Modern Family (2009-20)

Modern Family has been on for eleven years, and in many ways it represents a past era of television. Modern Family was arguably the last great network sitcom amidst the takeover of cable and streaming (and maybe the last great mockumentary after slew of hits like The Office and Parks and Recreation while the gene was in vogue), 24 episodes of sustained excellence per season, a big ensemble cast, and multiple star-making turns. We've watched the child actors grow up. New Lily and Joe grew on me as time went on, assigned funny one-liners. The earlier seasons have become iconic in syndication. There were some less funny bits in the later seasons, but I always appreciated its Shakespearean sense of comedy, relying on miscommunication and mistaken identity. The writers balanced comedy and emotion nicely.

Modern Family came at a time when Obama was newly elected president. And in the intervening years, Obgerfell v. Hodges legalized gay marriage across the country. Mitch and Cam had their own wedding in the show. What Will and Grace did for our society's acceptance of gay men, Modern Family has done for a gay couple. It normalized a non-traditional, wholly modern, and newly socially acceptable family. And several seasons in, Trump became president. And progress was not only halted but our society regressed. Modern Family never really reckoned with that new reality. Rather than recognizing this as a fault, it actually provided some reprieve from the infuriating reality that we live in. TV had the power to change the way people think in the days when we had network shows that everyone was familiar with. In the golden age of television when there is simply so much quality programming, I'm afraid these impactful cultural touchstones get lost in the inundation.

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

Wreck-It-Ralph was a great movie that didn't really need a sequel but I'm quite satisfied with this. The underlying plot is deeper than a little kid could comprehend. The movie ruminates on finding meaning in life. Ralph is content doing the same thing everyday. But Vanellope is looking for something more. More familiar to children will be the internet. Kids who have grown up with the internet have an inherent understanding of what it is that the rest of us had to learn on our own. Disney visualizes cyberspace with much humor and cleverness that people of all ages can appreciate. It's hard to overlook the nonstop product placements that we are bombarded with. I'll make a small distinction between the Internet product placements and the Disney "synergies" that are written into the plot, like the Disney princesses. But it's so obvious and shameless. Despite this, the movie is fun. And the voice cast is fabulous, especially Sarah Silverman.

Finding Dory (2016)

This is Pixar's long promised sequel to the classic Finding Nemo. The film is actually very similar to its predecessor; similar but not a copy like the new Star Wars. This movie makes much more use of flashbacks. This is partially due to the nature of Dory's short term memory loss, but it also capitalizes on cute baby Dory whose eyes make up more than half of the entire fish. The story is familiar but very well executed by once again moving from the open ocean to the an aquatic environment in a human context. Ellen is fantastic as a forgetful fish. But Ed O'Neill steals the show, essentially playing his usual curmudgeon character as an octopus. And there's a great cameo by Sigourney Weaver's voice.

What is so incredible about this movie is the advances in animation made over at Pixar. The octopus is such an intricate character to animate. Movement and camouflage involve several moving tentacles and a body that moves like nothing else does. Further, the under water scenes better reflect the lighting of the ocean. The sea floor is dark and scary and murky and the effect that you would normally get with a camera comes through in the animation.

As with all Pixar movies, it preys on emotion. There is always that moment about three-fourths in to the movie that is supposed to make you cry. But I felt like that moment, in comparison to other Pixar movies, is a little too predictable and a bit too cutesy to be as powerful. It relies on you feeling bad for baby Dory, rather than stemming from pure emotion.

The short film preceding Finding Dory was Piper. The animation is incredible, it looks absolutely real. The birds and the sand and the beach and the water are so lifelike. The story is simple and sweet. It makes you smile. And what more can you ask for from a short film than to evoke genuine emotion.