of civilization from the south and the nomads' traditional enemies - the marauding wolves - to the north; humans and animals, residents and invaders alike, struggle to find their true place in the world.

User Reviews

It was unprecedented that the film market in China was so prosperous during Spring Festival. Seven blockbusters of different styles were released on the first day of Chinese New Year that created more than 170 million earnings in this 7-day vocation.

The box office earnings of whole year in China was only about 200 billion, dating back to last decade when the market was just awake, which was difficult to compare with the data today. In that period, nevertheless, Dadi cinemas picked the digital screening strategy, even though it was much higher cost than film screening, to make the second- tier and third-tier cities that with larger population enjoy fair treatment on watching new movies, and therefore promote the development of Chinese film market.

This investment mode of Dadi Media was used to be bantered as "Quixotic Courage", what meant the commercial mode was lightly regarded. However, it was dumbfounded that Dadi insisted on breaking high-price barriers and making ticket prices more reasonable for audiences.

All decisions Dadi made were depended on the inherent attribution of films that they would be led back to the source -- the public. Keeping the original intention that "Make movies ubiquitous, make good movies ubiquitous" in mind, Dadi Cinemas sacrificed immediate interest and contributed to prosperous film markets in the second-tier and third-tier cities, aiming at spreading culture, mind and art of movies, keeping infusing blood with dream into Chinese films.

The desire for "good" movies in Chinese market was increasingly intense after explosive growth these years. It was comforting that movies during this Spring Festival satisfied audiences' needs for fierce actions, extremely cute and all-age theme. In addition, movies achieve our dreams on showing feelings, conveying the belief and transferring power -- in case of watching the movie Wolf Totem. New perceptions on savagery, humanity, survival, freedom, dignity and faith, will all be found after watching this movie.

Indeed, Dadi Cinemas are looking forward a new start from The Wolf Totem, a new start of film art that need to be put thought into it. As a consequence of this expectation, Wolf Totem was released averagely 2 percents more than it occupied the box-office proportion in Dadi Cinemas. During the 7-day vocation of this Spring Festival, more than 460 thousand audiences have watched this movie in Dadi Cinemas in more than 130 cities around China. The germination of Chinese film market has come to this era while audiences discussing ardently about the movies they just watched in Dadi Cinemas near their home, such as Wolf Totem, Dragon Blade, The Man From Macao 2, and so forth.

It is reasonable to believe that when more practitioners make sacrifice for the art of film, such as Wolf Totem and movies in the future that belong to film culture, art, this era, and all audiences who love movies, the development of the film market in our country will be inevitable healthy and permanent.

Even though the strength of Dadi is possibly not strong enough right now, movies that obey the heart and keep unique style are definitely respected. It is a new step of Dadi, from loving the "Wolf" in the Year of the Goat.

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SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (2015)

Undercover cop Kit (Wu Jing) becomes a junkie in order to catch Mr Hung (Louis Koo), the mastermind behind a crime syndicate. When the operation goes sour and Kit blows his cover, his supervisor and uncle Wah (Simon Yam) decides to terminate the operation. When Kit disappears without a trace, Wah defies the order from his commanding officer and tracks Kit to a prison in Thailand. Thai Police officer Chai (Tony Jaa) becomes a prison guard in order to raise money for his daughter who has leukemia. He's assigned to keep an eye on Kit. Even though Chai and Kit are in opposing positions and they don't speak a common language, Kit turns out to be a suitable bone marrow donor who can save Chai's daughter. While Chai is determined to keep Kit alive, the warden Ko (Zhang Jin) wants him dead to ensure the smooth operation of the prison, which is the front for Mr Hung's organ trafficking business. Mr Hung shows up in Thailand so he can use his younger brother's (Jun Kung) heart in a heart transplant to save his own life. The stage is set for a showdown...

Director:

 Pou-Soi Cheang

Writers:

 Lai-yin Leung (screenplay), Ying Wong

Stars:

 Tony Jaa, Jing Wu, Simon Yam |See full cast and crew »

Storyline

Undercover cop Kit (Wu Jing) becomes a junkie in order to catch Mr Hung (Louis Koo), the mastermind behind a crime syndicate. When the operation goes sour and Kit blows his cover, his supervisor and uncle Wah (Simon Yam) decides to terminate the operation. When Kit disappears without a trace, Wah defies the order from his commanding officer and tracks Kit to a prison in Thailand. Thai Police officer Chai (Tony Jaa) becomes a prison guard in order to raise money for his daughter who has leukemia. He's assigned to keep an eye on Kit. Even though Chai and Kit are in opposing positions and they don't speak a common language, Kit turns out to be a suitable bone marrow donor who can save Chai's daughter. While Chai is determined to keep Kit alive, the warden Ko (Zhang Jin) wants him dead to ensure the smooth operation of the prison, which is the front for Mr Hung's organ trafficking business. Mr Hung shows up in Thailand so he can use his younger brother's (Jun Kung) heart in a heart ..

User Reviews

It has taken slightly more than a decade for someone to pull off an 'SPL' sequel, but not for a lack of trying. Hey, it isn't quite so straightforward to make a sequel to a movie which had the balls to kill off each one of its three main characters played by Donnie Yen, Hung and Yam, and this long-awaited sequel is even more gratifying because it is in many ways as good as, if not better, than the original.

Rather than be tied down by the events of the first movie, incoming writers Jill Leung Lai-yin and Wong Ying have gone for a completely new narrative that honours the themes in the original. Yes, for the uninitiated, 'SPL' stands for the names of the three stars in Chinese astrology that signify destruction, conflict and greed, and just as these elements drove the characters in the first movie to their fateful end, so too do they propel the destinies of the main characters here – Kit (Wu Jing), a drug-addicted Hong Kong undercover cop in an organ trafficking syndicate who finds himself in a Thai prison after his cover is blown; Wah (Yam), his uncle and handler also assigned to the same case; and Chai (Tony Jaa), a guard at the prison Kit is locked up in whose daughter Sa is suffering from leukaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant soon. 

As it turns out, the potential donor which the hospital has identified for Chai's daughter happens to be Kit, though both will remain unaware of that stroke of fate until much later. It is a somewhat implausible coincidence no doubt, one that we would readily scoff at in any other movie, but which you'll have to accept as being central to 'SPL 2's' very premise. The other intertwining thread of events has to do with Hung (Louis Koo), the ailing leader of the aforementioned syndicate which he runs with the corrupt prison warden Ko (Max Zhang) at the penitentiary Kit has been sent into. Hung himself is in need of a life-saving heart transplant, although because of his rare Bombay blood type, his only hope lies in his younger brother Bill (Jun Hung), whom he resorts to kidnapping when the latter refuses to donate his very organ.

Whereas the emphasis was very much on Yen's action and action choreography previously, this sequel pays a lot more attention to both character and storytelling. Indeed, each one of the many characters is distinctly defined by their proclivity to preserve their own life and/or that of a loved one, while being forced to confront how far they are willing to go to compromise their own sense of morality, justice or duty. In particular, Jaa gets his meatiest role yet playing a father who is forced to choose between a human cure for his daughter's blood ailment in exchange for his silence on the illegal skin trade happening right under his watch, and the actor gives probably his most nuanced performance to date. Also noteworthy is Koo's villainous turn, whose character justifying his selfish deed by the countless other lives he has saved before.

It is to Cheang's credit that the various narrative threads never get confusing, especially so at the start when he jumps back and forth to explain how Kit landed in prison. Though it may seem like a gimmick, the non-linear manner in which Cheang introduces us to his disparate characters eventually makes for a surprisingly compelling plot for a film of its genre, which often treats the latter as no more than filler in between the crowd-pleasing action sequences. Not that Cheang neglects the latter though – it is for its hard-hitting action that its predecessor was known for, and with action director Li Chung-Chi, this sequel honours that spirit with some truly exhilarating fights of its own.

Because Wu Jing, Zhang Jin and Tony Jaa are martial artists in their own right, there is no need for that sort of distracting camera-work that Hollywood action movies seem to be very fond of in recent years. Yes, Kenny Tse's cinematography is clean, simple and crisp, conveying the balletic moves of the stars who are front and centre in each and every one of the sequences. Li choreographs the poetic mayhem with flair, which consists of impressive set-pieces, such as a shootout at Hong Kong's new cruise terminal following a sting operation and no less than a full-scale prison riot filmed in one single unbroken tracking shot, as well as intimate mano-a-mano fights between the principal characters.

The best is saved for last, as Kit and Chai make their last stand against Ko and his henchmen in the penthouse of the Lotus Medical Centre in Thailand. The scenes towards the end where Kit and Chai tag-team to take down Ko are especially exhilarating, and most certainly match up to the sheer thrill of watching Donnie Yen and Wu Jing go at each other in a narrow alleyway in the first movie. Yes, those wondering if this sequel lives up to the action orgasm of its predecessor need not worry; the combination of Tony Jaa, Wu Jing and Zhang Jin makes for just a lethal concoction of bare-knuckle fights and bone-crunching violence.

But more than just a pastiche of well-staged action sequences stitched together, this sequel is a better film on the whole than the original thanks to an engaging story and some genuinely empathetic characters. Yes, the premise itself guarantees a certain degree of narrative contrivance, but Cheang's film preserves the no- holds-barred spirit of its predecessor while delivering a compelling crime/ morality thriller. It's as good a follow-up as fans will get, and well-worth the decade wait for one of the best action films you'll see this year.

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