Short of the Week – Borrowed Time David Brake October 24, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/187257744 Perhaps there should be no real surprise in a Pixar animator’s penchant for twanging heartstrings with a perfectly placed pixel or two. Toys holding hands in a last...
Storks – Review Joni Blyth October 15, 2016 Reviews As far as the funnies go, Storks doesn’t have the consistency and sheer breathlessness of something like The Lego Movie (what does?), but it gets the laughs in thanks to a delightfully weird streak - all...
Trolls – LFF 2016 Review Tori Brazier October 11, 2016 Reviews Trolls. Is. So. Colourful. In theory, this sounded like its only virtue, seeming like a misjudged cash-grabbing exercise with a passé '90s toy. Happily, however, Trolls subverts expectations with an...
Short of the Week – Night Falls on Loserville David Brake September 12, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/136501465 In one of his frequent Facebook Q&As, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn was asked for his advice on how to make it as a director. His one-line answer? "Make...
Short of the Week – The Present Phil W. Bayles September 5, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/jacobfrey/thepresent Based on a short comic strip by Fabio Coala called Perfection, Jacob Frey's animated short The Present plucks at the heartstrings in almost Pixar-esque fashion....
Short of the Week – Talking Cure Stephanie Watts August 29, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/167111872 Talking Cure is a short film that uses animated sketches to illustrate improvised dialogue from comedy improv group Starla and Sons. In a four-minute mishmash of quick-fire...
How Kids’ Films Have Changed in the 20 Years Since Matilda Ellena Zellhuber-McMillan August 2, 2016 Analysis, Close-Up, Features On the 20th anniversary of Danny DeVito’s Matilda, it is obvious that there has been a distinct change in mainstream children’s film. Animation has overtaken live action, child stars have been replaced by...
Finding Dory – Review Tom Bond July 30, 2016 Reviews Dory may have been the real star of 2003’s Finding Nemo, but the announcement of her own film brought a certain amount of sequel scepticism. Thankfully, the blue tang with the memory of a goldfish earns...
Short of the Week – Edmond Henry Gatrell July 11, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/172911816 Edmond won the BAFTA Short Animation Award in 2016, which is both surprising and completely not. The film is at once brilliant and incredibly obscure. That...
Short of the Week – INSIDE Tom Bond July 4, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/172933813 Flickering into life like a forgotten SNES cartridge cutscene, INSIDE appears as a blocky, 16-bit, black-and-white mosaic. The words “Inside” and “Dreams” emerge to...
The Secret Life Of Pets – Review Tori Brazier June 25, 2016 Reviews The Secret Life of Pets’ first fifteen minutes are perky and imaginative as the animal inhabitants of a block of New York flats wave their owners off to work before commencing their own daily routines. This...
Short of the Week – Grounded Henry Gatrell June 6, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/164940065 Lucas Durkheim's Grounded tells the story of a nameless soldier being thrust into a situation he has no context for. The basis of all his knowledge comes from propagandist...
Short of the Week – The Moment Rachel Brook May 9, 2016 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/164839532 Karis Oh’s The Moment is a simple anecdote told in an enthralling monologue which ties the short together and engages from the first pitch-black frame....
Zootropolis – Review Nick Evan-Cook March 27, 2016 Reviews Disney's animation division continue their terrific form of recent years with this consistently surprising and charm-packed tale of friendship, acceptance and inclusivity. With its winning voice cast,...
CEL Mates: Anomalisa Conor Morgan March 22, 2016 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Anomalisa is one of the the scariest films you'll ever see. It is also one of the most human films you’ll ever see. It is 100% concentrated existential dread with a layer of unsettling psychological disorder...
