ACCORDING to my young son, this week will be the “most important week in cinematic history”, seeing the release of two features which your own children or grandchildren will insist on seeing at the movies.
A Minecraft Movie will probably receive the bulk of the attention from the middle-school crowd, being the film adaptation of the wildly popular computer game that blends the nostalgic style of 80’s arcade games with the infinite creativity of Lego.
Taking a major lesson from the success of 2023’s Super Mario Bros Movie the major creative idea behind this film seems to be in essentially having the characters play the game while the audience watches on.
That may sound like questionable entertainment for older viewers, but according to kids watching YouTube, this is exactly what they want to see.
Drawing upon every measure of charisma and innate humour at his disposal, star Jack Black leads a group of young people who have stumbled through a magic portal into the “world of Minecraft”.
To survive they must learn how to collect resources and construct devices from their imagination.
The director tapped for this film was Jared Hess, who made his name with Napoleon Dynamite in 2004 and Nacho Libre with star Jack Black in 2006; both offbeat, borderline nonsensical comedies, where much of the humour was derived from weird characters commenting on the world around them.
This will be a film that defies most attempts at explanation, but will probably be surprisingly entertaining.
Dog Man won’t be too far behind in popularity, particularly with the primary school students who have made the source books by Dav Pilkey so successful.
Flowing almost entirely from the premise, “What if we sewed the Dog’s head to the Man’s body?”, this film revels in the nonsensical, madcap escapades of the titular police-hero, evil genius cat Petey, undead-cyborg goldfish Flippy, and a host of equally impossible characters.
Functioning with a Loony Toons sensibility, it’s best not to get caught up on details or trying to understand the story.
If it all sounds a bit too bizarre for your taste, consider that you may be just as entertained watching your young ones laugh themselves silly for 90 minutes.
By Lindsay HALL
