Animad Max

An animated Mad Max movie is something I'd really love to see... An animated Mad Max movie would also be something rather unprecedented in the mainstream film market... A mostly live-action film franchise going animated... When does that usually ever happen? When I say a live-action series going animated, I mean a series that's going …

Pixar Generalizations and Complaints That I Don’t Like!

Loving certain works of entertainment can come with a price. I know that very well as a fan of animation, and especially the legendary Disney animated classics "canon". Back in August of 2015 on my mainline news blog, I ripped five generalizations about the body of work apart. Now, I want to do the same …

Breaking Down the Later Disney Renaissance, Part 5

This is it folks... We're at the end of the Disney Renaissance. Or, more appropriately, the time where most people mark the end of Disney's esteemed Renaissance era of animated features. We're at the last film in a streak of box office successes, the end of an apparently idyllic time that soured a bit in …

Breaking Down the Latter Disney Renaissance, Part 4

Two prestige pictures, one zany comedy, what would it take to turn that fading candle into something akin to forest fire? Perhaps the answer was... Something that was more of an action picture and less an adventure-comedy love story. An adaptation of the legend of Hua Mulan was perhaps yet another thing that would make …

Breaking Down the Later Disney Renaissance, Part 3

Was it possible that the very directors who played a big part in the launching of the Disney Renaissance would be the ones to save it? I'm talking about Ron Clements and John Musker. They joined Walt Disney Productions in the mid-to-late 1970s, getting their kicks on features like The Rescuers and The Fox and …

A Whole Other Ocean: A Full Review of ‘Finding Dory’

Arriving thirteen years after its magnificent, underwater predecessor, Finding Dory proved to be a worthy sequel and a very good film in its own right. Finding Dory's main strengths are in its development of Dory. I remember the cries and concerns when it was announced that the Finding Nemo sequel would focus heavily on the …

Disregarding the Clickbait: Real Talk on a ‘Monsters, Inc.’ Sequel

Monsters, Inc. turned fifteen today... Monsters, Inc. was actually the very film that got me into Pixar. I was ten, already a huge Disney fan, but for some reason didn't quite connect with the works of the hopping lamp just yet. I didn't pop in my Toy Story and Toy Story 2 VHS tapes as …

‘The Jungle Book’, ‘The Lion King’ and the Future of Animation

Updates made to this article on September 28, 2016 following the announcement of a remake of 'The Lion King'... Original article follows, then the updated thoughts... The other day, I finally got around to watching Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, which was made by Walt Disney Pictures and released earlier this year to unanimous critical …

2016’s Animated Oscars… Hard to Predict?

The Oscars... The Best Animated Feature category... Who is in the running? I think this year, we don't have too many definite answers. This is a bit premature, because four more major animated features are left, one of which comes from the on-a-roll Walt Disney Animation Studios. The features are Warner Animation Group's high-flying comedy …

Breaking Down Disney’s “Dark Age”: Part 2

In the last part, I took a look at the first films that entered production after Walt Disney's passing in 1966, The Aristocats and Robin Hood. These were two very compromised films, the filmmakers behind them had to be very budget-conscious all the while delivering fun films that would get The Jungle Book's success, and …