Monsters University (2013)
With the extremely poor critical reception of "Cars 2" (which I haven't seen) and the ho-hum response from general viewers to "Brave" (which I thought was underrated), Pixar's reputation has taken a hit over the last couple of years. "Monsters Inc." had never been one of my favourite Pixar movies, but I was still prepared to be open-minded about this attempt at a prequel. That is, until I saw the teaser trailer featuring Sully (the big blue furry one) bullying Mike (the green one-eyed one) by using him as a makeshift disco ball. I was entirely unamused and felt this did not bode well at all.
Turns out I need not have worried. The disco ball scene isn't even in the final movie. Monsters University is actually very funny for pretty much the whole runtime. What's more it has that ability to hit you right in the heart for which the best Pixar movies have come to be known.
The movie is full of intricate details and it may take several viewings to catch these little touches. Also, while there's clearly a John Hughes influence here, the movie does not follow the route you might be expecting.
The animation is beautiful, the comedy is consistent and the emotional side of the movie is hard-hitting. Personally I would say that this was a better film than the original Monsters Inc. Who says Pixar are no longer at their best? Other studios are getting better at following Pixar's lead, but Pixar themselves are still the definite article.
A+
Paprika (2006)
I made a post early last year about my favourite anime movies and asking other people for their favourites. I was given a number of recommendations, none of which I've really been able to follow up on just yet, but I DID check out "Paprika".
One thing which has to be said first of all is that the animation is beautiful and inventive. Unfortunately there's very little in the way of a coherent plot. It's one of those films which prides itself on completely blurring the divide between imagination and reality. On the one hand that makes it possible for all sorts of wonderful pieces of imagery. One the other hand, it also makes the story rather hard to swallow (and it already begins with a pretty out-there kind of sci-fi storyline whereby a device allows you to enter other people's dreams).
It seems reasonable to excuse some elements because of the Japanese setting. sure, MY dreams wouldn't look anything like that, but this is a different culture and so the imagery is inevitably going to be rather different. However, one thing I don't think is so likely to differ across cultures concerns the police detective. We are told that he previously worked in film and then became a detective later. Now sure, that's not impossible (and it's more plausible than a lot of things which happen during the movie), but it's strange to hear it suggested that the police detective 'fell back' on the role of detective because his dreams of becoming a filmmaker fell flat. I'm sorry but police detective is not a role you 'fall back' on. It's a role you have to work seriously hard to achieve.
Admittedly "Perfect Blue" also had a lot of imagery blurring imagination and reality, but in the end the plot seemed to reach a point where the lines were clear. Here in "Paprika" the lines seems to get pushed further and further forward until everything seemed ridiculous. It was very exasperating. The last thing you really want to do is put forward an "it was all a dream" scenario which undermines your central storyline - and there was arguably some of that happening here.
Paprika is a beautiful movie, but this felt more like a long bizarre screensaver than a coherent story.
D+