Thursday, August 18, 2022

Announcing the Start of this Year's Edition of Rhode Island Movie Corner's Annual End of Summer Fan Poll

As we near the end of this summer season, it’s time once again, folks, for a tried-and-true Rhode Island Movie Corner tradition. Yes, as those who’ve followed this site for several years know, I run a poll at the end of every summer that invites you all to vote for your favorite film from the past four months of the year. And after a few weeks of these open polls, I then proceed to write an extensive post that covers every film that earned a vote during the event, occasionally fulfilling my original hope of getting to do something along the lines of a ranked list for the most popular films (though, to be clear, that’s only happened a few times). What started out as, to be perfectly honest, an easy way for me to produce some new content for this site during a rather uneventful September back in 2014 has now gone on to become a full-on staple of Rhode Island Movie Corner… except, of course, for one year. Yes, in 2020, I had to nix that year’s End of Summer Fan Poll for… well, obvious reasons. But thankfully, when 2021 rolled around and we began to slowly but surely recover from the initial stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic, I relaunched this annual event and it was another all-around success for the site. And so, with all that out of the way, it’s time to launch the 9th annual rendition (though, thanks to the cancellation of the 2020 poll, I guess that, technically, this is the 8th edition) of our End of Summer Fan Poll.

For those who are new to this site, here’s how it’ll all go down. The link that you’ll come to below will lead you to a poll that I’ve set up on the survey-creating website Survio. There, you’ll be asked a single question; what was your favorite film from this summer? To all you newcomers out there, I must warn you in advance that there will be quite a lot of options to choose from as I basically cover as many of the summer’s wide releases as I possibly can when assembling the list of possible options. Admittedly, I do miss a few films here and there but that’s where the write-in section comes in if your favorite film isn’t listed amongst the available choices. Now, last year, given the fact that COVID was still enough of a major issue that it resulted in not many people going out to the theater at that time, I allowed the following loophole in which votes for that year’s edition of the poll would be legitimately counted for films that were watched at home on the grounds that they were also released in theaters. After all, several 2021 films were released that way, simultaneously running in theaters and on their studios’ respective streaming services; some Disney films were released as ‘Premier Access’ titles on Disney+ and Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 theatrical slate saw month-long releases on HBO Max.

While COVID is still very much an issue here in 2022, the simultaneous theatrical/streaming practice has not been utilized as prominently as it was last year for various reasons… including, for example, the fact that A LOT of filmmakers weren’t too happy about the way that Warner Bros. addressed it. All this, as a result, put me in quite a bit of a pickle for this year’s End of Summer Fan Poll because, as always, I want to keep this focused solely on theatrical releases. And so, with that in mind, I’ve decided that the loophole that I set up for last year’s event where I allowed votes for films that were seen at home won’t be emphasized as much for this year’s poll but will still be somewhat in play. In other words, I’ll still allow votes for films that were seen at home via On-Demand and streaming services but the films in question must have been released in theaters between the months of May and August. That said, though, I will allow some exceptions in the write-in section for films that weren’t initially released during the summer but were still in theaters by then. Thus, if you haven’t been to the theater this summer for various reasons that are most likely COVID-related, don’t let that discourage you from participating in this event; just be aware, though, that I will be monitoring the write-in responses closely to maintain the whole ‘theatrical releases only’ rule. Voting starts today, August 18th, and will run until September 1st, with the climactic results post being published shortly thereafter.

Click here to be directed to this year's poll!!

But before we conclude today’s introductory post, we must do what we always do and reflect upon this event’s past winners. That’s right, it’s time once again for…

RHODE ISLAND MOVIE CORNER’S END OF SUMMER FAN POLL HALL OF FAME

2014

The inaugural edition of our annual End of Summer Fan Poll attracted forty-three votes and notably ended in a three-way tie with the top films attracting five votes apiece. That year’s winners included the adaptation of author John Green’s tearjerker romance novel The Fault in Our Stars, a rare example of a ‘superior’ comedic sequel in 22 Jump Street, and the first outing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s resident ‘bunch of a-holes’, the Guardians of the Galaxy.

2015

While the forty-seven votes in the 2015 poll went to a wide range of films (20, to be precise), there was one undisputed champion. Earning more than double the votes of that year’s pair of runners-up with ten in total, George Miller’s kinetic action masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road firmly asserted its status as one of the most highly acclaimed summer blockbusters of the decade.

2016

Fifty-eight votes came in for the 2016 edition of our annual poll, which ended in what I’ve always described as a ‘fascinating’ two-way tie. On one side, you had an undeniable frontrunner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s thrilling and emotional Phase Three kick-starter, Captain America: Civil War. But on the other side, an unexpected champion emerged in the raunchy R-rated comedy Bad Moms, starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn as a trio of overworked moms who decide to spend a day without any maternal responsibilities.

2017

For the second straight year in a row, we attracted fifty-eight votes and this year’s event notably set a record for the number of films featured in its final write-up with twenty-two films getting some form of recognition. It was also the first year where the results yielded a proper Top 5 list of winners, with the top prize going to Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk, which proved to be one of the most well-regarded outings of Nolan’s prestigious directorial career.

2018

The 2018 edition of this poll admittedly saw a downturn in the number of votes at just forty-four in total, but that year’s winner set an event record with twelve votes as the top honors went to Spike Lee’s undeniably relevant crime drama BlacKkKlansman, the true story of former Colorado Springs police officer Ron Stallworth’s infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.

2019

2019 was easily our best year ever for this poll in terms of votes with a whopping eighty-nine responses. That year’s Top 3 finalists each managed to earn at least ten votes apiece, with the winner ultimately topping BlacKkKlansman’s record-setting numbers from the previous year’s event with nineteen votes directed its way. And given its status as the grand finale of the Infinity Saga and the fact that, for nearly two whole years, it became the highest-grossing film of all time, it wasn’t too surprising to see Avengers: Endgame take the #1 spot.

2020

The winner of the 2020 edition of the End of Summer Fan Poll was a notable one… and that’s because there wasn’t one that year thanks to COVID.

2021

Thankfully, our annual poll returned with a vengeance last year, garnering sixty-nine votes in a triumphant comeback that saw Disney’s Cruella, the highly entertaining and unique new spin on one of Disney’s most iconic villainesses, Cruella de Vil, take home top honors with sixteen votes.

 

What film will be crowned the 2022 champion of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll? Stay tuned! 

Monday, August 15, 2022

Madagascar - Series Retrospective (DreamWorks Animation Retrospective #2)

Greetings, folks, and welcome to another installment of a new series of retrospectives here on Rhode Island Movie Corner that will be covering the numerous films produced by DreamWorks Animation. Given that the studio has produced more than forty films up to this point, I decided to do the same thing that I did with my retrospective series on Walt Disney Animation and split what would’ve been a ridiculously massive single post into separate parts. But whereas the Disney retrospectives were divvied up by decades, I decided to start off the DreamWorks series by focusing on the company’s biggest animated franchises; in other words, the ones that, at the very least, have yielded a trilogy of films. This, of course, began with a look at one of the indisputable juggernauts of animation, Shrek, and today, we move on to the second major DreamWorks franchise that reached the trilogy mark, Madagascar. Primarily developed by the directorial duo of Tom McGrath (who has since gone on to direct other DreamWorks films like Megamind and the Boss Baby films) and Eric Darnell (who co-directed DreamWorks’ first computer animated film Antz), the Madagascar series follows a group of animals from the Central Park Zoo who find themselves forced to survive on their own in the wild. While the series was never much of a runaway hit with critics, it has been a relatively consistent performer at the box-office as its three mainline installments and one spin-off collectively grossed over $2.2 billion worldwide, which does make it DreamWorks’ second highest-grossing franchise to date (bested only, of course, by Shrek) and the industry’s seventh highest-grossing animated film franchise overall. So, let’s not waste any more time and get ready to “move it, move it” as Rhode Island Movie Corner proudly presents its retrospective on the Madagascar series.

(Also, for those who may have missed the Shrek retrospective, the one major ground rule that I set up for these DreamWorks retrospectives is that I’ll only be covering their feature film output and none of the TV shows that any of their IPs have spawned which, in this instance, includes the Penguins of Madagascar series on Nickelodeon that I did watch a couple episodes of when I was younger, the Netflix series All Hail King Julien, and the prequel series Madagascar: A Little Wild that recently released its final season on both Hulu and Peacock.)

MADAGASCAR (2005)

As I alluded to in the intro, Madagascar is often seen as a franchise that got better as time went on, and in some cases, it’s easy to see why when looking back at the original Madagascar from 2005. Despite an impressive $556.6 million run at the box office (which made it the sixth highest-grossing film of the year), reviews for it were average at best. Going back to something that I mentioned in the Shrek retrospective, this was right around the time when DreamWorks Animation was garnering quite a bit of a reputation amongst its biggest critics for allegedly making nothing but pop-culture-dependent kiddie flicks that, as financially successful as they were, didn’t hold a candle to the likes of Disney and Pixar. And by most accounts, this was another instance of DreamWorks trying to one-up Disney as they managed to get Madagascar out before Disney’s ‘Central Park Zoo animals travel to the jungle’ film, The Wild, thus resulting in the rare instance where Disney was accused of ripping off DreamWorks even though The Wild had been in the works for much longer. Conversely, this film’s sequels/spin-offs were released during a time when DreamWorks films finally started to rely less on the studio’s established formula. Still, as much as I can see why its sequels are largely seen as superior films, the first Madagascar, just like the first Shrek, has always been a strong personal favorite of mine. For starters, I’d argue that this film is right up there with Shrek as one of the most quotable films of all time, whether it’s Marty yelling ‘Oh, Sugar Honey Iced Tea!” when he runs away from an angry Alex (think about it for a second and you’ll see what I mean 😉) or the Penguins finally reaching their desired location of Antarctica and immediately declaring “Well, this sucks!”.

Overall, the first Madagascar does succeed in being a light-hearted comedy adventure that, admittedly, is often just as light when it comes to its writing. Sure, part of this can be attributed to the fact that the filmmakers had to cut a pregnancy storyline involving Gloria (as well as a blossoming relationship with Melman) to avoid a PG-13 rating, but despite centering on a quartet of main protagonists, the film largely focuses on Alex and Marty. Still, for what it’s worth, everything with Alex and Marty, from Marty’s desire to experience life beyond the Central Park Zoo to Alex’s increasingly deranged state due to a lack of food nearly resulting in him eating Marty, is nicely handled from an emotional standpoint, thus emphasizing the strength of their friendship. And just like Shrek, this film thrives on its great ensemble cast of characters headlined by the lovable lead quartet of Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), not to mention a scene-stealing turn from Sacha Baron Cohen as the hilariously self-obsessed Julien, king of the Madagascar lemurs. In short, while it may be far from being the best animated film of its time, the original Madagascar has just enough of a decent emotional hook to its proceedings that it ends up being more than just your standard early 2000s animated film. As such, it’s easy to see why this ended up becoming DreamWorks’ next big film franchise after Shrek which, admittedly, isn’t something that a lot of the studio’s other films at the time were able to do.

Rating: 4.5/5

MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA (2008)

With the original Madagascar becoming DreamWorks’ biggest hit at the box-office since the first two Shrek films, it’s not that surprising to see that a sequel was put into development not long after its release; thus, in 2008, the adventures of Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman continued with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. In this film, the Central Park Zoo gang seemingly find themselves on the way back to New York by way of the old derelict airplane from on top of the lemurs’ big tree. However, when said plane inevitably crash lands, the gang find themselves directly on the African mainland where they each find themselves dealing with their own bits of personal drama. Alex ends up reuniting with his long-lost parents but struggles to reacclimate into his old lion pride, especially due to the antics of his father Zuba’s (Bernie Mac) conniving rival, Makunga (Alec Baldwin). Meanwhile, Marty comes across a bunch of other zebras but soon finds himself undergoing an identity crisis when he realizes that his new zebra friends all look, talk, and act just like him (which means, yes, every zebra in this film is voiced by Chris Rock). Finally, Melman begins to try and express the romantic feelings that he has for Gloria, a process that’s complicated by a potential relationship between her and local womanizer Moto Moto (will.i.am). So, right off the bat, one of the first things that Madagascar 2 does better than its predecessor is that it does a better job of balancing out the roles of its main protagonists. Sure, Alex is still largely the central focus at the end of the day, but since this film finally utilizes the romance subplot between Gloria and Melman that had to get cut out of the first film to maintain its family-friendly rating, Madagascar 2 ends up being more of a true ensemble piece.

In general, Escape 2 Africa feels far more committed to the process of fleshing out its main characters rather than just focusing on its humor. Don’t get me wrong, this is still primarily a comedy as is usually the case with DreamWorks films, but whereas a film like Shrek the Third lost sight of its story and characters as a result of its overt focus on trying to match Shrek 2’s sharp and fast-paced wit, Escape 2 Africa manages to find a much better balance when it comes to managing its humor and its emotional beats. And when it comes to the former of those two, this film does an excellent job of following the example set by Shrek 2 by having its comedic moments come at you faster and harder, resulting in what is quite arguably a much more upbeat and energetic film when compared to its immediate predecessor. Sure, most of the new characters introduced here are, admittedly, one-off characters who don’t return for the sequel, but there are still some solid performances from the likes of Bernie Mac (in what was ultimately one of his final roles following his passing in 2008) and Sherri Shepherd as Alex’s parents Zuba and Florrie and Alec Baldwin as Makunga, a classic example of a ‘love to hate him’ antagonist. Thus, with all that and some significantly improved animation, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is very much the same kind of superior sequel that Shrek 2 was for the Shrek franchise. As much as I do still love the first Madagascar film, especially because it’s the one film from this franchise that I have the most history with (by comparison, I never owned this film on DVD but did rewatch it several times over the years), it’s hard to deny that the second film improves upon several of its predecessor’s biggest shortcomings. And as we’ll soon see, this didn’t end up being a case like the Shrek franchise where its overall success with critics peaked with its second film.

Rating: 5/5!

MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED (2012)

Co-directors Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell were joined by a third director, longtime DreamWorks storyboard artist/director (as well as the voice of fan-favorite Shrek sidekick Gingy) Conrad Vernon, for the third installment of the Madagascar franchise, Europe’s Most Wanted. As the title suggests, the film sees the Central Park Zoo gang forced to go on the run across Europe after running amok in Monte Carlo as they tag along with a fledgling circus to try and return home to New York all while being pursued by Captain Chantel DuBois, an utterly imposing and seemingly unstoppable Animal Control agent who seeks to capture her #1 target, a lion, and add its head to her wall. And to conclude the point that I’ve been making throughout this retrospective, Madagascar 3 proved to be the franchise’s biggest critical and commercial hit upon its release. While Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa’s $603.9 million run was a significant improvement over the original’s box-office haul, Madagascar 3 managed to top that with a $746.9 million haul, which is currently the fourth-highest total that any DreamWorks film has achieved (bested only by the three Shrek sequels)… and one that, admittedly, no other DreamWorks film since has managed to top. It also pulled off a feat that most threequels never come close to achieving by garnering the best reviews in franchise history to the point where it most likely managed to win over those who weren’t too big on the first two films.

After Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa did a fine job of adopting a more rapid-fire style of humor, Madagascar 3 goes even further with that approach, resulting in a non-stop barrage of visual comedy that’s bolstered by some of the sharpest animation that this series has seen yet. Much of this is thanks to the film’s scene-stealing villain DuBois, whose borderline psychotic antics (as well as Frances McDormand’s truly committed performance in the role) provide many of the film’s best comedic bits. As usual, though, the other new additions to the cast (namely, the Central Park Zoo gang’s new friends at the circus) are solid as well, including Bryan Cranston’s Vitaly, the circus’ gruff star performer tiger who was traumatized by a disastrous past performance, Jessica Chastain’s Gia, a trapeze-savvy Jaguar who forms a romantic connection with Alex, and Martin Short’s Stefano, a happy-go-lucky sea lion. In short, while I may not have the same kind of history with this film that I have with the first two Madagascar films (to put this into perspective, the rewatch that I did for this retrospective was only the second time that I’d ever watched it), Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is, indeed, a high mark for the franchise. It fully embraces the madcap tone and atmosphere that the franchise had slowly but surely adopted over the years, resulting in a highly entertaining animated comedy that works quite well even if it may not be as focused on its character development as it is with its humor.

Rating: 5/5!

Also, no regrets!

PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (2014)

From the moment the first Madagascar hit theaters, it was clear that its quartet of highly trained penguins (Skipper, Private, Kowalski, and Rico) were shaping up to be the franchise’s biggest standouts. Naturally, DreamWorks capitalized on this as early as that same year with a Penguins-centric short, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, which ran in theaters with DreamWorks’ 2005 Aardman collaboration Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and was a bonus feature on the first Madagascar’s home video release (also, it was notably directed by Beauty and the Beast co-director Gary Trousdale). Three years later, following the release of Escape 2 Africa, the penguins headlined the franchise’s first TV spin-off, The Penguins of Madagascar, which was developed by the same team behind the hit Disney Channel series Kim Possible and ran for three seasons from 2008 to 2015 on Nickelodeon and its premium cable sister network, Nicktoons. Finally, in 2014, the penguins were given their own feature film, Penguins of Madagascar (which, to be clear, had no direct relation to the show), which, like the Shrek franchise’s spin-off Puss in Boots, originally started out as a direct-to-video release before it was promoted to the big screen. Unlike Puss in Boots, however, the Penguins of Madagascar film ended up being a financial dud. While a $373.5 million run at the box office doesn’t seem that bad… the film itself sported a hefty $132 million budget. This combined with the similar underperformance of another 2014 DreamWorks release, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, resulted in the studio having to take a $57.1 million write-down. And by most accounts, this was a prominent factor in the major bout of restructuring that DreamWorks underwent in 2015 that resulted in five hundred job terminations and the closure of their longtime animation studio, PDI.

And yet, even with all that in mind, seeing how this film was relatively on par with Madagascar 3 in terms of its critical reception, it’s safe to say that if its poor financial performance and the negative impact that it had on the studio resulted in it garnering some sort of bad reputation, the film itself certainly doesn’t give off the impression that it was an all-around disastrous release. In short, the Penguins of Madagascar film is a good old-fashioned popcorn flick with a lot of bright and colorful animation and a likable bunch of characters to headline it. Heck, the film even manages to yield some surprisingly effective emotional moments by way of its primary character arc in which the largely overlooked Private finally manages to prove himself as a valued member of the team. But, of course, just like the mainline Madagascar films, Penguins of Madagascar is a comedy first and foremost, and as usual, there are plenty of great quotable lines and visual gags throughout. Much of this is thanks to some of the fun new characters introduced in this film, such as the main antagonist Dave the Octopus (John Malkovich), who has a running gag of giving out commands that turn into bits of celebrity name wordplay (for example, “Nicolas, Cage them!” and “Kevin, Bake On!”), and Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch), the leader of an animal espionage group known as the North Wind who forms a rivalry with Skipper over the effectiveness of their leadership tactics. Thus, while it’s by no means the best installment of the Madagascar franchise, Penguins of Madagascar is a harmless crowd-pleaser that, above all, provides the same amounts of genuine laughs and heart as the other Madagascar films.

Rating: 4/5

And that concludes the second installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s ongoing series of DreamWorks retrospectives. As always, thanks for following along and be sure to be on the lookout for the next installment of this new series which, keeping in line with my plan of starting things out with DreamWorks’ biggest franchises, will tackle the Kung Fu Panda trilogy. As usual, there’s no definite timetable for its publication, but I will note that, if anything, I’m not just going to wait until the release of the franchise’s recently announced fourth film in 2024.