Join Bianca, Joan and Stephen for their latest podcast discussion. This time the trio review the new Pixar film “Turning Red”. Check it out here on Spotify. Continue reading New Podcast Episode: Turning Red #Animated April
Since the dawn of stories, sequels have been a dominant form of art. And there are a plethora of challenges that come with creating new adventures for familiar characters. Pixar’s Toy Story franchise isn’t new to the concept of a sequel, and outlines some of the best sequels of all time. These films hold a 98% average on Rotten Tomatoes and have grossed more money with each subsequent entry. And for my money, “Toy Story 4” is the best of the bunch. Continue reading Toy Story 4 Review: Animated April
All due respect to “Big Hero 6” and “Toy Story 3” & “4,” but the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise going 0-3 in the Best Animated Feature category is one of the greatest mistakes in recent Oscar history. Director Dean DeBlois’s trilogy is not only great entertainment, but powerful emotional storytelling about what it means to grow up, and be responsible for others. 2019’s “The Hidden World” brings this franchise’s ideas full-circle, and delivers what might be one of the most satisfying conclusions to a trilogy in movie history. Continue reading How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Review: Animated April
Wanting to watch something to feel the spirit of Christmas is how I ended up watching “Klaus” (2019) the first time. It ended up being a film that we all loved and deemed eminently re-watchable. This film has all the makings of a new Christmas Classic to be enjoyed by the whole family. It steps away from the traditional tales of how the legend of Santa Claus came to be and creates an entirely new story that still manages to explain the toy-making, the sleigh, the reindeer, the naughty list, the red suit, and, of course, the timeless tradition of Letters to Santa. This film further subverts other Christmas Classics because the central character is not Santa Claus but the new local postman, Jesper (Jason Schwartzman). Continue reading Klaus Review: Animated April
Since the dawn of movies, animation has been one of storytelling’s most essential mediums, from stitched photography to the first hand-drawn renderings of dwarves and fair women to digitally enhanced visual effects (which are, in effect, an animation unto themselves) to the movements of clay through any number of frames. Animation is even so essential to filmmaking as to render otherwise unfilmable stories accessible to a wide scope of audiences – such was the case with “Flee” (2021) during this past year’s awards season. But not since the days of “Toy Story” (1995) has this filmmaking medium taken such a gigantic leap as in December of 2018, when “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” swung onto silver screens to chronicle the ascent of one Miles Morales from a semi-known comic book/video game character to the throne of all Spider-Man movies. Continue reading Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: How One Movie Revolutionized Animation Again
form of animated project is a labour of love but none more so than stop-motion animation. The studio behind classics such as “Coraline” and “Kubo and the Two Strings LAIKA”, is the ultimate Hollywood champion of claymation. But despite their 2019 Golden Globe winning feature “Missing Link” being an exemplary addition to their filmography, it, undeservedly, came and went with little fanfare. Continue reading Missing Link Review: Animated April
Even for their comparable centrality to daily life, hands are rarely granted the same artistic fascination as eyes in terms of metaphorical and poetic consideration. Proverbs and clichés alike lean on ideas of sight. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Literature and cinema follow the same path, whether it’s horror stories fixating on visions and illusions or the very idea of voyeurism as a touchpoint for artists from Alfred Hitchcock to Gillian Flynn. Sight dominates sensory storytelling, yet it is eschewed in favor of the tactile significance of hands and touches in “I Lost My Body” (2019). Jérémy Clapin’s film offers the parallel narratives of Naoufel (Hakim Faris) as he yearns for Gabrielle (Victoire du Bois), and Naoufel’s hand which embarks on a perilous journey to reunite with its body. Continue reading I Lost My Body Review: Animated April
Ireland-based studio Cartoon Saloon has produced four feature-length animated films since its inception, and “Wolfwalkers” (2020) is their masterpiece. The third in a sequence of stories rooted in Irish folklore, “Wolfwalkers” builds on the artistry of preceding projects “The Secret of the Kells” (2009) and “Song of the Sea” (2014). Continue reading Wolfwalkers Review: Animated April
Back in 2020 “A Whisker Away” (Nakitai watashi wa neko o kaburu ) was meant to premier at the cinema in Japan and the USA but because of the Corona virus outbreak it was picked up by Netflix instead and premiered worldwide on Netflix. It was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed the film to be seen by a wider audience, and it’s a film that should be seen by as many people as possible for it’s charming, feel-good-factor and it’s rather attractive animation. It may not be the most visually impressive animated film to emerge out of Japan in the last five years, but there’s something about “A Whisker Away” that draws you in and keeps you invested in the narrative and the characters. Continue reading A Whisker Away Review: Animated April
In Their Own League 