experience it, process it

Tag: cut-out animation

Dark Star

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date December 10 2025
No Comments on Dark Star
Sticky post

Director – John Carpenter – 1974 – US – Cert. PG – 83m (71m Directors Cut) ***** Let There Be Light: The Odyssey of Dark Star Director – Daniel Griffith – 2010 – US – 118 mins ***** A bored crew of astronauts travel through space blowing up unstable planets – out now as a 4K […]

Tags action figure, alien, astronauts, beach ball, Bill Taylor, bomb bay, bomb timer, bored, Brian Narelle, Cal Cuniholm, cognitive bomb, comedy, control room, Cookie Knapp, crew, Crohn’s disease, cryogenically frozen, cryogenics, cut-out animation, Dan O'Bannon, Daniel Griffith, Dark Star, detonation schedule, Diane O'Bannon, diary entry, documentary, Douglas Knapp, Dre Pahich, eight-track cartridge, explosion, feed, film student, Greg Jein, Jack H. Harris, Jeff Burr, Joe Saunders, John Carpenter, keyboard, lift, lift interior, lift shaft, Major Matt Mason, malfunctioning seat circuit, Mattel, model, model work, musician, Nick Castle, optical effects, production assistant, sci-fi, ship’s chicken food, ship’s computer, ship’s mascot, space travel, special effects, student film, Tommy Lee Wallace, trap, travel, unstable planet, US, use only at sub light velocity

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Ninjababy

Director – Ingvild Sve Flikke – 2021 – Norway – Cert. 15 tbc – 103m ***** An artist draws constantly, her life punctuated with animated inserts, as she finds she is pregnant with a ninjababy – out in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema from Friday, September 10th. Also free to watch on All4 for […]

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

The Sparks Brothers

Director – Edgar Wright – 2021 – UK – Cert. 15 – 140m **** The rollercoaster career of musical duo Sparks with its successful hits and intermittent lapses into obscurity – out in cinemas on Thursday, July 29th There’s a story about John Lennon phoning Ringo Starr to say, “you won’t believe what’s on television […]

Tags ‘Weird Al’ Yancovic, 2D animation, 3D animation, Adolf Hitler, Alex Kapranos, animation, BBC, Bearsville Records, Beck, Björk), California, computer animation, cut-out animation, Edgar Wright, Erasure, Erasure’s Vince Clarke, fans, FFS, France, Franz Ferdinand, Germany, Giorgio Moroder, Hong Kong, hug, Island Records, Jacques Tati, James Goldstone, James Lowe, Jane Wiedlin, Jean-Luc Godard, John Lennon, Joseph Wallace, Leos Carax, live action animation composite, London, manga, Marc Bolan, Muff Winwood, Paul McCartney, Ray Harryhausen, Ringo Starr, Ron Mael, Russell Mael, show, Sparks, stage, stop-frame, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, stop-motion animation, television, The Go-Gos, Tim Burton, Todd Rundgren, Tony Visconti, Top Of The Pops, TOTP, Tsui Hark, UK, US

Animation Movies Shorts

The Very
Hungry
Caterpillar
And Other Stories

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date May 27 2021
No Comments on The Very
Hungry
Caterpillar
And Other Stories

Director – Andrew Goff – 1994 – UK – Cert. U – 35m ***** VHS tape review from What’s On In London sometime back in the mid-1990s, republished here to coincide with the sad news of writer / illustrator Eric Carle’s death at 91. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories is based on the […]

Tags 2D animation, Andrew Goff, animation, children, cut-out animation, eating, Eric Carle, hunger, Julian Nott, Juliet Stevenson, kindergarten, literacy, numeracy, pre-school, Roger McGough, sentence structure, The Illuminated Film Company, UK, visuals

Animation Movies Shorts

The Story
Of Mr. Nanguo
(Nan Guo
Xian Shen,
南郭先生)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date May 12 2021
No Comments on The Story
Of Mr. Nanguo
(Nan Guo
Xian Shen,
南郭先生)

Directors – Qian Jiaxin, Wang Borong – 1981 – China – Cert. N/C U – 18m ***** A man pretends to be a musician in order to profit from the high wages paid to the king’s court pipe players in the Qi period – available to rent online in the UK & Ireland as part […]

Tags 2D animation, animation, China, Chinese Cinema Season 2021, cockfight, cut-out animation, deceit, fraud, King of Qi, musician, Qi period, Qian Jiaxin, Shanghai, Shanghai Animation, Shanghai Animation Film Studio Retro, survival, Wang Borong

Animation Movies Shorts

Golden Conch
(Jin Se
De Hai Luo,
金色的海)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date February 22 2021
No Comments on Golden Conch
(Jin Se
De Hai Luo,
金色的海)

Director – Wan Guchan – 1963 – China – Cert. N/C U – 36m ***** A mermaid falls for a poor fisherman and moves in with him arousing the wrath of her sea goddess mother – available to rent online from Friday, February 12th to Wednesday, May 12th in the UK & Ireland as part […]

Animation Movies Shorts

Fishing Child
(Yu Tong,
渔童)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date February 19 2021
No Comments on Fishing Child
(Yu Tong,
渔童)

Director – Wan Guchan – 1959 – China – Cert. N/C U – 23m*****A Catholic priest attempts with the help of a local official to steal a magic, wealth-producing bowl from a poor fisherman – available to rent online from Friday, February 12th to Wednesday, May 12th in the UK & Ireland as part of […]

Animation Features Live Action Movies

The Fabulous
Baron Munchausen
(Baron Prášil)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date July 20 2020
No Comments on The Fabulous
Baron Munchausen
(Baron Prášil)

Director – Karel Zeman – 1961 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. U – 85m ***** Available on Blu-ray/DVD and now on BFI Player too. This capsule review originally appeared in Reform in 2017 as part of a wider Watch And Talk review roundup. Using not only live action but also every form of animation you can […]

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Invention
For Destruction
(Vynález Zkázy)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date July 20 2020
No Comments on Invention
For Destruction
(Vynález Zkázy)

Director – Karel Zeman – 1958 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. U – 82m ***** Blu-ray/DVD available from Second Run. Review originally written as an entry for the Aurum Film Encyclopedia: War (series editor: Phil Hardy). Sadly, the book was never published. Vynález Zkázy aka Invention For Destruction, The Invention Of Destruction, The Deadly Invention, The […]

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Journey
To The Beginning
Of Time
(Cesta Do Pravěku)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date July 20 2020
No Comments on Journey
To The Beginning
Of Time
(Cesta Do Pravěku)

Director – Karel Zeman – 1955 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. PG – 86m ***** Blu-ray/DVD available from Second Run. I’ve written about the pioneering Czech director Karel Zeman in these pages before regarding his 1961 film The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (BD/DVD, cert U, 85 mins). The latest of his works to see a release in […]