Review: 'To Be Takei', Starring George Takei and Brad Altman

When thinking back on the original Star Trek series, mentions of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are easy to come by. What's not as prevalent is the name of Lieutenant Sulu, then portrayed by George Takei. In a typecast Hollywood world, Takei (pronounced "Ta-kay") was a breath of fresh air because he played an Asian who wasn't a walking stereotype on a show that was . To Be Takei obviously gives us a lot of George Takei, his life and career, which proves to be an entertaining and informative watch.   

A favorite on The Howard Stern Show, what many people may not know about George

Takei is that, at 77 years old, he's as charming as ever, genuine, positive, and very, very honest. The honesty seems to ooze from him in waves and as he talks about his life--his past, present, and how he's changed through experience--you can tell immediately that he's not some self-absorbed person who thinks the world revolves around him. The film covers, in a non-linear fashion, growing up in his family, his time spent at the awful Japanese-American interment camps during World War II, his career, and his social justice work. 

"Obviously I like attention," Takei states. But hey, what working actor doesn't? It's all a part of being in the business, and as we go along Takei's journey, it's obvious that this attention fuels him in his responsibilities as an advocate for people's rights, justice, and gay marriage. The film offers us more than just George Takei, the actor. It shows us his many sides, from attending comic con and being around his fans, to his appearances and speeches at many events around the country, and his relationship with husband Brad Altman. 

The film is charming and thoroughly enjoyable. Even if you're not a big fan of Takei's work or you didn't know much about him before, sitting through this film isn't hard. He's been through some pretty horrible things and life-changing experiences, but the positive energy and outlook on life makes him so endearing. His sense of humor and commentary will make you crack a smile over the course of the film. 

To Be Takei is as natural as Takei is in front of the camera and during public speeches. It's vibrant, interesting, and enjoyable. There are fun pokes at William Shatner, who appears in the film, along with Leonard Nimoy, John Cho, and a myriad of others. The deep and clipped way he speaks doesn't hurt either, as his booming and strong voice is what makes people listen when he's talking about something important. At best, you'll be entertained by Takei's life story, commentary, and humor. At worst, you'll learn about a man who's lived a diverse and interesting life. in the end, just remember that "it's ok to be Takei".

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Review: 'Axel: The Biggest Little Hero' with Ed Asner, Matthew Lillard, and George Takei

I’m a big cartoon guy, I still watch cartoons on Saturday morning and have my TiVo record all the current series on Cartoon Network. I’m pretty open to watching animated films also. Even though I’m open I’m also pretty critical of them. Now when this new one came to me I was a bit surprised. I’ve never heard of the studio or the movie at all. I was sitting here thinking just who or what is Axel The Biggest Little Hero standing on top of robot bird with sunglasses on. Well I just popped it in and gave it a watch.

So here we have Axel The Biggest Little Hero as a pretty simple hero adventure story. What’s interesting with this is that it has a very '80s feel in terms of howcompletely all over the place the world and characters look, yet it is never explained. The story is about a young boy named Axel who considers himself a hero while the rest of his little town just see a rambunctious nuisance. To be completely honest the whole set up of this story felt very much like the early parts of Naruto (a long running Japanese anime). One day while Axel was “saving” a small bug on a branch he has a vision of a mystical far away grove of Cacti that could save his people from ever worrying about hunger. He’s told this by the voice of their great hero, Bunta, that he must complete this quest to become a true hero. Being that he fell from that branch and got hurt he then spends the time as he heals up telling everyone what he saw and they all just roll their eyes at his claims. Axel then decides to pack up and go off on this journey into the unknown to find this grove. Following him on this journey is his best friend, Jono.

Honestly, the main thing that's surprising to me is just how good it looks. There have been some CG films in the last year, some even released in theaters with modeling, character design, lighting, textures and such that are just so bland and subpar, almost like cut-scenes for Playstation 2-era games.  This movie though is quite interesting to look at with what I see as a keen eye for detail, characters, and settings.  The one thing that really holds this back is that the story doesn’t seem to bemade for a movie at all. There are parts of the story that are very slow and drags, and feels more suited to an animated series.  Another thing lacking is the big bad villain of the story. While it’s a great visual there isn't a true foe that is going to try and stop Axel from getting his ultimate prize. Instead it's more of a situation Axel falls into while on the journey, and that lacking hurts the story.

In the end , while I think the story will be really interesting for younger kids to watch I feel it’s going to leave everyone wanting. The story in all felt like watching that Clone Wars movie that was just the first three episode of the show. You’ll get to end and feel like "That's it? But where’s my ending"? Who knows if we’ll ever get it? It might just end up being something you can put on to keep the kids quiet for an hour.

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Win a Copy of 'Axel: The Biggest Little Hero' on DVD!

How would you like to win a copy of the animated adventure film, Axel: The Biggest Little Hero on DVD? To celebrate the June 3rd release on DVD, we're giving away copies to three of our loyal readers! To enter, all you need to do is follow us on Twitter @punchycritic, and tweet  “@punchycritic is giving away Axel: The Biggest Little Hero on DVD! Follow and RT to enter!”

It's that simple. Winners will be chosen and contacted on Tuesday, June 3rd.

Arc Entertainment's Axel: The Biggest Little Hero features the voices of Ed Asner, Matthew Lillard, Tim Curry, and George Takei, and here's the official synopsis:

Axel’s always been a hero in his own mind. Unfortunately, in real life he’s just another mischievous little boy who pulls pranks while his village runs out of food. One day, he has a vision of a mystical grove of cactuses that could feed his people for years. Determined to save the day, Axel and his best friend Jono embark on the journey of a lifetime where they must fly through magnetic valleys, escape an evil robotic lizard king, and put up with a brave but headstrong young Princess. Will Axel find the magical plant and save his village? Can he become the real life hero he always wanted to be?

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Review: "Free Birds," starring Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, and Amy Poehler

It seems every single month now there is a new computer-animated film coming out so that people with children can go to the movies. They market it hard and make special 3-D glasses for the kids and sell fast food kid meals so that kids will bug their parents to take them to see this bright and colorful 90-minute adventure in safe-movie land. This time in November, we get Free Birds, which to be honest looked really flimsy and a terrible idea. What we got though is a pretty enjoyable buddy movie with great winks and nods to Back To The Future and Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  

Free Birds is a crazy movie about a nerdy turkey named Reggie (voiced by Owen Wilson), who is an outcast at the turkey farm he lives in. He ends up being the pardoned turkey by the President, who I might add for some reason sounds like Bill Clinton. So Reggie now lives at Camp David and has found out about pizza. So check this, a turkey calls and orders pizza in gobble gobble turkey speak. While Reggie is living the life of luxury, he is then kidnaped by Jake, the one and only member of the Turkey Liberation Front. Jake was told by the GRREAT TURKEY to get Reggie and find a time machine and go back to the first Thanksgiving and stop turkeys from ever being part of the menu. Yes, that’s as convoluted as it sounds.

You know, the voice acting really sells a lot of this movie. Owen Wilson is in his full Owen Wilsonness as Reggie. All his vocal tics are there, so if that bothers you in live action that might actually bother you in cartoon turkey form. Woody Harrelson is hoot as the super alpha turkey Jake and his want and need to save turkeydom from being dinners. His character is lovably jock stupid. Amy Poehler was good as Jenny the female turkey princess in the past that Reggie falls for. To be honest, the whole Reggie/Jenny thing is very much something you’d get from a romantic comedy Wilson would be in, just in cartoon form. Also George Takei is amazing as the time machine computer S.T.E.V.E.

One weird thing about this movie is that the turkeys are portrayed as Native American like against the English colonists. It’s a weird way of not dealing with the issue of how actually messed up what happened to native peoples in regards to Thanksgiving was. And then it gets really weird once you see actual Native American human characters in the movie.  The look of the movie is quite decent in terms of lighting, textures, and character design, but it’s not amazing either. The quality seems just a little bit above the direct-to-DVD computer animated sequels. The 3-D doesn’t really add much of real pop, so really you can save the money and see the 2-D version.

Free Birds is a quite surprising little family movie. That concept of time-traveling turkeys to stop Thanksgiving is something you think would be deserving of a “c’mon son” greatly. Luckily the everyone involved managed to craft a nice and entertaining family movie that is actually for the thanksgiving holiday. Free Birds is a movie you can go to and not feel like you’re going to suffer. 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Guttenbergs

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