Animated films have taken us to a variety of places and let us encounter all manner of characters, and they make us feel, which says something incredible about the fact that they started out as sketches or lines of code in a computer. Flow does something we don’t often see in animated films, its characters,…
Tag: animated
The Lord of the Rings (1978) – Ralph Bakshi
The summer of ’84 was one of the defining summers of my life. It saw a lot of changes in my life, and was also the first time that I read The Lord of the Rings. I was swept up in the world, and was delighted that I’d read all three books so quickly, and…
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Book 1: Water (2005) – The Boy in the Iceberg, The Avatar Returns, and The Southern Air Temple
With the live-action series on the horizon, it seemed like an ideal time to take a look at the original animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Throughout three seasons, the story follows Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), the Avatar, as he learns the skills he’ll need to stop the war with the aggressive Fire Nation and…
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) – Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson
With Into the Spider-Verse, Sony proved they could do an animated Spider-Man movie right. They shifted the focus to Mile Morales (Shameik Moore) and let this beloved character shine, while also paying homage to the classic web-head and a multiverse of iterations. It also introduced us to another beloved spider, Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) setting both…
TAD 2023: Canadian Shorts After Dark
Saturday afternoon at Toronto After Dark gives Canadian filmmakers a chance to showcase their genre shorts, and this time around, there are nine shorts for your spine-tingling enjoyment. There is Bird Hostage written and directed by Lauren Andrews and features her and fan favourite Jay Baruchel in this eccentric little tale that sees Lauren (Andrews)…
Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) – Sam Liu
I remember, not that it was that long ago now when the DC animated movie adaption of the iconic graphic novel The Killing Joke was released. Fans were in an uproar about the addition of a plot frontloaded to the beginning of the film which reveals Batman (wonderfully voiced by Kevin Conroy) had sexual relations…
Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) – Dave Bullock
Darwyn Cooke’s now iconic graphic novel Justice League: The New Frontier gets the DC animation update and brings a cavalcade of stars to the animated incarnations of some of DC’s biggest hitters. Set in the 1950s the animation style perfectly reflects that of the original comic panel art, as it follows a collection of heroes…
Isle of Dogs (2018) – Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson delivers another highly-enjoyable stop-motion animated feature with Isle of Dogs. He penned the script from a story he developed with Jason Schwartzman, Kunichi Nomura, and Roman Coppola. Set in a not-so-distant future in Japan, the story follows young Atari (Koyu Rankin) who travels to an island to seek out his missing canine, Spots…
Run Lola Run (1998) – Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer’s stunning and entertaining thriller Run Lola Run still holds up, and damn if it isn’t a fun watch. The film brought international attention not only to Tykwer but the film’s star, Franke Potente, who, four years later, would appear in the franchise opener, The Bourne Identity alongside Matt Damon. Run Lola Run plays…
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) – Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe
Netflix delivered a fantastic animated feature with The Mitchells vs. the Machines. I’ll be honest, when I first heard about it, I wasn’t sure. It looked a little too goofy, or too silly, but settling in for it, you actually realize it has a lot to say about family, technology, and life in general, and…
The Mind Reels 