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While technology has gotten better since TOY STORY was released, it’s not easy to improve on storytelling this clever. John Lasseter’s masterpiece could have been so many things with its recognizable brands and pop culture references, but it avoids all the pitfalls of that material and crafts an innocent story about friendship and love. The franchise has become a money making machine since, but, the film isn’t about selling toys, but the joy of a toy in the hearts of a child and the joy of being that beloved toy.

TOY STORY presents the whimsical idea that toys come to life when humans are not around. Woody (Tom Hanks, BIG) is the king of the toy chest in Andy’s room. He organizes the other toys, which include the comedian Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), dedicated Slinky Dog (Jim Varney, ERNEST GOES TO CAMP), insecure dinosaur Rex (Wallace Shawn, THE PRINCESS BRIDE), piggy bank Hamm (John Ratzenberger, TV’s CHEERS), and the ceramic lamp Bo Beep (Annie Potts, GHOSTBUSTERS), who has a thing for Woody. It’s Andy’s birthday and he gets the new spaceman action figure Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen, TV’s HOME IMPROVEMENT), who doesn’t believe that he’s a toy. With his fancy gadgets, Buzz quickly becomes Andy’s new favorite, leaving Woody feeling forgotten.

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Warner Bros. Animation successfully moved into making more mature animated direct-to-videos with SUPERMAN: DOOMSDAY. Their latest effort — an anime infused BATMAN production made up of six distinct, but interlocking, chapters — is another step in the right direction. Six different writers and six different directors handled each section, which was brought together as a whole by the guiding hands of exec producer Bruce Timm and story man Jordan Goldberg, a producer on THE DARK KNIGHT. The distinct visual styles keep the material interesting as we watch the unfolding episodes chronicling the early adventures for the Dark Knight.

The first segment, “Have I Got a Story For You,” is a wonderful tale to start with, following the wild and wildly different impressions of Batman from four kids. In one tall tale he is a shadowy apparition then in the next he becomes a flying, savage creature. The next tale paints him as a weapon-filled machine. In reality, he turns out to be a mere man. With a screenplay from Josh Olson (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) and directed by Shouijirou Nishimi (animation director on TEKKON KINKREET), the raw style of the animation makes for a gritty start and a fitting look for what amounts to various legends about Batman.

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Director Andrew Stanton previously made us believe in the love between a father fish and his son in FINDING NEMO. Now he makes us fall in love yet again with a love story between two utterly charming robots. This daring Pixar production breaks the company’s mold in many ways — it features live-action, the first third is English-dialogue free, and there is a big message.

It’s 2800 and humans have abandoned Earth, which has been consumed by garbage. Left behind to clean up the mess are tiny tractor-like WALL•E robots. They compress the trash into neat squares and stack them as high as skyscrapers. Since it has been centuries since humans left, it seems only one curious WALL•E remains at his task. As he compacts the garbage, he collects items he finds interesting. One of those items is a VHS tape of HELLO, DOLLY!, which he knows by heart. His only friend on Earth is a resilient cockroach. Then one day a giant spaceship arrives and drops off a new robot. The slick iPod-design-style Eve is on a mission, looking for proof of organic life on Earth. As she looks for life, WALL•E follows her every move, smitten with love. So when the spaceship returns to take Eve back to the floating ark in space, WALL•E hitches a ride.

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Pixar’s latest short film, PRESTO, from director Doug Sweetland, is an ode to classic Warner Bros. and MGM shorts. And it’s as hilarious as some of their best. A cute white bunny is a prop in the act of master magician Presto. The white rabbit longs for a carrot that is just out of his reach. Rushing out on stage, Presto forgets to feed his pet. During his performance he uses two magical hats to pulled the rabbit from one and out the other. However, this time around the bunny has some surprises for Presto on the other side.

What a crowd pleaser this short is. Sweetland times his gags effortlessly with some great animation acting. Making the gags work all the more is their believability within the world of the theater. When Presto pulls random things out of the hat they aren’t really random. Because this is mainly a gag and performance piece, Sweetland keeps jokes flying at the audience, shifting the context and reaction of his gags just enough to make the next bit of physical humor just as funny as the one preceding it. Mixing humor and charm, this is the kind of animated short that many people think of when they think of animated shorts. Playing along with WALL•E, movie fans are getting two of Pixar’s best.

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This anthology film is a love letter to Paris and to love itself. Twenty short films were commissioned for the feature-length project set in the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Only two of those films did not make the final cut. Directors such as Gus Van Sant (GOOD WILL HUNTING), Joel and Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION), Sylvain Chomet (THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, Alfonso Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN), Wes Craven (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), Tom Tykwer (GO) and Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT) all helmed sections. Stars such as Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands and Gerard Depardieu (who also directs) provide the film with their acting talents. Altogether it works as a joyous experience.

Director and star Bruno Podalydes begins the film with a hate story to Paris parking, which ends in a lonely man having a pretty passerby (Florence Muller) fall for him. Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) brings us a tale of a young white man (Cyril Descours) who meets a young Muslim woman (Leila Bekhti) at the park, but what will her grandfather think when he follows her to their mosque? From Gus Van Sant, there is a tale of a print shop customer (Gaspard Ulliel, HANNIBAL RISING) who is smitten instantly with the young worker (Elias McConnell, ELEPHANT), but there is a hidden obstacle to the customer’s bold declaration of his affections. In a typical Coen Brother unsentimental fashion, their “love story” finds an American tourist (Buscemi, FARGO) trapped in the middle of a lovers’ spat between a pretty young girl and her hotheaded boyfriend.

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Outside of the first SHREK film, KUNG FU PANDA is the best movie from DreamWorks Animation. Unlike other DreamWorks’ productions that have relied too heavily on pop culture references, Mark Osborne and John Stevenson’s film has a self-contained world with jokes based on the characters not FAMILY GUY-style “let’s throw out as many references as we can and see what sticks.” Containing the hallmarks of a good family film, PANDA doesn’t talk down to anyone in the audience and provides something for everyone. Martial arts fans will particularly love the action and the subtle references to kung fu classics.

Po (Jack Black, HIGH FIDELITY) is a pudgy panda who dreams of becoming a great kung fu warrior like his heroes — the Furious Five. His father Mr. Ping (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA), on the other hand, is grooming him to take over the family noodle business. Meanwhile, kung fu master Oogway the turtle (Randall Duk Kim, THE MATRIX RELOADED) senses that savage Tai Lung the snow leopard will escape from prison and destroy the Valley of Peace. He decides it is time to select the mythical Dragon Warrior. His closest disciple, Master Shifu the mouse, presents the Furious Five as contenders for the legendary kung fu master title. However, on the day of the selection, Po makes an unexpected explosion onto the scene and is selected as the Dragon Warrior.

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This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

In 2006, Joanna Quinn’s DREAMS AND DESIRES - FAMILY TIES won top prizes at animation festivals around the world. Many felt it was a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination, but alas, as the Oscars often go in the Best Animated Short category, nothing is certain. It made my honorable mention list as part of the first RFP Overlooked Awards. Some say it’s the thick Welsh accents that did it in with the Yankees, which could be true, because for an untrained ear, it’s hard to decipher at first. However, after seeing the film a few times, I found myself falling in love with it.

The protagonist, full-figured Beryl (Menna Trussler), is a character Quinn has visited two times before in GIRLS NIGHT OUT and BODY BEAUTIFUL. She is an earnest woman whose chief fault is that she tries too hard sometimes. Her new assignment is to film her raunchy relative’s wedding. Seeing the events from Beryl’s point of view, she captures many embarrassing moments, even creating a few with her overzealous attempts at tracking shots and strapping her camera to a dog’s back.

Quinn’s fluid animation is remarkable. The bizarre angles she creates as Beryl moves through the environment are simply amazing. Beryl is a charming character that we sympathize with. She has big goals and wild dreams, but her heart is in the right place. She also has a way of portraying a heavy-set woman honestly with beauty. Quinn returned to Beryl because she didn’t want people to remember her only as the Charmin Bears woman. While the voice work takes some getting use, Beryl is a character worth returning to for continuing adventures and I look forward to more in the future.

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This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

PES is an animator whose style is unforgettable. Using found objects, through stop-motion animation, he creates bizarre concoctions that often defy adequate explanation. His best film, ROOF SEX, shows us what our furniture gets into when we’re not at home to sit on them. In GAME OVER, PES celebrates classic arcade games by cooking up a short made with food and other household items.

Classic videogame fans will recognize CENTIPEDE, FROGGER, ASTEROID, SPACE INVADERS and PAC-MAN. Centipedes made up of blue-frosted cupcakes are blocked by muffins and blasted at by a salt-shaker shooting birthday candles. A toy frog hops across a river of sequins onto watch face lily pads and pretzel stick logs. Beetles replace space invaders as an unseen fighter shields behind leaves, which break apart via hole-punches from the pipe-cleaner laser attack of the approaching insects. In outer space made of black marble, a spaceship with candy corn flames shots BBs at large chunks of rock. Pac-Man is a pizza missing a slice and when he comes upon a pretzel… it’s a pretzel. With that you understand what to expect visually and will find that the collision of seeming randomness is inspired. The homage to these Atari-era games is not only captured in the sound, but also in the movement. It’s the attention to detail that makes the film so fun, bringing back fond memories of sore thumbs.

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Chris Harding’s brilliant LEARN SELF DEFENSE is a timeless satire that skewers violence in the form of a 1950s educational video. George is an ordinary family man — just like you and me. Then one night on his way home from the bar, he is attacked by three CLOCKWORK ORANGE-like thugs in a dark alley. The narrator informs us that George must learn self-defense so this will never happen again. So George trains with a burly bloke in the ring, following five helpful tips — diplomacy, planning, faith, technology and preemption.

In diplomacy, we learn that you can insult your opponent and if they’re not with you yet then they are against you. In planning, we learn that you must form a plan and stick to it no matter what, because to rethink it makes you a wimp. In faith, we learn that wrong + wrong = wrong, but wrong + wrong + God = right. In technology, we learn that 21st Century weapons allow us to fight from a comfortable distance. In preemption, we learn what to do when we are unsure whether we are in danger or not.

The flat UPA-style design fits with the LEAVE IT TO BEAVER-frankness of the deep-voiced narrator wonderfully. Though the satire of the current war in Iraq is apparent, the film works equally well for past wars and American morals in general. Harding’s sense for the entire package from design to acting to timing is impeccable. He also has the guts to be shocking, but not in a gratuitous fashion. A satire is truly brilliant when it plays truths in a way that make them seem embarrassing in the end. LEARN SELF DEFENSE is as powerful a statement on war as DR. STRANGELOVE… and just as funny.

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Directed by Francois Caffiaux, Noel Romain, and Thomas Salas, this CG-animated student film brims with gags, creating a rare Looney Tunes-style CG film that works. A red uniformed samurai climbs the steep cliff of a very small island. From a nearby island his fellow samurai cheer him on, until a blue uniformed samurai pops up behind him and pushes him to the water below. This begins the tit for tat attempts by the two opposing forces to claim the middle island for their own.

The directing trio develops their gags well, keeping them flying at the audience and building continuing gags effectively. As the dueling clans’ leaders become increasingly angered by their inability to take the two-person wide island, the conclusion builds to an ironic comeuppance for the warmongers. One should also watch the backgrounds for some subtle jokes as well. So many times I’ve seen very cartoony-like action in CG look stilted. The reason is often that the timing and performance is off, having little to do with the technique. The filmmakers have the talent to pace their comedy, deftly varying and layering their gags. Their solid direction of the action is evident. Additionally, for a student film, the CG design work is slick. Calling this film a student film is a bit of a misnomer, because Caffiaux, Romain, and Salas establish themselves as pros with this production.

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