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ABOMINABLE

September 29, 2019 By Leave a Comment

ABOMINABLE

ABOMINABLE is a sweet, if unremarkable, movie. With a plot that offers little in the way of novelty and characters who are as familiar to fans of contemporary animated films aimed at kiddies as Harlequin was to fans of the commedia dell’arte, it does boast some fine animation and a mythical creature that is undeniably… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, China, Himalayas, yeti

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

December 15, 2018 By Leave a Comment

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Just when you thought the Spiderman franchise might have finally run its course of endless reboots comes SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, a film that that reinvigorates both animation and the super-hero origin story. Told in a wry, raucous style, it dares to explore complicated themes of family ties and personal responsibility while slyly poking fun… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, multiverse, origin story

2017 Mammoth Lakes Film Festival — Shira Dubrovner Interview

May 22, 2017 By Leave a Comment

2017 Mammoth Lakes Film Festival — Shira Dubrovner Interview

Shira Dubrovner left behind a successful career in the film business to return to Mammoth Lakes and, eventually, to found the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, now in its third year (May 24-28) It was one of the things I asked her about when we spoke on May 18, 2017, but it wasn’t the first. That… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, Bodie, Dave McCoy, Director’s Lab West, eastern Sierras, film festival, ghost town, indie cartoons, indie film, John Sayles, legalization of marijuana, Mammoth Lakes, Paul Sbrizz, Sierra Spirit Award, The Bum Family, Tommy Chong, UP IN SMOKE

LONG WAY NORTH

December 30, 2016 By Leave a Comment

LONG WAY NORTH

LONG WAY NORTH uses deceptively simple animation to tell an epic adventure.  At its center is Sasha (Christa Théret), a spirited and determined 15-year-old set on restoring her family’s honor, and the legacy her of her beloved grandfather, Oloukine (Féodor Atkine) an arctic explorer gone missing on his last expedition. It would be a monumental undertaking… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, arctic exploration, Féodor Atkine, heroine, Imperial Russia, navigation, potato peeling

FINDING DORY

June 19, 2016 By Leave a Comment

FINDING DORY

FINDING DORY, the eminently worthy sequel to 2003’s FINDING NEMO, is essentially one long chase. In this it shares much with last year’s blockbuster MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, including the sense that nothing is impossible, including testing the laws of physics to their limits, and a strong message of feminine empowerment, as exemplified by that… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, aquatic life, beluga whale, blue tang, chase, clownfish, marine biology, oceanography, octopus, pixar, sequel, underfish, whale shark

HONEYGLUE with James Bird, Anya Remizova, and Adriana Mather

June 10, 2016 By Leave a Comment

HONEYGLUE with James Bird, Anya Remizova, and Adriana Mather

When I spoke with James Bird, Adriana Mather, and Anya Remizova on May 25, 2016, the first thing I wanted to know about was the clichés that they wanted to avoid in this story of young lovers facing their own mortality. It was only natural that we would discuss the spiritual influences that inspired Bird,… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, bees, brain tumor, broken fingers, Buffalo, Cotton Mather, dragonfly, Ezequiel Stremiz, Gender fluid, Kevin Webber, Mortality, Native-American, Ojibwe, romance, Salem Witch Trials, Smurfs, Steve Curcuru, Zombot Pictures

BLING

May 8, 2016 By Leave a Comment

BLING

BLING is a perfectly sweet, perfectly gentle, and perfectly harmless bit of fluffy animated comedy that will delight kids whose ages fall in the single digits.  True love is the theme, and the difficulties of overcoming both self-doubt and Oscar (Jason Kravitz), an evil supervillain, provide the obstacles as mechanical whiz-kid Sam (Taylor Kitsch) spends… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, engagement ring, marriage proposal, mechanic, robots, romance

Chris Butler & Sam Fell Bring PARANORMAN to Life

October 31, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Chris Butler & Sam Fell Bring PARANORMAN to Life

When I spoke with Chris Butler and Sam Fell on July 27, 2012, the conversation was a wonderful mix of whimsy and erudition as they explained the finer points of bringing a stop-motion film to life. The two shared the directing duties on PARANORMAN, working from a script by Butler.  What I was most interested in,… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, curses, Laika, stop-motion, witch, zombies

Ravi and Geeta Patel Want You to MEET THE PATELS

September 11, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ravi and Geeta Patel Want You to MEET THE PATELS

I have rarely laughed as much as I did when I spoke to Ravi and Geeta Patel on August 13, 2015, it was by Skype, with me in San Francisco, Geeta in North Carolina, and Ravi in Hollywood, but the rapport made it seem like we were all in the same room. The subject was… Read More »

Tagged With: animation, arranged marriage, audience awards, blind dates, brother--sister relationship, divorce rate, documentary, dysfunctional family, Family, festival circuit, finding love, Geeta Patel, Hot Docs, Indian-American, LA Film Festival, media, Michael Moore, Project Kashmir, Ravi Patel, siblings, Southeast Asian, The Wachowskis, UTA

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak — Puns, Cryptomnesia, and Dreams with SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

August 6, 2015 By 1 Comment

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak — Puns, Cryptomnesia, and Dreams with SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

Aardman Animation.  For hordes of animation fans, you don’t need to say anything else about a film in order to get them to pack a theater. I, however, will add that the latest from that storied studio, the SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE, is everything that not just a great Aardman film should be, but also… Read More »

Tagged With: A Close Shave, Aardman Animation, animation, animators, cinema, Cryptomnesia, film, Mark Burton, movie, Nick Park, Peter Lord, plasticine, puns, puppet runner, Richard Starzak, Shaun the Sheep, sheep, silent film, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, Tom and Jerry cartoons, Vladimir Putin, Wallace and Gromit

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