(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTWin or Lose follows a co-ed middle school softball team called the Pickles in the week leading up to their big championship game. Each 20-minute episode takes the same events from one different member of the Pickles and their perspective as the game approaches, such as players, Continue Reading
Animation
Movie review: Wallace & Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl
(courtesy IMP Awards) It’s a rare thing in this hyperconnected, digitally frenzied age where something is demanded of you almost every second of every day to just sit back, switch off and spend some time with old friends. And when that happens, when the gods smile upon you with an Continue Reading
Movie review: Mufasa: The Lion King
(courtesy IMP Awards) Full admission upfront: this reviewer, for reasons that still evade him, never quite warned to The Lion King, the 1994 animated gem from Disney that introduced us to the world of Mufasa, Simba and the Elton John-soundtracked Circle of Life. Two trips to the cinema were made Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Sage words and a some affectionate parodying in The Badger, the Rabbit and Billy
(courtesy YouTube (c) Birdbox Studio) SNAPSHOTThe Badger, The Rabbit, and Billy is an amusingly introspective animation by Birdbox Studio about an older badger gently encouraging a young rabbit to take the first steps on a journey to find himself. Before the badger could finish, however, another bunny named Billy happily danced around and letting them know Continue Reading
Festive animated feature film review: Santa’s Apprentice
If you watched a fair amount of festive programming, you will be well familiar with the idea that there are not a lot of new ideas under the Christmas storytelling sun. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; we like our festive tropes and cliches held close and to pop up Continue Reading
Festive short film review: An Almost Christmas Story
(courtesy IMDb (c) Disney+) SNAPSHOTAn Almost Christmas Story (produced by five-time Academy Award® winner Alfonso Cuarón & directed by David Lowery) is inspired by the true events of a tiny owl rescued from the New York City’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020. The short’s trailer reveals Moon, a curious Continue Reading
On 7th day of Christmas, I added 15 more ornaments to my Christmas tree … The Sound of Music + Winnie the Pooh’s Rabbit, Linus + Snoopy, Nemo, Frozen, Snoopy, Big Hero 6 + more!
(via Shutterstock) More ornaments?! Did you really buy more than 15 ornaments in one year? Readers, I bought close to 60 and while that likely suggests a tad too much compulsive purchasing by someone who’s reached an age when they should be making more sensible buys, I love how happy Continue Reading
On 5th day of Christmas … I watched That Christmas
Saying that something “feel like Christmas” is at once profoundly and definitively true, and yet gloriously and warmly intangible too. Such is the season which all but dominates the final two months of the year, and realistically longer if you count the eagerness of retailers to make the most of Continue Reading
Family Guy Christmas special 2024: “Gift of the White Guy” review
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTPeter must recover Lois’ Christmas brooch after gifting it away in a White Elephant exchange. Stewie changes his attitude upon learning he’s on Santa’s ‘Naughty List’. (courtesy Variety) The first thing out of the prettily wrapped Christmas present box is that Family’s Guy’s 25th anniversary festive special, “Gift Continue Reading
Movie review: Moana 2
(courtesy IMP Awards) It was always going to be a tricky thing to follow up a massive success like Moana. Hailed as a near-perfect piece of feature animation by many, and introducing a titular hero who saved her people while growing as a person with animation as beautiful an oil Continue Reading