The most subversive graphix films successes are the ones that people don't know came from comics.
Pixar makes movies for adults who remember the wonder of childhood, while many other CG companies make kiddie clatter with nyuk jokes and yelling. Pixar head John Lasseter has also been stealthily sheparding Disney animateds into the story-centric Pixar mode, and this classic is the stellar result.
“Based only loosely on” are usually alarming words to describe a source-based film, but in this case, the re-imagining of the original Marvel Comics material is wonderful. This film, co-directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, literally fuses the best of East and West animation to hybrid something free enough to take its own course. Commendably, it is brave enough to take its time to build its world and the characters' hearts as the foundation that all the emotional and literal rockets will blast from. Like Pixar, they understand that it's more important to be deeply moving than to simply be in spastic motion.
Bring your kids, bring your brain, bring your wonder.
