Blu-ray Review: Khumba - 3D (2013)

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The second film produced by South Africa’s Triggerfish Animation Studios, this 3D amalgamation of The Lion King, Ice Age, Rio and Madagascar (which was ironically co-written by former Lion King screenwriter Jonathan Roberts), seems on the surface to target young, indiscriminating toddler-aged viewers fond of talking animal pictures.

Unfortunately and despite Triggerfish’s at times absolutely breathtaking, authentic African magic hour-set animation, given the ferocious half-blind lion voiced by Liam Neeson who talks of ripping into the flesh of Disney star Jake T. Austin’s youthful eponymous zebra hero to claim his beating heart, Khumba is far too intense to be appropriate for cinema's youngest audience members.

Yet at the same time, when you factor in the predictable nature of the overly-familiar storyline which in true Disney fashion kills off the mother and sends the young outsider on a multi-layered journey towards self-acceptance, it’s hard to imagine that older, somewhat discerning grade school aged children will find it interesting enough to tune into for its entire running time. Needless to say, it's hard to imagine just who Khumba is not only right for but also, who would like to watch it.

Centering the action on our titular hero who’s been ostracized as a zebra who was born with stripes that cover only half his body, after Khumba’s dying mother tells him a soothing fairytale about a magical waterhole that is said to grant stripes, he sets out on a quest to become more like the rest.

Bidding farewell to his superstitious tribe of zebras who blame their lack of water on Khumba’s “unnatural” appearance -- Khumba may head out on his own but quickly amasses a new tribe of fellow outsiders who tag along on the journey and help liven up the stale proceedings.

While a bit too on the nose in its moral lessons, moreover there’s a lot the audience is asked to forgive in Khumba that goes beyond its stale plotting. Specifically, it’s far too fond of stereotypical characterizations from casting Loretta Devine to voice the obligatory “wise black woman,” signing up Steve Buscemi to play a fast-talking east-coast sounding Italian American, and likewise relying on similar outdated devices in making Neeson’s villain disabled. While one could argue that Neeson's lion is blind because he "can't see" things for the way they are, the treatment of his character and the arc he takes doesn't play into that analysis as anything that's particularly that deep.

Though of course it’s doubtful that children will read anything into these decisions made by the scientist turned writer/director Anthony Silverston and his fellow writers Raffaella Delle Donne as well as Jonathan Roberts as these same elements occur frequently in animated movies, because Khumba is so flawed in its lazy plotting, there aren’t many places for all of Khumba’s problems to hide.

Despite this, it’s evident from the moment Khumba begins that as a studio, Triggerfish is definitely one to watch in the future given some of the superlative animation and striking use of 3D on display throughout the film.

Unfortunately for Khumba and first-time feature filmmaker Silverston, the magic of those multi-dimensional black glasses and the gloriously crisp images that come to life before our eyes on Khumba's Blu-ray aren’t able to salvage it in any way that would make the film worthy of a recommendation.

   

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21

Director:
Robert Luketic

Although I’m not one for gambling, blackjack is the type of game that can even make someone like me-- who earned her one and only grade of D in Math 90 and fulfilled her baccalaureate math requirement by knitting a scarf and writing a physics paper on string theory-- feel like a mathematical wizard. One only needs to count to 21 after all and if you can handle basic addition, you can play the game, but after hearing about the group of math geniuses from M.I.T. “Who Took Vegas for Millions” in the subtitle of Ben Mezrich’s nonfiction work Bringing Down the House, I realized that mastery of the game is best left to the experts and those who no doubt have never heard of math at the 90 level. While I didn’t have the opportunity to read Mezrich’s popular book, (caught up as I was in learning to knit), I received a crash course in the events in Hollywood's big screen adaptation called 21 directed by Robert Luketic.

The film stars up-and-coming talent Jim Sturgess (a.k.a. the dreamy lad from Across the Universe) as M.I.T. senior Ben Campbell who excels in his studies and extracurricular technology activities with his two best friends. Until he meets Professor Rosa (Kevin Spacey who also served as a producer on the film) Ben’s only experience with gambling is hoping for a long-shot full ride scholarship to cover the $300,000.00 price-tag of Harvard Medical School and feeling an attraction for his beautiful and far less socially awkward classmate Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). That all changes when he’s granted access to a group he mistakes for a math club as Rosa coaches his brightest students including Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, and Jacob Pitts in the legal yet morally gray and incessantly frowned upon skill of counting cards in blackjack to take advantage of the game’s weakness which is that it can be beaten by the chosen few prodigies with the skills and time.

Employing a system of gestures and innocuous words that double for the table's count when it heats up or cools down, the team travels to Las Vegas on weekends where the nerdy kids become high rollers in casinos, suites and nightclubs. Dividing itself in half, the group consists of those who play the minimum and signal (mostly the women who unquestioningly abide by Rosa’s sexism) and the two “big players,” including Pitts’ Fisher who has begun to grow an ego and the newest participant Ben who, after initially turning down the opportunity, lets his hormones do the talking when Taylor pays him a visit at his after school job where he’s been granted a promotion to $8.00 an hour.

Although Mezrich’s book took place in the 90’s, Luketic’s film which is loosely based on the source material in a script by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb is set in present day where the hangers-on from the criminal traditions of old Vegas are finding themselves exceedingly pushed out by computer technology along with the sort of Disney World for adults that sin city has become. To this end, the film introduces Cole Williams, played by a fierce Laurence Fishburne as a security expert who uses his own card counting skill to catch scheming gamblers and finds his attention being drawn to the new casino wiz kid, Ben Campbell, playing under an assumed name who is beginning to find he’s changing with each successive win.

As scripted, the likable but bland Campbell is easily dominated by the more involving characters and I found myself wanting to know more about the females who play for a professor who tells Campbell “I don’t trust the girls." More specifically, in the case of Bosworth’s Taylor, her character's own heartbreaking experiences with the game were begging to be explored in greater detail, if only to inject a bit more emotion into this tale of logic driven, left brain geniuses.

While there are some major plot contrivances and dubious twists near the end of 21, it’s such a high energy and fascinating film which admirably makes intellect (instead of gambling) seductive that we’re willing to forgive a few instances of disbelief especially in the character of Spacey who seems a bit hard to believe, yet because it’s Spacey delivering these lines with crisp precision, we’re riveted all the way.

Akeelah and the Bee

Director: Doug Atchison

Back in 2000, Doug Atchison’s screenplay for Akeelah and the Bee received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship in an international competition of 4,250 entries. Six years later, this small film about an eleven-year-old girl who challenges stereotypes and inspires her southern Los Angeles Crenshaw neighborhood to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on ESPN became the first film ever produced by Starbucks Coffee. Shot in just 31 days on a budget of 6 million dollars, this sleeper gem was unfortunately released after the higher profile, big-screen adaptation of Myla Goldberg’s novel Bee Season. While the much less kid-friendly Bee Season was better left on the page, Akeelah and the Bee is vastly superior. Newcomer Keke Palmer's title character makes a wonderful contemporary heroine for young women and the movie is such a vibrant celebration of diversity in that our three main young characters come from vastly different ethnic backgrounds-- while Akeelah is African-American, the two friends she meets along the way are Latino and Asian respectively, thereby challenging stereotypes that it’s a traditionally “white” event. In addition, Atchison’s pitch-perfect screenplay has much to say about the pressures faced by the young competitors in regards to family, nerves, self-esteem challenges and frankly-- in the end-- the luck of getting certain words to spell that can make or break their chances. Admirably, the film also illustrates the importance of learning from a wide variety from tutors such as friends, relatives, teachers and neighbors. Tackling a similar role to the one he played in Searching for Bobby Fischer, Laurence Fishburne stars as Dr. Joshua Larabee, a former UCLA English department chair currently on sabbatical after a personal tragedy. While Larabee (inspired by a teacher of writer/director Atchison) provides the traditional rigorous scholastic structure for Akeelah as a proper tutor, she also finds inspiration in her own neighborhood and becomes a symbol of hope for a community that as she notes earlier in the film, doesn’t even have enough money to put doors on the bathroom stalls in her school. Angela Bassett (reuniting with her What’s Love Gotta Do With It costar Fishburne in a role that couldn’t be further from Tina Turner) is fine as Akeelah’s hardworking mother who is skeptical about her daughter’s pursuit but eventually begins to realize how important it is to Akeelah. Although some may argue that the ending is a bit contrived or far too convenient, it succeeds because (just as the film had been up until that point) it has much to say about the plusses and minuses of a win/lose environment in a competition where children spell words that large portions of viewers (including myself) have probably never heard, which is an admirable feat in itself. Overall, Akeelah and the Bee is a wonderful, quality family film that deserves more attention now that it’s been released on DVD.

From Akeelah and the Bee


“All My Girlz” by Keke Palmer


“Respect” by Aretha Franklin


“ABC” by Jackson 5


“Respect Yourself” by The Staple Singers


“Rubberband Man” by The Spinners