Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts (87th Academy Awards) review
In the deeply moving “The Bigger Picture,” Daisy Jacobs uses a fresh and unique animation style to tell a story that is full of humanity.
animation
Big Hero 6 movie review: how to train your robot
Joyous and exhilarating. A fresh and funny animated adventure that subverts genre clichés at every turn.
Penguins of Madagascar movie review: it’s cheezey-dibble-icious
Gloriously bonkers. Like, Looney Tunes levels of cartoon madness. You will laugh your homo sapiens head off.
The Book of Life movie review: what’s a woman for?
The animation is fresh, unique, and gorgeous. But we don’t need another tale of a man having exciting adventures while a woman waits around to marry him.
The Boxtrolls movie review: avert your eyes
There’s a fine line between baroque and grotesque… and The Boxtrolls crosses it. Here is a film that actively makes you want to look away.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For movie review: meaner streets
An unnecessary sequel that’s empty and arduous, little more than vignettes on vengeance and cruel parades of sociopathic power.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 movie review: flying higher
An absolute delight, even better than the first film; a gorgeously animated ode to sticking to your principles in the face of ultimate adversity.
Rio 2 review: jungle feeble
This is what passes for a children’s movie these days: a 1950s sitcom drawn in pretty tropical CGI colors with a few mostly forgettable songs tossed in.
The Missing Picture review: giving cinematic life to unillustrated memories
A blend of documentary and memoir that’s like a dream and a nightmare, though it’s more commendable than actually engaging.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman review: timey-wimey doggy-waggy
Wonderfully, sweetly geeky, and full of the sort of goofy yet intriguing adventures that inspire kiddie curiosity in history and art and science.
