Delayed Reaction: Honeyland

Premise: A documentary following a pair of Macedonian beekeepers in a remote region.

I'm going to be honest. I'm dumbfounded about this movie. I can't figure out what I'm missing. This movie has glowing reviews. It the first movie I'm aware of to get nominated for both Documentary Feature and International Film by the Oscars. So, I watched it, and I don't get it.

This takes a fly on the wall perspective and follows the two beekeepers with conflicting ideologies and different home lives. I get what I'm supposed to like about the movie. It looks pretty. It's telling personal stories about these characters. There's all the reflection on the environment. It's told delicately and with patience.

I couldn't do anything to care about this movie. At one point, I even moved to a bigger TV and made a point to ignore my phone. It didn't help. I found this movie tediously boring. Apparently, this is a style of documentary that just doesn't click with me. I felt the same way watching this as I did Cameraperson, except this was even duller. I also ran into a perception problem. This movie is supposed to read as a sympathetic look at a widely ignored group of people. However, it felt more exploitative to me for some reason, like when a filmmaker comes to the U.S. Southwest and gets artistic shots of sand-covered trash cans at sunset.

Maybe I'm just not empathetic enough. Maybe I'm not a patient enough viewer. I don't know. The movie is competently enough made. I think I'm just shocked that there's not a little more critical dissent.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Quick Reaction: Missing Link

My stance on most Laika Studio movies has been consistent. I have no interest in them based on the trailers. Then, when I see them, I like them. This didn't work as well for Coraline (I really don't get what people see in that movie), but it sure was the case with ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. I guess I need to drop this stance though. I wasn't that interested in Missing Link. Then I saw it. I still don't like it much.

I mean, it's fine. Perfectly harmless. The voice cast is decent. I like that the animation style is different from most other animated movies these days. There are some good ideas in the movie. It just did nothing for me.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: Onward

Formula: Zootopia / Inside Out

Disney has a formula. So does Pixar. It's hard to say if that's a result of Disney buying Pixar or if that's just something that was going to happen regardless. We can fight the fact that there's a formula or learn to embrace it.

Take Onward. It's a story of a magical world full of trolls, unicorns, and other mythical creatures that have lost their magic after generations of opting to use more convenient technology instead. Two elf brothers, Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt) attempt to cast a spell that brings back their dead father for 24 hours. Something goes wrong and only his lower half comes back. That sets up a countdown to go on a quest to find an item to complete the spell and see their father before time is up.

You can easily pick the movie apart and show how it's pulling from every movie Pixar/Disney have done before. It's got a Finding Nemo quest with clues and fun characters. People losing their way because of technology is from Wall-E (or Zootopia if we open this to Disney Animation). Reuniting with lost relatives is from Coco. Single and/or dead parents is a Disney staple. I think we're always looking out for how Pixar is going to make us cry. Of course, John Ratzenberger. Onward isn't the most original Pixar idea ever.

And I don't care. This movie is thoroughly delightful. I'll be sad if Tom Holland's voice ever moves out of "little brother" range, because he's so good at it. It's surprising that Julia Louise Dreyfus isn't used more often for voice work. She has a great voice and even better comic chops. The Pixar animators and writers have a lot of fun making mythical, magical creatures mundane. As dumb as it is, I still chuckle at their decision to make Unicorns equivalent to racoons in our world. Adding the part about the boys only bringing back the lower half of their father is an interesting flex. The story doesn't really need it. It easily could've been removed without changing more than a couple bits. But it adds an extra challenge to the storytelling that they really get into.

I'd say that most important aspect of the movie is that it's a real tear-jerker. They really lean into the boys' longing to either meet their father for the first time or see him again for the first time since a very young age. It's hard to say how this rates against the most emotional moments of Coco, Inside Out, or Up, but it's up there.

Onward isn't blowing up the box office. Even without the CONVID-19 panic, I doubt it would've done as well as a lot of other Pixar movies anyway. The advertising has been poor. Early March isn't a place that audiences are used to looking for a Pixar movie. The movie is missing an intangible factor that will put it among the classics, but it's a damn good, original, and entertaining movie.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend