Category Archives: Animation

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Review: Dog of God — Fantasia Festival 2025

Dog of God had its world premiere on July 21 as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Dog of God is the type of film that begins with the triumphant, heavy metal castration of a giant demon. You’re probably familiar with the type. Those Latvian rotoscope animations with heightened folkloric subject matter and a bawdy, crass sense of humor. There’s got to be hundreds of them out there.

In all sincerity, Lauris and Raitis Ābele’s Dog of God is quite unlike any other animated feature out there. It has the grimy ambitions of a Heavy Metal, a Ralph Bakshi film, or, more recently, a Mad God. But its mix of period fantasy and visual psychedelia (and its oddly high sex drive) make for Continue reading Review: Dog of God — Fantasia Festival 2025 →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

The Boy and the Heron (2023) Movie Review

A good deal of the critical reception for The Boy and the Heron, the latest from famed animation outfit Studio Ghibli, likens the film to a swan song. Hayao Miyazaki’s on-and-off-again relationship with retirement leaves the film feeling like an open-ended farewell. The perception is fitting for a film so freighted with existential anxieties about moving on and growing up. But the film is as interested in beginnings as it is in endings, and Miyazaki’s canny ability to elegantly complicate that otherwise simple dichotomy is what makes The Boy and the Heron such a striking experience.

However, it was well into the final act of the film before I was convinced that Continue reading The Boy and the Heron (2023) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Animation, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Flash (2023) Movie Review

2023 is shaping up to be the year that giant Hollywood franchises try to tell us that they are too sprawling and layered and beholden to their fanbases for their own good. It’s like they are crying out for help.

Between Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse declaring the canon to be an existential threat to multiversal stability and The Flash gaudily colliding planets worth of continuity against one another (both examples are literal at the textual level), both Marvel and DC film properties can’t help but be gasping for breath under the massive weight of unbearable, multi-dimensional lore-making.

And yet, both Marvel and DC want to have their cakes and eat them, too, as they make laborious nods to the unwieldy Gordian knots of their own creation while also reveling in the synergistic team-ups and nesting doll-like allusions that made both franchises box office draws in the first place.

If it sounds like I’m being overly cynical, let me assure you I am Continue reading The Flash (2023) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Comedy, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

2022 Fantasia Festival Movie Reviews — Sissy, Deadstream, The Girl From the Other Side

The Girl From the Other Side, Sissy, and Deadstream are screening as part of the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs from July 14 – August 3.

The Girl From the Other Side

The Girl From the Other Side is a ruminative fairy tale about isolation and family. In a place divided by “inner” and “outer” lands, humans fear the curse given when touched by Continue reading 2022 Fantasia Festival Movie Reviews — Sissy, Deadstream, The Girl From the Other Side →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Comedy, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Movie Review

In Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, the new re-imagining of the ’90s cartoon IP, the eponymous rangers are washed up celebrities, has-beens of an earlier time only faintly remembered by the few fans who wax nostalgic. Mostly, though, no one has any clue who they are. Chip (John Mulaney) has retired from the spotlight and has made a good go of it as an insurance salesman. Dale (Andy Samberg), meanwhile, still clamors for the high of fame at fan conventions at a booth in “Retro Alley.”

Like most characters in the film, I have only vague recollections of Chip ‘n Dale — if anything, I have more of a memory for Continue reading Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Comedy, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) Movie Review

During the first scene of Space Jam: A New Legacy, I wondered if NBA superstar LeBron James would be boring to hang out with. He’s so hyper-focused on basketball and his legacy, I don’t know what I would talk to him about. All those playoff injuries? What weapons Bron needs to win another championship in L.A.? The stock market? I don’t know.

space-jam-a-new-legacy-movie-review-2021-lebron-james

Soon after having this thought, I realized I had fallen right into LeBron’s carefully-placed trap. This was exactly what he wanted me to think, as Continue reading Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Comedy, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Tom & Jerry (2021) Movie Review

It took no longer than one minute watching Tom & Jerry for me to realize that this animation-live action hybrid reboot of the classic cartoon wasn’t going to go well. Once I saw a trio of animated pigeons lip-syncing to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It” as they fly over the New York City skyline, I just knew. I could sense that the team behind this film—namely director Tim Story and screenwriter Kevin Costello—didn’t have a firm grasp on what would translate this older intellectual property into something entertaining to a new generation of youngsters.

The problem isn’t necessarily the hackneyed technique of adding a cool hip-hop soundtrack to a property not known for such sounds. It isn’t even really the conceit of bringing cartoon characters “into the big city,” a premise which has been used in such big screen duds as The Smurfs (2011). The real issue I have Continue reading Tom & Jerry (2021) Movie Review →

2020 Academy Awards, All Movie Reviews, Animation, Like It

2020 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Film Reviews – Hair Love, Kitbull, Sister

The Oscar nominations have dropped. Among them are a number of great short films. Three of the contenders for Best Animated Short Film are currently available to view online: Hair Love, Kitbull, and Sister. And they’re all worth seeking out.

Hair Love

Hair Love is my favorite short film of 2019. Released through Sony Pictures Animation and playing before the inferior The Angry Birds Movie 2, Matthew A. Cherry’s film is Continue reading 2020 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Film Reviews – Hair Love, Kitbull, Sister →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Comedy, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) Movie Review

The first hurdle that The Angry Birds Movie 2 has to overcomes is following up the far superior short film Hair Love. It is a difficult task to headline after a short that is as beautifully heartfelt, tender, funny, and imaginative as that short is. And, as expected, The Angry Birds Movie 2 does not live up in any of those categories.

The Angry Birds Movie 2 has a beating heart in its feathery breast, to an extent. There is a rudimentary theme that has legs long enough to encompass the entire runtime. The skinny of it is that Continue reading The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), musical

The Lion King (2019) Movie Review

The throw-out umbrella term “live action” used to describe the slough of Disney “re-imaginations” is a misnomer. It has been since The Jungle Book recreation in 2016, which is live action only in its employment of Neel Sethi as Mowgli. Everything else in that film is comprised of computer generated visual effects.

With The Lion King, Jon Favreau returns after The Jungle Book to direct, and the film is Continue reading The Lion King (2019) Movie Review →