The John Lasseter-directed Cars is the seventh feature film created and released by Pixar. Following on from the huge box office successes of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, Cars took a respectable $461m from a budget of $120m. Inspired by a road trip taken by Lasseter and his family in 2000, Cars is the last Pixar film to star the voice talent of Joe Ranft who tragically … [Read more...]
Review: My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Miyazaki has done some fine work in his time. Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo are widely known as his best films. My Neighbour Totoro is also pretty highly rated. Praised by anime fans and film critics alike, I was expecting a new Nausicaa. What I got was a similar experience to Laputa. It is a better film than that, and it certainly is good, … [Read more...]
Review: The Incredibles (2004)
Pixar's sixth feature film release, The Incredibles, looked to repackage the super-hero and crime-thriller genres into a family friendly offering. Riding high on the exceptional success, commercially and critically, of Finding Nemo, Pixar were obviously hoping that along with their own family fan base, they could engage the superhero demographic and have another monster hit on … [Read more...]
Review: John Carter (2012)
John Carter is the latest big blockbuster release from Disney. Directed by Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame it attempts to adapt the legendary Edgar Rice Burrough's novel The Princess of Mars. The Princess of Mars and all subsequent John Carter novels have helped shape the cultural impact of science-fiction and without this series there would be no Star Wars or Avatar. All of these … [Read more...]
Review: Legend (1985)
Before the days of his history biopics; Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood, Ridley Scott had a penchant for making science fiction movies. In the wake of Alien and Blade Runner he turned his hand to the fantasy genre for the first time with Legend, an archetypal tale of true love versus the machinations of evil. One day in an unspecified time in an unspecified place, a … [Read more...]
Review: Finding Nemo (2003)
Finding Nemo is the fifth feature film created and released by Pixar in association with Disney Studios. It is the first Pixar film not to be directed by John Lasseter, with Andrew Stanton taking over the helm as well as writing it. Like all Pixar films, the cast and crew researched the topic of Finding Nemo in great depth, including learning to scuba dive so as to better … [Read more...]
Review: Toy Story 2 (1999)
After the success of Toy Story had loudly announced Pixar's arrival in the world of feature animation and A Bug's Life continued their box office success, John Lasseter and friends went back to Woody, Buzz and the gang with Toy Story 2. Reuniting the same cast as the original, but with a new crew due to the work taking place on A Bug's Life and during production Lasseter once … [Read more...]
Review: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Wizard of Oz has achieved a feat almost unchallenged by any other motion picture of the last century; any frame of the film is almost instantly recognizable, the imagery legendary (twisters, the yellow brick road, the ruby slippers) and is as fresh, loved, venerated and watched as it was at the time of its release over seventy years ago. In actuality, the film was not a … [Read more...]
Review: A Bug’s Life (1998)
The second feature film released by Pixar and to be directed by John Lasseter, A Bug's Life has become something of the forgotten man of the animation houses history. Sandwiched between Toy Story and Toy Story 2 it is rarely mentioned in the same breath as its book-ending brethren, but at the time of release it took over $363m at the box office form a budget of $60m. The film … [Read more...]
Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Roald Dahl is one of the most popular children's authors ever. Numerous adaptations of his books have made it to the big screen, but none, arguably have been completely successful (the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is probably the one with the most fans, but it's by no means universally acclaimed). The latest to have a go is Wes Anderson with his version of … [Read more...]