I always enjoy checking out these animated DC/Marvel movies, just because I realise how little I know about the wider superhero universe and see them as a nice, handy crash course in familiarising myself with marginal, peripheral characters. What this film does is show you just how violent these stories can be, and how I […] Read more »
The opening film at this year’s PiFan Festival is this incredible blend of live action and animation rom Ari Folman, based on the novel by Solaris author Stanislav Lem. This mind-bending slice of science fiction stars Robin Wright, Danny Huston and Harvey Keitel. Read my full review over at Twitch Read more »
Not that anybody wanted it, but Mike and Sully are back, in this good natured prequel to Monsters, Inc. There are jokes aplenty but a lack of real heart in this abstinent college comedy that feels like a notable step backwards…even from Brave’s modest successes. Read my full review here Read more »
Could this be the first American college movie to abstain completely from drugs, sex and alcohol abuse? In what was considered by many to be an unnecessary prequel to the excellent Monsters, Inc. we learn how Mike and Sulley met at the titular hotbed of education and due to an eronious set of contrivances, are […] Read more »
Futuristic Disney adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel has some interesting concepts smuggled in between servicing the source material. The alien designs are particularly good, and the action scenes are mostly well directed, but throughout the film I couldn’t help but feel the two concepts never quite married together harmoniously and that what I […] Read more »
Building on the success of the first film, the adorable and hilarious minions are given much more screen time this time around. When Gru is approached by the Anti-Villain League to track down a criminal mastermind in a local shopping mall, he is teamed with a female partner and given a cake shop to run. […] Read more »
Gearing up to go and see the sequel to this amusing if somewhat forgettable animated action comedy, I suddenly discovered that my girlfriend hadn’t seen it. So we sat down the evening before, rented it off iTunes, and discovered it to be much funnier than I had remembered. Steve Carell rather clumsily voices Gru, a […] Read more »
In a busy summer filled with animated blockbusters, the modest charms of Epic will struggle to find an audience, or make much of an impression. Read more »
I remember when I saw the first teaser trailer to Epic almost a year ago. Set to the gorgeous strains of Snow Patrol’s What If This Storm Ends? It looking genuinely stunning. Armies of tiny people dukeing it out in the grand green undergrowth of a regular family garden. It was Avatar meets the Flower […] Read more »
Charming, if rather slight, French animation that pitches its story of acceptance, friendship and tolerance firmly at a young, impressionable audience. As a result, adults unfamiliar with the characters, who originate from a series of beloved books, may be somewhat resistant to the film’s power to delight, but this simple story of a mouse and […] Read more »
Disney proves it can deliver plenty of winning Pixar magic even when producing animated adventures on its own. A retro computer game villain looking for a little appreciation, breaks free of his game and journeys into others in order to find a new purpose. While it may owe more than a passing debt to Toy […] Read more »
It is impossible to adequately explain to the youth of today just what an achievement this film was back in 1988. Watching something like Iron Man 3 today, we have become so accustomed to seeing actors work seamlessly alongside special effects that we struggle to remain enthusiastic and are rarely in awe. What Robert Zemeckis […] Read more »
It’s not just the superhero angle that makes Brad Bird’s Oscar-winning Pixar hit of 2004 so eminently re-watchable, it’s just a damn well written and animated film. From the character designs to the voice cast and the plot itself – which admittedly borrows its central conceit from Alan Moore’s Watchmen – every element is note-perfect. […] Read more »
From the creative team behind How To Train Your Dragon comes this prehistoric animated comedy, originally conceived as a project for Aardman Animation, with an original script by John Cleese. Read more »
The second part of Jay Oliva’s animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s landmark comic continues on apace, introducing a number of familiar characters from the DC Universe, including The Joker, Superman and The Green Arrow. When Joker (voiced here by Michael Emerson from Lost) is foolishly given the chance to go on a TV talk show […] Read more »
I often struggle to really appreciate these animated films, despite enjoying the comics and the characters. There’s something about the medium that simply fails to engage me the way live action or other animated films do. This adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns (which I have read) was pretty great, however, and […] Read more »
While not quite up to the same calibre as Pixar, British-based animation studio Aardman has built a pretty impressive reputation for delivering expertly crafted and intelligently scripted work that plays to audiences of all ages. In large part this is due to the impeccable claymation in the Wallace and Gromit films, although Chicken Run comes […] Read more »
It is unsurprising that Pixar head honcho John Lasseter shut down production of GNOMEO & JULIET after the acquisition of Walt Disney Animation Studios. The script contains glaring similarities with Lasseter’s own Oscar-winning TOY STORY films – not least the fact that the action centres around a group of supposedly inanimate objects that come to […] Read more »
Bolt is one of the most risible and bankrupt animated films in recent memory. A non-Pixar Disney release, it pairs animator Byron Howard and screenwriter Chris Williams together as shared first-time directors. The cast includes John Travolta, Malcolm McDowell and Miley Cyrus. John Powell provides the score. The film is not all bad. There’s a […] Read more »