It has become a tradition at the largest animation festival in the world: every year, the main American studios unveil their flagship films which will be released in the following weeks and months. After “Elementary” (Disney Pixar) or “Ninja Turtles: Teenage Years” (Paramount) in 2023, the 2024 edition launched “Vice-versa 2” (Disney Pixar), “Despicable Me 4” (Universal) and “Transformers: The Beginning” (Paramount).
“Vice-versa 2”: so many emotions!
As in 2015, where Pete Docter’s original film was a triumph, its sequel, by Kelsey Mann, shown Thursday during coffee time in Annecy, moved and made festival-goers howl with laughter who nevertheless feared being disappointed . It must be said that the scenario of “Vice-versa 2” has everything right: we find young Riley who, at 13, no longer has the concerns of a little girl but of a pre-teen.
During a summer internship at an ice hockey training camp, she will have to deal with a surprise guest: her puberty! As in the first film, we witness the maneuvers of the emotions that control his brain – joy, fear, anger… – and we then see new ones arrive: boredom (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos), jealousy, and especially anxiety, which will quickly take control of Riley’s feelings.
It remains for Joie, ejected from the control room, to try to get things back in hand… If “Vice-versa 2” is so successful, it is by managing to repeat the feat of the original film: placing the spectator in a situation of identification, who will recognize themselves, or make a comparison with loved ones, in this battle of conflicted emotions which inhabit the young girl. Amazing…
Released June 19.
“Despicable Me 4”: return to form
We feared even more the new opus of the “Despicable Me” saga after a lackluster third part with a messy storyline. Surprise: much tighter and going back to basics, this fourth film made the Annecy audience howl with laughter this Thursday evening. We find Gru there, still magnificently voiced by Gad Elmaleh, who, not content with managing the three little girls he is responsible for with Lucy (Audrey Lamy), welcomes a mischievous and turbulent newborn, Gru Junior, and must face a old enemy, Maxime le Mal.
Fleeing this evil gangster, the little family will be helped by some of the Minions, the others carrying out a training course for the government… Very well written new characters, good wit and gags galore… We’re having a blast, especially since the Minions reward us with cult sequences where they have a knack for creating chaos wherever they go – a bus ride, a very refined reception… – and the film multiplies the musical sequences where the heroes repeat, in their own way, songs known tubes. Rejoicing.
Released July 10.
“Transformers: The Beginning”: very animated origins
If this feature film is so awaited by fans of the saga, it is because we have to go back to 1986 and “Transformers: the movie” to find an opus entirely made in animation. Its very first screening electrified Annecy on Monday, ending with a nice surprise – even those who were tired of the successive parts in real images produced by Michael Bay will be able to appreciate this return to the origins.
Because this “Transformers: The Beginning” tells the story that preceded the animated series, going back to the time – 4 million years ago – when the Transformers had not failed on Earth and lived on their planet Cybertron . How did the war between the “good” Autobots and the evil Decepticons begin? This is what the film tells, with a lot of humor, incessant action and spectacular transformations, unfolding a half-futuristic, half-old school graphic line to the best effect. Stirring.
Released October 23.
