Disney

Aladdin

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Aladdin (1992)
  • IMDb: link

Released to critical and box office acclaim, although not without controversy for its depiction of Arab characters and culture, it’s easy to forget the success Disney’s Aladdin had given it would be soon eclipsed by The Lion King just two years later. While not the title character, it’s impossible not to begin with Robin Williams as the voice of the Genie. Despite the negative experience with working with Disney, Robin’s stream-of-consciousness comic style translated terrifically to an animated character (even if I could do without some of the more obvious Disney pop-culture references).

…

AladdinRead More »

Aladdin Read More »

Tron: Ares

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Tron: Ares
  • IMDb: link

Tron: Ares is the movie Tron: Legacy should have been. Largely ignoring the events of Legacy, the new film give us corporate espionage while also playing on the real-life debate of greed and fear of the proper use of Artificial Intelligence. On one side we have Eve Kim (Greta Lee), stepping in as the head of ENCOM following Sam Flynn‘s departure. On the other side we have Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). Both are pursuing the breakthrough to manifest physical objects and programs into the real world for longer than 29-minutes (at which they become unstable and dissolve into dust).

…

Tron: AresRead More »

Tron: Ares Read More »

Toy Story

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Toy Story
  • IMDb: link

Re-released in theaters for the film’s 30th Anniversary, Toy Story was never the quintessential film for me that is is for some. While I certainly understand its importance to the company, and thoroughly enjoy the film, the animation is still rough in a couple places (most notably in the human characters) and it lacks the emotional impact to me that both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 deliver. That said, it’s still a damn fine movie taking us into a world of what happens to a child’s toys once they leave the room. 

…

Toy StoryRead More »

Toy Story Read More »

The Aristocats

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Aristocats
  • IMDb: link

Originally released in 1970, I first saw The Aristocats during one of its re-releases in theaters. The last film to be personally approved by Walt Disney, the last film to be released during co-founder Roy O. Disney‘s tenure as CEO, and notably worked on by five of Disney’s core animators, the film is an interesting mix of classic Disney animation with splashes of French styling and jazz thrown into the mix as well. Much like Disney’s next feature Robin Hood, released three years later, you can feel a change in the studio’s continued direction away (at least temporarily) from the classic princess films that built so much of the magic kingdom.

…

The AristocatsRead More »

The Aristocats Read More »

Lilo & Stitch

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Lilo & Stitch (2025)
  • IMDb: link

“This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It’s little, and broken, but still good.”

Disney’s latest live-action remake gives us a story of friendship and family that would make Dominic Toretto proud. With a few notable exceptions, most in the final act of the film, the new Lilo & Stitch follows the events of the original faithfully starting with the exiled Experiment 626 (Chris Sanders) crashlanding on Earth. The early sequences involving the United Galactic Federation are all CGI, but to limit the amount of effects needed on Earth, outside of the alien “dog” whom Lilo (Maia Kealoha) adopts, we get Dr. Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis) and Agent Wendy Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) holographically disguised as humans for the majority of the film.

…

Lilo & StitchRead More »

Lilo & Stitch Read More »