Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupart Grint, Emma Watson
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Country: UK, USA
Genre: Fantasy
Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.
After two films that followed the same formula, a new director stepped in to helm the third installment of the series. Alfonso Curaón, probably best known for Children of Men, turns the frothiness of the previous two films and shrouds it in the dark of night. Where the first two films left audiences with a resonating feeling of sitting by the firelight, Azkaban leaves the audience with the feeling of being lost in the woods at midnight. Gary Oldman steps in, in the perfect way that only Oldman can to any role he’s given, to the notorious role of Sirius Black. The mystique of the Harry Potter series takes a turn for the better here, foreshadowing the long journey to come.
Starring: Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini
Director: Spike Jonze
Country: USA
Genre: Fantasy, Family
The children & family genre is overstuffed with bubblegum movies that it makes a film like Where The Wild Things Are almost impossible to determine how it will play with its [supposed] target audience. This is probably the most personal children’s film I’ve ever seen. While it is told, brilliantly I might add, through the eyes of a child, it seems like it goes one step further and is told through the eyes of an adult looking through the eyes of a child, (Being John Malkovich?) It’s smart, it’s scary, it’s heartwarming, its tearjerking. The entire movie had me feeling like I had the heart of The Grinch when it swells up too big for my chest. It’s truly a spectacle. By the time the credits were rolling I was already thinking fondly back on it. Oh, and the score by Karen O and the Kids = amazement.
Starring: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell
Director: Tarsem
Country: India, USA, United Kingdom
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
The tale of the making-of The Fall is one out of books of fiction. It was shot in around 20 different countries over several years of blood, sweat, and tears. The result is one very rarely seen on screen: that of such a visually arresting surreal fairy tale brought to life. I have never seen anything quite like it. Director Tarsem, known for his visual style (The Cell), uses his craft in such a brilliant way; the use of slow motion to draw out over-theatrically dramatic moments, his ability to show the world from a child’s imagination, and the use of the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is absolutely unforgettable. Not to mention this film has probably the best performance by a child actor (Catinca Untaru) I have ever seen. The parallel lines drawn between reality and fantasy in this film are majestic and sometimes tragic. It’s such an imaginative emotional journey that I cannot recommend more.
Starring: Edward Asner (voice), Christopher Plummer (voice)
Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Country: USA
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family
2008’s Wall-E was one hell of a film to have to follow in Pixar’s roster. And while Wall-E was incredibly ballsy, not only in its content, but in its storytelling (the first twenty minutes don’t even have any dialogue!,) Up is an equal risk-taker. In no logical world would I have predicted Edward Asner (or an eighty-year-old man like him,) to be an adventure hero, nor in a logical world should he be or should it work, but he is and it does. But it’s this unlikely hero that partly makes Up so damn compelling. This film deals with heavy issues not found in most of Pixar’s other films (or in family films in general!,) particularly with loss and regaining compassion. These are themes you’re not even likely to find in the more mature melodramas, but here it provides such a study structure for an adventure tale that built up an excitement in me that I hadn’t experienced since seeing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in theaters twenty years ago. Oh, yeah, and it’s hilarious. Did I mention that?
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith
Director: Chris Columbus
Country: USA/UK
Genre: Fantasy
For me, the first installment in most trilogy/franchises tends to be the most interesting as it usually deals with discovery and sense of wonder. Chris Columbus had some massive shoes to fill by taking on the task of bringing Harry Potter to life, and given the circumstances he could’ve done a lot worse. In fact, Sorcerer’s Stone is quite the journey into the magical realm of cinema. It was brilliantly cast, and as an adaptation it was able to remain loyal to the beloved books while crafting itself into a completely different medium. While most Potter fans would probably be more likely to pick up the books again to relive the magic, the film shouldn’t be underestimated in its ability to transport the audience into the world of Hogwarts. Columbus, and even Radcliffe, are able to develop the arc of Potter from the meek child at the beginning to the wizard with amazing potential by the end, successfully setting up his future adventures. I thoroughly enjoy the sense of wonder of visiting Hogwarts and Diagon Alley for the first time over and over again.
Starring: (voices by:) Rumi Hîragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Country: Japan
Genre: Foreign, Animation, Fantasy
My first reaction to the first viewing of this film was under all of the wrong circumstances. I was watching the American dubbed version (which I’ve since learned always to watch a film, animated or not, in its original language,) I was watching it under the belief that it was going to blow me away due to the hype-machine this film had behind it when it was released, and I believe I was also eating a pizza (delivery or DiGorno, my memory does not recall, but have also since learned to not eat pizza (or any other grandiose meal) during the first viewing of a film.) The result was mortification at the confusing and terrifying characters and the acid-trip like plot twists. Embarrassingly, I’m not even sure i finished it. Netflix: 2 stars… what was I thinking?
About five years later I knew my love for a well-made children/fantasy/animated film had matured into a fine appreciation, (mostly due to those geniuses at Pixar,) I decided to give Spirited Away another shot… foodless and with subtitles. The magic of the film almost immediately flooded to me. The story alone had such a child-like wonder to it that is so rarely achieved in other films. And maybe it’s just because of years of being saturated by computer-animated films, but the hand-drawn animation was breath-taking. It really added to the passion of the film, none of the often times sterile feeling of a computer generated film. But the thing that grabs me the most about this film is its story’s ability to go anywhere imaginable (and often times beyond.) The story isn’t bound by setting up its conflict at the beginning and sticking to a series of predictable scenes in order to trod its way towards its conclusion, but rather it slowly opens doors with infinite possibilities and somehow manages to use those conventions to shape the arc of the character and story. It starts at point A and heads for point B, but in between it visits point Q and point Z and point µ and point 56 and point œ.
To be completely honest, I’m a little jealous that films like this didn’t exist when I was a kid because I would’ve eaten it up. I still eat it up, but as a kid, I would’ve even wanted to own all of those crazy plushies.
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupart Grint, Emma Watson
2004 Films | this guy over here March 8, 2010 | 
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