The distinction between being a monster on the inside and being a monster on the outside is clearly of great interest to the creative minds at stop-motion animation house Laika Entertainment. The dangers of oblivious parenting and morally wayward adults in general are also wells of narrative possibilities that the Laika masterminds return to often….
Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) is not a lucky lad. If anything can go wrong for him it will — and to make matters worse everyone else in his family seems to be having a great time of it. His older brother Anthony (Dylan Minnette, “Prisoners”) is the school heart-throb and has only gone and bagged himself…
2014 is, apparently, the year for the unconventional hero movie. Marvel struck gold with “Guardians of the Galaxy” this summer and now Walt Disney Animation is bringing Big Hero 6 to theaters this winter. Loosely based off of a Marvel comic miniseries of the same name, the family friendly pic revolves around an inflatable healthcare…
For all red-headed wannabe knights — there is hope! Justin (voiced by Freddie Highmore, “The Spiderwick Chronicles”) is not the most heart-throbbish animated character to grace the screen. His red hair is styled in a bowl-cut (perhaps to avoid Carrot Top mentions) and his ears are a bit pointy. Fortunately, the young boy has a…
First time full feature director Dave Green’s new film, Earth to Echo, is a science-fiction adventure for the kiddies based on an extra-terrestrial event with a theme of friendship at its heart. It was born out of producer Andrew Panay’s (producer on “Wedding Crashers“) original idea which was to try and re-capture the quintessential 1980’s…
Built as either a shot to attain a loftier reputation or as penance for afflicting four goddamned “Shrek” movies upon the populace (perhaps both), Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 finds the red-headed stepchild studio attempting to go full Pixar and widen the emotional scope of what has been, to date, probably their…
Everyone’s invited to Disney’s PG pity-party Maleficent. Directed in the cadence of a Lana Del Rey song (who, coincidentally, shows up during the credits with a closing track), this live-action re-imagining of the 1959 animated classic “Sleeping Beauty” has enough gothic romance, leather gowns, and teen gloominess to attract a substantial summer audience. Surprisingly, however,…
