patfish1 Reviews

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Just a Little Unbelievable

[7/10 · 29 June 2019]

It is a tradition in my household that when granddaughter visits, we go a movie together. Now she's 15 years old and tends to like scary movies but I asked her what she wanted to see and she said, without hesitation, "Toy Story 4".

Now I've never seen Toy Story 1, 2 or 3 but by all accounts, it's a great animation movie and hey, I was game.

As an aside, granddaughter has been planning attendance at another movie upon her return home. She wants to see "Annabelle", which is a creepy horror film. I suspect she didn't want Mom-Mom to see a scary film OR she didn't think I'd want to go.

I've never went to an animated film in which at least one character resembled somebody famous. In the case of "Toy Story 4" it was a character named Gabby Gabby who looked exactly like Katy Perry.

First, the very best thing about the movie....the animation.

Yes great characters, great drawing, great animation. Of course it's by Pixar, master of such things.

Now we discuss what wasn't so good about the movie....I thought it boring.

Further, while the toy characters were intriguing, to include an astronaut, Little Bo Peep and all her sheep, a Sheriff and other characters that intrigue...what the heck is it with that fork toy?

It seems that the main child character went to Kindergarten for the first time and created her first toy.

It involved a plastic fork that Bonnie (the girl child main character) created during her first school day. She affixed ugly fake eyes to the eyes, some kind of string for the mouth. It was cute for a kindergartener but hardly any sort of "toy" a child would lust over.

The premise of the movie is that the fork toy continues to dive into any close by trash cans because, well the fork thought it was trash, NOT a toy.

One more thing, don't bother with the 3D stuff. The animation is fine without it and not worth the extra money.

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

"The Secret World of Pets"-Pure Entertainment with generous dose of love between animals and people. Great Movie.

[1 August 2016]

You know a movie is good when it's over shortly after it began.

Well actually the movie was well over an hour and a half but I was drawn in from beginning to the last second. In fact, even at the last second I did not want the movie to end.

It's a simple story. A cute young dog, Max, finds himself stuck with a new housemate, Duke, a big lug of a dog that their owner brings home and expects they will get along.

Thus begins the saga to get rid of Duke while helping all the cast-aside pets of the world wreak revenge on the humans who left them.

The rest is just cute and includes Snowball the Bunny and lots of animals to include canaries, snakes, lizards and sneaky buzzards. Oh, and a real cute cat that acts….heh, just like a cat.

This is a movie for all ages. It's a movie to watch on a rainy day and a movie to watch over and over. The character voices include:

Louis C.K. ... Max (voice) Eric Stonestreet ... Duke (voice) Kevin Hart ... Snowball (voice) Jenny Slate ... Gidget (voice) Ellie Kemper ... Katie (voice) Albert Brooks ... Tiberius (voice) Lake Bell ... Chloe (voice) Dana Carvey ... Pops (voice) Hannibal Buress ... Buddy (voice) Bobby Moynihan ... Mel (voice)

There is no major moral to the movie except there is a human out there for every pet, there is even a human out there for pets who have lost their owners, which includes Duke.

There's action, laughs, shouts, screams and much fun.

See this movie, please. See it especially if you have pets.

Finding Dory (2016)

"Finding Dory"-boring, commercial, crass and totally unbelievable.

[3/10 · 26 June 2016]

Movies today are very commercial, we all know this. I've been going to animated type films with my granddaughter for many years and God bless, she always says she loves them all.

And so she did with Finding Dory but I was disgusted the entire movie.

First, we did see it in 3D, something I seldom do because I don't see the benefit of the extra money. But in the case of THIS movie, it is the one good thing I could say about it. This movie, under the sea, the marine life, the beautiful color, was gorgeous in 3D.

Now let's discuss the very, very stupid plot of this movie.

We begin by asserting that we do understand that giving animals human like traits is very common and I don't have a problem with this. It's part of the joy of watching, adds to the understanding, gives a depth to the plot.

But come on people, a fish with a short term memory problem? That's a rare thing even in humans for goodness sake, much less a fish with a brain smaller than a pea.

It's just too much to buy into is my complaint, that a fish manages to go through life forgetting everything is just learned because of this brain anomaly.

And the plot is very far-fetched, with fish hijacking trucks and flying with birds and translating fish water echoes into visual sights.

Seems Dory, the star of the movie and one of the fish who saved Elmo, an animate film from many years ago that was much more believable, lost her parents and the story is about Dory's determination to find them.

And Dory, come on, she's the only fish in the movie with buck teeth and why is this? Because Ellen DeGeneres, the voice of Dory, has teeth exactly like the cartoon fish and this was just so obvious. I like Ellen DeGeneres and consider she was a perfect voice for Dory, but DeGeneres has never met a promotional opportunity that she'd let pass by. Including having a fish with her voice look like her.

The story has a bunch of fish helping Dory find her parents and we've got seashell trails and forgetful Dory and a silly plot that looked as if a bunch of people threw a bunch of idea confetti on the table and an absurd story was somehow concocted.

Of course we have Dory stuff at McDonald's and Pixar, AKA Disney, will make money on this fluff thrown together with little care save for the merchandise and revenue.

Come on producers and directors out there! You got to have a little pride when crafting an animated movie. The color and 3D of "Finding Dory" ain't going to cut it.

This movie is best for someone five years old or less, someone who won't laugh at the silly concept of a forgetful fish.