The Outlaw League

Hi there it's time for another TIFF film. This time it's a sports movie. Once again I was unable to find the names of the actors so I'm really sorry about that. If you want to see these films they are playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox from April 7th through 19th in Toronto. So let's play ball with The Outlaw League.

We open in a town somewhere in Canada where a boy named Nicolas goes to his favourite ball park to play some baseball with his friends. He gets their early only to discover a big pile of trash in the middle of the field. Nicolas tells his friends about it and they decide that they either need to find a new field or clean out the old one. They decide to clean it out. They finally manage to clean up the field but they keep tripping over the grass so Nicolas borrows his grandfather's lawnmower and mows the grass with it. They play some more baseball but once they leave the mayor of the town comes in and sees that all the trash is gone. She says that she was going to turn the field into a garbage dump.



The Mayor parks a fire truck in the field to keep the kids from playing. They decide to find another field but can't seem to find a good one. The come across another group of kids who like to play soccer and they also want the field back. They get Nicolas' grandfather and The Mayor's father to help with getting the truck out of the way. The Mayor comes in and they make a deal: if Nicolas can fill up the stands him and his friends get to keep the field.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

They form a team with Nicolas' grandfather as a coach. But on the first day of practise his Grandfather shows up drunk. Nicolas gets mad at him but he promises to be a better coach. They play a game against a bunch of adults in town and the place is packed everyone in town shows up there which means that the mayor doesn't close down the field. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

This was a pretty good movie. It has good acting some nice heart warming moments and a interesting premise but there are some bad things. This is a short film but the pacing makes it seem so much longer then it actually is and there isn't much variety in music. But I did like this movie and I can't wait to see the final TIFF Kids film on my list.

Rainbow

It's time to review another TIFF film. This movie is from India and it is a step up from the last movie already. If you are interested in seeing any of these films they are playing April 7th through 19th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. I know this is highly irregular but I could not find the names of the actors for this one so I'm sorry about that. But with that aside, lets see what else TIFF has got as I review Rainbow.

The films opens with two kids, a boy named Chotu and his sister Pari. They live with their uncle and aunt because their parents are dead. Chotu is blind so he has a hard time in school. One day Pari sees a poster that says her favorite movie star is raising funds to help the blind. She writes a letter to him telling him about Chotu. But she doesn't have any stamps for the letter so the postman keeps returning the letters to her uncle without Pari knowing. One day Pari finds out about but doesn't tell her Uncle. However she does find out that the same movie star is filming in the desert about 300 kilometers outside the town.Their uncle says that their aunt wouldn't allow it. So they run away and try to find the movie star.

They come across a friendly truck driver who gives them some water and points them in the direction of where the actor is filming. They come across a singer who gives them a ride but he ends up taking them far away from where they wanted to go. They spend the night there with him and his son and the next day they head off again. They take a tractor to some sort of religous site and they find a bus there but they miss the bus and have to stay there the night. The they get off the bus and walk through the desert and come across a man who has passed out. He wakes up and they give him water. The man is a American hippie named Doug who thanks them and takes them too a rest stop. They also meet a man who says he will drive them to where the movie star is filming. But he actually knocks them out and it turns out he is working for one of the people at the religous site who is now a bad guy for some reason. But a woman bandit robs the car and takes the kids to their camp. She shows the kids to her Grandmother who says that a fat strange man will help them, The next day they see a fat strange man who drives an imaginary truck they decide to follow him.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

He actually does help them end up in the city where the actor is filming but it turns out that he will be leaving soon. But the man who can take them up there says his motorbike is broken but the strange man fixes it and they go to where he is filming. They say he left but one man says that he is in another town now and that there is a short cut through the desert. But they both pass out in the desert and they might die. But the same movie star finds them and takes them to the hospital he even pays for Chotu's eye operation. So Chotu can finally see and they are reuinited with their uncle and aunt. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

This was a great movie. It had a great plot and very good acting especially from the children. It did have a few cliches in it. But other than that I would definetly go see this movie. See you next time.

The Amazing Wiplala

Hi there some of you may remember that last year I reviewed a bunch of movies from TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Kids as an official reviewer. This year I am doing the same thing. If you want to see any of these movies they are playing April 7th through 19th at the TIFF Bell Light Box. So lets kick off these films with The Amazing Wiplala.

We start in Amsterdam where we meet our main characters a boy named Johannes (Sasha Mylanus), his sister Nella (Kee Ketelaar), and their father (Peter Paul Muller). They are all very distant with each other but one day Johannes thinks he sees a Leprechaun and he tries to catch it but it is not a Leprechaun it is a tiny person named Wiplala (Geza Weisz) who has magic powers such as freezing Johannes' cat Fly. Johannes tries to get Wiplala to unfreeze the cat but Wiplala only ends up turning the cat to stone. Johannes takes care of Wiplala while Nella and his father are out looking for Fly. But Nella finds out about Wiplala and promises to keep a secret. Later that day their friend Arhtur Hollidee (Paul Kooij) finds Wiplala but Wiplala gets scared and turns Arthur into a giant statue. That night the father takes them to a fancy restaraunt but Johannes doesn't want to leave Wiplala by himself so he takes him to the restaurant. But Wiplala turns the family's oysters into sushi and hot dogs and they get in trouble with the manager. Wiplala shrinks them down to his size and they escape the restaurant and spend the night in a grocery store.


Wiplala says that there is an entrance to his world through their house and that another one of his people can make them back to normal size. The father sees on TV that the giant statue of Arthur has drawn quite a bit of attention and the city says it will be demolished if who ever made it doesn't step forward. They see that a boy in the shop has a remote control car so they steal it and use it to escape the shop and ride away. They crash into a dog and the father fractures his arm. They go to a hospital where they find a sick child named Lotje (Gabbi Lieve van Waveren) who helps them by showing them to a doctor who takes seeing small people surprisingly well and fixes the fathers arm. But the very next morning they find out that the statue of Arthur will be destroyed the next morning so they need to think of a good plan. They order a pizza and they try to sneak on the pizza delivery boy's bike. But only Wiplala gets on and the rest are left behind. The next morning Wiplala flies in on a pigeon and tries to fly to their house before Arthur is destroyed.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

The pigeon crashes and Wiplala brings a giant statue of the Atlas (Hans Kesting) to life. This scene doesn't serve much purpose to the plot other then some funny lines and some cliche motivational speech for Wiplala. The Atlas' speech gives Wiplala the will to un-shrink the family and they manage to get to their home and they turn Arthur back to normal. Wiplala says he must return home but before going he gives Johannes his jacket (which looks kind of like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" jacket the more I look at it). Everyone has a happy new year (oh yeah this is kind of a Christmas movie I forgot to mention). The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

This movie has some good points and some bad points. The effects are actually really good and some of the scenes are pretty funny. But the plot is really cliched and feels like it was made in the 1990's instead of recently. This definitely one of those cases where the trailer is much better then the movie. But if it does sound like your kind of thing I guess you could like it but I personally didn't like it but there are still a lot more to go and I'm sure they will be better. See you next time I've got more TIFF to review