TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Sugar and spice may run through "Saving Mr. Banks'" veins, but certainly not everyone in it is nice. Emma Thompson plays "Mary Poppins" author P.L. Travers with a Sheldon Cooper type of emotional unawareness, except she's much thornier and frostier to everyone: including the head of the Mouse himself, Walt Disney. Disney's played by soon-to-be "Captain Phillips" Oscar nominee Tom Hanks, who, with the help of the mustache, does nail that late Disney founder's appearance, but you can't help but realize it is  Hanks playing Disney instead of just ol' Uncle Walt in the flesh. Does he nail his voice/cadences? The jury's still out for me, as I always distanced myself from Walt Disney the man as a younger child; he was sort of the wizard of Oz of all my favorite childhood animated films. The story is Disney was hounding Travers for the rights to her beloved novel, with the preface of keeping a promise to his daughters to adapt the ...

When it comes to Pixar, so many people are defensive about the studio geniuses.  My generation (born in the late 90's) was practically raised on Pixar, for many of us "Toy Story" was our first movie.  Then there's "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," "The Incredibles" when we got older.  But that isn't the only reason why people will go to war over Pixar; it's because they treat us so good.  When you go into a Pixar film, you're treated to a great short film beforehand, the knowledge of knowing the movie ahead is going to be great from all the reviews you've read, and the silence of all the children because Pixar's stories are good enough where kids actually listen.  Well, the last thing listed isn't always  guaranteed , but you get where I'm going.  (Nearly) all the Pixar movies are instant classics, but I wouldn't go branding "Brave" that title just yet. Earlier this year in my early predicti...