SNAPSHOTParenting is tough, especially when the stakes are so high. On an idyllic beach in the Pacific Northwest, curiosity gets the better of a young raccoon whose frustrated parent attempts to keep them both safe. Far From the Tree is written & directed by American animation filmmaker Natalie Nourigat, who works as a Continue Reading
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A very Peanuts New Year’s Eve: Snoopy Presents For Auld Lang Syne
Coming up to the start of a brand new year is always fraught with expectation, and yes, that seems to hold true even for Charles M. Schulz’s wonderful creations in his immortally iconic comic strip Peanuts. Even 21 years after its creator’s death, Peanuts holds a place close to many Continue Reading
Small screen, big stories, much bingeing: My 25 favourite TV shows of 2021
2021 has been a very long year. Now, those of you of a more pedantic bent might casually respond that it had 365 days, just like any other year (except those delightful leap years which the Gregorian calendar throws in every four years just to keep us on our timekeeping Continue Reading
Wrapping up the season with a bow: Thoughts on Hawkeye
Superhero stories by their very nature often dwell in the big and the expansive, their appeal often lying in the epically macro, not the intimately micro. They are the very epitome of escapist massiveness, good fighting back against evil on canvases so large and all encompassing, that we can lose Continue Reading
Up, up and festively away! Shaun the Sheep – the Flight Before Christmas
Who’s going to save Christmas? It’s a pretty big question at the moment with COVID once again laying waste to the best laid festive plans of elves and men, and one that can be answered quite simply, and for some, unexpectedly – Shaun the Sheep (Justin Fletcher). Yes, that Shaun Continue Reading
Winnie the Pooh gets festive in A Very Merry Pooh New Year (incl. Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too)
If you had the choice of all kinds of fictional characters to spend Christmas with, and yes, there are an awful lot of them – although, to be fair, avoiding the xenomorphs from Alien or Pennywise from IT may keep a lot more festive – picking the residents of the Continue Reading
Do opposites festively attract? We find out in Christmas Flow (TV series)
Do opposites ever really attract? Not as often as you might think in real life, but often enough it seems for many a romantic comedy to hang its divergent storytelling upon the premise and see where competing life views may take it. It certainly works Christmas Flow, a French limited Continue Reading
Movie review: Ron’s Gone Wrong
Modern animation often sets out with three distinct goals – to be riotously funny, visually striking and to have a beating heart of humanity at its core that also imparts a meaningful message. It’s a tricky trio of things to keep in balance and not every animated features well, or Continue Reading
Hotdog eggnog! Ted Lasso gets stop-motion festive in The Missing Christmas Mustache
SNAPSHOTEmmy® winner Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, an American football coach hired to manage a British soccer team — despite having no experience. But what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for with optimism, underdog determination — and biscuits. The widely acclaimed series also stars Emmy® winner Hannah Waddingham, Continue Reading
On the 9th day of Christmas … I pondered who’d be best in glass in Blown Away: Christmas (review)
Christmas is beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Look around you – lights twinkle, plain green trees (to be fair gorgeous unadorned too) are festooned in baubles and tinsel, and yes, more lights, lit sculptures hang over on streets with word like “JOY” and “PEACE” split out in festive colour … and Continue Reading