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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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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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Based on the bestselling illustrated book series from Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, Mark Water’s screen adaptation is a highlight reel of some of the best parts from the five-book adventure. Like the HARRY POTTER series, the screen adaptation pares down the material to fit the length of a feature film, some fans will not like this fact, but others unfamiliar with the books will just get caught up in the breakneck speed of the wonderment.

Jared Grace (Freddie Highmore, FINDING NEVERLAND) is a troublesome child to his recently separated mother Helen (Mary-Louise Parker, TV’s WEEDS). Along with his straight-laced twin brother Simon (also Highmore) and fencing-loving sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger, IN AMERICA), they move to the abandoned house of their institutionalized relative Aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright, 1996’s 101 DALMATIANS). Jared quickly comes to suspect something strange in the house, eventually finding a dumbwaiter that leads to a hidden room where he finds his great uncle Arthur Spiderwick’s field guide to the fantastical world. Spiderwick (David Strathairn, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK) mysteriously disappeared 80 years prior and set the tiny brownie Thimbletack (Martin Short, INNNER SPACE) up as the book’s protector. Turns out, the forest is filled with goblins lead by the sinister ogre Mulgarath (Nick Nolte, HULK), who wants nothing more than to possess the knowledge inside the guide.

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Darker than the original NARNIA adventure, this new tale brings the original young foursome back to Narnia, a land that is now unrecognizable from the world they once ruled. Writer/director Andrew Adamson, along with fellow writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, stay faithful to C.S. Lewis’ original text, giving fans a faithful screen adaptation just like THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. With more battles, the epic scale is heightened, but this doesn’t mean there are not any new internal battles for the original characters, which are the most intriguing parts of the second installment in the series.

Centuries after the Pevensie siblings left Narnia to return to England, the magic realm has been taken over by the Telmarines, who have forced the Narnians to live in secret in the woods. Prince Caspian the X (Ben Barnes, STARDUST) is the rightful heir to the throne, but his scheming uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto, ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES) has his eyes on ruling the kingdom. Caspian flees for his life into the forest, where a scuffle with Miraz’s men results in dwarf Trumpkin (Peter Dinklage, THE STATION AGENT) being taken prisoner and Caspian taken in by dwarf Nikabrik (Warwick Davis, WILLOW) and talking badger Trufflehunter (Ken Scott, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR). During the fight, Caspian uses an ancient horn, which summons former kings and queens Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) back to Narnia.

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I was expecting eye candy going into this film and that’s what I was served, but by the time the final course was uncovered I had gobbled up Andy and Larry Wachowski’s neon-glowing confection. No one who has ever seen the original series would confuse it with good animation. Nonetheless it had a charm that was undeniable. The Wachowskis capture that charm, frosting their entire production with it. They are not interested in “improving” the original material with an overdose of extra hip wink winks — the same ingredient that has destroyed so many other animation-to-live-action adaptations. They’re interested in bringing the good flavors to the forefront and minimizing the cheesy aftertaste.

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch, INTO THE WILD) is from a family of racers, who thinks about nothing but racing. He looks up to his older brother Rex (Scott Porter, TV’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS), a champion driver. But something happens to pull apart Rex and his dad Pops (John Goodman, BARTON FINK), spurring Rex to leave home and later parish in a racing accident. When Speed grows up, he is courted by all the major sponsors, especially Royalton (Roger Allam, V FOR VENDETTA), a shady corporate tycoon. Soon enough, Speed learns painful lessons about the way the racing world is really run and is approached by the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox, TV’s LOST) to join him and blow the lid off the evil corporate conspiracy to fix races.

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Following two years after Walt Disney’s first Latin American feature, SALUDOS AMIGOS, this film is longer, more daring, less propagandistic, but ultimately less bearable than its predecessor. Upon the failure of this film, a planned Latin American trilogy was scrapped, saving the world from CUBAN CARNIVAL. Unlike AMIGOS, THE THREE CABALLEROS has a more flowing structure, reminiscent of the final sequence of the first film. It’s definitely the trippiest Disney production and makes one wonder what’s in that cigar that Jose Carioca is always smoking.

Like AMIGOS, CABALLEROS starts off like an anthology film, but soon morphs into a more free-flowing musical experience. A framework of Donald Duck receiving presents from his friends in Latin America introduces the first two segments. “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” follows the penguin Pablo, who dreams of relocating to warm climates. Next, “The Flying Gauchito” involves a little Argentinean boy who enters a horse race with the winged donkey he discovers. For the third segment, “Bahia,” Donald meets up with wisecracking parrot Jose, shimmies the samba with live-action dancers and salivates over the beautiful women. In “Las Posadas,” the lively rooster Panchito Pistoles tells of the Mexican Christmas traditions, leading to Donald try his hand at the piñata. This is followed by “Mexico” where Panchito takes Donald and Jose on a flying serape through the gorgeous beaches of Mexico where Donald can’t control chasing a bevy of live-action beauties. But in “You Belong to My Heart,” Donald focuses his affections of the popular Mexican singer Dora Luz. The film concludes with “Donald’s Surreal Reverie,” which sends Donald on a “love is a drug” infused tour, filled with lush colors, flowers and pretty live-action woman.

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This barely-a-feature Walt Disney feature, which clocks in at a mere 43 minutes, is actually a piece of wartime propaganda. Fearing Nazi Germany’s influence in Latin America, the U.S. Department of State paid for Walt Disney and his artists to tour Central and South America on a goodwill tour. The resulting film combines 16 MM live-action film shot during the trip and four separate short productions meant to enlighten the audience about the Latin American culture. While the film was meant to build support in Latin America, the film received lukewarm response in the States.

The first of the four segments, “Lake Titicaca,” casts Donald Duck as an American tourist where he bungles his way through the local village, having particular trouble with a snooty llama. Coming next is “Pedro,” the story of a pint-sized mail plane who must take the treacherous route over the mountains in Chile to deliver the mail after his father gets a cold. The third segment, titled “El Gaucho Goofy,” puts American cowboy Goofy into the attire and customs of the Argentinean gaucho. To close the film, “Aquarela do Brasil” (or “Watercolor of Brazil”) begins with a flowing musical number and ends with the introduction of the Latin parrot Jose Carioca, who shows Donald Duck around South America while trying to teach him the samba.

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This film is featured as bonus material on the “Classic Caballeros Collection” DVD.

This Walt Disney short marks two firsts. It was the first full-fledged solo short for Donald Duck and was the first appearance of Donald’s girlfriend — here Donna Duck, who would later become Daisy. In the short, guitar-playing Donald rides his tired burro into a Mexican town where he tries to woo senorita Donna. Donald proves not the most skilled suitor as he often laughs at Donna as she trips and falls. Trying to win her back, he trades in his donkey for a red car, which he hopes will be a chick magnet. But what kind of car can you get for the price of a burro?

Painting Donna or Daisy in the stereotypical hot-blooded Latina fashion is actually not a bad move. She has the right attitude for dealing with the foul-mouth duck, much better than a simple bland object of affection. This early Disney short is a solid example of character leading to good gags and driving the story. While some complain that Donald isn’t quite suited for role-playing, the song and dance elements here don’t seem unsuitable for the character’s cocky side. Both for its place in Disney history and for its solid dose of humor, DON DONALD is a great solo debut for one of Disney’s great anthropomorphic creations.

Buy It Now!

This film is featured as bonus material on the “Classic Caballeros Collection” DVD.

This Donald Duck short features Donald as an egg collector who is mistaken by a mama condor as her baby. Featuring a narrator, the tone captures that of traditional nature documentaries. As the narrator presents the facts about condors, the silly antics of Donald trying to survive as the babe of the giant bird are a wonderful humorous contrast. The mother’s real baby, of course, makes Donald’s dilemma even more feather ruffling. Donald’s attempts to avoid his first flight lessons are some of the high points.

Produced in the same year as Disney’s second Latin American feature THE THREE CABALLEROS, this Andres-set comedy is actually more humorous than any section of Donald’s work in the full-length film. While the narrator often drains character development from CABALLEROS sequences, in CONDOR, the contrast between the narrator’s matter-of-fact information and the reality of Donald’s shenanigans works in a humorous way reminiscent of the Goofy “How To” shorts. While some of the gags are repetitive and the pacing lags at times, the overall short has enough laughs to be successful. In our more PC age, the idea of Donald stealing eggs for fun is less than sympathetic, but the trouble that ensues gives the baby-snatching duck what he has coming to him I suppose.

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With the feature-length Dr. Seuss track record quite poor, I wasn’t expecting much from Blue Sky’s CG HORTON HEARS A WHO! I mean even animation legend Chuck Jones and Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel had a hard time stretching this same story into a half hour TV special. The trailers seemed to show only filler material — recycled gags that have been done many, many times before. But when it was all said and done, and the credits began to roll, I was hooked. This is a sweet tale that had heart and humor for everyone in the crowd, balancing nicely between the hip and the Seussian.

As the story goes, Horton the elephant (Jim Carrey, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS) hears tiny voices coming from a speck of dust floating in the air. Determined to protect the tiny person or persons on the speck, Horton catches the piece of dust on a clover. Turns out, there is a whole town on this speck called Whoville, and Horton makes contact with its Mayor (Steve Carell, TV’s THE OFFICE). In both Horton’s and the Mayor’s world, the inhabitants do not believe in the tales of tiny people and huge elephants in the sky, respectively. Mrs. Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) feels that Horton’s belief in Whoville will spark imagination in the children, creating rebellion, so she sends out Vlad the vulture (not Vlad the bunny with the cookies) to destroy the clover. Meanwhile, the movement of the speck is creating havoc in Whoville and the Mayor must convince his people of the truth before their town in destroyed. Dedicated to keeping Whoville safe, Horton heads out to place the speck on a flower at the top of a mountain.

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