An absolutely stunning piece of animation. A bright, vibrant and heartfelt experience. It is Dia De Los Muetros, the Mexican Day of the Dead, when families celebrate lost loved ones and honour their memory. Miguel is torn; his love of music is not shared by his family, who after his great-grandmother’s fury after her husband…
Category: Animation
Review: Cars 3
While the ending is punchy, the forgettable setup for this racer story is slow and predictable. Lightning McQueen finds himself outclassed by new and faster racers and threatened with retirement, he vows to be the one who decides when he’s done racing. The Cars franchise is probably the most brittle of the Pixar series and…
Review: The Lego Batman Movie (2D)
Lego Batman is a riotous time, as insane and fun its 2014 originator but not quite as endearing. Batman is the hero of Gotham, he is loved and praised by all, despite him being a selfish, arrogant loner living in a huge mansion, at constant odds with his emotions. When super villain Joker sees this weakness…
Review: Ghost in the Shell (1995)
With the American live-action adaptation of 1995’s manga adaptation Ghost in the Shell hitting cinemas this March, I have the glorious task of revisiting a franchise I so dearly love. Like a lot of kids born in the mid-eighties anime was a very alien and kind of frowned upon deviation of popular media. It hadn’t…
Review: Moana
Disney’s latest is lavishly designed, beautifully animated and a lot of fun. Set in ancient Polynesia, when a darkness begins to sicken the islands, it is up to a chieftain’s daughter named Moana to travel far over the ocean and find the demigod Maui, who was responsible for the calamity. Whenever I go to see…
Review: The Road to El Dorado
The bizarre combo of Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh as our leads gives a quirky heart to a forgotten Dreamworks Animation Studio style… Two thieves acquire a map leading them to the hidden city of gold, El Dorado. But when they find it their morals shift when they meet El Dorado’s natives and their friendship…
Review: Kubo and the Two Strings
Ahhh. That nice feeling of watching something original. Kubo is a young son of a warrior who is maimed as a baby by The Moon King and is raised by his mother as a storyteller. Now older he lives in isolation, with his injured mother, hiding from the Moon King’s servants who wish to take…
Review: The Sword in the Stone
A great look back at one of my most nostalgic Disney classics. While visibly flawed, I can’t help but enjoy it enormously. Disney’s 1963 crack at the legend of King Arthur remains their one and only attempt. Curious considering how involved and incredible and magical the stories and characters can be. The Sword in the…
Review: Paprika
Paprika is a mind bending visual feast, giving life to the surreal landscape of dreams with a detective story. DC Mini is a device that allows individuals to share dreams, to enter other peoples dreams and even allow others to alter someone’s dreams. It is now used for therapy and medical treatment, but when one…
Review: Zootropolis (aka Zootopia)
Honestly I was expecting a good but perhaps exasperating time with Zootropolis, but actually… this was a really intelligent and err, human story. Judy Hopps has dreams of being a Police Officer in the big city, despite everyone (including her parents) thinking it is ridiculous; no bunny could ever be a Police Officer! But believing…
cinema cocoa 