Penguin Highway, a 2018 animated feature based on the Tomihiko Morimi novel, represents the best and worst of anime. On the one hand it boasts a richly developed and wonderfully imaginative story that boasts both clever ideas and a warm, … Continue reading REVIEW: Penguin Highway (2018)
A particular kind of anime fan will likely have a ball with Blame!, a 2017 feature film based on a Tsutomi Nihei manga. Produced with fluid and impressively detailed computer-generated animation, it offers a serious science fiction story backed up with … Continue reading REVIEW: Blame! (2017)
Ben (David Ralwe) lives on a lighthouse with his father Colin (Brendan Gleeson) and little sister Saoirse. His mother vanished the night she gave birth to Saoirse, who is non-verbal. Ben blames his sister for his mother’s disappearance, while Colin … Continue reading REVIEW: Song of the Sea (2014)
In the town of Cheesebridge, rich and powerful “white hats” lounge and eat expensive cheeses from their rich mansions above the general “red hat” population. The locals live in fear of the baby-snatching boxtrolls, who maraud the city streets at … Continue reading REVIEW: The Boxtrolls (2014)
Kai lives a sullen life in the coastal Hinashi Town with his umbrella-making grandfather and recently divorced father. Kai plays in a teen band with his friends Kunio and Yuho, though he is thinking of quitting. When a trip to … Continue reading REVIEW: Lu Over the Wall (2017)
A group of four animals – a puppy, a pheasant, a monkey, and a bear – leave their families to help with the Japanese war effort. After basic training, they are dispatched as paratoopers to invade Suwawesi and wrest control … Continue reading REVIEW: Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (1945)
Anya (Meg Ryan) is an orphaned young woman in 1920s Russia who is drawn into a scheme to impersonate the missing princess Anastasia and defraud her grandmother. In 1988 Don Bluth’s film The Land Before Time had been an international smash hit, … Continue reading REVIEW: Anastasia (1997)
FictionMachine has spent the past few entries reviewing the animated films of director Don Bluth. After taking a fresh look at his final feature Titan AE, it is time to jump back and re-evaluate his first: the 1982 adaptation of Robert … Continue reading REVIEW: The Secret of NIMH (1982)
15 years after the planet Earth has been destroyed by the alien Drej, orphaned human Cale Tucker (Matt Damon) works in a deep space salvage yard. When he is found by rogue pirate captain Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman), he is … Continue reading REVIEW: Titan AE (2000)
Littlefoot is a young Apatosaurus when an earthquake disrupts his family’s migration, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex attack kills his mother. Orphaned and lost, he meets up with four other abandoned young dinosaurs and undertakes the long journey to safety – … Continue reading REVIEW: The Land Before Time (1988)
