Director – Hayao Miyazaki – 1997 – Japan – Cert. PG – 134m ***** Groundbreaking, mythological, Japanese, animated epic – plays in the Annecy International Animation Festival 2026 which runs from Sunday, 21st June to Saturday 27th June Originally reviewed for What’s On in London when the film appeared in the Barbican’s 2001 Studio Ghibli […]
Director – Dean DeBlois – 2025 – US – Cert. PG – 125m **** Instead of fighting dragons like other viking teenagers, Hiccup shoots a dragon out of the sky then secretly trains it as his steed– live action remake of animated classic is out in UK cinemas from Monday, June 9th Following in the […]
Director – Fede Alvarez – 2024 – US – Cert. 15 – 119m ***** A group of young people escape from a planet housing a repressive, corporate mining colony in search of something better … only to find something worse… – latest SF horror franchise entry is out on digital on Friday, October 18th following […]
***** Exhibition shows at BFI Southbank from Monday, 12th August to Tuesday 1st October 2024 (free to visit, but booking essential – click here) accompanied by the Stop Motion animation season including all five LAIKA feature films and much, much more In the best part of two decades, US-based Laika Studios – named after the […]
Director – Hayao Miyazaki – 1988 – Japan – Cert. U – 86m ***** Two young girls, whose mother is hospitalised, move to the country with their dad, where they encounter a friendly tree spirit – one of the greatest movies ever made, animated or otherwise, is back out in UK and Ireland cinemas on […]
Director – Tomm Moore – 2014 – Ireland – Cert. PG – 93m ***** A family is torn apart after the mother returns to the sea as a selkie – reviewed for Third Way, July 2015 Tomm Moore picked up an Oscar nomination for his medieval Irish animated fantasy The Secret Of Kells (2009). Like […]
Director – Jeremy Purcell – 2022 – US, UK, Ireland, China – Cert. U – 92m ***1/2 The puffin and animal community of Puffin Rock is thrown into crisis by the arrival of a few refugees, the disappearance of a puffin egg and a terrible storm – spinoff feature from preschool children’s animated TV series […]
Director – Angus MacLane – 2022 – US – Cert. PG – 107m **1/2 Stranded on a hostile planet, Buzz Lightyear sets out on a series of missions which eventually lead to his first confrontation with the evil Emperor Zurg – plays in the Annecy Animation Festival 2022 which is taking place in a 100% […]
Director – Luke Sparke – 2020 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 128m * Australian alien invasion epic with lots of seasoned actors and heaps of special effects. What could possibly go wrong? – out in cinemas on Friday, July 9th A sequel to Australian alien invasion outing Occupation (2018) by the same director, this […]
Director – Ridley Scott – 2012 – US – Cert.15 – 124m ***** UK release date 02/06/2012. Western social attitudes to women have come a long way since Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) gratuitously stripped down to her underwear prior to fending off the malevolent creature in the finale of Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi shocker Alien (1979), […]