FINDING DORY: A Tangy Aftertaste

Other Reviews in this Series.

Directors: Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane (co-director)
Writers: Andrew Stanton, Victoria Strause
Cast: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Idris Elba, Dominic West
Runtime: 97 mins.
2016

There was a lengthy, downright dynastic period of time during which the release of a new Pixar movie meant the release of a new guaranteed classic. We are firmly out of that period. Of the five films released before Finding Dory, only one could be considered great by any significant metric. So it became difficult to care about the impending Finding Nemo sequel, a feeling only exacerbated by: 1) Pixar's increasing reliance on cash-in sequels and prequels, and 2) Director Andrew Stanton's recent career dip with the catastrophic failure of John Carter, an incident that makes transparent Stanton's desire to jump on board with a guaranteed cash-in of his own.

Yet I tried to be hopeful about Finding Dory, even as it kept slipping off my radar. Surely Pixar has created enough cinematic magic to warrant a bit of good faith. Too bad Finding Dory does little enough to reward that faith.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Cap Gun

In the weeks leading up to Marvel's next blockbuster juggernaut, Captain America: Civil War, we will be looking at every cinematic iteration of those two warring rapscallions, Captain America and Iron Man.

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Directors: Elmer Clifton, John English
Writers: Royal K. Cole, Ronald Davidson, Basil Dickey, Jesse Duffy, Harry L. Fraser, Grant Nelson, Joseph F. Poland
Cast: Dick Purcell, Lorna Gray, Lionel Atwill
Runtime: 244 mins. (25 min. premier and fourteen 15 min. episodes)
1944

The first and most perplexing thing to note about the 1944 Captain America serial is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Captain America. When I learned about the serial's existence, I was fully anticipating a propaganda-heavy war story, especially considering the time in which it was made and released. Instead, we get the story of Grant Gardner, a District Attorney who occasionally dresses up in a red white and blue costume to fight bad guys. Sometimes he doesn't dress up though, and it's just Grant Gardner fighting them. Also, Captain America doesn't have a shield and just wastes people with his pistol. Seriously, Gardner and Captain America rack up quite an impressive body count over the course of this serial, a fact that none of the authorities seem at all concerned about.

To top it all off, Captain America doesn't seem to have any powers, and, hilariously, he just drives around in a regular car. Unsurprisingly, Timely Comics (to become Marvel Comics in the 1960s) was unhappy with Republic's blatant gutting of their character, but Republic's response was basically, "None of that stuff was in the sample pages you sent us, plus we're in production already." Film historians think Republic just pasted the Captain America likeness over a pre-existing project they had in the pipe. Thus Captain America's first onscreen appearance is aggressively non-canonical.

That doesn't make it bad, though. The serial follows Captain America's pursuit of mysterious criminal The Scarab over a 25-minute premier and fourteen 15-minute episodes. In classic cliffhanger serial fashion, each episode ends with Cap in grave danger, to be resolved in the next chapter. These serials are considered to be cinema, but structurally they're really more like proto-television.

TOY STORY 3: Toy Movie 3 Is the Greatest Movie of All Time

Twenty years ago Pixar Animation Studios revolutionized cinema with the first full length completely computer-generated film. Two decades later and Pixar is still one of the most consistently groundbreaking studios in the business. Leading up to the release of their new film The Good Dinosaur, I will be going through Pixar's entire filmography at the rate of two movies a week. Here comes Toy Story 3, a film that many young adults got weepy about.

Other Reviews in this Series.

Director: Lee Unkrich
Writers: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Michael Arndt
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Jodi Benson, Blake Clark, Emily Hahn, Laurie Metcalf
Runtime: 103 mins.
2010

As much as any person has ever been a target demographic, I was the target demographic for Toy Story 3. As I relayed in my Toy Story review, Toy Story was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater, and I was obsessed with it during my youth. I owned my own Woody doll and Buzz Lightyear action figure. I had a Rex and a Mr. Potato Head. I grew up with these characters. My fondness for the franchise was something my whole family shared. It wasn't a case of parents tolerating their kids' fixation with some dumb cartoon, as I imagine is the case with movies like Cars. We could pop Toy Story in any time and everyone would enjoy it.

Fast forward fifteen years to 2010. I had just graduated high school and was sliding my way through the last summer I would have before going away to college. That's a terrifying time, full of anticipation both hopeful and anxious. There is a pervasive sense that you are about to take an unknowable leap forward, so you also spend quite a bit of time looking back.

Lo and behold, along comes Toy Story 3, a movie about a grown up Andy getting ready to go off to college, and the trauma faced by his forgotten toys. Andy's arc is relatively minor within the plot of the movie, but it is the emotional underpinning of everything that happens: he must learn to let the toys of his youth go, and in doing so leave them in a more caring environment than he would be able to provide. The final goodbye of Toy Story 3 hit me hard. I know many people felt this, but it was as if the movie was speaking directly to me. This franchise had raised me, and now it was time for me to move on.