Director – Kirby Atkins – 2019 – China, New Zealand – 97m ***** From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival Mosley (voiced by writer-director Kirby Atkins) is a thoriphant who lives on the small holdings farm of his owner Simon (Curt Cloniger) where he and Bera (Lucy Lawless) have a small boy Rue (voiced by […]
Director – Germán Acuña – 2019 – Chile, Brazil – 99m ****1/2 Opening Spotlight in the New York Intl Children’s FF 2021 on Saturday, March 6th at 7pm ET followed by a Q&A with the director. Previously in the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival Nahuel is afraid of the water. This is a problem since […]
Director – Michelle Chua – 2019 – Canada – 6m ***** From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival This starts off opening a children’s book cover for a tale about, you’ve guessed it, a fox and a pigeon. In the time honoured tradition of such books, there are illustrations and words (in rhyming couplets) on […]
Directors – Nicolas Blies, Stéphane Hueber-Blies – 2019 – France, Luxembourg – 95m ***** From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival Framed by live action sequences of serial expert, journalist and activist talking heads projected on the sides of urban buildings or rural landmarks, this skilfully uses minimal 2D animation to tell the stories of victims […]
The new normal? Fanny Lye Deliver’dDirected by Thomas ClayCertificate 18, 110 minutesReleased digitally on 26 June Shropshire, 1657. The aftermath of the English Civil War and a time when ideas about politics, relationships, religion and society are up for grabs. Fanny (Maxine Peake) is the young wife of Captain John Lye (Charles Dance) who fought […]
Director – Wiebe Bonnema – 2019 – Netherlands – 4m 36s ***** From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival I had to blink while I was watching this. Its opening two minutes play out like the animated title sequence of a spaghetti Western, and if you’ve seen a few of those you’ll know that a […]
Director – Thea Hollatz – 2019 – Canada – 10m ***** From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival Suffering from a hot flash just before she’s due to go on air, weatherwoman Ace Naismith (voice: Christine Horne) desperately employs the cooling fan in her dressing room to blow cool air on her face, under her […]
Director – Eiji Han Shimizu – 2020 – Japan, Indonesia – 93m **** From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival The life of an ordinary family living in Pyongyang is interrupted when their father disappears and their mother is unable to tell their infant son Yo-han and his younger sister Mi-hee exactly what has happened […]
Director – Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen – 2020 – Latvia, Norway – Cert. N/C 12+ – 77m **** Autobiographical documentary employs cut-out animation to describe a childhood in Latvia when it was part of the Soviet Union – Glasgow Film Festival Thursday, February 25th to Sunday, February 28th In World War Two. Latvia was caught between […]
Directors – Oskar Lehemaa, Mikk Mägi – 2019 – Estonia – Cert. 15 – 88m *** A farmer and his grandchildren must recapture his unmilked cow before its udders burst into lactopalypse – stop-frame epic is out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 2nd and currently screening in previews Estonia’s answer to Britain’s Shaun The […]