Archive for the ‘2000′s Animals’ Category

Willard

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Willard is a 2003 horror film loosely based on the novel Ratman’s Notebooks by Gilbert Ralston and a remake of the 1971 film of the same name. It was not billed as a remake by the producers, but as a re-working of the themes from the original, with a stronger focus on suspense.

Plot

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) is a social misfit taking care of his ill and fragile but verbally abusive mother Henrietta (Jackie Burroughs) in a musty old mansion that is also home to a colony of rats. Willard finds himself constantly humiliated in front of his co-workers and is eventually fired by his cruel and uncaring boss, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey), a vicious man whose professional interest in Willard extends to a personal financial one. A co-worker Cathryn (Laura Elena Harring) has sympathy for the quirky Willard. Meanwhile, Willard quickly becomes obsessed with his friendship with a rat he names Socrates. Socrates has competition with a much larger rat named Ben. Nonetheless when Socrates is killed, Ben is more than willing to guide the army of basement rats to help Willard avenge himself upon his slave-driving boss, who has even more devious intentions to inflict on Willard, after firing him. Willard and his basement rats kill Frank Martin. Willard, however, mistrusts Ben and attempts to dispose of him and some rats. The rest of his animal friends are going to be gassed because Willard can’t feed them anymore. But Ben and his rat army return for revenge. Willard escapes with his life and kills Ben by expressing that he only loved Socrates and he always hated Ben like the rest of the rats. But an epilogue reveals that he has retreated into a semi-catatonic state and been placed in a mental institution. There he finds a new white rat, which looks like Socrates and he believes in a rebirth of his one friend. In the end Willard says “It’s not over yet, no! Time is going to come“.

Awards

  • Crispin Glover was nominated for Best Actor at the 2004 Saturn Awards for Willard.
  • Robert McLachlan won the CSC award at the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards for Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature for Willard.
  • The DVD release of Willard was nominated for a Golden Satellite award in Best DVD Extras at the 2004 Satellite Awards.

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Seabiscuit

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Seabiscuit is a 2003 American drama film based on the best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. The story recounts the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race horse whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular sensation in the United States near the end of the Great Depression. This was the second film where Tobey Maguire and William H. Macy star in the same movie since Pleasantville.

The film follows the book fairly closely, albeit taking the usual “Hollywood biography” liberties with times and places here and there in order to compress the presentation. David McCullough’s narration gives the film somewhat of a “documentary” feel and adds to the drama of the story. There are also many horseracing scenes in which the camera is placed among the jockeys, giving the audience a realistic sense of “riding along” with the horses.

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Good Boy!

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Good Boy! was a moderately successful movie produced by Jim Henson Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring talking alien dogs. The movie starred Liam Aiken as Owen Baker, as well as Matthew Broderick, Delta Burke, Donald Faison, Cheech Marin, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave, and Carl Reiner were the voice cast for the abundant dog characters in the movie. The movie was based on the book Dogs from Outer Space by Zeke Richardson. Josh Hoffman and Zeke Richardson collaborated on the screen story, while John Robert Hoffman wrote the screenplay.

Plot

Owen Baker (Liam Aiken) is a 12-year-old loner who has been working as the neighborhood dog-walker so he can earn the privilege of getting a dog of his own. Owen’s hard work pays off when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Baker (Molly Shannon & Kevin Nealon), let Owen adopt a scruffy Border Terrier that he names Hubble (Voice of Matthew Broderick).

With his parents perpetually buying, renovating, and then selling house after house, Owen has little time to make lasting friends, so he hopes Hubble will be his best friend.

Owen does have a friend named Connie Flemming (Brittany Moldowan), a girl his age who lives in the neighborhood. But that won’t be for long if Owen’s parents continue their trend of buying and selling houses.

Owen and Hubble get more than they bargained for when Owen wakes up one morning to discover that he can understand every word Hubble says — including the ominous phrase: “Take me to your leaders.”

Owen learns that dogs came to Earth thousands of years ago to colonize and dominate the planet. Hubble, who is really named Canid 3942, has been sent by the powerful Greater Dane (Voice of Vanessa Redgrave) on a mission from the Dog Star Sirius 7 to make sure dogs have fulfilled this destiny.

The dogs Owen walks include pampered Poodle Barbara Ann (voice of Delta Burke), cool Boxer Wilson (voice of Donald Faison), nervous Italian Greyhound Nelly (voice of Brittany Murphy) and gassy Bernese Mountain Dog Shep (voice of Carl Reiner).

Despite the best efforts of Owen and this rag-tag group of neighborhood dogs to convince Hubble that everything is fine with Earth’s dogs, Hubble soon discovers the awful truth about Earth dogs: “You’re all pets!”

Things get worse when Hubble learns that the Greater Dane is headed for Earth to do her own inspection. If things don’t look right, all dogs on Earth will be recalled to Sirius 7.

Now Owen, a boy who never had a friend, and Hubble, a dog who never needed one, must work together to prepare the neighborhood dogs for a visit from The Greater Dane and her Chinese Crested henchman (Voice of Cheech Marin). Owen, Hubble, Connie, and their canine companions set out to whip the other dogs into shape so that they can pass muster.

Will they be able to succeed? And will Owen be able to convince his parents to not move again?

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Finding Nemo

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Finding Nemo is a 2003 computer-animated family film. It was written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks), who along with a regal tang called Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), searches for his son Nemo (Alexander Gould). Along the way he learns to take risks and that his son is capable of taking care of himself.

The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was a financial blockbuster as it grossed over $864 million worldwide. It is the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2006. In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest American Animated film ever made during their 10 Top 10.

This film was rated G by the MPAA.

Plot

Shortly after the Ocellaris clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his wife Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), move in to a new home, Coral is killed by a barracuda along with all of their eggs, except for one. Marlin finds that egg and promises it he will never leave it, naming it Nemo as suggested by Coral. The egg has been damaged in the attack.

Some time later, Nemo (Alexander Gould) begins his first day at school, but is frustrated and embarrassed by his overprotective father. Marlin has constantly warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean because he himself fears them, and also because one of Nemo’s fins is much smaller than the other due to the damage to his egg. Disobeying his father in order to show him that these fears are unfounded, Nemo deliberately swims out to open water; in the process, he is captured by a scuba diver. Marlin races after the diver’s boat but quickly loses it. As he desperately searches for help, he bumps into Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a regal tang who suffers from short-term memory loss, but is nonetheless relentlessly optimistic in contrast to Marlin. The pair soon encounter three dieting sharks, Bruce, Anchor and Chum (Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Bruce Spence respectively), who are members of “Fish Eaters Anonymous,” an organization modeled after AA.

Marlin and Dory inadvertently spark Bruce into a feeding frenzy and are forced to flee into a deep trench, only to be nearly eaten by an angler fish. Here they find a scuba mask dropped by the diver and discover that Nemo has been taken to Sydney, Australia, and Dory surprises herself by being able to remember the address written on it. A passing school of fish (one of whom is voiced by John Ratzenberger) gives them directions to get there via the East Australian Current, and also advises them to go through the trench that leads to it. However, Marlin disregards this warning and leads Dory over the trench, where she is stung nearly to death by a mass of jellyfish.

Meanwhile, Nemo is placed in a fishtank in a dentist‘s office. The dentist, who captured him earlier, plans to give Nemo to his niece Darla (Lulu Ebeling) as a birthday present; the other fish in the tank fear her greatly, knowing her tendency to handle fish so roughly that they die. Their leader, Gill (Willem Dafoe), a Moorish Idol, has been plotting a mass escape and calls on Nemo to jam the tank’s water filter. The first attempt fails, nearly costing Nemo his life, and Gill apologizes for endangering him for personal gain.

Marlin and Dory are found by a group of sea turtles who are riding the East Australian Current, and Dory makes a full recovery. As he befriends the turtle Crush and his son Squirt, Marlin tells some of the sea turtles about his reason for venturing so far from home. His story travels among the sea creatures, eventually reaching Nemo via a friendly Brown Pelican named Nigel (Geoffrey Rush). Nemo is inspired by this account and makes a second attempt on his own to jam the filter, this time meeting with success. The tank begins to get dirty, and the fish hope that the dentist will take them out so he can clean it; once they are in individual plastic bags, they can roll out the window and into the harbor. However, while they are sleeping, he installs a high-tech filter to keep the tank clean automatically, foiling their plan.

Marlin and Dory are swallowed by a blue whale, which delivers them safely to Sydney. Confronted by a pelican and a flock of hungry seagulls in the harbor, they are rescued by Nigel, who takes them to the office as the dentist removes Nemo from the tank and puts him in a bag. When Darla arrives, Nemo pretends to be dead, hoping that he will be flushed down the toilet and thus be able to reach the ocean. Marlin and Dory are shocked to see Nemo belly-up and believe he is truly dead. After they and Nigel are thrown out the window, Gill helps Nemo escape down the drain of the dentist’s sink to the ocean.

Deeply depressed in the belief that his rescue attempt amounted to nothing, Marlin thanks Dory and tells her he is going home on his own. Dory, however, is reluctant to be left by herself again, claiming that she can remember things better when he is around. Marlin still swims away to go home, leaving Dory hopelessly lost and confused. A chance encounter with Nemo jogs her memory and she is able to reunite him with Marlin. Moments later, Dory is caught in a fishing net along with a school of grouper. Nemo has an idea to save her by telling the fish caught in the net to swim down, a trick the other fish in the tank had tried to use to save him from being scooped up in the dentist’s net. Though Marlin is afraid to let him go out of fear of losing him again, he realizes that he has to let Nemo take this chance. The maneuver works, freeing Dory and the grouper, and Marlin reconciles with Nemo and apologizes for being overprotective.

Once they have returned home, Marlin is able to let Nemo “go have an adventure” at school, and he impresses and wins the respect of his neighbors for going across the ocean to find his son. In the epilogue, the automatic cleaner/filter in the dentist’s fish tank breaks down, forcing him to put all the fish in plastic bags while he cleans it out; they soon reach the ocean, but are, hilariously, still stuck in their bags.

Awards

Finding Nemo won the Academy Award and Saturn Award for Best Animated Film. It also won the award for best Animated Film at the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, the National Board of Review Awards, the Online Film Critics Society Awards, and the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.

The film received many awards, including:

  • Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Movie and Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie, Ellen Degeneres.

Finding Nemo was also nominated for:

  • Two Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress, Ellen DeGeneres
  • A Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
  • Two MTV Movie Awards

In June 2008 the American Film Institute revealed its “Ten top Ten”, the best ten films in ten “classic” American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Finding Nemo was acknowledged as the 10th best film in the animation genre. It was the most recently released film among all ten lists, and one of only three movies made after the year 2000, the others being Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Shrek.

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Whale Rider

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Movies Online

Whale Rider is a 2002 film directed by Niki Caro, based on the 1987 novel The Whale Rider by New Zealand M?ori author Witi Ihimaera. The world premiere was on September 9, 2002, at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

The movie’s plot follows the story of Paikea Apirana (“Pai”) at the age of 12 who is the only living child in the line of the tribe’s chiefly succession because of the death of her twin brother and mother during childbirth. By tradition, the leader should be the first-born son — a direct patrilineal descendant of Paikea, the Whale Rider — he who rode atop a whale from Hawaiki. However, Pai is female and technically cannot inherit the leadership.

Pai’s grandfather Koro Apirana, or Old Paka as his wife Nanny Flowers calls him (an affectionate corruption of “old bugger,” per the book), the leader of the tribe, is initially angry at losing his grandson and being left with a “worthless” female. While he later forms an affectionate bond with his granddaughter, carrying her to school every day on his bicycle, he also resents her and blames her for many of the troubles facing the tribe. At one point Pai decides to leave with her father because her grandfather is mistreating her. She finds that she cannot bear to leave the sea and returns home. Pai’s father refused to assume traditional leadership; instead he moved to Germany to pursue a career as an artist. Pai herself is interested in the leadership, learning traditional songs and dances, but is given little encouragement from her grandfather. Pai feels that she can become the leader although there’s no precedent for a woman to do so, and is determined to succeed.

Koro decides to form a cultural school for the village boys, hoping to find a new leader. He teaches the boys to use a taiaha (fighting stick). This is traditionally reserved for males. So Nanny tells Pai that her second son, Pai’s uncle, had won a taiaha tournament in his youth while he was still slim, so Pai secretly learns from him. She also secretly follows Koro’s lessons. One of the students, Hemi, is also sympathetic, but Koro is enraged when he finds out, particularly when she wins her fight against Hemi. Koro’s relationship with Pai erodes further when none of the boys succeed at the traditional task of recovering his whale tooth from the ocean — the mission that would prove one of them worthy of becoming leader.

Pai, in an attempt to bridge the rift that has formed, invites Koro to a concert of M?ori chants that her school is putting on, as her guest of honor. Unknown to all, she had won an inter-school speech contest with a touching dedication to Koro and the traditions. However, Koro was late, and as he was walking to the school, he notices that numerous right whales are beached near Pai’s home. The entire village attempts to coax and drag them back into the water, but all efforts prove unsuccessful; even a tractor doesn’t help because the rope breaks. Koro sees it as a sign of failure and despairs further. He admonishes Pai against touching the largest whale because “she has done enough damage” with her presumption. Also, the largest whale traditionally belongs to the legendary Paikea. But when Koro walks away, she climbs onto the back of the largest whale and coaxes it to re-enter the ocean. The whale leads the entire pod back into the sea; Paikea nearly drowns in the process. When she goes out to sea, Nanny Flowers (Koro’s wife and Pai’s grandmother) shows Koro the whale tooth which Pai had previously recovered. When Pai is found and brought to the hospital, Koro declares her the leader and asks her forgiveness. The film ends with the village, including Pai’s father, uncle, and grandparents, celebrating her status as leader, as the finished canoe is hauled into the sea for its maiden voyage.

While the plot of the book is basically the same, it pays less attention specifically to Pai/Koro, and mainly focuses from a perspective of narration by Pai’s uncle; in the film, Pai herself is the narrator. It clearly expresses the deep resentment felt by her grandfather, and Pai’s longing to gain his respect as a rift opens between them.

Production and awards

Produced by South Pacific Pictures, on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island, the movie has received highly favourable praise from international critics and audiences and won a number of international film-festival awards, including:

  • the Toronto International Film Festival’s AGF Peoples Choice award in September 2002
  • the World Cinema Audience award at the January 2003 Sundance Film Festival in the United States
  • the Canal Plus Award at the January 2003 Rotterdam Film Festival.

Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, becoming the youngest actress ever nominated for the award. She was 13 years old at the time.

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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is a 2002 animated film that was released by DreamWorks Pictures. It follows the adventures of a young stallion who is nameless until the end of the movie.

Animation and Sound

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was made over the course of four years using a conscious blend of traditional hand-drawn animation and computer animation in a technique the film’s creators dubbed “tradigital animation.” DreamWorks purchased a horse as the model for Spirit and brought the horse to the animation studio in Glendale, California for the animators to study. In the sound department, recordings of real horses were used for the sounds of the many horse characters’ hoof beats as well as their vocalizations. None of the animal characters in the movie speak English beyond occasional reflective narration from the protagonist mustang (voice of Matt Damon). Many of the animators who worked on Spirit also worked on Shrek 2, and their influence can be seen in the horses in that film, such as Prince Charming’s horse from the opening sequence and Donkey’s horse form.

The background score was composed by Hans Zimmer, with songs from Bryan Adams. The opening theme song for the movie is “Here I Am” written by Bryan Adams, Gretchen Peters, and Hans Zimmer. It was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Another song, which was not included in the film itself (although it can be heard in the ending credits), is “Don’t Let Go”, which was sung by Bryan Adams with Sarah McLachlan on harmonies and piano. It was written by Bryan Adams, Gavin Greenaway, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, and Gretchen Peters. Many of the songs and arrangements are set in the American West, with themes based on love, landscapes, brotherhood, struggles, and journeys. Garth Brooks was originally supposed to write and record songs for the film but the deal fell through.

Many of the scenes used for the song of “I Will Always Return” were taken from the earlier parts of the movie to “This Is Where I Belong”. A good example is when Spirit and Rain are standing on the hill. That was taken directly from the earlier part of the movie, only there were some slight modifications.

The original soundtrack contains 15 songs, and the special edition has one extra.

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Snow Dogs

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Snow Dogs is a 2002 live-action movie, released in the USA on January 18, 2002 by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Brian Levant. It stars Cuba Gooding, Jr. Snow Dogs was suggested by the book “Winterdance – The fine madness of running the Iditarod” by Gary Paulsen.

Plot

Theodore “Ted” Brooks (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a renowned dentist of Miami, Florida, who is advertising on every bus in Miami, travels to the wilds of Alaska to claim his inheritance left by his late mother – seven Siberian Huskies and a border collie – and discovers his roots. Totally out of his element, he has to face challenges he has never dreamed of: blizzards, thin ice, an intimidating, crusty old mountain man called Thunder Jack (played by James Coburn in one of his final roles),and the aggressive, defiant lead dog, Demon. All of this happens with the buzzing excitement of the Arctic Challenge Sled Dog Race which is only two weeks away.

During his stay in Tolketna, Brooks tries to find the reason he was given up for adoption, including any information about his father. Ted meets a barmaid named Barb who was a friend of his late birth mother Lucy. She falls in love with him during the course of the movie. He continues to encounter Thunder Jack, who wants all of his late mother’s sled dogs, especially Demon. Thunder Jack is Ted’s real father. Brooks eventually feels that the truth is worth the dogs themselves, and trades them to Thunder Jack. Jack tells Ted that he and Lucy stayed in a cave during one of the Arctic Challenges. It is there that Ted was conceived. Lucy leaves after the race and gives Ted up for adoption.

With Demon, Thunder Jack takes part in the Arctic Challenge Race but is unable to finish it because of a storm. Meanwhile Brooks, who has returned home to Miami is learning that his personal journey isn’t yet finished. Infuriated by evidence found proving Thunder Jack was at the hospital when he was born, Brooks returns to Alaska looking for answers. When he learns of the missing musher and his team, he feels that this may be the opportunity to save a man, and perhaps find truth once and for all.

Brooks sets out to rescue the man who tried to kill him, with Nana as the lead dog. He finds Jack in the old cave. Ted finds out the reason for Demon’s bad temper is the pain caused by a bad tooth. He pulls it out and Demon becomes a friendly dog. During the journey back, the sled nearly goes over a cliff into a river but the dogs pull it back up. Ted brings his father across the finish line.

Ted and Barb get married and Nana and Demon have four puppies. Now having grown to love the region, Brooks moves his practice to it with his wife, who is pregnant at the end of the film, as his partner.

The movie ends with Ted’s cousin Rupert becoming the new famous Miami dentist with his face on every bus.

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Scooby-Doo

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Scooby-Doo is a 2002 live-action film based on the 1960′s Hanna-Barbera cartoon Scooby-Doo. The film was directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn and Craig Titley. It was produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle for Warner Bros. Pictures and starred Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Fred, Linda Cardellini as Velma, and Neil Fanning as the voice of Scooby-Doo (who was created on screen using computer-generated imagery) and Rowan Atkinson as Emile Mondavarious. Pamela Anderson made an uncredited appearance at the beginning of the movie.

In 2004, this film was followed by a sequel titled Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Plot

After solving the case of the Luna Ghost, an unco-operative Mystery Inc., consisting of Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, splits apart. In the year that has passed, Velma has been an advisor at NASA, Fred has become a popular celebrity, Daphne has become a skilled martial artist, and Shaggy and Scooby continued investigating mysteries. Two years later, the gang is surprisingly reunited when they are all summoned to Spooky Island, a monster-based theme park on a remote island. While Shaggy and Scooby wish to work together as team, the others are not as enthusiastic. On the plane ride there, Shaggy falls in love with a girl named Mary Jane, who likes Scooby Snacks and is allergic to dogs.

On Spooky Island, the gang meet Emile Mondavarious, the eccentric owner of the island. He explains that visitors to the island come but leave as emotionless and almost inhuman (as demonstrated when a girl picks up an older man and throws him away with one arm). Since they are still upset with each other, none of the former Mystery Inc. members want the others to solve the mystery first, so they all split up to search for clues. Velma witnesses a creepy dance in which a man named N’Goo Tauna and his servant, Zarkos (A.K.A. The Masked Luchador wrestler) explain that demons once ruled the island until Mondavarious built the theme park on it, enraging the demons. Velma is unafraid of N’Goo’s threats of vengeance. Daphne meets Voodoo Maestro who quite clearly warns her not to go the Spooky Island Castle attraction, but she believes he is setting a trap for her there and goes to spring the trap.

The gang meet up at the castle and split up to search for clues as group. Fred and Velma discover a strange classroom with a training program describing how to act like a human. Daphne finds a strange triangular artifact called the Daemonritus. Then after Scooby belches quite loudly, he and Shaggy then get into an exaggerated belching contest that then turns into a farting contest where both do both quite loudly and with exaggerated mannerisms (and Scooby reacts to the smell). Moments later, Shaggy farts again and it echoes in the suit of armor he’s wearing, while the gas briefly ignites over an open flame. The group escape the castle when an alarm is triggered by a hidden minion of N’Goo. The island demons attack the hotel, capturing Fred, Velma, Mondavarious and many other guests. Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Mary Jane are the only ones to escape.

The next day, everything seems normal and the hotel is clean and tidy. Shaggy and Scooby locate Fred but discover he and all the other guests are being controlled by the demons. Daphne is captured by Zarkos and loses the Daemonritus. Shaggy and Scooby find Mary Jane and they escape from the demons on quadbikes, Scooby discovering Mary Jane is also controlled. Scooby falls down a hole, Shaggy following, but he discovers a pool of ectoplasmic heads. He releases Velma, Daphne and Fred, who return to their bodies, exposing the demons to sunlight and destroying them. However, Fred and Daphne get to each other’s bodies. When Fred is in Daphne’s body he first looks down her shirt and looks at her breasts, possibily confirming the realationship between the two. Eventually though, they get to their original bodies.

The four find Voodoo Maestro trying to perform a protective ritual, where he explains that if the demons sacrifice a purely good soul to the Daemonritus, they could rule the Earth for 10,000 years. The purely good soul belongs to Scooby-Doo, the mastermind behind this plot being Mondovarious. The gang form a trap to destroy the monsters – planning to open the island’s main ventilation system to spray sunlight over the demons and destroy them. However, Mondovarious and N’Goo enter with all the possessed guests, beginning the ritual to sacrifice Scooby. Fred and Velma get captured while Daphne fights Zarkos on top of the island.

Shaggy saves Scooby, injuring Mondovarious in the process while he absorbs the ectoplasmic heads into the Daemonritus. Fred and Velma discover he is a robot, controlled by none other than Scrappy-Doo, who seeks revenge after being thrown out of the gang. Due to his large absorption of power, Scrappy transforms into a monstrous demonic dog and tries to kill Scooby. Daphne manages to kick Zarkos through the ventilation system, destroying the demons with sunlight, saving all the guests including Mary Jane. Shaggy manages to remove the Daemonritus from Scrappy, transforming Scrappy back to his normal self. Scrappy still tries to fight, but an exasperated Scooby just knocks him into a wall with a flick of his paw, knocking him out.

Fred and Daphne kiss as a victory, while Shaggy finds the real Mondavarious who explains that he was trapped in a hole by Scrappy. Scrappy, N’Goo, Zarkos and the other minions are arrested, and Mystery Inc., now completely back together again, head off for their next case.

Reception

The film was released to generally negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a “Rotten” rating of 28%, with an average score of 4.3 out of 10. On Metacritic, the film has a 35 out of 100 rating which indicates “generally negative reviews”. However, despite a negative reception, It was released in 3,447 theaters and made $19,204,859 on its opening day and $54,155,312 over the weekend, averaging about $15,711 per venue and ranked #1 at the box office. The film closed on October 31, 2002, with a final domestic gross of $153,294,164. It made an additional $122,356,539 internationally, bringing the total worldwide gross to $275,650,703.

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Ice Age

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Movies Online

Ice Age is a feature-length CGI-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox in 2002. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson. Its sequels are called Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009). The film was originally to be directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and produced in 2D by Fox Animation Studios, but the rise of CGI animation and the failure of Titan A.E. destroyed Fox’s traditional animation division, hence Bluth and Goldman transferred their duties for Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha from Fox’s CGI division Blue Sky.

Plot

The film begins with a squirrel known as Scrat, who is trying to find a location to store his prized acorn. Eventually, as he tries to hide it, he causes an avalanche. He barely escapes, but finds himself crushed by a giant foot (not killed).The animals are trying to avoid the ice age by migrating south. Sid, a clumsy ground sloth left behind by his family, is attacked by two Brontops whom he angered. Sid is soon saved by Manfred (“Manny”), an agitated mammoth who fights them off. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Sid follows Manny. Meanwhile, Soto, the leader of the Smilodon pride wants revenge on a group of humans by eating the chief’s son, Roshan, alive. There is an attack on the human camp, causing Roshan’s mother to be separated from the rest. Soto’s lieutenant, Diego, is sent to find and bring the baby back. Sid and Manny spot Nadia near the lake having survived her trip over the waterfall. She has only enough strength to trust her baby to Manny before she disappears. After much persuasion by the sloth, they decide to return Roshan (nicknamed “Pinky”) but when they get to the human camp, the humans are gone. They meet up with Diego, who convinces the pair to let him help by tracking the humans. The four travel on, with Diego secretly leading them to an ambush. Soon they reach a cave where Sid and Diego learn about Manny’s past and his previous interactions with the humans, where his wife and son were hunted, leaving Manny a cynical loner. At the end of the film, Diego, Manny and Sid battle Soto’s pack and a short fight ensues. Diego fights against Soto, and Soto knocks Diego out. As Soto closes in for the kill on Manny, Diego leaps and stops Soto, who wounds Diego in the process. Manny, in vengeance, knocks Soto into a wall of rocks, where sharp icicles fall on Soto, killing him. Manny and Sid manage to return the baby to his tribe, and Diego rejoins them, as the group begin heading off to warmer climates.20,000 years later, Scrat is shown on a tropical island, with a coconut to replace his lost acorn, but as he proceeds to pack the coconut, it causes a volcanic eruption. Originally, Sid was trying to avoid another sloth named Sylvia. He manages to lose her by putting her in the path of some migrating Glyptodon, who unknowingly carry her off when she got caught on their backs. Later he makes it look like Diego had killed him, but she saw he was faking, so she deserted him in anger. This segment was still used in the movie, but was used for Sid to avoid the two brontotheres who were still after him, as they fell for the trick. It was kept in the storybook version, however. The deleted scenes can be viewed separately, or in Nutty Movie Mode, both of which are included on Disc 1 of the two-disc Special Edition DVD.

Sequels

  • Ice Age: The Meltdown was released on March 31, 2006. The film focuses on the melting of a dam (due to, as Sid puts it at the end of the first film, Global warming) and the impeding flood.
  • Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is set to be released on July 1, 2009. The teaser trailer was released with the film Horton Hears a Who! featuring Scrat and his acorn. It centers around dinosaurs who survived the extinction and buried under the ice. After the ice thaws, they will be exposed to the new world.

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Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch

Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Movies Online

Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch is the fourth film in the Air Bud series.

Josh is off to his first year of college and Buddy has stayed behind with Josh’s little sister, Andrea and the rest of the family. Andrea, attempting to fit in with her Jr. High classmates, decides to join the baseball team and along the way discovers that Buddy is a talented baseball player. Just as the season is settling in, a terrible discovery is made – Buddy’s puppies, have mysteriously started disappearing with the help of kidnappers’ little helper, Rocky Raccoon. Air Bud must find her puppies and make it to the major leagues as he goes to bat for the Anaheim Angels!

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