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One Man’s Trash: The Crater Lake Monster

Adam Tyner — Thu, 02 May 2019 16:00:51 +0000

Wow! This newly-discovered cave drawing proves that ancient man once co-existed with dinosaurs. And, thanks to that meteor soaring through the sky right now, history’s about to repeat itself. Okay, okay, plesiosaurs are ancient, aquatic reptiles and not technically dinosaurs. Still, when a colossal beast from tens of millions of years in the past is...

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Missing Link Review: Barges, Trains, and Cross Atlantic Ships

Deirdre Crimmins — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:00:40 +0000

Stop-motion animation studio Laika might not crank out films in rapid succession, but has been incredibly consistent in the high quality of what it does release. Every Laika film has been nominated for an Oscar, and it would be surprising if Missing Link doesn’t wind up with a nomination too. However, it’s by no means...

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One Man’s Trash: The Happiness of the Katakuris

Adam Tyner — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 16:00:18 +0000

I know, I know… another Japanese dark comedy chop-socky Claymation romantic zombie volcano musical epic. But this time, it’s a movie the whole family can enjoy! The Katakuris have had a rough go of it, from unemployment to imprisonment to being on the wrong side of infidelity. No string of bad luck can last forever,...

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‘Early Man’ Review: Quest for Laughter

Philip Brown — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 17:00:02 +0000

From its earliest days crafting music videos and Oscar-winning shorts, Aardman Animations has been one of the most delightfully consistent players in the field. The stop-motion studio specializes in creating beautifully animated stories that look charmingly homemade, complete with visible fingerprints. When ‘Wallace and Gromit’ creator Nick Park leads the team, the projects are bizarre...

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‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ Review: Psychedelic Family Entertainment

Philip Brown — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 19:00:15 +0000

Ever since launching with the masterful ‘Coraline’, Laika has been one of the most consistent animation factories on the planet. Though essentially trafficking in kiddie entertainment, the stop-motion studio always executes its visions with remarkable artistry and offers stories just outside of the mainstream to please youngsters who aren’t easily seduced by simple Disney magic....

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‘The Little Prince’ Review: Imaginative Flights of Fancy

Philip Brown — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 16:00:06 +0000

Antoine de Saint-Expery’s ‘The Little Prince’ is one of those endlessly endearing and enduring classics of children’s literature more suited to the page than the screen. Surreal, imaginative, satirical and unconventionally structured, it doesn’t really suit the classical three act structure of family friendly cinematic storytelling. Sure, there was a delightfully wacko 1970s adaptation from...

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‘Anomalisa’ Review: Depressingly Moving, Deceptively Hilarious

Philip Brown — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 17:00:40 +0000

After the self-consciously sprawling and all-encompassing ambition of his directorial debut ‘Synecdoche, New York, it probably wasn’t too surprising that Charlie Kaufman disappeared for a while. After all, when you’ve made a movie that seems to be about everything, it can’t be easy to narrow in on subject matter for your follow-up. It’s also probably...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Anomalisa’

Philip Brown — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 19:00:16 +0000

It’s been a long, tough seven-year wait for Charlie Kaufman to follow up his directorial debut. There’s no one else out there who can match the morbid wit and surreal emotional honesty of the ‘Being John Malkovich’ writer at his best. Thankfully, now that Kaufman has finally returned, he’s done so with a rather extraordinary...

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‘Shaun the Sheep Movie’ Review: Wholly and Wooly Lovable

Philip Brown — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 13:00:58 +0000

For all the talk about Pixar’s remarkable track record, not nearly enough love is spread over to Aardman Animations, the British claymation studio behind ‘Wallace and Gromit’, ‘Chicken Run’ and now ‘Shaun the Sheep’. Given the labor-intensive nature of the work, the company often has a 3-5 year gap between movies. Yet when one comes,...

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Contest: Win ‘The BoxTrolls’ on Blu-ray!

Josh Zyber — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:00:06 +0000

That’s right, if you can believe it, we have two contests for our readers this week! While we’re busy tabulating the results of our ‘Lucy’ giveaway, you have another chance to win a free Blu-ray. It’s an embarrassment of riches around here. This time, our prize is Laika’s Oscar-nominated, stop-motion animated family film ‘The BoxTrolls’....

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Christmas Movie Countdown: Week 1 – Animated Features

Junie Ray — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 20:00:13 +0000

I’m a sentimental fool who still loves Christmas. For the next 25 days, I’ll be watching Christmas movies, playing Christmas songs, and donating money to anyone I see standing outside with a red bucket and waving a bell in the freezing cold. I like to start the December holiday season with animated Christmas movies and...

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Weekend Roundtable: Favorite Stop-Motion Animation

Josh Zyber — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 19:00:46 +0000

In this age where computer-generated animation has largely supplanted older traditional methods, the labor intensive stop-motion process is a dying breed. This week, studio Laika keeps the format breathing with ‘The BoxTrolls’. Whether this movie will be held up as a classic over time remains to be seen, but we’d like to celebrate the effort...

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