“You have an extraordinary amount of faith in the fidelity of your expectations” It’s not hard to view an experimental art film as little more than a pretentious, self-indulgent exercise in futility when you aren’t willing to give it a chance. In a world overpopulated by faux-witty banter between uninteresting caricatures of people engaged in clichéd situations, the mere act of taking the time to watch a personal tale about the meaning of love in a universal context is a victory. Whether or not the viewer likes the piece almost…
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REVIEW: The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare [2012]
“Honest Bunny Sez: You Have No Future” With it’s 25th season underway and a feature film already under its belt, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Matt Groening and James L. Brooks‘ “The Simpsons” begin a foray into animated shorts. Just as Disney/Pixar has been doing with their Toy Story franchise, I can see Gracie Films continuing to make these brief vignettes as a sort of insurance plan for if or when the long-standing television cartoon staple moves into retirement. It also doesn’t hurt that The Simpsons:…
Read MoreREVIEW: Adam and Dog [2012]
Ever wonder how dog became man’s best friend? Not only did animator Minkyu Lee wonder, but he also decided to create an answer that went as far back as Eden—before Adam even met Eve. Lost inside this wondrous forest of colorful leaves and animals of all shapes and sizes was our first four-legged friend roaming around for meaning and purpose amongst the great unknown. And when he breaks free from the scary depths of the garden’s darkest corners into a wide open, sun-streaked field, the lanky visage of a new,…
Read MoreREVIEW: Head Over Heels [2012]
Cute is the first word that pops in my mind after watching Timothy Reckart‘s Head Over Heels. It’s a term containing positive and negative connotations, both of which are included in this story about an elderly married couple that has drifted apart. And I don’t mean metaphorically—they’ve literally separated to the point where Walter (Nigel Anthony) roams their home on the floor as Madge (Ruth Rayyah McCaul resides on the ceiling in a mirrored gravitational pull. They may have been “head over heels” in love when the sweet photo hanging…
Read MoreREVIEW: Fresh Guacamole [2012]
PES (Adam Pesapane) has been creating what he calls “twisted” films for about a decade now and they are all a delight. My girlfriend exposed me to his antics after stumbling upon the newest, Fresh Guacamole, earlier this year on Reddit. It’s a brilliant bit of stop motion animation that may not be his best—I reserve that status for The Deep—or his first idiosyncratic culinary escapade—Western Spaghetti is most definitely a thematic and aesthetic precursor—but definitely worthy of collecting a well-deserved Oscar nomination. An amalgam of live action hands and…
Read MoreREVIEW: Rise of the Guardians [2012]
“Merry Christmas! Happy Easter! Don’t forget to floss!” It was only a matter of time before someone turned our favorite holiday-bound mythical creatures into superheroes. Unsurprisingly it’s William Joyce who did. By no means a household name, he isn’t a stranger to the world of youthful fantasy with credited work as a conceptual artist (Toy Story and A Bug’s Life), television show creator (“Rolie Polie Olie”), and author of cinematic adaptations earning box office success (Meet the Robinsons inspiration A Day with Wilbur Robinson). His latest project coined The Guardians…
Read MoreREVIEW: Wreck-It Ralph [2012]
“Who doesn’t like a brat with dirty hair?” The news that Disney bought Lucasfilm for four billion dollars had me thinking about another of the powerhouse’s key acquisitions—no, not Marvel and its potential for crazy property crossover. To me Mickey and friends’ best move this past decade was ensuring that Pixar Studios and its unparalleled team of creative visionaries would be their in-house animation studio with John Lasseter at its head. Not only would he have the foresight to re-open Walt Disney’s 2-D animation shingle, but he’d also find himself…
Read MoreREVIEW: Paperman [2012]
Disney has been hitting their short films out of the park so often lately that I’m contemplating buying the Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2 on Blu-Ray I’ve seen advertised at my local Regal Cinema. The only shortcoming of the purchase would be the exclusion of their newest work, Paperman, seen before the wonderful Wreck-It Ralph. More adult in nature than most of the cutesy characters crafted of late from the studio, this tale of love at first sight’s power will get you all warm and fuzzy without the need…
Read MoreREVIEW: Hotel Transylvania [2012]
“What? Now there’s no sheep in the road.” After the abysmal failure of That’s My Boy, seeing Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg highlight another film’s marquee this year didn’t instill confidence. Cartoon or not, the pairing still left a sour taste in my mouth that the addition of their larger-than-life comedic buddies Kevin James, David Spade, and Molly Shannon did nothing to alleviate. Only the names behind the scenes gave me a sliver of hope that Hotel Transylvania could end up a fun hybrid of writers Robert Smigel (“SNL’s” TV…
Read MoreTIFF12 REVIEW: 2012 Short Cuts Canada Programmes
Programme 1 “So a TV killed your father” What do you get when you mix the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the ancient metallurgical science of alchemy, and the namesake of inventor Philo Farnsworth? The answer is Connor Gaston‘s short film Bardo Light—titled for the bright glow none of us can avoid at the end of our lives. Told via the police interrogation of the younger Farnsworth (Shaan Rahman) after his adopted father (Bill Gaston) was found suffocated to death in their cabin, we quickly learn of successful experiments using…
Read MoreREVIEW: ParaNorman [2012]
“He’s probably up there fiddling with his Wee-Jah or his orbs …” LAIKA, Inc., the little studio with big dreams in Oregon is officially more than a flash in the pan success story that brought to life a critically acclaimed feature film before scaling back to commercials and music videos. Using a beacon in the stop-motion animation world like Henry Selick to adapt and direct Coraline showed the vision to take chances on darker material than most may want to expose their children to and they were rewarded for the…
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