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Animation Features Movies

PAW Patrol
The Dino Movie

Director – Cal Brunker – 2026 – Canada – Cert. PG – 88m

**1/2

The PAW Patrol, a rescue organisation made up of cute puppies, is stranded on a dinosaur-infested desert island – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 7th

The family are on vacation on the yacht, with dad explaining that fishing takes a lot of time and patience, to the exasperation of his bored daughter. Mum has already caught a couple of fish at the shops, and puts them on the barbecue on deck, only for the family cat to try and seize them, in the process setting the yacht on fire.

Fortunately, the PAW Patrol are in the area on their massive rescue ship, and set out to rescue the hapless family on vehicles (including one with a launch sequence that runs the length of the ship’s hold) inspired by 1960s Gerry & Sylvia Anderson TV series such as Thunderbirds (1965-66) and Stingray (1964-5). The holidaying family seem, unconvincingly, not in the least concerned that their yacht has gone up in smoke. Oops, they forgot the cat, so it’s up to pup Marshall (voice: Carter Young) to enter the burning lower decks and save the kitty. 

After that, the PAW Patrol crew get caught in a storm and end up beached on a desert island.… Read the rest

Categories
Animation Features Movies

Wallace & Gromit
Vengeance Most Fowl

Directors – Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham – 2024 – UK – Cert. U – 79m

*****

Feathers McGraw returns to wreak havoc with Wallace’s latest invention, robotic garden smart gnomes – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, December 18th 2024, on the BBC on Christmas Day, and on Netflix from Friday, January 3rd 2025

Opening with the capture, some years ago, of notorious master criminal Feathers McGraw (voice: none) for the attempted theft of the blue diamond, foiled by simple Lancastrian inventor Wallace (voice: Ben Whitehead, doing an amazing job replacing the late Peter Sallis) and his smart pet dog Gromit (voice: none), this second feature sees Wallace inventing furiously, making next to no money and the household bills pile up.

However, all that is about to change with Wallace’s latest gadget, Norbot the Smart Gnome (voice: Reece Shearsmith) who, voice-instructed by his inventor to make Gromit’s carefully tended garden “neat and tidy”, chops down most of the put-upon pooch’s cherished, colourful flowerbeds to replace them with something resembling a Brutalist version of the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles.

This impresses the neighbours and passing tradesman, causing Wallace – a lightbulb sign from a stationery van (hilariously parked behind him) above his head – to realise that he has a potential business startup here.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

The Small Back Room

Directors – Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger – 1949 – UK – Cert. PG – 106m

*****

In London during World War Two, a back room boffin and bomb disposal man struggles with alcoholism – 4K restoration played at BFI Southbank on Tuesday, May 28th prior to release on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on Monday, June 3rd

This black and white, post-war era drama isn’t the first film that comes to mind when people think about Powell and Pressburger – it was made immediately after what today are regarded as three of their best colour features – A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and their arguable masterpiece The Red Shoes (1948). And that was preceded by one of their finest black and white works, “i know where i’m going!” (1945).

In many ways, The Small Back Room couldn’t be more different. There’s a marvellous sense of whimsy about those films, even if the later ones are intense and savage in places. Like Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes – and, for that matter, Powell’s late solo masterpiece Peeping Tom (1960), an intensity lies at the heart of The Small Back Room.

Gone are the light, airy spaces of the earlier films, their sense of the outdoors expanse (and, in The Red Shoes, the expanded landscapes of the eponymous ballet sequence within the film).… Read the rest