The Hero of Color City (2014)

When I schedule the Sunday “Bad” Movies, I tend to leave two or three weeks out of every twenty-five without a set movie.  These weeks are the ones where I want to choose something fairly new to watch.  As the week approaches, I start looking through the listings of blu-ray releases for something that stands out.  It could be a ridiculous title that makes me think the movie will end up being terrible (30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).  Maybe the movie has already gained a reputation of being bad (Winter’s Tale).  Sometimes the synopsis can help me to find a newer “bad” movie to watch (Bermuda Tentacles).  In many of the cases, it works out.  I manage to find a bad movie that fits into the overall feel of this blog.  But every once in a while, I add a movie, watch it, then contemplate whether or not the movie was actually bad.  This was one of those weeks.

The Hero of Color City is a movie that I have been thinking about since I saw it a few days ago.  I chose the movie for the Sunday “Bad” Movies because of what the cover art looked like on the blu-ray.  And really, the cover art is representative of the movie on a surface level.  The Hero of Color City is, in fact, about a group of crayons that save their home of Color City.  The cast that was mentioned on the cover art was part of the cast of the movie.  The animation wasn’t the greatest, but it was passable.  All of these things were realized through looking at the cover.  However, the movie was much more than the simple animated movie I had assumed I was going to watch.

There is an unexpected depth to The Hero of Color City that I was not expecting.  I went into it expecting a simple adventure story geared towards children.  The movie, though still fairly straight-forward, was not that.  The main character, Yellow (yes, the yellow crayon from the box of crayons, voiced by Christina Ricci) is afraid of monsters.  Her fear of monsters ended up causing one to come to Color City.  Now she must face her fears to save the friends that she put in danger.  Through facing her fears, she and her companions for the adventure learn about kindness and acceptance from the characters that they meet while on their journey.  The depth of the movie shines in these aspects, showing children that everyone should be treated nicely and that you should not ostracize or be afraid of people based solely on their appearance.  I approve of this message that is meant to make the world a better, friendlier place, one child at a time.

I have mentioned children a lot already during this post.  There is a reason for that.  Although I liked The Hero of Color City quite a bit, it is still a movie made for children.  It does not have as much of a mature bent to it as a Pixar or Dreamworks movie does.  This is a kids movie through and through.  From the message to the character designs to the concept that these are crayons on an adventure, this movie is aimed at children.  It isn’t trying to play to an adult audience.  Nor does it even need to try.  It is for kids.  Director Frank Gladstone and the four credited writers knew that it was for kids, so they tried to make it as entertaining for children as they could.  For the most part, they succeeded.

The story of The Hero of Color City can be divided into three main components.  The first is a Toy Story style beginning and end.  Much like in the classic Pixar franchise, the characters that we follow throughout the majority of the film only come to life when the humans are not paying attention.  I thought that was going to be a focus throughout the entire movie.  However, it is only used as a bookending device and another looming time constraint for the characters.  The second part is the Color City action.  Most of this portion involves the antagonist, the king, following Yellow to the city and attacking it.  There’s also a celebration near the end of the movie.  These two bits help to build up the characters that you follow throughout the third portion.  The adventure itself is the third important part in what makes The Hero of Color City into the movie that it is.  The six characters that are sent to prevent the king from taking away their colour have distinct enough personalities to play off of each other in an entertaining manner.  The adventure takes them through different, intriguing locations (though there could have been more) that make for interesting detours on the way to the final destination.  They also encounter characters who help them learn about acceptance and kindness.  It is the bulk of the movie and holds its own as an entertaining watch.

I would start wrapping things up here but there is one more thing that I feel I must make note of.  During the end credits of The Hero of Color City, we go back to a few of the characters from the movie.  They have an important message to relay to the viewers about recycling crayons for other children to use.  Never before have I heard about a program that was set up to share crayons.  This extra scene (which feels tacked on, but why wouldn’t it?) taught me about the program.  If it helps children to become creative, that’s a great thing to include.  I wouldn’t say the scene was good, but the intention was, so I can forgive them.  The world could always use more creativity.

The Hero of Color City is not a great movie; however, there is enough good in it that I almost regret putting it in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise though, so I’m sort of happy about it being included too.  I just don’t believe it was that bad.  Who knows if anyone else agrees with me about that?  I may see a fun adventure with decent voice acting, interesting enough visuals, and a good lesson for kids.  Other people might just see a terrible stinker.  I have been known to like bad movies.  Whatever the case, I do believe that The Hero of Color City is worth checking out.  And that’s all that matters to me.

The only thing left is a bunch of notes:

• Movies I mentioned off the top were 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl withthe Dragon Tattoo, Winter’s Tale, and Bermuda Tentacles.
• Other animated movies I’ve covered are A Car’s Life, Tappy Toes, Jonah: A Veggietales Movie, and Roxanne’s Best Christmas Ever.  Attack of the Super Monsters also had many animated portions.
• Wayne Brady did some voice work in The Hero of Color City.  He was also in the movie Crossover.
• Another actor from The Hero of Color City, David Kaye, has been featured previously in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  He was in Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.
• That’s not all, though.  Owen Wilson voiced a dragon in The Hero of Color City.  Before that, he was in Anaconda.
• And finally we get to Jessica Capshaw, the daughter of Kate Capshaw.  She voiced a character in The Hero of Color City.  She was previously featured in the movie View from the Top.
• Have you seen The Hero of Color City? Had you even heard of it before I said anything about it?  What do you think about it?  What do you think about sharing crayons?  You can talk about this kind of stuff in the comments.
• I don’t know if it’s up or not already, but I’m putting together a post about the ten movies from weeks 51-100 that I think perfectly define the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  It’s going to be a belated January end bonus post.  I did this with the first 50 weeks as well.  I’ll list the ten movies with something about them and why I believe they help define the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  So, hopefully that’s up already.  If not, it’ll be up soon.
• Next week’s movie is Blackwoods.  For some reason, I thought next week was 7 Deadly Sins, but that’s the week after.  Next week is Blackwoods.  Haven’t watched it as of the time I’m finishing writing this post, so I have no initial impressions yet.  We’ll see what I think of it next week.  More Uwe Boll.  Yay!