No longer left awestruck
Back in the good old days, going to see an animated movie at the cinema used to be a major event. I fondly remember being awestruck when my mum took me to see Bambi, Dumbo and Snow White, and blown away more recently by Disney's fabulous Lion King. But is it just me, or are these animated movies becoming ten-a-penny these days?
Barely a month seems to pass without a couple of new releases flying on the back of big-money marketing and celebrity voiceovers, and they don't half seem to blend into each other.
Madagascar and The Wild seemed to share the same script, Hoodwinked is a blatant rip-off of the Shrek idea, and even Pixar has tailed off this year after its fine offerings like Toy Story and Finding Nemo.
This week Sony enters the fray with its first offering, Open Season. Cheery enough, with neat voiceover performances from the likes of Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher as a hapless home-raised bear left to fend for itself in the wild, and a motormouth stag with a death wish, but really just the same-old same-old formula of fluffy characters and a thinly veiled social message.
Desperate for a spot of originality, I took a sneak-peek at the "coming next year" preview in the Odeon Telford foyer this week. Spiderman 3 . . . Saw 3 . . . Pirates of the Caribbean 3 . . . Oceans 14 . . . The Bourne Ultimatum . . . have the Hollywood scriptwriters' association started some kind of industrial action and forced studios into the only kind of recycling which isn't remotely friendly to the environment?
I can't be too critical of big-budget repeats, though. Anyone who becomes regular readers of this weekly outpouring will fast come to learn that I'm a bit of a James Bond fan - can't wait for Daniel Craig's debut in Casino Royale to hit our Shropshire screens on November 17.
If you're after something a bit more feisty at the flicks this week, allow me to recommend The History Boys, adapted beautifully by Alan Bennett from his award-winning stage play. Richard Griffiths is spellbinding as the charismatic yet fatally flawed mentor at the centre of the story, ably supported by the love of Mr Rigsby's life, Frances "Miss Jones" de la Tour. More rising star than Rising Damp.
Carl Jones is the Shropshire Star's film critic. You can catch his views and the latest local film information every Friday in the newspaper.
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