(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTThe origin story for one of Peanuts‘ most beloved characters, the special follows Franklin as he moves to a new town and navigates new friendships. Franklin’s family is always on the move with his dad’s military job, and everywhere he goes Franklin finds support in a notebook Continue Reading
Animation
The short and the short of it: The comedically valiant explosively avian serious fun of BOOM
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTStudents at École des Nouvelles Images created BOOM, an award-winning darkly comedic animation about a pair of birds who try to save their eggs during the eruption of a volcano in the center of their island home. All of the other birds had escaped to the water as Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The wondrous discovery of The Dandelion (Little Margo Stories)
(courtesy YouTube (c) Little Largo Stories) As we get older, we all too often lose sight of what it is to discover something for the first time. All that wonder and thrill of discover ebbs away and we’re left feeling like we’ve seen it all before and that nothing will Continue Reading
Movie review: Migration
(courtesy IMP Awards) Life can be a LOT. In many ways, that’s a good thing, with all the thrilling possibility and hope that offers us for great adventures, wondrous discoveries and amazing experiences; sometimes though it can all be too much, and because of trauma or anxiety or a host Continue Reading
Movie review: Wish
(courtesy IMP Awards) Being the surprising optimistic people that we are, we like to think that good intentions will always result in flawlessly happy outcomes. Entire religions and value sets, rom-coms and indeed pop culture kingdoms such as that of Disney, which turned 100 in 2023, are built on the Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a good streaming-reading-listening night!
(courtesy Pinterest (c) Charles M. Schulz) Merry pop culture Christmas everyone! I have had a ball as always this year writing about all kinds of books, movies, TV/streaming shows, graphic novels/comics and songs, and while it’s been tough to keep writing in my spare time when my day job as Continue Reading
Happiness is a The Snoopy Show Christmas episode: “Happiness is Holiday Traditions” / “Window Wonderland” / “Spike’s Old-Fashioned Christmas”
(courtesy AppleTV+) If ever any pop culture property had a hold on what a Christmas tradition is, it’s Peanuts. The iconic and much-loved comic strip by Charles M. Schulz has become almost as well known for its exquisitely well-drawn and joyously nuanced television specials such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, Continue Reading
Imagine how love makes us real: Festive thoughts on The Velveteen Rabbit
(courtesy IMP Awards) I have read so many books in my life that remembering ones that particularly struck me, even as a child, isn’t easy. But one of the twenty or so books that has stuck to my head and my heart like storytelling super glue is the moving 1922 Continue Reading
The short and the festive short of it: The Real Santa aka Father Christmas
(courtesy YouTube) Oh my heart! What a lovely story and yes, it might be an ad for Netto Marken-Discount in Hannover, Germany but it has so much originality and warmth and loveliness that you want to watch it again and again. Focusing on the idea that “It’s a gift to Continue Reading
On 8th day of Christmas … I watched DC’s Merry Little Batman
(courtesy IMDb (c) Prime Video) You have to hand it to anyone who looks at a venerable piece of pop culture property, in this Batman who is 84 years young, and thinks there must a way to bring some new life to it. It’s a brave thing to do because Continue Reading