RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET (Dir: Rich Moore & Phil Johnston, 2018).

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET (Dir: Rich Moore & Phil Johnston, 2018).

A sequel to a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature is a rare beast. While the 1990s and early 2000s were plagued with cheaply made straight-to-video sequels (a few of which did gain cinema release) produced by the television arm DisneyToon Studios, no feature since the 2008 release The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel’s Beginning (Peggy Holmes) has bared this indignity.

Other animation studios such as Pixar, DreamWorks and Blue Sky have regularly released sequels to their biggest hits with varying quality, but I was glad that Disney had abandoned exploiting their product in this way, especially as their last decade has seen a run of exceptional original movies, arguably their best since the Walt-era features. So it was with some trepidation that I viewed Ralph Breaks the Internet, the sequel to the excellent 2012 original Wreck It Ralph and I am happy to report that I was not too disappointed.

Ralph Breaks the Internet sees video game buddies Ralph and Vanellope Von Schweetz leave their respective games in Litwak’s Family Fun Center and Arcade and travel to the internet, initially eBay, in order to retrieve a spare part to repair Vanellope’s Sugar Rush game. On the way they visit the noirish Dark Net and unwittingly unleash a devastating virus but not before a sojourn in hyper-real racing game Slaughter Race and an encounter with the Disney Princesses in a neat cameo via the Oh My Disney website.

Yeah, the plot is slightly convoluted! This is where Ralph 2 suffers most in comparison to the original movie; the simple story of bad guy who wants to be good is simply more appealing, not to mention more streamlined, than what is on offer here. It also has a mildly unsatisfying conclusion and a slightly muddled message, a little at odds with that of the first film.

Still, Ralph Breaks the Internet is a lot of fun and is visually spectacular. While this movie doesn’t quite live up to the original it is certainly well worth 2 hours of anybody’s time and I guess bodes well for the next Disney Animation sequel, due for release in November 2019; a little movie named Frozen 2...

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RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (Dir: Peter Ramsey, 2012).

What would get if you crossed Marvel’s Avengers with a 1970s Rankin/Bass holiday special? Probably something not too dissimilar to DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians as Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Toothfairy, the Sandman and new recruit Jack Frost assemble Avengers-style to defeat evil Pitch Black, aka The Boogeyman, as he attempts to take over the world by filling children’s heads with nightmares and suppressing their belief in the ‘Guardians’, threatening the imminent Easter celebrations to boot.

Director Peter Ramsey’s movie is action adventure on an epic scale rarely seen in animation. The glib humour and pop culture references that often mired DreamWorks’ early features is thankfully absent here. Certainly there is humour, yet there is also pathos, as when Jack learns of his forgotten past and why he was chosen as a Guardian.

With genuinely exciting action set pieces and excellent voice work from a star studded line up including Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher and Jude Law, it is difficult to see how Rise of the Guardians could fail at the box office. But fail it did. Much to the detriment of cinema audiences who possibly found the Christmas/Easter mash-up aspect unappealing. Perhaps its winter release date was also misjudged, although it is certainly the most Christmassy of Easter movies.

While perhaps not quite in the same league as their ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ franchises, Rise of the Guardians is still one of DreamWorks’s best movies to date. Its visuals are often breathtaking and its nod to vintage Rankin/Bass shows, where Santa is as likely to crop up in an Easter or a Groundhog Day special as he is a Christmas one, gives it a nice nostalgic feel befitting of a movie which deals with childhood and tradition. While this movie was designed as a franchise opener, Rise of the Guardians was destined to remain a one off. As a stand-alone feature film it is an often exciting, warm-hearted treat and is highly recommend viewing at Easter, Christmas or any other time of year.

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Movie number 49: The Beloved Vagabond (Curtis Bernhardt, 1936).

A British made star vehicle for French actor/singer Maurice Chevalier, The Beloved Vagabond is a silly soufflé of a musical comedy.

Frenchman lodging in London Gaston de Nerac (Chevalier), forsakes the love of his life to a wealthy Count who will pay her father’s debts and save him from financial ruin. Returning to France with his lodger’s son in tow, he hooks up with a struggling musician (an early role for future star Margaret Lockwood) and the three of them traipse across the country getting mixed up in some foolhardy japes, the details of which will be forgotten by the time the end credits roll.

Chevalier is the only French actor in a mostly British cast. None of the other players (excluding Chevalier) even attempt a French accent and the end result feels patently fake.

Your enjoyment of The Beloved Vagabond will largely depend on your tolerance for Chevalier who, let’s be honest, is a little bit of an acquired taste. It’s an okay movie, somewhat submarined by its preposterous plot. It’s lighthearted with plenty of musical interludes but, ultimately, feels like it should be a lot more fun to watch than it actually is.

Movie number 38: A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964). With the distinctive opening ‘twang’ of George Harrison’s Rickenbacker guitar The Beatles hit the ground running, chased by a horde of screaming fans. The world is changed forever. This is no exaggeration. A Hard Day’s Night is undoubtedly the most influential British film of the 1960s. Possibly of all time.

Supposedly depicting an average day in the life of the band, the plot concerns some nonsense about the shenanigans of Paul’s grandad (an excellent Wilfred Bramble) and the disappearance of Ringo before a live TV recording. But who cares about the plot? We are really here for the music and it is sublime. ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘She Love You’ and the title track all feature in this long-form prototype of the music video.

American Richard Lester pretty much invented ‘Swinging London‘ with his cinéma vérité directorial approach. Alun Owen’s screenplay is both witty and surreal and cemented the band’s lovable cheeky chappie personas in the public consciousness. The musical movies of Elvis and Britain’s own Cliff Richard all of a sudden seemed hopelessly dated in the wake of this film which 55 years after release still feels fresh and inventive. Within a couple of years it’s influence would be strongly felt in TV’s groundbreaking The Monkees. It would also encourage Walt Disney to insert a beat-combo vulture quartet into his classic animation The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967). Gilbert Taylor’s crisp black and white photography is beautiful and John, Paul, George and Ringo, while no actors, all hold their own among the more seasoned supporting cast.

Lester and The Beatles would reunite once again the following year for the less essential but still entertaining Help! After which the quartet would ditch movies, forgo touring and record the masterpiece Rubber Soul taking the art of the LP to higher standards than anyone before them and probably since.

Bunny crumpets! Happy Easter! 🐇

Movie number 48: The House of the Spaniard (Reginald Denham, 1936).

Based upon Arthur Behrend’s novel The House of the Spaniard is a hopelessly dated comedy thriller set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. Peter Haddon hams it up as hapless David Grey, accidental witness to some dodgy goings on on Liverpool marshland who then gets mixed up in some nonsense about Spanish revolutionists. The confusing plot is peppered with coincidences and contrivances and for much of the movie I was in the dark as to what was happening as the narrative jumped from one incredulous event to another.

The Marlene Dietrich-esq Brigette Horney is appealing as Margarita, Mr Grey’s love interest and the daughter of his employer and eventual kidnapper Pedro de Guzman (Allen Jeayes) and the movie is not wholly unentertaining; some enjoyment is to be found its frankly ludicrous situations and eventual denouncement. But to be honest the film has little else going for it.

Told in a jolly, lighthearted manner unbefitting of it somber real-life backdrop of civil unrest, The House of the Spaniard is a largely missable b-movie that leaves a slightly bad taste. Those with an interest in pre-war British cinema, or with a peculiar fetish for bad movies, may find it worth a watch.