Ah, Pixar. What I wait for all year long.

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2009)

And they don't disappoint at all with this outing. It's probably not their best work. That's Wall-E. It's not as tightly plotted as other Pixar flicks, and the villain, in particular, could have used more work. But so what? Really, I haven't enjoyed a movie this much since, well, Wall-E. The prologue of this film, especially its second sequence, a completely silent (except for score) exploration of a long, beautiful marriage that gives us a novel's worth of information in a mere 8 minutes, is so remarkable that I could not hold back tears. In a way, that's a minor flaw as well. The film never quite tops those first 10 or 15 minutes. But the remaining 70 or 80 minutes are a ton of fun, and touching in their own way. Pixar shows Disney that cute animal sidekicks can be completely charming and hilarious. Dug the dog who talks with his special collar is constantly hilarious, as is the goofy bird, nicknamed Kevin. Like I said already, the villain is weak and could have been more thoroughly characterized. But it's not too bad - that's made up for with his more villainous talking dogs. Villainous they certainly are, but the way they talk, still thinking like dogs, is always worth some big laughs. And there's also a cute kid who is in no way annoying. Pixar proves once again that it has more imagination, wit and charm than anyone else working in the medium today. And that medium is not animated features, but cinema itself.