Battle for Terra (review)
A beautiful jewel of a planet. Alien invaders swooping down to steal precious resources and wipe out the natives. Oh, but look at that: it’s humans as the bad guys, as the alien invaders…
Pixar
Wall-E movie review: soul of the machine
Wall-E is practically religion. It’s spiritual in the secular sense, asking us to contemplate the great things we are capable of, and how we so frequently fail to even try to live up to that potential.
Ratatouille (review)
Oh, but there is joy in this movie… It fills you up, this wonderful, wonderful movie, with just the simple yet profound connection it’s possible to make with another creature, even if that creature is merely a cartoon rat.
Cars (review)
Cars are people too? Sooo not funny.
The Incredibles (review)
That teaser trailer — you know the one I’m talking about — with the fat old ex-superhero struggling to get into his spandex costume? It left such a bad taste in my mouth whenever I contemplated the film that must go with it. I imagined a gang of former masked crusaders called out of happy retirement, reluctantly huffing and puffing their way back into action, replete with very unfunny cracks about getting fat and old, and probably with an even more unfunny getting-into-shape-a-la-*Rocky* sequence thrown in for good measure.
Finding Nemo (review)
*Finding Nemo* is stunningly exquisite, an extraordinary leap forward in artistry for Pixar, and for computer animation in general, bringing a strange and alien world to life, so real you could almost reach out and touch it, knowing that it would be wet if you did. Truly, *Nemo* is an immersive experience. But only visually. Because the moment all the gorgeously rendered inhabitants of this beautiful undersea realm open their mouths, they sound surprisingly, and rather depressingly, human.
Monsters, Inc. (review)
Though this comes from the Toy Story folks, Monsters, Inc. is aimed more at the kiddies: it’s simpler, sweeter, less deeply affecting.
Fantasia movie review: my god, it’s full of stars
I saw a rerelease of *Fantasia* in Radio City Music Hall when I was probably 6 or 7, and the ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ sequence scared the bejeezus out of me. It still does.
