Also, I took the final message as being

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"sometimes you have to do bad things for good reasons"

which didn't fly with me - am I missing something? I also didn't buy the climax trying to look like character growth for Stephen -

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for someone with a fear of failing, a time loop means infinite chances to get it "right" without any consequences or lasting record of getting it "wrong".

I retained very little of the nuances of the ending, so this is probably going to be kind of sloppy... The final message

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came across as "you have to know/understand the rules before you can break them"; based on Strange's comment about reading the entire entry before doing the end the world thing or whatever... That's probably even less appealing than your version, come to think of it.
That's a really interesting take on the time loop. I'd looked at it as Strange voluntarily entering infinite deaths, sort of like the myth about the guy who had his liver pecked out every day, thus shouldering not-ending the world at an awful cost to himself. (I can't really recall how he got out of it, only that he did, so... ) But if he already knew he could win with enough restores to the last saved point, then it's not nearly as much of a sacrifice.

[spoiler="Moana"]I do agree with Valia that Maui's image as a hero and someone who just wants the appreciation of humans didn't really seem to jive with his repeated attempts to ditch Moana. It did occur to me that maybe he just wanted to go and get his hook, then come back and free her from the cave.

Mel, I can see your take on the final message, though I agree it doesn't necessarily make anything better.

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Despite common thought, rules and laws exist for a very good reason, and heroes shouldn't just break them. Though sometimes it works out well in recipes.
I think your take about Strange voluntarily going through death again and again is probably the one that's supposed to be shown. As is the take of Strange handing the scalpel off to Dr. West before the Ancient One's surgery being that he is showing humility and recognizing his inability to perform the surgery. But based on his earlier comment about having a perfect record at surgery and the Ancient One's proclamation (though her infallibility is also called into question) just moments later that he still thinks everything is about him also gives the interpretation that he realized that a) he can't do the surgery and/or b) it may not work and thus he doesn't want to try in case the surgery fails. But I guess the question is also raised, if he considers something a failure if his first attempt doesn't work or just if the end result doesn't work?

Rya, I think your thoughts on Maui are pretty spot on.

Ooh, your thoughts on Moana are very good, Rya! I'll keep it in mind when I get around to re-watching. I'm not sure how I feel about "Shiny" either, only that the chorus gets stuck in my head sometimes and I wish it wouldn't.

And good to see that you liked Kubo and the Two Strings! I haven't seen it yet, but I ran across a video featuring Regina Spektor's cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the soundtrack... I clicked on it just because I was curious about her cover, but the movie looks really cool and I've wanted to see it since! (And I had no idea I was looking at stop-motion animation... wow. )

Rya, we just watched Kubo and the Two Strings this past weekend too. It wasn't at all what I expected, but I also didn't have any solid expectations. We really enjoyed it as well! I don't know how I feel about

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the ending with the Moon King being convinced he was a good man, either, but it was a mostly happy ending, so that was nice. I knew Beetle was really a full man and noticed that he was getting more human each time they found a piece of the weaponry/armor. BUT, when the reveal about Monkey being his mom and the later reveal about Beetle being his father happened, they made sense. And I think I understand what you meant about it complementing the movie.

We also watched The Good Dinosaur this weekend; we enjoyed it pretty well, though again I didn't really know what to expect. I definitely didn't know that it was a

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Western movie until about five minutes in, but once I did, I knew immediately that a parent was going to die. I liked most of the side characters they ran into, but the first dinosaur with all the animal sidekicks was rather weird...

Saw Kubo and the Two Strings awhile back. I don't remember everything that happened, but I do remember liking it a lot.

Oooh, The Good Dinosaur! I thought it was pretty good, although predictable.

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Just another boy and his dog story. Or dinosaur and his boy in this case.

Going to try to answer as best as I can.

Doctor Strange - Things I liked about it.

Moana - No, it wasn't hyped at all for me. I barely even noticed it coming out. I'm very much in the minority on this, but for me, it definitely goes Moana, to Frozen, to Tangled. I need to go watch Tangled again because it didn't do much for me at all. But then, I felt the same way about Frozen, but it grew on me when I was forced to watch it (repeatedly) by my kiddos. Maybe I'd like Tangled better if I gave it another viewing.

Kubo and the Two Strings - Great movie! The animation is stellar. If you watch the credits, you can see the HUGE skeleton they use in the movie. It's quite impressive.
Actually, my favorite thing about this movie was the music. I hadn't liked a score that much since How to Train Your Dragon.

The Good Dinosaur - Did not like this one at all... EXCEPT for the animation. I was ready to head to Colorado and Wyoming and Montana all over again.

The Secret Life of Pets - Soooo... the other day I wanted to show my son Moana because he didn't get to watch it with us when we first watched it. I could NOT find it anywhere. After a while I gave up and pulled up Pets on Netflix. Good heavens, what a waste of two hours of my life. Am I in the minority on this one too? I usually am. I think a lot of people loved it but it drove me crazy.
For the record, Evan loved it.

Hoping to see Kubo and the Two Strings sometime this weekend!

My impressions for The Good Dinosaur are mostly negative... I know it was in development for a long time and overhauled at least once, but I feel like they should've kept tweaking it until it was a better film. Yes, the scenery is gorgeous, and I liked

That said,

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the amount of times where Arlo falls down, is scared and/or imperiled drove my maternal instincts crazy. Will no one help this child?! I think he was originally supposed to be a teenaged character and I kind of wish they'd left it that way. I also didn't understand why the story was ultimately about him finding his place in his family, when the only family members that were still living weren't developed as characters. I was also annoyed that Arlo and Spot went their separate ways, seemingly just to tug at the audience's heartstrings... Spot seemed like the only bright spot (lol) in his life and it felt unnecessary. I would've been a lot happier with the film if it had ended with Arlo hearing Spot's call in the distance, hinting that they would see each other again.

I saw The Good Dinosaur when it first came out over a year ago (?) so I'm struggling to remember the story. I loved the animation and the backgrounds. Maybe I should watch it again.

Kubo I also saw at release, and liked much more. Laika's stop-motion animation is gorgeous, and I've liked each release more than the last. (Though I haven't seen Coraline.) I have to agree about

I liked Moana a lot! I think it's better than Frozen, but I like Tangled most of all. All three have gorgeous animation and design, but story-wise I think Tangled is the best. Though it, too, went through various incarnations before becoming the story it did. Sometimes it seems like the story process brings out fantastic stories, and other times it appears more tortured ...

Has anyone seen The Red Turtle? It's a beautiful animation directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, and co-produced by Studio Ghibli. Very unusual, but worth watching.

Doctor Strange ... I enjoyed it, and had a good time watching it, but I liked Guardians of the Galaxy 2 much more. The latter really got me emotionally, which I didn't expect at all. It was also hilarious.

I was pretty disappointed in the live action Beauty and the Beast. The animation is one of my favourites and I know it back-to-front, so I didn't go with high expectations. There were things I liked, but most of all I was disappointed that it wasn't more different. It felt like they were trying to do things in live action that only really work in animation. For example,

After not liking the second one, I'm quite looking forward to Cars 3. The teaser trailer's hard-hitting.

I'm hoping to see Wonder Woman this coming week. I was disappointed in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman (and I avoided Suicide Squad completely) but I've heard good things about this one.

Just saw Wonder Woman! It was a lot of fun with a good script and an excellent score. There were some of the usual origin story tropes, but they were executed well.

Watched the new Beauty and the Beast last week. I enjoyed all the songs, but some of the design bothered me a bit, such as the Beast not actually being very ugly, and the costumes couldn't seem to make up their mind if they were going for historical or fantastical. Also, some of the changes to the story were kind of confusing.

fk, nothing to apologize for - I had little interest in Doctor Strange from the get-go, so your praise of it just made me go, "Huh." And I see your points, though

The animation in Kubo and the Two Strings was stunning, especially the origami. As much as I love Wallace & Gromit, Kubo was entirely in a league of its own.

The animation in The Good Dinosaur was also lovely, in particular the scenery, as several of you have noted. And the story was nothing new, but I kind of enjoyed that since I could just have fun with what animals they put in what roles.

Haven't seen Wonder Woman but have heard good things about it from everyone I know who has seen it. May watch it when it comes out on DVD.

I saw Wonder Woman last weekend. It was good! I'm not convinced it's the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight, as I've heard it called, but it was fun and I would like to see more of Gal Gadot's character. And it makes me somewhat hopeful for Justice League.

My main disappointment was

However. I enjoyed it. And I really liked how Diana was this strong, brave woman who was not afraid to be a woman.

Rya, we just watched Kubo and the Two Strings this past weekend too. It wasn't at all what I expected, but I also didn't have any solid expectations. We really enjoyed it as well! ...

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...when the reveal about Monkey being his mom and the later reveal about Beetle being his father happened, they made sense. And I think I understand what you meant about it complementing the movie.

[spoiler="Kubo and the Two Strings"]Part of the reason I figured it out was because I started to get a very "fun dad" vibe from the way that Kubo and Beetle behaved with each other - almost like a dad teaching his son how to play catch. I will admit that I was too easily tempted by the "Monkey is just a magical guardian" trope to realize that she was the mother, but since I got a vaguely romantic idea from Monkey and Beetle, it made sense retroactively. I like that you get a few moments (like when they all sit down to dinner together) where it feels like this is the closest Kubo ever came to having a normal family, since he's had to care for his mother. And, sadly, it's probably the closest he ever gets. I was hoping Beetle, at least, would survive!!

I saw Wonder Woman the other day and I thought it was alright. I wasn't looking forward to it after how terrible Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad where.

But I'm happy to say I thought it was definitely better then any of those films. Wonder Woman as a character was the best thing abouUt the it for me, it was great to have a hero in a DCEU movie that was actually a hero, who I liked and cared about. And it didn’t shy away from things that some people might think are to cheesy(though I did think it got a bit heavy-handed at the end). The acting was fine. I wasn't impressed with Gal Gadot in BVS but she was actually pretty good in this.

I had a few problems with it. The action scenes while they were well filmed the constant slow-motion got old really quick. I'm ok with it when it's used sparingly but the way it's uesd in this really took me out of the movie every time it happened. Also the villains, particularly the general and Dr. Poison were a bit too 'cartoony' I thought, they seemed out of place with the rest of the movie.

Hmm, I think you're right about the overuse of slow motion. I think the by the time the moment it was used best came about, it had already been used to death. The villains didn't bother me, perhaps because I didn't seem them as the real threat (the war as a whole) but as only a part of it. However, I'm not sure that was the intention.

Rya, I enjoyed parts of Batman v Superman. Bruce Wayne seeing the impact of the Man of Steel fight on Gotham was a brilliant set up. In fact, as I watched the opening of the film I thought "This is going to be great!" And then, not five minutes later, the floating-through-the-bats thing happened. I feel like there were some really good ideas in there that could have been something amazing, but it got lost under ... stuff. And darkness. And Wayne's dreams.

It's true that Batman and Superman don't exactly come across as heroes in those movies. They spend so much time wrestling with heroism that it seems they forget what it is.

When The Lego Batman Movie came out here there were lots of reviews saying how it was the best Batman movie in years. It was certainly fun, and not without action and adventure. Plus a good dollop of the madcap humour of The Lego Movie. I don't think the story was as strong as the original Lego movie, but it was inventive. And it was better than BvS! In my opinion.