I went with my little nephew Y (he’s 3 and a half) to the movies this weekend and we watched Dragon Hunters. He’s a huge fan of the TV series, I think I’ve seen half an episode once. Apart from my nephew who’s as cute as he’s hilarious (“All day, I have to fight, you know. Dragons are everywhere… In kindergarten, at home, in the car, at granny’s place…”, “My dad is not a dragon hunter… he’s only a pirate.”), the experience was not so much for my enjoyment. Which is ok, since I took Y and not myself. But there are a lot of animated movies marketed for children but aimed at adults (Shrek comes to mind) and this is not one of them.
There are some beautifully made sequences (the opening credits for example, and a lot of the backgrounds – I’m a sucker for the flying islands) but the characters look weird.

I guess, it’s one of the films I’m just too late for. If I had grown up with the TV series, things might have been different.

[Almost totally off topic: Writer/director’s name is Arthur Qwak. Does anybody else think this is a pseudonym to honour Alfred J. Kwak?]

——

This weekend also provided me with the opportunity to finally see Mar Adentro (yes, I know, I’m a bad movie goer for not having seen it earlier. No cookie for me). As expected, it was good. Javier Bardem was brilliant as usual and I really liked the lighting and colours.

What I didn’t expect was that I didn’t cry all the time, but almost every scene with Ramón’s father made me cry.

And I really liked about it that it was honest (or at least it felt honest). I didn’t feel like they wanted to corner me and force their point of view on me [I’m not even entirely sure what their point of view is].

—–

Last but not least we have Léolo.

Léolo is weird. It is touching. It is outspoken. All things I very much like about movies. It has some very interesting and good ideas. It has a very nice soundtrack.

But for me, it falls under the category “is good but could have been better if it was not trying so hard”.