WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL
Director/co-writer Nick Park and his brilliant team of animators deliver the most delightful children’s comedy you could ever imagine. Cole…
Animation
BEETLEJUICE — SHOCKTOBER!
Tim Burton’s 1988 kids’ movie horror/goof-fest might have impressed that era’s young audiences with its stop-motion animation effects, but “Beetlejuice”…
LITTLE OTIK — SHOCKTOBER!
Animation, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Czech New Wave, FIVE STARS, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer draws upon his long history of theatrical experience working with marionettes in this mysteriously comic retelling…
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT — SHOCKTOBER!
Animation, Capsules Blog, Children's Cinema, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, Women's Cinema
British Claymation geniuses Nick Park and Steve Box bring to life their best-loved characters Wallace (voiced by veteran actor Peter…
PARANORMAN —SHOCKTOBER!
Animation, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Children's Cinema, Cult Film, FOUR STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!
“ParaNorman” has its share of jaunty chase sequences to keep kids on the edge of their seats. No matter how…
FRANKENWEENIE — SHOCKTOBER!
Animation, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Children's Cinema, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Looking back at Burton’s flawed 1984 version of “Frankenweenie” is informative for the many layers of corrective narrative tissue the…
FLEE
Amin Nawabi’s repressed story of a desperate refugee escaping from Afghanistan to Denmark falls into a droning miasma of darkness.…
FANTASTIC PLANET — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Agitprop, Animation, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Political Satire, Politics, Surrealism
Agitprop storytelling spells out dangers of “conformity and violence” with a biting satiric wit, writ large. Cole Smithey.
ISLE OF DOGS
Some audiences have accused Anderson of taking low-hanging-fruit by reusing the old “white savior” trope, but the bigger issue is…
26 ANIMATED FEATURES SUBMITTED FOR 2017 OSCAR® RACE
26 ANIMATED FEATURES SUBMITTED FOR 2017 OSCAR® RACE LOS ANGELES, CA – Twenty-six features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film…
HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY — CANNES 2016
An ebullient love letter to one of Hollywood’s most endearing creative couples, this gratifying documentary is essential viewing for budding…
SAUSAGE PARTY
As a critic, I’m sufficiently soured on the film by these revelations to advise viewers to boycott “Sausage Party” out…
THE BFG — CANNES 2016
Animation, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Children's Cinema, Literary Adaptation, ONE STAR, Video Essay
Steven Spielberg’s fudged adaptation of Roald Dahl’s problematic children’s tale of giant (human-eating) cannibals is a drab affair. From its…
SPIRITED AWAY — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s divinely imaginative display of madcap surrealism is virtuosic in this episodic coming of age classic. Incredible…
ANOMALISA
Okay, I’ll say it; “Anomalisa” is what they call a gem. Cole Smithey.
INSIDE OUT — CANNES 2015
Children’s book authors will be eating their hearts out over co-writer/director Peter Docter’s brilliantly devised story about the different emotions…
THE BOXTROLLS
This animated 3D children’s picture is as clumsy, tone-deaf, and useless as they come. Laika, the Oregon animation production company…
RIO 2
Brazilian co-writer/director Carlos Saldanha returns to the music-driven children’s animation franchise he began in 2011. Written with three other screenwriters,…
THE LEGO MOVIE
There’s a strong subtext of socio-political resistance at play in “The Lego Movie.” It may be the first mainstream animated…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
