SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Astro Boy

Set in futuristic Metro City, a small city that floats on top of Earth, Toby Tenma (Freddie Highmore) is an 11-year-old boy genius whose father is the Head of Ministry of Science. Toby sneaks into the demonstration room when his father and other scientist are experimenting with the two cores of energy, a “positive” (good) blue core and a “negative” (evil) red core and he ends up evaporated by a robot called “The Peacekeeper” which is powered by red core.

Devastated by the lost of his son, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage) works day and night to create a robot that reassembles his son and has all of Toby’s memory by using the hair strand of his son left on the cap. He powers him up with the blue core and is excited to spend time with his son, he soon realizes it isn’t the same and the new Toby reminds him that his son is gone.

By accident, Toby learns that he is actually a robot and can fly but President Stone also discovers Toby’s blue core energy and tries to capture him. He ends up on the surface of Earth and finds a group of kids led by a caretaker named Hamegg as well as some robot friends to learn the purpose and true meaning of life only to be forced to fight ala Roman style with other robots in a stadium with robots after Hamegg reveals Astro as a robot. Astro forcefully wipe out all the robots but refuses to fight Zog, a giant construction robot which he revives using his blue core energy. The military then arrives and captures Astro.

Back in the lab which Astro is created, Dr. Tenma takes out the blue core and apologizes to Astro but Astro apologizes for not able to be a better son. Dr. Tenma’s conscience comes to mind when he almost gives the blue core to President Stone. Instead, he puts it back in Astro and tells him to escape. Stone uses the red stone to activate The Peacekeeper but is absorbed into it. The Peacekeeper then goes on rampage, destroying everything in its path in order to get Astro. In the end, Astro sacrifices himself to stop the Peacekeeper and dies since the blue core was drained from the explosion.

Zog then arrives and revives Astro with some of the blue core energy Astro gave him previously.

Overall, Astro Boy is a brilliant animated film with great morale value. The film is suitable for kids and adult alike and is a great way to introduce the original Japanese manga to everyone. Astro Boy may be a robot, but he certainly has a great heart, or more like a “positive” core. So, is the movie.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A scene in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

The film revolves around Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) who loves to invent things. His first invention, Spray-on Shoes confined his feet for life. While his mother encourages him despite his failure, his dad just wants him to work in his fishing shop. His mom passed away later on, leaving his dad to take care of him in a small town called Swallow Falls.

Flint eventually creates a device called ‘FLDSMDFR’ (Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator), which turns water into food but the machine doesn’t have enough electricity. He and his pet monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) who communicates through a translator device try to power up the machine using the power station but he causes havoc around the town including destroying a new theme park called Sardin Land. When Flint bumps into Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), a weather intern who is there to cover the event, the sky starts to rain cheeseburger. Before long, the town is filled with cheeseburger.

Flint later on, can create rain for any food the townsfolk want, including ice cream for the town’s cop, Earl’s, (Mr. T) son’s birthday and giant Jell-O mold for Sam. Greediness turns the town’s mayor into rain giant-sized food and causes the world in total chaos.

Although the movie is entertaining albeit the crazy jokes, the 3D version does little wonder with limited scenes especially in the second half of the film.

Overall, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3D is funny but it’s rather disappointing if you are an adult. It’s mostly cloudy and not sunny side up.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Russell, Carl Fredricksen, Dug, Alpha in "Up"

Like most Pixar movies, the movie starts with a short film — in this instance, Partly Cloudy is the name of the short film. The movie Up begins with Carl Fredricksen as an 8-year-old boy who is timid despite his love for famed explorer named Charles Muntz. When he meets an eccentric girl named Ellie who shares the same interests as him, Ellie welcomes Carl to her club and gives him a badge which happens to be a soda cap. Ellie expresses her desire to move her clubhouse to Paradise Falls in South America and she makes Carl to promise her that.

As they grow older, Ellie and Carl get married and work as a zookeeper and a toy balloon vendor respectively. Not able to have children, Ellie and Carl save up for a trip to Paradise Falls but due to other financial obligations, their savings keep fading. When Ellie passes away due to old age, Carl becomes bitter. Carl is forced to move as the city has grown around his house but he refuses and when he accidentally hits a construction worker, the court orders Carl to move into a retirement home. Carl comes up with a scheme of his own as he attaches 10,000 helium balloons to his house to lift it up. Up above in the sky, when Carl tries to sit down on his armchair, he finds Russell, a Wilderness Explorer knocking at his door. Russell is trying to earn his final merit badge for “Assisting the Elderly” and has been hiding in his porch after Carl sends him for a snipe hunt on the previous day.

And so it begins, the adventure of a lifetime. Carl and Russell meets many colorful characters including a giant bird which Russell names Kevin and Dug, a dog whom can speak with a translating collar. They finally meet a 92-year-old Charles Muntz who stays in South America to find a giant bird to clear his reputation after being called fraud. The giant bird Charles is looking for happens to be Kevin, Russell’s newfound pet. When Carl realizes Charles will hunt down anyone relentless just to capture the bird, they escape from Charles airship.

Like most of Pixar Animation movies, Up is funny and touching. The film builds around a strong and never-give-up will of Ellie which later on transfers to Carl and from there, Carl turns out to be heroic when he saves Russell and the giant bird while granting Ellie her wish. It turns out Ellie has furnished her Adventure Book with photographs of her and Carl together since their wedding days with a message on the last page telling Carl to have a new adventure of his own.

Overall, Up is a yet another brilliant and adventurous animated film from Pixar. I’m sure it touches many hearts and will touch many more.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Manny and gang in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs"

Manny (Ray Romano) and his new wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting a baby and parenthood has made Manny anxious. Diego (Denis Leary) meanwhile feels that it’s time to move on as his laid-back life has taken a toll on his stamina. Sid (John Leguizamo) starts to wish for a family of his own and trouble ensues when he steals some dinosaur eggs from an underground cave and begins treating them like his own.

When the mother T-Rex finds her eggs are missing, she goes on a rampage and when she sees Sid and her baby dinosaurs, she carries them back to an underground world where dinosaurs roam free. Manny and his gang embark on a dangerous mission to rescue Sid while dodging dinosaurs and danger that lies ahead. Along the way, they meet a weasel known as Buck (Simon Pegg) who hunts dinosaurs as pastimes. Buck leads Manny and the herd to rescue Sid and surely, an unforgettable adventure ensues.

Like the earlier installments, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs also features Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel who is obsessed with acorn. This time around, a flying squirrel known as Scratte joins Scrat in his madness for acorn but although they are in love after a period of chasing after acorn, eventually Scrat leaves Scratte for acorn.

While the adventures are shifting away as the herd ages, there are still plenty of action as the herd goes into a dinosaurs world and brave the danger in order to save Sid. Scrat also gets more screen time as he’s well-known for being nuts over nuts. Overall, it is a good family adventure film.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Susan and her Monsters friends in "Monsters vs Aliens"

On the day Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is getting married to weatherman Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd), she is hit by meteorite. When she gets into the aisle, she grows into a giant Susan. The military arrive as they are alerted by the meteor and capture Susan. She is sent to a top-secret facility led by General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) and given a nickname “Ginormica”. In the prison, she meets other monsters: B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a brainless, gelatinous blob; Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist who turns into a cockroach; the Missing Link (Will Arnett), an amphibious fish-ape hybrid and Insectosaurus, a giant grub that is even larger than Susan. The monsters are contentedly locked in the facility for the past 50 years but Susan feels incredibly isolated and wishes to return to her old life.

An alien called Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) is in the search for quantonium, the most powerful source in the universe and he finds it in Earth and thus deploys a gigantic robot to find and extract from its source, Susan. As the robot refuses to make peace after an attempt from the US President (Stephen Colbert), the President of the United States orders an attack on the robot. As all the attack from the military proves useless, General Monger convinces the President to use his top-secret monsters to fight the robot instead. The monsters agree with the promise of freedom if they succeed. Susan and the monsters manage to defeat the robot on the Golden Gate Bridge with her new-found strength.

Susan returns to her hometown and introduces her family to the monsters, but the monsters are rejected after causing panics in the party. Meanwhile, Derek breaks up with Susan, claiming she overshadows his career. Susan is devastated but realizes that becoming a monster has changed her life and Derek is just a selfish jerk. Susan is abruptly abducted by Gallaxhar and along the way kills Insectosaurus when he tries to save Susan. On the ship, Susan manages to release herself from captive and chases Gallaxhar, only to end up in the machine which extracts the quantonium from her body, making her normal again. Gallaxhar continues to use the quantonium to clone himself into armies so he can invade Earth.

With the help from the General, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach and the Missing Link invade Gallaxhar’s ship and rescue Susan, in the process, activate the ship’s self-destruct sequence. Susan is separated from her monsters friends who are trapped inside the ship. In an attempt to save her friends, Susan embraces the quantonium and transforms her into a giant again allowing her to save her friends. The monsters are rescued by General Monger on the back of the revived Insectosaurus, who had transformed into a giant butterfly.

Overall, the film is amazing and is definitely catered for children and maybe some adults. If you love good-humored fun and Nickelodeon’s cartoons, you will love this flick.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

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SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa a.k.a. Madagascar 2

The movie begins in the past, where Zuba (Bernie Mac), the leader of a lion pride, teaches his infant son, Alakay (Alex) how to protect himself by showing him how to fight. Somehow, Alakay is lured and trapped by the hunters, and even though Zuba chases the hunters, he loses track of his son. Alakay’s crate falls into a river and drifts to New York City where he is put on display in the Central Park Zoo.

The movie then fast forward to the present, picking up where Madagascar left off. Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria are boarding an airplane that will be catapulted with a gigantic slingshot. King Julien and Maurice join with them while Mort (Andy Richter) is not welcomed but somehow managed to stick to the plane. Half-way through the trip, the penguins discover they run out of fuel, but manage an emergency crash landing in an African wildlife reserve. They all meet their own species, while the penguins stay at the crash site and repair the plane with the aid of some monkeys.

Alex inadvertently reunites with his dad Zuba and mother Florrie (Sherri Shepherd). Zuba’s rival Makunga (Alec Baldwin) intends to make use Alex in order to steal the throne for himself. Alex is tricked by Makunga into choosing Teetsi, an exceedingly large lion as an opponent in his trial for membership in the pride. Alex misinterprets the test for a dance-off, and is easily defeated. Makunga assumes the throne when Zuba, despite his disappointment with Alex, refuses to banish his son, and is himself banished along with his wife.

Meanwhile, Marty joins a herd of zebras, but discovers that each of the zebras is exactly like him, which makes him feels not so unique anymore. Gloria meets Moto Moto (Will.i.am) as a potential mate. Melman becomes a giraffe herd’s new witch doctor and treats animals with diseases and wounds. His new friends convince him he has “Witch Doctor’s Disease” and has only two more days to live.

Alex and Melman talk over their problems with a zebra they think is Marty. Marty arrives and takes offense that Alex cannot tell him from one of his “clones”. Gloria realizes that Moto Moto is only attracted to her because she is fat. Melman makes the best of his remaining hours by facing Moto Moto and telling him to take care of Gloria for all the great qualities he himself sees in her, which moves Gloria and other female hippos.

When the waterhole dries up, all the animals become scare. Alex volunteers to find the location where the water is clogged and set out of the reserve area. While at it, he makes up with Marty, who goes with him. They trace it to a dam that New York vacationers led by Nana the Old Lady had built to support themselves off the reserve after getting their jeeps hijacked by the Penguins. Alex is caught by the humans, but Zuba rushes in in the nick of time. Alex performs the dance he had done in the zoo, and the humans recognize him as the same one the zoo. Zuba realizes the importance of Alex’s gift and joins in with him as well.

Meanwhile, King Julian proposes the animals make a sacrifice to a volcano to bring the water back, and Melman volunteers since he thinks he’s going to die anyway. Just before he jumps into the volcano, Gloria runs in and asks Melman about his confessions. Marty then arrives, and reports that Alex has been captured by the humans. Gloria and Melman head off the reserve with the Penguins using the repaired airplane. Despite Nana’s efforts to defend the dam, the penguins destroy it, and the water is brought back to the waterhole. Concurrently, Mort arrives at the volcano, still pursued by a shark all the right from the ocean. The shark inadvertently sacrifices himself, falling into the volcano just as the now undammed river restores the water hole. Julian thinks god has responded to the sacrifice despite an initial uncertainty on whether god likes seafood.

Makunga is kicked out from the throne after Alex tricks him into taking Nana’s handbag. Zuba offers to give Alex the throne, which he refuses but Zuba reluctantly says the throne belong to him and his son together. Gloria realizes she loves Melman after all. All four friends decide to stay in Africa, Julian and Maurice join them as well while the penguins take off in the plane for Skipper’s honeymoon (Skipper married a bobblehead doll found on the plane).

Overall, the movie is hilarious and enjoyable to watch even if you didn’t watch the first movie. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a feel good movie from the start till the end. Good news is that there is another sequel, set to be released in 2011.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.