Surfin' Bird

Film: Surf’s Up
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on laptop.

My local public library is undergoing a massive expansion and renovation. It’s close for the next month, which means that a couple of movies I had ordered through interlibrary loan were instead shunted to the public library one town over. When I went to pick them up, I discovered that I have the ability to check out anything from that library using my regular library card. Well, it was a nice surprise, as was finding Surf’s Up, the last nominee for Best Animated Feature I had left to watch…at least until the next Oscar nominations are announced.

In a more perfect world, I’d have left Song of the Sea until the end so that I could wrap up this category on a high note. Instead, I’m wrapping it up not on a sour one, but on a mediocre one. Surf’s Up isn’t a bad movie; it’s just a movie I’ve seen before. This is, beat for beat, the same thing as Cars except with surfing penguins instead of with NASCAR vehicles. It’s as if Sony took the money-making potential of the previous year’s Pixar film (the aforementioned Cars) and combined it with the previous year’s Best Animated Feature winner (dancing penguin extravaganza Happy Feet) in a quest for the best of both worlds.

Out of the Box

Film: Toy Story 2; Toy Story 3
Format: DVD from New Lenox Public Library through interlibrary loan (Toy Story 2) and from personal collection (Toy Story 3) on rockin’ flatscreen.

It wasn’t a huge shock when the second and third Toy Story films appeared in the latest edition. I was kind of surprised they hadn’t appeared already. The Toy Story films are not my favorite of Pixar’s (that would be The Incredibles), but all three of them rank pretty high. Pixar started with the bar high, and managed to up the ante in this series every time.

Toy Story 2 picks up essentially where the first film left off. If you managed to miss the series, the basic conceit is that toys are alive, and when no one is looking, they move around and have feelings and lives. The goal of every toy is to be loved by a child. As Toy Story 2 opens, the toys owned by Andy (John Morris) are preparing for their owner to head off to camp. Since it’s cowboy camp, he plans on taking his favorite toy, Woody (Tom Hanks). Woody is damaged just before they go, and Andy decides to leave him behind.