Tag: animation
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A Gentle Future in Peril: Arco Finds Its Glow in Small Human Moments
Arco blends earnest futurism with a grounded emotional story, carried by Romy Fay’s steady performance as Iris and Ugo Bienvenu’s meticulous direction. Its quiet world-building and gentle pacing create a sci-fi tale that favors connection over spectacle.
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In Our Dreams: The Sandman’s Children and the Fractured Marriage
Step into the haunting dreamworld of In Your Dreams, where siblings Stevie and Elliot confront the Sandman to save their parents’ fractured marriage. Directed by Erik Benson and Alexander Woo, this Grimm-inspired drama balances charm and darkness, offering a tale of wishes, fears, and the fragile bonds that hold families together.
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Fixed: The Testicle Gospel of Bull
There’s a moment in Fixed when Bull, the Staffordshire Terrier voiced with manic sincerity by Adam DeVine, gazes at his testicles and calls them his “hairy, dangling muses.” It’s absurd, grotesque, and weirdly poetic—an emblem of everything Genndy Tartakovsky’s latest animated fever dream dares to be. This is not a film for the faint of…
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The Bad Guys 2: Claws, Chaos, and a Kiss in Orbit
“The Bad Guys 2,” directed by Pierre Perifel and JP Sans, continues the story with a pulsing mix of ambition and mayhem. Sam Rockwell’s Mr. Wolf leads the crew again—still struggling with society and chasing the possibility of redemption—but this time, they face a new threat that turns their reputations inside out. The film commits…
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Smurfs: Blue Chaos in a White Wedding Dress
Chris Miller’s Smurfs twinkles with the kind of sugar-rush irreverence that only a fairytale built on mushroom houses and interdimensional wizards could deliver. This latest installment in the kaleidoscopic Smurfs franchise tosses canon into a blender, resulting in a comic, candy-colored mess that’s part triumph, part migraine. Somehow, it almost works. Rihanna voices Smurfs with…
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Elio: To Be Believed By the Stars
Elio is not a film about first contact. It’s about first understanding—what it means to be seen, named, and misunderstood, and still to answer back. Directed with aching luminosity by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina, this is Pixar at its most inward-looking, letting space be not only wide and strange, but personal, pulsing,…
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How to Train Your Dragon: Fire and Friendship: A Soaring Saga of Scale and Sky
From the moment the first dragon cuts through the misty twilight, scales flashing in the half-light like molten gold, it is clear that this live-action adaptation of *How to Train Your Dragon* does not merely seek to replicate its animated predecessor. It aims to embody something more profound—a tale woven with fire, flight, and the…
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Predator: Killer of Killers – A Brutal, Time-Spanning Hunt
Dan Trachtenberg‘s *Predator: Killer of Killers* represents an ambitious and innovative expansion of the *Predator* franchise, skillfully merging historical warfare with the spine-chilling elements of sci-fi horror. This animated anthology, currently streaming on Hulu, delves into the encounters between three of history’s most formidable warriors: a fierce Viking raider, a skilled feudal Japanese ninja, and…
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Lilo & Stitch: A Cosmic Collision of Chaos and Heart
Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. But in Dean Fleischer Camp’s live-action reimagining of *Lilo & Stitchb*, family is also messy, loud, and stitched together with the kind of love that survives even the most intergalactic disasters. This isn’t just a remake—it’s a neon-lit, surf-soaked, heart-thumping revival of…
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The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie- Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Centur–Wait, Wrong Movie!
Pete Browngardt’s **“The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie”** is a wonderfully fun adventure that explores a quirky idea: “What if Daffy Duck tried to save the world while also causing chaos for his best friend?” The outcome is a hilarious and lively space invasion comedy packed with all the charm of…
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Speeding to Success with a Dash of Crazy Carrey!
Movie Info: Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen this holiday season in his most thrilling adventure yet. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely…
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Paddington in Peru: A Heartfelt Adventure Filled with Whimsy and Wonder
Movie Info: When Paddington discovers his beloved aunt has gone missing from the Home for Retired Bears, he and the Brown family head to the jungles of Peru to find her. Determined to solve the mystery, they soon stumble across a legendary treasure as they make their way through the rainforests of the Amazon. Review:…
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Dog Man: A Whimsical Romp Through Chaos and Cuteness
Movie Info: When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve–and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity…
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Memoirs of a Snail: A Whimsical Journey Through Time and Shells
MOVIE INFO: In 1970s Australia, Grace’s life is troubled by misfortune and loss. After their mother dies during pregnancy, she and her twin brother, Gilbert, are raised by their paraplegic-alcoholic former juggler father, Percy. Despite a life filled with love, tragedy strikes anew when Percy passes away in his sleep. The siblings are forcibly separated…
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Flow: A Mesmerizing Journey Through Nature’s Fury and Humanity’s Echoes
MOVIE INFO: A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive…
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Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – A Delightful Technological Romp”
MOVIE INFO: Aardman’s four-time Academy Award®-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with a brand new epic adventure, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a…
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That Christmas: A Heartwarming Holiday Tale That Delivers Festive Cheer
MOVIE INFO: Based on the charming trilogy of children’s books by beloved multi award-winning writer/director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Yesterday), That Christmas follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, and Santa Claus making a big mistake, not to mention an enormous number…
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Mufasa: The Lion King” – A Roaring Success with Stellar Voice Cast and Stunning Animation
MOVIE INFO: “Mufasa: The Lion King” enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala, with Timon and Pumbaa lending their signature schtick. Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka–the heir…
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Moana 2: Completing Her Princess Heroic Journey.
MOVIE INFO: Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical “Moana 2” takes audiences on an expansive new voyage with Moana, Maui and a brand-new crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike…
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The Wild Robot: A Lyrical Odyssey of Metal and Nature.
MOVIE INFO: The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot–ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling. REVIEW: In “The Wild…
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Transformers One: A Fresh Start for a Beloved Franchise
MOVIE INFO: TRANSFORMERS ONE is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever. REVIEW: Transformers One (2024) is a surprising breath of fresh air in a franchise that has often been criticized for its lack of…
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The Imaginary: The Case for Child Imagination for Life
MOVIE INFO: Rudger is a boy no one can see, imagined by Amanda to share her thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger, suddenly alone, arrives at The Town of Imaginaries, where forgotten Imaginaries live and find work, he faces a mysterious threat. REVIEW: Imaginary friends are having a renaissance. If , released a few months …
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Despicable Me 4: Minions All The Way
MOVIE INFO: In the first Despicable Me movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favorite supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of Minions mayhem in Illumination’s Despicable Me 4. Following the 2022 summer blockbuster phenomenon of Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, which earned almost $1 billion worldwide, the biggest global animated…
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Ultraman: Rising: Kaiju Rearing for Estranged Families
MOVIE INFO: With Tokyo under siege from rising monster attacks, baseball star Ken Sato reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman. But the titanic superhero meets his match when he is forced to adopt a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. Sato must rise above his ego to balance work and parenthood while protecting…
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Garfield: The Movie: Too Busy for this Lazy Cat
MOVIE INFO: Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father — scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) — Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining…
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Migration: Just Misses the Trip South
MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES: This holiday season, Illumination, creators of the blockbuster Minions, Despicable Me, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets comedies, invites you to take flight into the thrill of the unknown with a funny, feathered family vacation like no other in the action-packed new original comedy, Migration. REVIEW: Migration is a…
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Wish: Don’t Wish Upon this Star
MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES; Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Wish” is an all-new musical-comedy welcoming audiences to the magical kingdom of Rosas, where Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force–a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable…
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Kung Fu Panda 4: He Kicks His Butt Good
MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES: After three death-defying adventures defeating world-class villains with his unmatched courage and mad martial arts skills, Po, the Dragon Warrior (Golden Globe nominee Jack Black), is called upon by destiny to… give it a rest already. More specifically, he’s tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace.…
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Orion and the Dark: Confronting the Eternal Darkness of the Child’s Mind
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: The thing Orion fears the most is the dark. When the embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark whisks Orion away on a roller-coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of at night. Review: Charlie Kaufman’s name on a screenplay guarantees a…
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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget- Don’t Believe that Heaven Is Finger Licking Good
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes : Having escaped from the farm, Ginger and Rocky welcome a new little adventurer into their lives. Back on the mainland, the whole of chicken-kind faces a terrible new threat. Review: Chickens are naturally funny, almost cartoonish in the way they cluck, attempt to fly and ambulate. So Chicken Run:…
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Leo: A Cold Blooded Creature Who Wants to Warm Kid’s Hearts
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes; Actor and comedian Adam Sandler (Hotel Transylvania, The Wedding Singer) delivers signature laughs in this coming-of-age animated musical comedy about the last year of elementary school — as seen through the eyes of a class pet. Jaded 74-year-old lizard Leo (Sandler) has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for…
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Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken: A Really Big Growth Sprout that Avoids the Red Panda
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible. She’s math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White, Ralph Breaks the Internet), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and…
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Strays: The Incredible Journey Goes on a Foul Mouthed Road-trip
Summary via Wikipedia: When a gullible Border Terrier named Reggie (Will Ferrell) is abandoned on the streets by his selfish and ruthless owner Doug (Will Forte), an animal-hating drug addict who never wanted him, he teams up with other strays including a street-wise Boston Terriernamed Bug (Jamie Foxx), an Australian Shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher),…
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The Monkey King: Too Much Monkey Shines
Summary via IMDB: THE MONKEY KING is an action-packed family comedy that follows a charismatic Monkey and his magical fighting Stick on an epic quest for victory over 100 demons, an eccentric Dragon King, and Monkey’s greatest foe of all -his own ego. Along the way, a young village girl challenges his self-centered attitude and…
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TNMT: Mutant Mayhem— Oozing Growing Charisma
Storyline via Rotten Tomatoes: After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new friend, April O’Neil, helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army…
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Nimona: F(r)ight the Power
Storyline via IMDB: When Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem – who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature…
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The Weird Kidz: Just So Off-Putting
Summary via Chattanooga Film Festival: THE WEIRD KIDZ is a horror-inflected creature feature and an ode to ’80s coming-of-age films and favorite late night cinema tales. When three pre-teen boys and an older brother and his girlfriend take off for a weekend campout, none of them could imagine the horrors (and laughs) awaiting them in…
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse- Lighting Refines Gold
Storyline via IMDB: Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.…
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Elemental: Fire and Water Will Mix
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental,” an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live…
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The Magician’s Elephant: Soaring to Heights of Childhood Courage and Imagination
Plot via IMDB: The Magician’s Elephant follows Peter, who is searching for his long-lost sister. When he crosses paths with a fortune teller in the market square, he want to know, is his sister still alive? To get the answer, he must find a mysterious elephant and the magician who will conjure it, setting Peter…
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Puss in Boots- The Last Wish: Knowing the Last Cat Life Is Not Really the Final Curtain Call
Plot via IMDB: Sadly, Puss in Boots, the undaunted Spanish lover and hero, is now down to the last of his nine lives, a decade after the events of Puss in Boots (2011). And as if that weren’t enough, the unstoppable bounty hunter known as The Big Bad Wolf is after him. To restore all…
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Lyle, Lyle Crocodile: Hoping and Bopping to that Crocodile Rock
Plot via IMDB: Follows the title reptile who lives in a house on East 88th Street in New York City. Lyle enjoys helping the Primm family with everyday chores and playing with the neighborhood kids but one neighbor insists that Lyle belongs in a zoo. Mr. Grumps and his cat, Loretta, do not like crocodiles,…
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America: The Motion Picture- Doesn’t Let Alternate Facts Get in the Way of Its Own Inane History Lesson.
When filmmakers fall asleep and flunk high school American History, America: The Motion Picture is what’s created years later- an animated, anarchic, free association lunacy that mixes up the American Revolution with the Civil War and shows that it respects America by disregarding its truth and hyping its memes. In this alternate America, George-Bon Jovi-Washington…
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“Flavors of Youth” Explores the Essentials of Identity
Flavors of Youth points out how memory is essential to all identity. How it is the source of all art and creativity.
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“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” Is a Monster Bash Worth the Voyage
The series gentle heart has always stuck to its winning formula of total inclusion because underneath all of us are all the same monsters with a good heart. Every life, even steam punk rehabilitated one’s like Van Helsing, have value.
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“White Fang” Is a Good Wolf Movie Not So Much a Good Dog One
The latest adaptation of White Fang, now streaming on Netflix, tries to maintain a balance between London’s naturalism and family dog domestication.