animation
DVD/Blu-ray: When the Wind BlowsTuesday, 23 January 2018
Adapted by Raymond Briggs from his best-selling graphic novel, When the Wind Blows was released in 1986 and stands up so well that you’re inclined to forgive its flaws: namely David Bowie’s leaden theme song and an abundance of fairly flat black... Read more... |
Paddington 2 review - Hugh Grant’s superior baddie boosts sequelThursday, 09 November 2017
Paddington 2 is that rare thing, a sequel that is more engaging than the original by dint of having a far better baddie. In the first film Nicole Kidman’s villainess was a bleached rehash of Cruella De Ville or Morticia – and it was far from her... Read more... |
Loving Vincent review - Van Gogh biopic of sorts lacks language to match its visualsFriday, 13 October 2017
Loving Vincent was clearly a labour of love for all concerned, so I hope it doesn't seem churlish to wish that a Van Gogh biopic some seven or more years in the planning had spent more time at the drawing board. By that I don't mean yet further... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: My Life as a CourgetteFriday, 15 September 2017
Describe the plot of My Life as a Courgette to someone who’s not been lucky enough to see it and they'll find it hard to understand how a film with such a bleak premise can be so funny and emotionally involving. Swiss director Claude Barras’s... Read more... |
Are video games an art form? UnquestionablyFriday, 30 June 2017
It is 2017 and we are still having this conversation: are video games art? We have been using computers to play games for at least 55 years. Arguably the first true computer game, Spacewar!, was developed in 1962 at MIT, although simple games had... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Claude Barras and Céline Sciamma on My Life as a CourgetteSaturday, 03 June 2017
If one were to stop at the title, My Life as a Courgette – from the French Ma vie de Courgette and unsurprisingly renamed for those insular Americans as My Life As a Zucchini – could be too easily dismissed as a juvenile or childlike frivolity. And... Read more... |
The Red Turtle review - Studio Ghibli loses its magic touchSaturday, 27 May 2017
A man is caught up in a storm at sea; giant waves like Hokusai crests throw him onto a deserted tropical island. Over the next 80 minutes, his struggle to survive occupies the screen. Curious crabs provide a little company, but not enough to stop... Read more... |
Ghost in the Shell review - 'a mind-bending futuristic dystopia'Wednesday, 29 March 2017
The Japanese Ghost in the Shell phenomenon is celebrating its 25th birthday, and already has a long history in manga cartoons and animated movies. Now Hollywood has clambered aboard, though this live-action version, finally helmed by British... Read more... |
Beauty and the BeastMonday, 13 March 2017
This is, as the voiceover has it, “a tale as old as time” – or pedantically one that goes back to 1740, when the French fairytale was first published – so maybe it was time for a modernising reboot. The stars – Emma Watson as Beauty and Dan Stevens... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Quay Brothers - Inner SanctumsTuesday, 01 November 2016
Conveniently released as the nights get darker and the shadows lengthen, Inner Sanctums is a package to give nervous viewers nightmares. Stop-motion animators Stephen and Timothy Quay moved from Philadelphia to London in 1969 after winning... Read more... |
DVD: AnomalisaTuesday, 19 July 2016
The midlife crisis, the one-night stand in another city, the younger woman and the honeyed words that turn to dust – they happen all the time, in life and therefore in stories. In Anomalisa they are seen miraculously afresh thanks to Charlie Kaufman... Read more... |
When Marnie Was ThereTuesday, 07 June 2016
When Marnie Was There is the latest production by Japan’s animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, and the first since the retirement of its creative genius Hayao Miyazaki. An adaptation of the Joan G. Robinson novel of the same name, it’s a confident... Read more... |
