Majorthebys
Charming and brutal
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Alistair Olson
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
When Toy Story 3 became a massive success back in 2011 and many considered it one of the greatest trilogies of all time, it looked like the franchise was over. However, the makers added three short films not much later. These are centered on the "supporting toys", for example one on the dinosaur, and this one here focuses on Barbie & Ken and how the gang is trying to give them their Hawaiian vacation.It has all the characters from the films and the voice actors as well, but for some reason this short film is just mindless fun at best and doesn't even remotely reach the comedic or emotional highs of the trilogy. Maybe it is because it almost treats the toys like human beings and their relationship to their "masters" was always one of the best parts in the films. The romance part towards the end could have been brought in on a sweeter and more convincing note as well. And as Barbie's and Ken's kiss was unfortunately not hot enough to free them out of the ice, this whole short film was a rather lukewarm effort. I read that there will be a full feature for television soon and I hope it manages to reach the quality of the theater films again.
charlytully
So it's nice to see him get some sugar from Barbie, even if Mr. Graham eats his heart out. The shift from make-believe tropics to actual winter brings to mind that old standard, "If ever I would leave you," from CAMELOT. It's almost enough to start changing Barbie's basic image from a gold-digger to a girl with a heart of gold. Not every outfit can cram 17 characters into a short less than six minutes long, but the Pixar folks seem up to most challenges. No doubt they went to extra lengths to balance the pretty big stretches of imagination CARS 2 requires of little kids not versed in James Bond and the whole spy movie genre with something a little more down to earth thrown in as an appetizer before the much longer feature. Perhaps the thinking was that by the time the ads, the previews, the PSAs, and HAWAIIAN VACATION rolled by, half the parents would be standing in line for potty breaks with the wee ones during much of CARS 2's running time. P.S.--Don't forget that MONSTERS UNIVERSITY is one of the 5 flicks recommended by IMDb for fans of CARS 2, so rent it tonight (since 1,156,674 people "like" IMDb on Facebook as of today, a stampede of at least 150,000 or so is rushing to rent MONSTERS UNIVERSITY right now!!) Oops!!! With 243,788 COMPLETED features in its data base to select from for "recommendations," IMDb is listing TWO movies a year away from the big house (BRAVE, & 1906) and another TWO YEARS AWAY from theaters (MONSTERS UNIVERSITY) as 60 per cent of what fans of a big main stream movie should rent tonight. Or maybe IMDb believes people think like WALL-E, and a passing recommendation now will be on the top of our minds in 2013 (or some news fragment from 2009 is fresh in our minds NOW). Well, IMDb, no matter how much the producers of MONSTERS UNIVERSITY bribed you to start beating the drums two years prematurely, it's money down the drain. Only RAINMAN has a chance of remembering this small plug in two years (if he's still alive!). So in the future, do not WASTE my sight lines with promos for movies barely in pre-production (unless you'd like to shill my upcoming remake of BIRTH OF A NATION, now in production for release Memorial Day weekend, 2525).
FilmBuff1994
Hawaiian Vacation is a great Pixar animated short,it was great to see the cast again and to see they were getting on with the new toys and there life without Andy.Ken and Barbie plan a vacation to Hawaii,because Bonnie is going on a vacation to Hawaii and they sneak into her bag while at Sunnyside,but Ken makes a mistake when they sneaks into Bonnies schoolbag,which she doesn't take with her and they are left behind in Bonnies room with the other toys,so Woody and the gang decide to improvise a Hawaii island vibe for Ken and Barbie.9/10-DILLON HARRIS
tavm
Every time Pixar releases a new computer animated feature, it's always accompanied by a new short of theirs. That short is usually an original story with brand new characters so this seems to be the first time they used previous used ones for the occasion as this one has the Toy Story characters from Toy Story 3. It seems their new owner is going on vacation to Hawaii and Ken and Barbie are expected to tag along in her backpack but she leaves that behind so the others try to give Ken and Barbie something resembling a tropical vacation. Nothing more to say except the results are as hilarious as one would expect from these Pixar things. So on that note, Hawaiian Vacation is highly recommended.