The Continuing Adventures of Jud

Saw the first showing at my local theater.

Short review: good enough.

The five minutes *before* the movie and the thirty seconds *after* it are the highlights, though why I shall not say, not wanting to be a spoiler.

The movie itself, well, Walt would have trimmed about 30 minutes from it. Not that those 30 minutes weren't enjoyable, but they had nothing to do with the story- just nice tidbits in themselves.

And the story itself, while good, interesting, fresh, is strained in the telling- like it was a very good story in the hands of people who didn't really know how to tell a story well- again, not a problem Walt had. Maybe when they got rid of all the excess "VP's" at Disney Animation, they should have kept one or two... If this was indeed "rescued" by Lassetter, I hate to think what it was before!

And the animation- well, not as bad as some I've seen, but far from being ground-breaking, actually a bit behind the curve, and even in that, not very good- at times even distracting. This is a "lot of people" movie and that is the weakness of any CGI movie; and since that is the main element of this one, it sticks out quite glaringly. The backgrounds and other visuals are quite beautiful and some of the "futurisms" are great, though I think there should have been a tip 'o the hat to Dr Suess and to Jimmy Neutron. In fact, the "people" animation in Jimmy Neutron is better than this.

The only thing that does make it worthwhile is the very good story, and its various twists, and the good character portrayal (development? Maybe.). I did enjoy it, but there was nothing that blew me away or even hinted at WOW!

Oh! And that flash of "Todayland" you see in the ad? That is the extent of it: nothing more in the movie.

Go see it, cause it is fun; but, see it simply as an enjoyable movie, not as anything real special.

Except for that before and after...