Looking at Lee Unkrich’s Films

Today, January 18th, the animation community got a shock when veteran Pixar director Lee Unkrich announced that he left the acclaimed, Emeryville-based studio after a 25-year tenure there... Unkrich, who is 51 years old, was an integral part of the features since the beginning, having served as an editor on the original Toy Story, and quickly …

Attempting to Solve the History of The Beach Boys’ SUNFLOWER…

I attempted to play detective, maybe a little historian. For a couple of years, the history of The Beach Boys' Sunflower album has boggled and bothered me, and I finally decided to attempt to get the story straight, and anyone can help me on this if they wish! If they even find this! Okay... No other …

Next Level

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse... I saw it last night. I'm arguably unable to review it, but I tried. I've written about this game-changing film time and time again on here and my old, defunct blog. It exceeded all of my wild expectations... I firmly believe Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a modern animated masterpiece and a …

Beach Boys ’68: A Review of Two New Sets

I thought it was going to happen. I thought it was actually bound to happen... A Beach Boys archival set spanning the entirety of 1968. Why wouldn't there be? The Beach Boys enterprise has been releasing comprehensive, almost exhaustive sets detailing the makings of some of their classic albums in the recent years. About two …

Ralph Mirrors My Past

You know, I'll be brutally honest here... There are days where I question my love for Disney. Now don't be alarmed, I'll always love Walt Disney's work - from the majority of his animated features to his television show to his best live-action movies to Disneyland itself - and it'll always be a pivotal part …

Follow-Up: ‘The Lion King’ and The Future of Animation

Back in September 2016, I wrote about how Walt Disney Pictures' redo of The Jungle Book raised a lot of questions for animation's future. Then I updated said article after Disney officially announced that they were going to remake The Lion King, but now that its teaser is here and there's a plethora of other information out there... …

Keeping Track of ‘Cloverfield’

A few days ago, I caught Paramount and Bad Robot's newest theatrical feature, Overlord. A sort of World War II horror thriller-cum-action drama, the Julius Avery-directed venture is bombing at the box office. Costing $38 million to make, the film coughed up $10 million on its opening weekend and fell over 60% in its sophomore frame, …

Modern Mouse: Contemporary Ideas and Disney Animation…

It appears that the latest Walt Disney Animation Studios film is starting a lot of conversations... Opening next week, Ralph Breaks The Internet, the sequel to the studio's video game-centric hit, happens to be a somewhat rare contemporary Disney animated feature. Since the trailers and marketing materials have highlighted lots of pop cultural references, memes, and …

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ – An Animation Thesis

Quite timely... My fifth pick for my "Animation Thesis" review series is a film that's unique in that it can be both a Halloween movie and a Christmas movie... The motion picture is none other than The Nightmare Before Christmas. Released in the autumn of 1993 from Walt Disney Pictures through their "adult" Touchstone Pictures label, The …

SOLO, Some 4 Months Later, and Other Things…

Yesterday, it was announced that current Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is piloting the starship for another three years. All in the same week that Solo came to physical media. A controversial decision, but one that makes me happy... It's obvious. Kennedy's staying because numbers don't lie. Combined, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Star Wars: The Last …