The Video Station: (303) 440-4448

Jack Black officially gets his first franchise with Kung Fu Panda 2, the sequel to the hugely popular 2008 CGI adventure that improves on its parent by being a little less frenetic and, surprisingly, adopting a somewhat darker tone.

It finally happened. Pixar, the studio which has churned out one great film after another (Toy Story, The Incredibles, WALL-E, etc.), finally produced a bit of a dud. This might be a little unfair, since Cars 2 suffers most from comparison with other Pixar releases–less so when pitted against the work of rival [...]

Myriad are the reasons the $150 million Mars Needs Moms bombed so badly at the box office. My guess, aside from it being based on a children’s book by “Bloom County” creator Berkeley Breathed, hardly the best source for a family-friendly flick, is that for all its impressive visuals, the movie, [...]

Rio, made by the people behind the Ice Age movies, tells the story of a neurotic blue macaw named Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), born in Brazil but raised in frigid Minnesota, who is found to be the last surviving male member of his species and brought back down to Rio de [...]

It finally happened. In the arena of 2011’s animated films, Pixar has been decisively bested. Who’s the new champion? Well, of course it’s still too early to say, but my money is on Rango. Produced by Paramount in conjunction with Nickelodeon, for all intents and purposes it is actually a creation of Industrial [...]

Being the 11 year old I am, I would say that the ongoing garden gnome battle of the Reds and Blues would be better if there were more than just one death. But it is of course a Disney movie, so kids from the ages of 3-8 would enjoy this. But, [...]

The Illusionist isn’t just the long-awaited second feature from Sylvain Chomet, the French animator who made 2003’s charmingly grotesque, hauntingly comic Triplets of Belleville. It’s also, in a sense, a new film from the great mime artist turned genius director Jacques Tati (Playtime, Mon Oncle), who died in 1982. Adapted from a semi-autobiographical script Tati [...]

Disney apparently wanted to go back to its roots with its 50th animated feature, and so, a la Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, took yet another dark children’s story about a girl in trouble and turned it into Tangled, a sprightly and thoroughly entertaining family flick full of beautiful animation and bouncy musical numbers.

Tales From Earthsea is the latest film from Studio Ghibli, the great Japanese animation house, to be released in the States. Not only that, it’s even directed by Miyazaki. But before you get too excited, it’s not the work of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, et al) but rather his son, Goro Miyazaki. [...]

Once upon a time there was an animated ogre named Shrek.
He was in a movie that made a lot of money, so its studio said, what the heck?
There are enough ideas for a few more rounds.
We’ll make some sequels and try not to run the idea into the ground.
They came close, those studio suits did.
This [...]