Review by John Delia
Here’s a nice animated film for the six and under group who will love the characters and the family value filled storyline. It’s called The Hero of Color City and you will feel happy knowing that it’s fun for especially the youngest members of your family. Every kid loves crayons and the animated characters are perfect for the younger set. The film is loaded with a lively story and child targeted with family values that include friendship, kindness, bravery, truthfulness, heroism and motherly love. It’s perfect for those that are too young to see the recent release of The Boxtrolls.
The film opens with 6-year-old Ben on his bedroom floor with some paper drawing a picture with crayons of two cool characters. His mother calls up to him that it’s bedtime and wants to see him in bed. She walks in his room before he can finish the picture of Nat a flying bug and has not yet completed the mouth on his King. After tucking Ben in for the night he falls fast asleep. That’s when the crayons start to come alive and are ready to jump back in the box.
Each of the crayons has a personality that relates to their color. Blue is cool, Red strong, Gray elderly, Green organized and Brown a leader. Timid Yellow however has wandered off and comes upon a monster that frightens her. Blue and Green come to her rescue and assure her it’s nothing but a sock puppet. After all the crayons have jumped into the box on the way to Color City, Yellow has lagged behind. She turns to run to the box and gets stopped by a paper cutout of The King and his bug. They want her to color them so they will not be unfinished like the other drawings on Ben’s wall. Frightened she jumps into the box and descends down the giant color slide to Color City.
When the two paper cut outs follow her inside the box, an exciting adventure begins that finds the whole city in trouble and about to fade away. Director Frank Gladstone introduces his characters right away so even the littlest can identify the personalities of color and how important they are to the whole picture. While yellow has had the connotation of being afraid or timid, Gladstone shows that any color can become brave and strong in the face of adversity.
Gladstone keeps his story exciting and imaginative showing that using crayons makes it easy to relate to youngsters and their feelings about the world around them. He brings up the values of integrity, honesty, bravery, kindness, friendship and motherly love in a subtle way so youngsters can understand their meanings. Both males and females will enjoy the comedy that develops as the adventure plays out.
The music is light and fun with five original songs that help tell the tale. The Hero of Color City soundtrack includes “Color City Song†performed by Tara Strong who’s noted for My Little Pony, “Why Am I So Scared†by Looner, “Ring a Little Bell†by Zoe Bright, “Heave Ho†by Tara Strong, Jess Harnell, David Kay and Rose Perez and “Color the World†featuring The Willard Elementary School Choir. The movie features original music composed by Zoë Poledouris-Roché (daughter of late film composer Basil Poledouris) and Angel Roché Jr. including the aforementioned original songs and score.
The Hero of Color City has been rated G by the MPAA and contains no offensive material. Parents should always sit next to the youngest of children in the event there is an issue with the storyline.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A fun filled animated movie for tykes and tots. (A)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Owen Wilson, Christina Ricci, Rosie Perez, Wayne Brady. Jessica Capshaw, Sean Astin and Craig Ferguson
Directed by: Frank Gladstone
Genre: Youngsters, Animated
MPAA Rating: G
Running Time: 1 hr 17 min
Release Date: October 3,2014
Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures
Release Formats: 2D