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, even the speaking William [...]
Read More adventure, animation, blu-ray, comedy, DVD, G, Gnomeo And Juliet, Hulk Hogan, Matt Lucas, Patrick Stewart, VivianThe 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 [...]
Read More animation, blu-ray, comedy, drama, DVD, Jacques Tati, PG-, Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist, willDisney 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.
Read More animation, blu-ray, comedy, David, Disney, DVD, family, Mandy Moore, PG-, Rapunzel, Tangled, Zachary LeviTales 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. So the big [...]
Read More adventure, animation, DVD, Fantasy, Miyazaki, PG-13, Studio Ghibli, Tales from Earthsea, willSteve Carell makes for a very funny sort-of-bad-guy in Despicable Me, a CGI ‘toon with an amusing premise that kids will find irresistible but as a whole isn’t half as funny as it should, or could, have been.
Read More animation, blu-ray, comedy, David, Despicable Me, DVD, family, Jason Segel, PG-, Russell Brand, Steve CarellOnce 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, [...]
Read More adventure, animation, comedy, David, DVD, Eddie Murphy, PG-, Shrek, Shrek Forever AfterThe CGI people in A Christmas Carol, director Robert Zemeckis’ latest performance-capture piece, certainly look more realistic than the creepy-faced things that populated The Polar Express. But they’re still just a little off, enough to make this otherwise entertaining version of the beloved Charles Dickens tale feel as cold-hearted as Ebenezer Scrooge himself.
Read More A Christmas Carol, animation, blu-ray, Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, David, drama, DVD, family, Gary Oldman, Jim Carrey, PG-, Robert Zemeckis, Robin Wright-PennTake heed, gentle reader: we are witnessing the Golden Age of Animation. At this year’s Oscars, the Animated Feature category swelled from its perennial selection of three computer-generated features (usually Pixar’s winner and two also-rans) to five brilliant and varied films, only one of which was computer generated (Up). The surprise nomination was the somewhat [...]
Read More adventure, animation, blu-ray, Brendan Gleeson, DVD, Evan McGuire, Fantasy, Genndy Tartakovsky, Nora Twomey, The Secret of Kells, Tomm Moore, willCalling this follow-up to the 2007 box-office hit a “squeakquel” is bad enough, but it also begs to be the answer to a question on Jeopardy, as in, “What 88-minute movie about a trio of talking rodents has more subplots than Spider-Man 3?”
Read More Alvin & the Chipmunks, animation, Betty Thomas, blu-ray, comedy, David, David Cross, DVD, family, Jesse McCartney, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, PG-, Wendie Malick, Zachary LeviI can still recall the resonant voice of Roald Dahl reading aloud his classic children’s book “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” on my oft-played book-on-tape version (yes, I was a cassette-tape-listening child of the 80’s). Since I, at one point, pretty much knew the book by heart, I had to fight hard to avoid stringent comparison [...]
Read More adventure, Alex, animation, Bill Murray, blu-ray, comedy, DVD, family, Fantastic Mr. Fox, George Clooney, Jason Schwartzman, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, PG-, Roald Dahl, Wes Anderson