I am starting a new weekly feature here called Frivolous Friday. Since Fridays are fun days, I thought I’d post something movie, TV, or video game related every Friday. Sometimes, it may be very loosely related, such as pop culture. Today will be a round-up of the animated movies I saw this summer.
We are all big kids at heart, right? All three of these came out in 3D, but we saw them in 2D. These are probably not in any first-run theaters at this point, but you can always go to Red Box or add them to your Netflix Queue when the DVDs come out.
Shrek Forever After
Dan and I have enjoyed most of the Shrek movies so it was a no-brainer to go see this final installment in the franchise. I thought it was a lot of fun and definitely better than Shrek the Third but not quite as good as Shrek and Shrek 2. Rumpelstiltskin tricks Shrek into signing a contract without reading the fine print. Shrek ends up having to fight for his existence very similarly to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. The final chapter in this series brought back the aspect of the series that appeals to adults: funny and charming characters and family dynamics rather than stock jokes and gimmicks (except for the 3D thing of course).
Toy Story 3
If you are in the target audience for this movie, I probably don’t have to tell you to see it. As was expected, Toy Story 3 was heartwarming, funny, and sad all at the same time. Surprisingly, I did not cry like everyone else did. I usually cry really easily in movies so I’m not sure why I didn’t in this one. There were some very sweet scenes at the end that I saw other people tearing up over in the theater. I thought all the different toys at the day care center and the hierarchy of toys were both really well done. Barbie and Ken were absolutely hilarious. Pixar can’t seem to make a bad movie.
Despicable Me
Oh man, I just loved this movie! Steve Carell is the voice of Igor, a super-villain who is trying to get his evil mojo back. He ends up taking in three little girls as part of a plot against his rival. Of course you know what will happen in this completely predictable story, but the writing, voice acting, and animation for this title are fantastic. I’m one of the few who rate this movie right up there with Toy Story 3. It was fun to watch for children and adults, and isn’t that what kids movies are all about? Whoever came up with the idea and appearance of the minions is a genius. I really want a few for myself. I’d also like a freeze ray. That would be very handy at the library.
Bookishly Fabulous 
Good job! I’d heard from several circles that Despicable Me was really good. I need to add that to our Netflix queue. For some reason, I wasn’t as excited for TS3, though I loved the first two.