A franchise’s future often lies in its past. The narrative need to look back upon the legacy of a series starter and the history of its characters provides a clear entry point for many sequels that may otherwise struggle to justify their existence beyond merely financial reasons. It’s a strategy used to moving effect in…
“Everyone has lots of ways of feeling. And all of those feelings are fine. It’s what we do with our feelings that matter in this life.” — Fred Rogers Loosely based on Tom Junod’s 1998 Esquire article on children’s television personality Fred Rogers, “Can You Say . . . Hero?,” Marielle Heller’s (“Can You Ever…
Depending on your tolerance for redundancy, there’s a surprising amount of fun to be had in Disney’s Guy Ritchie-helmed Aladdin remake. That’s a far cry from the disaster this could have been and seemed destined to be at one point, considering a laundry list of potential issues ranging from the source material that casually mixes…
I don’t even know what to say. Or why to bother. To stare into the void that is Disney’s soul-sucked remake of its cinematic safari The Lion King is to come face to face with a profound and overwhelming sense of meaninglessness. It’s the same movie they released in 1994, only worse in all ways…
Goodbyes are at the forefront of Pixar’s tacked-on Toy Story 4, the studio’s fourth sequel in as many years and its flagship franchise’s first installment in almost a decade. There are parting glances throughout, the movie is book-ended by sendoffs, and one new character’s entire existence hinges on a gag in which he tries to…
Missing Link, Laika’s latest stop-motion animated feature, opens not unlike an Indiana Jones entry. Our protagonist, Sir Lionel Frost (voiced by Hugh Jackman, “ The Greatest Showman”), along with his assistant, attempt to take pictures of the Loch Ness Monster. However, Frost quickly loses control of the situation, and despite his own precision and deftness,…
Few activities encompass the ominous banality of modern times like scouring the Internetscape; scrolling, swiping, clicking through apps and websites representing our digital lifebloods. Of course, we are all prospectors of that ever-expanding and blindingly confining world that is also, strangely, still very much in its infancy. We’re also constantly learning how to adapt to…
