‘Raya’, Director Changes, and Leadership

Recently, Walt Disney Animation Studios dropped some big details on their upcoming original adventure movie Raya and the Last Dragon. Image via Entertainment Weekly. Originally announced to the public during the 2019 D23 Expo, after years of reports circulating about it, Raya and the Last Dragon was to have been directed by Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins. …

Adventures into the Past 2: It Holds Up?

To me, there has always been a firm difference between a work of children's media, and a family-friendly, universal work... About a week ago, I took a dip back into an interest of mine that I've had since childhood, and that was the LEGO toyline BIONICLE. As an ardent defender of the often-stigmatized animated medium, …

Adventures into the Past: It Isn’t Nostalgia

Hope you're all getting through 2020 well. I know it's been rough for a multitude of reasons for me, and I've been trying out different ways to destress as the weather thankfully shifts from ludicrously and almost oppressively hot, to a nice and even mix of warm and cool before my favorite season gets here. …

The Disney Renaissance’s Missing Link?

Popular opinion and maybe Disney themselves determine that the esteemed Disney Renaissance progressed a certain way: The Little Mermaid happened in late 1989, and then Beauty and the Beast happened in late 1991, rest is history, right? But what was going on in 1990? Thirty years ago? It's easy to name one significant event, and that …

Disney Canon Conundrum

A year ago, I took a look at my own view of Disney animated feature films and explained my particular views on what is known as the Disney animated features "canon". What is the "canon"? An official line-up of sorts determined by The Walt Disney Company themselves, a line-up that says what counts as a …

The Beach Boys’ First Two Reprise Albums

In December 2018, I looked into the deep and convoluted history of The Beach Boys' album Sunflower, which of course will be turning 50 this coming August. All those words on the historical aspects of the album... Now what about the album itself? What about its follow-up album, Surf's Up? Sunflower's lengthy and often convoluted history does …

Elves, Trolls and Rules

So far, 2020 had been quiet feature animation-wise, before the uncertain times we have been plunged into. In a climate where a new animated feature seems to open every month, this seems rather unusual. January was without a feature, only showings of films released the previous month, like Disney Animation's Frozen II and Blue Sky's Spies …

Animation Perception ’20

Before I start, I've been meaning to post this since December. The bulk of it was written then. I fully understand that now isn't exactly the time to talk about the way animation is perceived by a lot of the public. Right now there are far more important things going on in the world, and …

MULAN, and The Ongoing Complications of ’90s Disney Animated Films

The arrival of Disney's new live-action Mulan has opened a few cans of worms, some that definitely relate to Disney's animated adaptation of the Chinese ballad that was released back in 1998... You may know that I've had a history of being very harsh on some of the features released during the esteemed Disney Renaissance period. …

Pixar, Or Just Four Guys?

Some early reviews of Onward, which got out mere weeks before its theatrical bow, haven't been so glowing. Some writers have expressed disappointment over the fact that it wasn't up to "Pixar standards". Even the blurb on the almighty Rotten Tomatoes, predictably, reads "It may suffer in comparison to Pixar's classics". Naturally, I wanted to …