After 12 seasons to the tune of 237 episodes, the Loren Bouchard-created animated family comedy Bob’s Burgers jumps from the small screen to theaters worldwide (no one tell Bob). The long-running series has already released four-albums-worth of music from its… Read More ›
Originally introduced in 1943, animated chipmunks Chip and Dale made the jump from animated shorts to home release tales and then, in 1989, to broadcast television when the duo was remade into detectives for the series Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue… Read More ›
One can never really predict what we’ll discover with art — what emotions, what memories, what reactions will be triggered through an artist’s work. When I first learned of writer/director Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE, I presumed, like most, that it would… Read More ›
After landing on Disney+ in March to a largely positive bang, director Domee Shi’s feature-length debut Turning Red is headed home for purchase. Much like the Oscar-winning Encanto from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Shi’s Pixar film explores generational trauma through… Read More ›
If there’s one thing that all cinephiles share, it’s that excited feeling when the house lights turn down low, the screen lights up, and the possibilities are endless for the adventure to come. It doesn’t really matter if you’re in… Read More ›
July 15th, 2015, saw the release of Aaron Blabey’s kids book “The Bad Guys: Episode 1.” It introduced the world to Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Shark and their quest to shift how the world sees them… Read More ›
Thanks to the way that art tends to feed itself, throughout history, the written word has often inspired songs, paintings, dance, and vice versa with much more. For metalheads, the combination of fantasy and science fiction with music and art… Read More ›
Generally speaking, each of director Satoshi Kon’s films are beloved by critical and general audiences. Each one is revered for its ability to entertain whether evoking thrills, drama, or laughter; each one considered for more mature audiences, despite being constructed… Read More ›
Started by creator Gege Akutami in March 2018, Weekly Shōnen Jump series Jujutsu Kaisen is a supernatural horror/comedy action series involving sorcerers who protect the world’s population by destroying or controlling curses (primarily sentient monster-like creatures) that come to being… Read More ›
In front of Pixar’s Incredibles 2 (2018) was writer/director Domee Shi’s directorial debut Bao, a bittersweet story of parenthood and letting go. It’s not too surprising that Shi’s feature-length debut, Turning Red, follows a similar trajectory, just from a different… Read More ›
All things come to an end and it seems that even immortal monsters have to say goodbye so that something new can begin. This is the relative theme coursing through the fourth, and reportedly final, installment of Sony Picture Animations’s… Read More ›
In a career spanning over 20 years, writer/director Mamoru Hosoda has cultivated a filmography of works which communicate to the general masses (Digimon: The Movie (2000)) and to a specific niche audience (Summer Wars (2009); Mirai (2018)). Full disclosure: Mirai… Read More ›
Walt Disney Studio’s 60th animated film released in November with the same promise of any of its predecessors: 90-ish minutes of adventure, magic, and wonder. Directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard (Zootopia) and co-director Charise Castro Smith (who shares co-writing… Read More ›
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” No matter how much we rely on technology to do things for us, we often lose a little piece of ourselves in the process. Sure, we may remember things more… Read More ›
Since before well covers became popularized in its modern form, singing has been a way to carry on local history and traditions, carrying warnings or lessons that the listener will absorb and carry forward into the next generation. The minstrels… Read More ›
In March 2020, Sony Animation released a trailer for Connected, a film centered on a family attempting to survive a robot apocalypse. It mostly focused on the relationship between the luddite dad and techno daughter before shifting gears to revealing… Read More ›
In 2020, the first feature-length film from the manga-adapted anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Mugen Train, released in Japanese theaters and absolutely dominated to the point where it was the highest-grossing film of the year. After some time, Mugen… Read More ›
Across four films, Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon has earned four Academy Award nominations, each time for Best Animated Feature. If you’ve seen even one of their films — The Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2017), The… Read More ›
There have been many adaptations of the mythical figure Sun Wukong, more commonly known as The Monkey King. He’s been depicted by Jet Li in The Forbidden Kingdom, Donnie Yen in The Monkey King, Stephen Chow in A Chinese Odyssey, and… Read More ›
Somehow, in one way or another, stories transcend times and locations, growing to become global phenomena. We’ve seen it with the characters of DC Comics and Marvel Comics, the Transformers series (based on the run of Hasbro toys), and, of… Read More ›