REVIEW: Brave [2012]

“Mend the bond torn by pride” Following two of Pixar Animation Studios’ most successfully original films, WALL-E and Up, came a pair of sequels that honestly left me a bit wanting. While most would agree with me on Cars 2—although I still liked it for what it was—I’m sure many think I’m crazy for being a bit disappointed in Toy Story 3. By far the funniest of the series, you cannot deny that the emotional resonance so intrinsically connected to the studio was lacking until a tacked on finale that…

Read More

REVIEW: La Luna [2012]

After giving us a couple hilarious Toy Story shorts, Pixar finally gets back to the kind of heartwarming original animated visions that won the studio a slew of Oscar love during the aughts. Writer/director Enrico Casarosa comes out of the art department with a stunningly poignant film about three generations of Italian men and the uniquely secretive job they’ve held and passed on for decades. La Luna is Bambino’s (Krista Sheffler) introduction to the tradition—donning his first hat before climbing up to the stars. Utilizing Michael Giacchino‘s score to set…

Read More

REVIEW: Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted [2012]

“I’m like a candy cane in a black and white movie” A round of applause for directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath—and Conrad Vernon who joins them to expand on his responsibilities playing Mason the monkey—because they have kind of accomplished the impossible with Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. I was surprised at how much better Escape 2 Africa was in comparison to the original Madagascar, but never expected my level of enjoyment to rise even more with the third. Darnell—also a co-writer with Noah Baumbach—and McGrath have grown alongside…

Read More

REVIEW: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa [2008]

“I find it pretty and slightly hypnotic” It’s amazing what happens when filmmakers craft a plot for their characters. I’m not saying I approve of sequels with lame flashback origin prologues trying to make up for the lack of story in their predecessors, but I won’t complain if such contrivances help ground the jokes into a cohesive three act structure. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa isn’t hampered by the need to remove its leads from their fabricated habitat, instead starting off the reservation and relying on everyone’s intrinsic desire to return…

Read More

REVIEW: Madagascar [2005]

“Just smile and wave boys. Smile and wave.” Made as though in opposition to Pixar’s brand of magical storytelling, Dreamworks Animation’s Madagascar ushered in the studio’s want for broader comedy and adolescent appeal. With Shrek, they found a franchise that subverted Disney’s use of fairy tales for cinematic fodder and created a nice hybrid of laughs and story with an underdog hero inside an ugly duckling tale. But after a steady stream of Pixar work including Monsters Inc. and the previous year’s The Incredibles, you have to believe that Dreamworks…

Read More

REVIEW: Chico & Rita [2011]

“I needed to kiss you again” Set during the synthesis of Latin Jazz in Cuba and its spilling over to the United States, Chico y Rita [Chico & Rita] gives us a love story that lasts half a century. Animated in a charmingly two-dimensional way devoid of gradients in lieu of clearly defined shadows superimposed atop solid shapes of color, the imperfect lines and fluid lights match the slow-tempo bolero songs and dance filling the screen. It’s an era of excitement and music between friendly nations as Woody Herman comes…

Read More

REVIEW: The Lorax [2012]

“I’m Frankenstein’s head on a spider’s body” I loved The Land Before Time when I was a kid. It was a cute story with memorable characters in a world full of dinosaurs that utterly fascinated me. I remember seeing it in the theatre, getting the plastic hand puppets from Pizza Hut, and eventually acquiring a VHS of the film through some other restaurant’s promotion. There was something about it that allowed for its message of friendship, love, and whatever else to come across without a shred of overt manipulation or…

Read More

REVIEW: Daffy’s Rhapsody [2012]

“Bullets whipping past my tail” Much like 2010’s Coyote Falls brought Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner back to the big screen in 3D computer form, 2012 reintroduces us to venerable favorites Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd in Daffy’s Rhapsody. Using the 1953 ode from Warren Foster and Michael Maltese with music by Billy May—in Mel Blanc‘s original Daffy voice—director Matthew O’Callaghan crafts a theatrical tale of a one-duck show a la Broadway spectaculars. It’s Fudd (Billy West)—fully formed onscreen with speech impediment intact—who starts things off by checking out…

Read More

REVIEW: 鋼の錬金術師 嘆きの丘(ミロス)の聖なる星 [Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos] [2011]

“The myths of the Milosian people are stained in blood” Anime truly is a breed of its own and a genre not to be trifled with by the weak at heart. Just take the popular saga of “Fullmetal Alchemist” and the amount of work created from Hiromu Arakawa‘s world. Spawning two separate television series adapted from the same original manga, both incarnations were also graced with a film to accompany their parallel journeys of the brothers Elric—Edward and Alphonse. Whereas Conqueror of Shamballa trailed the original run as a wrap…

Read More

REVIEW: Winnie the Pooh [2011]

“I’m a bear with very little brain and long words bother me” Written in the 1920s by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard, Winnie the Pooh has been a children’s favorite for almost a century now. First adapted to film by Disney in the 60s and last seen in 2005’s Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, it is no surprise to see the Mouse House’s reworked animation department under John Lasseter reboot the franchise. Animated like I remembered it from my own youth, this new story decides to forego the allusion each…

Read More

REVIEW: The Adventures of Tintin [2011]

“Only a true Haddock will discover the secret of the Unicorn” Considering I started conjuring images of an Indian sidekick named Hadji when first made aware of news Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were directing a The Adventures of Tintin trilogy, my knowledge and therefore enthusiasm in the project was somewhat lacking. Once I put my head straight, removed any “Johnny Quest” infusions, and feasted on what looked like a gorgeous animated motion capture world, my interest piqued more. It wasn’t until watching the silhouetted credit sequence—recalling Spielberg’s Catch Me…

Read More