Toy Story The New Year atmosphere and the corresponding mood is a special and separate fabulous genre, unique and peculiar, and whose successful performance is always appropriate for this festive date, and when viewed at other times of the year - always evokes nostalgic memories of childhood, New Year's mood and special magical sensations. The new work of Andrei Konchalovsky is directly the film-holiday, which should be associated with the New Year and Christmas, always filling them with the spirit and atmosphere of the soul and heart of the audience.
An extremely original approach to all known fairy tales, carries the story of friendship, first love and magical fantasies through the installation of steam punk, totalitarianism and the power of popular resistance to evil and tyranny. What at first glance looks like a fascinating adventure up a huge tree, with a fairy dance, in pursuit of rat-bikes with machine guns, in fact turns out to be much deeper and thinner. The film about the Nutcracker turns out to be a story about a girl and her father, about the role and power of imagination in the era of childhood, and about the preservation of these very sensations that allow children and parents to speak the same language.
Fascist rats flying in the background, oppression of peoples and toy burning factories tell about the strength of the national spirit, which needs only a bright symbol of hope in order to create a bright future with its own hands and rebel against evil. And that the very vision of evil, no matter how powerful it may look, and no matter how massively it spreads, is ephemeral, and only the force of fear can capture with its abundance or fall, in complete absence. How free we are is decided only by our own inner fear, which regularly holds emotions and the flight of our own creative imagination, shackling the realities of a world in which, as it seems to us, miracles no longer happen.
The film is beautiful and full of all kinds of special effects, from the transformations of human rats and creepy rat robots to dancing on snowflakes and breathtaking flights. Impeccable technical design is enhanced by the presence of a remarkable 3D, striking the imagination with the multifaceted nature of the action taking place, immersing in a fairy tale, and bringing elements of this fairy tale to the audience.
Such peculiar findings as images of the horrors of Nazism through the rat army or Albert Einstein performing the theory of relativity to the music of Tchaikovsky can cause the viewer a very different reaction, and you need to be prepared for any surprises as you watch. Something will seem original, something for sure some kind of overkill and inappropriately free treatment. But literally every detail is full of originality of the author’s thought, causing at least interest and curiosity, and at best – true delight and audience applause.
However, the text part of the film is not perfect, for all its depth. Beginning with not the most successful dubbing and ending with the lyrics of songs in which the most difficult thing is to hear a rhyme, a lot of things cause bewilderment. And I want to immediately revise the film in the original, to get real voices and to understand what and how should actually be performed. And the very idea of the musical, perhaps not the most successful embodiment for this kind of fairy tale, especially with this author's approach.
The beauty of Tchaikovsky and the gloom of Hoffman are combined in this film by an entertaining series of events. New Year’s fairy-tale beauty and scenes full of wonders are replaced by a heavy atmosphere, fear-bound episodes and the gloom of the coming evil. But at the same time, even in every detail of its harshest elements, the film remains incredibly kind and family friendly. If someone is burned en masse, it is not people, but toys. If terrible rats grind their teeth - at the same time no one is torn apart, if evil is punished - then it is not brutally destroyed from and to, but runs in a panicked flight and without the possibility of returning. The film turned out very kind in all respects, with a special love approach to each piece of action.
On the other hand, distracted from the plot and specific images, the ideas of the film do not hesitate to touch the abstractness of creation, philosophy and the human mind. Freud's cameo with numerous references to him, do not remain without a trace in the content of the story shown. An in-depth study of the themes of loneliness, dreams, interpersonal conflicts and their origins, is deeply studied as the plot progresses, and is a brilliant psychological find, striking in its depth. Deepening into the theme of childhood dreams, the psychological ideas of the film are revealed even more through the works of Anna Freud, not her father Sigmund, but it is through the prism of psychoanalysis that they are presented and understood, developing on the screen in quite clear and specific motives.
And even if to develop the final part through the ideas of dreams, it seems not the best idea, then approaching with a deeper study, you can bring much more meaning and experience, realizing that whatever side of the soul the movie does not touch, the main goal of each ideological thought here is to give the viewer kindness, understanding and love. Help to understand yourself, personal problems and family problems, bring children and their parents closer together, bringing peace and happiness to every home!
And no motives and ideas, be it the task of global philosophy or personal psychoanalysis, would have been revealed to such a maximum of possibilities and with the greatest potential, were it not for brilliantly selected casting! Starting from the main characters, among which the magnificent Ellie Fanning shines with a particularly valuable diamond, striking with a magnificent and very emotional performance, a deep meaningful look and a sweet smile. She is incredibly sincere, thanks to her you immerse yourself in a magical story, with absolute faith in what is happening, because she believes, and you believe her.
The characters turned out to be so spectacular that they would like to see them repeatedly in other fairy tales. Nutcracker, that in the form of wood, that in the image of a prince, the inhabitants of the doll house: a black drummer, a full clown juggler and a chimpanzee who escaped from the circus, as well as a variety of Christmas decorations, bring the main character to an exciting and magical world, with his joys and his villains. This story of toys and one man against an army of rats, develops intense dynamics, adding new intrigues and new characters to the plot. Of course, it is impossible not to note the magnificent play of John Turturro, who coped with such a charismatic, at the same time attractive and wildly repulsive to disgust, hysterical and theatrical image of the Rat King!
And, of course, in order to love and admire the film, it is not necessary to dive into the depths of the problems revealed and touched here, as well as the ideas of psychology and philosophy, you can enjoy a beautiful musical, a drive-punk story of liberation from invaders, or just a wonderful beautiful fairy tale that makes everyone a little more trusting, kinder and, most importantly, more positive! A beautiful and magnificent creation of a real master, with a bright cast, laid out to the full program, in order to create the proper rhythm of the narrative, its sensual and emotional depth of characters and relationships, as well as all the visual beauty of a delightful action! A wonderful colorful story of magic and festive mood!
9 out of 10
Original