TMNT and Meet the Robinsons

Movie season seems to be coming early this year. Within the past week I've seen two new CGI movies with the family. Quick reviews are below.

TMNT
I admit, I'm a fan of the 90's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. They're good fun and well made films (yes, Vanilla Ice excepted, of course). The producers of TMNT were smart and, like Superman Returns, TMNT is in the same universe as, and takes place after, the previous films, providing some welcome continuity. What's new here is the fairly incredible CGI which makes the settings more expansive, the Turtle's fight scenes better and the monsters more interesting. With a nuanced villain and ramped up action, this is a fine addition to the Turtles filmography. If you're a Turtles fan, you should enjoy the movie. My 9 year old son, Ben, loved it.

Meet the Robinsons
Carol, Ben and I went to see this yesterday. I had a very mixed reaction to the trailers and so was pleasantly surprised to have a very good time with this movie. The CGI is top-notch (as it often is in movies these days) and the voice work excellent (with actual voice actors rather than boatloads of stars looking for a quick paycheck.) With the exception of a fifteen minute segment in the middle of the film where we actually meet the Robinsons (their certifiable insanity struck me as unnecessary), I heartily recommend this. The story is poignant, the characters rich and there are some very interesting twists to the plot. The main villain, the "Bowler Hat Guy", is one of the most enjoyable villains I've seen in a movie in a long time. Very few animated movies, save for every single Pixar film, manage to choke me up. This one did.

We spent a couple of extra bucks and saw this in Disney Digital 3-D. Wow! The 3-D effect is excellent while avoiding the fate of other recent, murky, 3-D efforts. An early rain sequence is spectacular. Even better, there's very little "3-D for 3-D's sake" in the movie. The 3-D effects enhance the film rather than calling attention to themselves. Now that's an accomplishment.