Tag Archives: brad bird

MOVIES UNDER THE STARS: THE INCREDIBLES

THE INCREDIBLES will be shown August 11 in Francis Lewis Park as part of free Movies Under the Stars series

THE INCREDIBLES (Brad Bird, 2004)
Francis Lewis Park
Third Ave. between Parsons Blvd. & 147th St.
Thursday, August 11, free, 8:00
www.nycgovparks.org
www.disney.go.com

The Incredibles, which nabbed the Best Animated Feature Oscar, is yet more fun from Pixar, John Lasseter’s remarkably creative studio that previously brought us Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo. After the crime-fighting family the Incredibles are sued into early retirement and given a new identity in harmless suburbia, Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) can’t stop protecting the world from evildoers, sneaking away from his suspicious wife, Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), to work with Lucius/Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) in defeating evil. But he meets more than he bargained for in Syndrome (Jason Lee), a piece of his past resurrected to destroy him. Other recognizable voices include Wallace Shawn as Gilbert Huph, writer Sarah Vowell as Violet, John Ratzenberger as Underminer, and Elizabeth Peña as Mirage; writer/director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) voices fashion designer Edna ‘E’ Mode. Pixar fans will also want to check out the exhibition “Pixar: The Design of Story” at the Cooper Hewitt through September 11. The Incredibles is being shown for free on August 11 in Francis Lewis Park as part of the Movies Under the Stars series, consisting of outdoor film screenings in smaller parks all over the city, including Barbershop: The Next Cut in Linden Park on August 10, Drumline in Brownsville Playground on August 12, Coraline in De Witt Clinton Park on August 13, The Land Before Time in Lawrence Playground in Flushing Meadows Corona Park on August 14, and Finding Nemo at the Buddy Monument in Forest Park on August 15.

MOVIE NIGHTS IN THE ROCKAWAYS: THE IRON GIANT

Hogarth Hughes makes a big new friend in 1950s Cold War throwback THE IRON GIANT

THE IRON GIANT (Brad Bird, 1999)
O’Donohue Park
Beach 17th St. & Seagirt Blvd., Rockaway, Queens
Tuesday, July 7, free, 8:00
www.nycgovparks.org

Writer-director Brad Bird won Oscars for his animated features The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatatouille (2007), but the Simpsons veteran first made his mark with the charming 1999 sci-fi cartoon The Iron Giant. Based on the 1968 book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, the animated film is set during the Cold War, with the general populace and the military fearful of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. So when rumors that a fifty-foot-tall iron giant (voiced by Vin Diesel) has fallen from the sky, the government wants to destroy it, but it is being hidden by young Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal), who has saved its life. Hogarth keeps his new best friend a secret from his mother (Jennifer Aniston) and federal agent Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) with the help of the town beatnik, Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.), who takes a liking to Hogarth’s mom. The screenplay, written by Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions), plays with various genre clichés just enough to avoid being clichéd itself, instead making The Iron Giant a delightful, nearly flawless twist on the E.T. mythos, mixed in with a little Androcles & the Lion, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and even Frankenstein and King Kong. The film, which also features the voices of Cloris Leachman (Mrs. Tensedge), John Mahoney (General Rogard), and M. Emmet Walsh (Earl Stutz), is a treat for children and adults. Bird, meanwhile, has graduated to live action; his next movies were Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, and Simon Pegg, and Tomorrowland, with George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. The Iron Giant is screening for free on July 7 at dusk as part of the Movie Nights in the Rockaways series in O’Donohue Park, which continues August 4 with Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future 2. (For a day-by-day list of free summer movies throughout New York City, go here.)

FILM FORUM JR.: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Jimmy Stewart takes filibustering to a whole new level in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

CLASSICS FOR KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Frank Capra, 1939)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Sunday, November 3, $7, 11:00 am
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

We love Jimmy Stewart; we really do. Who doesn’t? But last year we had the audacity to claim that Jim Parsons’s performance as Elwood P. Dowd in the 2012 Broadway revival of Harvey outshined that of Stewart in the treacly 1950 film, and now we’re here to tell you that another of his iconic films is nowhere near as great as you might remember. Nominated for eleven Academy Awards, Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington caused quite a scandal in America’s capital when it was released in 1939, depicting a corrupt democracy that just might be saved by a filibustering junior senator from a small state whose most relevant experience is being head of the Boy Rangers. (The Boy Scouts would not allow their name to be used in the film.) Stewart plays the aptly named Jefferson Smith, a dreamer who believes in truth, justice, and the American way. “I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules,” Smith says of the Senate, “if, behind them, they didn’t have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too.” He’s shocked — shocked! — to discover that his mentor, the immensely respected Sen. Joseph Harrison Paine (played by Claude Rains, who was similarly shocked that there was gambling at Rick’s in Casablanca), is not nearly as squeaky clean as he thought, involved in high-level corruption, manipulation, and pay-offs that nearly drains Smith of his dreams. As it nears its seventy-fifth anniversary, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is still, unfortunately, rather relevant, as things haven’t changed all that much, but Capra’s dependence on over-the-top melodrama has worn thin. It’s a good film, but it’s no longer a great one. Just in time for election day, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is screening November 3 at 11:00 am as part of the Film Forum Jr. series for kids and families, which continues November 10 with Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., November 17 with Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant, and, appropriately enough during Thanksgiving week, George Seaton’s original 1947 Miracle on 34th Street.

RED HOOK SUMMER MOVIES: THE IRON GIANT

Hogarth Hughes makes a big new friend in 1950s Cold War throwback THE IRON GIANT

THE IRON GIANT (Brad Bird, 1999)
Valentino Pier, Red Hook
Van Dyke St. & the Brooklyn Waterfront
Tuesday, August 23, free, 8:30
www.redhookfilms.org

Writer-director Brad Bird won Oscars for his animated features The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatatouille (2007), but the Simpsons veteran first made his mark with the charming 1999 sci-fi cartoon The Iron Giant. Based on the 1968 book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, the animated film is set during the Cold War, with the general populace and the military fearful of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. So when rumors that a fifty-foot-tall iron giant (voiced by Vin Diesel) has fallen from the sky, the government wants to destroy it, but it is being hidden by young Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal), who has saved its life. Hogarth keeps his new best friend a secret from his mother (Jennifer Aniston) and federal agent Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) with the help of the town beatnik, Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.), who takes a liking to Hogarth’s mom. The screenplay, written by Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions), plays with various genre clichés just enough to avoid being clichéd itself, instead making The Iron Giant a delightful, nearly flawless twist on the E.T. mythos, mixed in with a little Androcles & the Lion, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and even Frankenstein and King Kong. The film, which also features the voices of Cloris Leachman (Mrs. Tensedge), John Mahoney (General Rogard), and M. Emmet Walsh (Earl Stutz), is a treat for children and adults. Bird, meanwhile, has graduated to live action; his next movie will be Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, and Simon Pegg. The Iron Giant is screening for free on August 23 at dusk as part of the Red Hook Summer Movies series in Valentino Pier, which continues August 30 with Pump Up the Volume (Allan Moyle, 1990), September 6 with Highlander (Russell Mulcahy, 1986), and September 13 with the viewers choice selection, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985).

PIXAR REVISITED: THE INCREDIBLES

Pixar fans better run to MoMA to catch final days of excellent film series, beginning today with THE INCREDIBLES

THE INCREDIBLES (Brad Bird, 2004)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, July 7, 4:30
Series runs through July 9
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.disney.go.com

The Incredibles, which nabbed the Best Animated Feature Oscar, is yet more fun from Pixar, John Lasseter’s remarkably creative studio that previously brought us Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc.., and Finding Nemo. After the crime-fighting family the Incredibles are sued into early retirement and given a new identity in harmless suburbia, Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) can’t stop protecting the world from evildoers, sneaking away from his suspicious wife, Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), to work with Lucius/Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) in defeating evil. But he meets more than he bargained for in Syndrome (Jason Lee), a piece of his past resurrected to destroy him. Other recognizable voices include Wallace Shawn as Gilbert Huph, writer Sarah Vowell as Violet, John Ratzenberger as Underminer, and Elizabeth Peña as Mirage; writer/director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) voices fashion designer Edna ‘E’ Mode. The Incredibles kicks off the big finale of MoMA’s Pixar Revisited series, which also includes the terrific Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007), screening with Gary Rydstrom’s short Lifted on July 8 at 8:00; the thrilling Up (Pete Docter, 2009), being shown with the Peter Sohn short Partly Cloudy on July 9 at 5:00; and the brilliant Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), screening with the Doug Sweetland short Presto on July 9 at 8:00.

THE IRON GIANT

Hogarth Hughes makes a big new friend in 1950s Cold War throwback THE IRON GIANT

THE IRON GIANT (Brad Bird, 1999)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
December 22-28, 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

Writer-director Brad Bird won Oscars for his animated features THE INCREDIBLES (2004) and RATATOUILLE (2007), but the Simpsons veteran first made his mark with the charming 1999 sci-fi cartoon THE IRON GIANT, being revived at Film Forum during this holiday week. Based on the 1968 book THE IRON MAN by Ted Hughes, the animated film is set during the Cold War, with the general populace and the military fearful of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. So when rumors that a fifty-foot-tall iron giant (voiced by Vin Diesel) has fallen from the sky, the government wants to destroy it, but it is being hidden by young Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal), who has saved its life. Hogarth keeps his new best friend a secret from his mother (Jennifer Aniston) and federal agent Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) with the help of the town beatnik, Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.), who takes a liking to Hogarth’s mom. The screenplay, written by Tim McCanlies (SECONDHAND LIONS), plays with various genre clichés just enough to avoid being clichéd itself, instead making THE IRON GIANT a delightful, nearly flawless twist on the E.T. mythos, mixed in with a little Androcles & the Lion, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and even FRANKENSTEIN and KING KONG. The film, which also features the voices of Cloris Leachman (Mrs. Tensedge), John Mahoney (General Rogard), and M. Emmet Walsh (Earl Stutz), is a treat for children and adults. Bird, meanwhile, has graduated to live action; his next movie will be MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — GHOST PROTOCOL, starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, and Simon Pegg.