Earwig and the Witch (2020) [Blu-Ray/DVD]

Posted on April 29, 2021 by Felix Vasquez

I’m one of the traditionalists that think Studio Ghibli should have stuck to hand drawn animation, but sometimes there’s just no fighting change. With “Earwig and the Witch” there’s so much new, that you’re almost tricked in to forgetting that the movie almost has no real narrative. At all. This is one of Studio Ghibli’s more aimless movies that doesn’t have a whole lot to it. Substantially, the movie packs in some great animation, and it’s quite startling how some of the motion for some scenes looks so realistic. I’m not going to say that the movie is an accomplishment in regards to Ghibli because Pixar has pulled off so much better.

Hell, Dreamworks has accomplished so much more with this medium.

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Dolphin Island (2021)

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Emilie Black

10 years after a girl lost her parents and became the charge of her paternal grandfather, her maternal grandparents show up and demand to get custody of her as she lives on an island with her grandfather and her dolphin, something they consider to be less-than and want to fix asap, no matter what it takes.

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Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite! (2021) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Felix Vasquez

If you don’t remember that there were two movies prior to “Paws Unite!” then I personally don’t blame you. The first two movies basically took a painfully derivative premise and did a pretty okay job creating a talking animals’ action movie for the whole family. The third film in the series that no one asked for, “Paws Unite!” pretty much works as a loose sequel. It’s loose because it’s apparent that the screenwriter never actually saw the original films.

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Tom and Jerry (2021)

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Felix Vasquez

Warner Animation props up the long rotted corpse of “Tom and Jerry” long enough to produce what I’m sure they hoped would be a blockbuster big screen adaptation. For a series that’s been languishing on video store shelves with cheaply made, watered down animated movies for years, it’s not a surprise that “Tom and Jerry” is about as bland as ever. It’s also not at all surprising that Tim Story is the man called on to deliver such an inoffensive, forgettable, mishmash of weird ideas and concepts.

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You Have to See This! Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Felix Vasquez

My love affair with writing began with competitive spelling in grade school and evolved right in to middle school where I built my obsession with telling stories. I was always fond of the Scripps spelling bee and I always sought to maybe make it there someday. But you know… puberty happened. In either case, it‘s refreshing to see films in contemporary and modern that portray spelling bees as pure sport. There are more and more movies spotlighting the mental demand of spelling from 2002’s “Spellbound” to “Bee Season,” to “Spelling the Dream.”

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We Can Be Heroes (2020)

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Felix Vasquez

When Robert Rodriguez is in kids movie mode, he tends to create some of the most syrupy sweet, loud, tepid movies for his intended audience that though they have a lot of the good intention behind them are pretty much destroyed by the climax. That’s the case with “We Can Be Heroes,” a movie so derivative and tired that it destroys a lot of the charming characters and conflicts in the process.