50 years on from its initial release, the half-forgotten short feature Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!! – directed by industry stalwart Takeshi Tamiya – might be showing its age. At the same time it has become an unexpected joy. While its … Continue reading REVIEW: Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!! (1972)
Masaaki Yuasa has spent the last five years aggressively building a reputation as one of Japan’s most inventive and entertaining anime filmmakers. While he earned a healthy cult following with his 2004 feature debut Mindgame, it is through recent hits … Continue reading SFF REVIEW: Inu-Oh (2021)
Popular children’s cartoon Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers was a successful re-imagining of two legacy characters from Disney animation. A new feature film of the same name, which premiered recently on Disney+, re-imagines those characters once again. Despite some clever jokes and … Continue reading REVIEW: Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
This week Loren Bouchard’s Bob’s Burgers follows in the footsteps of fellow animated comedies South Park and The Simpsons with its own theatrically released feature spin-off. As with those films (released in 1999 and 2007 respectively) the central question remains the same: what is the … Continue reading REVIEW: The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022)
A new anime feature provides some excellent design work and colour, but is saddled with an overly familiar story and an extended climax which both consign it to the pile of disposable entertainment. It is enjoyable enough to watch, but … Continue reading REVIEW: Bubble (2022)
When The Matrix became a global box office smash, and Warner Bros approached the Wachowskis about writing and directing a sequel, they didn’t just make the one film. Instead they engaged in perhaps the most ridiculously ambitious plan for a sequel ever. … Continue reading REVIEW: The Animatrix (2003)
In the 31st century humanity builds an enormous mobile space station, with the intention of piloting it across the galaxy to encounter new and unique species and civilizations. When its central electronic brain activated, the station spontaneously becomes self-aware, and … Continue reading REVIEW: Delta Space Mission (1984)
In 1990 Disney released their 29th full-length animated feature: the sequel The Rescuers Down Under. On its theatrical release, the film was accompanied by the 25-minute featurette The Prince and the Pauper, directed by George Scribner. It is an odd little piece … Continue reading REVIEW: The Prince and the Pauper (1990)
Pixar’s 25th animated feature Turning Red hits Disney+ this Friday. One would think its owner Disney, never afraid to celebrate an anniversary, would be making something more out of that. Then again, Pixar seems relegated to a strange place of … Continue reading REVIEW: Turning Red (2022)
Time to briefly descend into one of the most fiendishly complicated – and commercially successful – anime franchises in history. Mobile Suit Gundam was a television series that premiered in Japan in 1979, and while it was initially perceived as a failure … Continue reading REVIEW: Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991)
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