Category Archives: Animation

May 6 2011

Monsters Vs Aliens

Viewed – 06 May 2011  Blu-ray

When a unasuming woman on the day of her wedding gets hit by a radioactive meteorite, her life is turned upside down as she turns into a giant, captured by the military and housed in a top-secret facility.  There she meets a gang of outcast monster-types, such as a mad scientist turned cockroach, a weird jelly creature, a colossal hamster-looking-thing and a lizard / monkey hybrid, who the government reluctantly turn to when an evil maglomaniac alien invades earth.

This obvious homage to 50′s B-movies like Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman and It Came From Outer Space, was fun, even if the rather ugly art-style was distracting and the voice casting not particularly engaging, with the exception of Hugh Laurie and Seth Rogan.  The action and characters were all entertaining, and there was some good jokes, with certain moments causing me to chuckle (the President doing Axel F, anyone?).  Yet with so many CGI animated movies out there, this one felt at times a little Saturday-afternoon throwaway, with little of the emotion or character depth you’d find in the likes of Toy Story or even Shrek, and as far as animation goes, this one falls way behind those and many others.

Verdict:  2 /5

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Mar 3 2011

Despicable Me

Viewed – 02 March 2011  Blu-ray

In a world where animation house Pixar gets all the best press (ahem, Toy Story 3 Oscar) it’s possible to forget there are other equally as talented animation studios around churning out movies year in year out.  Dreamworks usually gets all the remaining publicity with the Shrek franchise, leaving smaller movies to fall under the radar.   This should not be one of them however.

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Dec 31 2010

Top Ten Movies 2010

My Top Ten Movies 2010

Compiled of the movies I have seen during the year.  

Some may be older than 2010.

 

1   KICK-ASS

2   MOON

3   THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

4   PONYO

5   MESRINE

6   ALICE IN WONDERLAND

7   SHUTTER ISLAND

8   INCEPTION

9   TOY STORY 3

10   ZOMBIELAND

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Jul 14 2010

The best of 2010 so far

As we’re just over half way through the year, I got thinking of what have been the best movies I have sat and enjoyed this year, so far?

Here’s a quick run down, in no particular order:

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Jul 2 2010

Ponyo

Viewed – 02 July 2010  Blu-ray

Although an avid fan of animation, especially Disney and Pixar, I also love far eastern ‘anime’, and first got a taste for it with the highly regarded Akira.  But as I’ve mentioned before, the movie’s of famed animation house Studio Ghibli don’t go for cyber-punk bikers or gun-toting femme-fatales, but rather heart warming family stories with more than a touch of magic.  I’ve now seen three of the studio’s movies, having previously enjoyed both the Oscar-winning Spirited Away and the cult-classic Princess Mononoke.  But this one, although in the same art-style and with much of the same talent behind the scenes, offers a more wholesome, mainstream story, with only a glossy shimmer of other-worldy Japanese oddness that blighted those other two.

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