The first one was "Mirror, Mirror" - the Julia Roberts comedy version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Amazing (no, really, amazing) sets and costumes. Julia Roberts at her snarky funny (and, yes, beautiful) best. A damsel in modest distress. A handsome prince. And seven dwarfs.
There's humor. There's romance. There's some cool special effects. And there were two things I really hadn't expected: intelligence and sexy dwarfs.
I'm not sure which of those things was more of a surprise to me. The fact that the director went a direction that caused me to laugh aloud because some things were so funny and smart, or the fact that they actually let the dwarfs be more than just caricatures. Don't get me wrong - they're still a bit of comic relief, but they're also individuals with personalities and brains (and heart) and, yes, they were even allowed some sex appeal.
On the other hand, "Pirates! Band of Misfits!" doesn't have much sexy to it. But it is *very* smart, which I had totally expected because it's by Aardman - the people who created Wallace and Gromit.
It's about a hard-luck pirate captain who, with his plucky crew, decide to try to win the Pirate of the Year award. Along the way they encounter Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria. They also encounter other pirates, some science-y stuff, and - as you often do - a monkey who speaks via flashcards.
I laughed a LOT during this one - sometimes quite inappropriately. Some of the best jokes are visual gags that you only really see in the background. The signage on the walls and the posters are priceless - and, luckily, we found that if you stay until the credits you can read a lot of them while the names scroll by.
So... scores...
"Mirror, Mirror": A-. I liked this quite a bit, but the end was a little off. Even so, if you can still find it in a theater, I highly recommend going to it. It was very fun.
"Pirates! Band of Misfits!": A. Not quite an A+, because... well... it just wasn't. But gosh it was good. Go see it. (Aarrgh.)
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