My wife and I were the only ones laughing at that point, I think. Which probably shows:
a.) why I married her
b.) why there weren’t more jokes like this in the film.
I’m with you on all of this. I was also hardly overwhelmed by it. It seems that the Dreamworks animated movies peaked with Shrek and have gone downhill since then, while Pixar (IMHO) puts out quality every time.
The only impressive thing about this was the cast. I mean, it seemed like it had everybody working in comedy today. Seth Rogen. Paul Rudd. Steven Colbert. Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, and Ed Helms. Then add Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon.
(FTR, I only saw it in 2D, because my kids are difficult enough in movie theaters without having to wear glasses.)
I saw it 2D today and was completely underwhelmed. My worst fears for 3D were realized. Too much of the movie looks like it was created just for the 3D effect, story and characters be damned. No WALL-E, not even Bolt which had at least a bunch of laugh out loud moments. It’s like the movies that are written just for the theme park. This is why Pixar is king. Story telling trumps techno wizardry every time in my book.